Tension, Zed and Thunder

I bite my lower lip. "Please," I laugh, feeling super relieved.

He smiles and crawls towards the window. His hands feel for the frames of it.

"Were you seriously trying to break in with a screwdriver?" He jokes as he sits next to me mirroring my position.

"Well, I'm sorry, I don't usually do this." I tilt my head with my eyebrows held high.

He takes off his black denim jacket and wraps it around his right foot. Damn, he moves like a professional. Then, his hand flies over my stomach and lands on the concrete, next to my waist. I'm caged between his arms and I'm not sure why.

His closeness brings the smell of apple-scented conditioner mixed with the smell of the cigarette he was just smoking.

"Wh- what are you doing?" I stutter as our eyes connect.

"I'm shielding you, I'm gonna break the glass now," he says non-chalantly.

"I can stand up," I try to move but he doesn't let me.

"What would be the fun of that?" he smiles.

I swallow hard and hear the glass shattering. I squint my eyes and hide my face in the arch of his neck.

"You okay?" he scans my face.

I nod.

He crawls back to the window and starts removing the remaining pieces of glass.

I kneel next to him and help do the same.

"It seems you have experience in this..." I trail.

"Yeah, I save damsels in distress on a daily basis." He winks an eye at me and slides gracefully inside the library. Of course he does.

I follow him -not so gracefully as him- my feet go in first and I push myself in but I get stuck in the middle. I feel his hands on my waist and he hoists me down until my feet land on the wooden floor.

I fix my hair and dust off my clothes. "Thank you," I breathe and look up to find his blue eyes. Instantly, I take a step back.

My eyes catch a glimpse of the books on the floor. I side-step Dean and I stride towards them.

My knees fall next to Pride & Prejudice. I'm about to open it but then I realise that Dean is behind me.

"So, what are we stealing from here?" He asks.

I didn't think this through. How can I explain myself to him?
I'll have to tell him. But he will laugh at me. And if Mrs. Wolf finds out she will just go nuts.

Think, Sunset. Think.

I stand up, Pride & Prejudice on my hand, he sits down on the love seat and puts his feet up on the coffee table. Then, his arm stretches down to grab something from the floor. The moment his hand comes into view, I see the copy of After and then he-

"No!" I jump-fly towards him trying to stop him from opening the book.

Too late.

Dean's eyes bulge out from his skull. I am splayed over his whole body. My chest against his, our lips closer than they should. I look sideways and I gulp.

Tessa and Hardin.

They are both with their arms folded and shooting daggers at me.

"What the f*ck!?" Dean cusses with his eyes fixed on my fictional friends.

"Nice meeting you Lukah!" Tessa barks, sarcasm tintes her tone. The sole of her shoe taps the floor.

Oh...this is bad.

"I'm not Lukah," he scoffs, "I'm Dean. Lukah is my twin brother."

This is so so bad.

I stand up quickly and take two steps away from him. I fix my hair behind my ears as my brain searches for an explanation.

"Oh." Hardin cocks his eyebrows. His eyes flicker between me and Dean. "Way to go Sunset," the corner of his lips curl down, "two more chapters and you will become the evil Hardin Scott that you claim to hate so much." He pretends he is clapping his hands. "Who did you f*ck first, huh? Was it Lukah?"

That's such a mean thing to say, even if my mother was a serial-character killer.

"No, no... he just helped me get in. He has a girlfriend..."

"Oh! That's even worse!" Tessa glares at me.

Can someone please stop the world from spinning?

"Seriously, guys?" I throw my hands up in the air. "I said I was sorry, I can't change who my mother was. Dean is like a walking bad boy stereotype, he just helped me get in through that window," I explain to them as the tip of my converse picks at a ripped piece of the carpet on the floor.

"Can you explain to me how did these people get in here?" Dean stands up and comes to step behind me. Is he afraid?

"Umm, umm, yeah," I turn around to look at him. "You can't say a word about this, ok?" He is already seeing what is happening, so technically, I'm just filling in the gaps.

He nods his head.

"This is a magical library, it has the first editions of plenty of books, and if you open them, the characters materialize in the real world..."

He blinks his eyes several times. Then, he walks around me and grabs the opened copy of After. He walks towards me again, he holds the open book carefully on his hands and then he shuts it close.

Tessa and Hardin dissapear.

"Dude, let them know you are gonna shut the book!" I reprimand him.

He opens it again and then shuts it again.

Tessa, Hardin and Zed appear. Oh my Gosh!!

I snatch the book away from his hand and close it quickly. "You cannot just open the book at any page, beleive me, we don't need Harry and Zayn drama right now!"

He looks baffled at me. I select the page carefully and open the book again.

"No matter how many times you do that man, we will keep appearing..." Hardin smirks at Dean and then he drapes his arm around Tessa.

"This is f*cking crazy!" Dean yells.

"Hush it!" I smack his stomach. "Guys, I need advise about something..." I address Tessa.

"Oh, yes, you are forgiven for keeping crucial information away from us, let us help poor miserable Sunset ." Hardin looks disgusted at me.

"Whatever. I get it. I made a mistake. I just need to know if someone like me could deal with the witches or wizards from the fictional world... And which book would you reccomend me to open..."

"What are you trying to do Sunset?" Tessa asks me detaching herself from Hardin and then she walks towards me.

I avoid her and I head myself the bookcases. "I need to have a talk with the witches from Macbeth. They were the ones that made you alive, right?" I quizz them.

My eyes scan the book titles and Hardin and Tessa come to stand at either side of me.

"They're dangerous, Sunset, you can't talk to them on your own," Hardin warns me from my right.

My fingers slide across the dusty books as I look for the one I said.

"Dean will be with me," I continue searching and Hardin scoffs at my statement. I glare at him for a second and then I go back to the books.

"You better go for a more noble wizard...like Harry Potter or Magnus from Shadow Hunters," Tessa speaks from my left.

"Harry Potter is here?" My eyes go big in amazement.

Tessa nods but she seems worried.

"Where?" I grab her shoulders. "Where is he?" I repeat.

"I don't think this is a good idea Sun-" Hardin was saying but I sprint towards Dean, I grab their book and I close it before he could finish the idea.

If I want to help them I need to do this alone. "Sorry guys," I whisper when I look back at where they were.

Some minutes later, I'm sitting on the love seat with Dean next to me. We both look at each other and then at the books on the table. We searched for every book involving witchcraft of some kind. We had to make a selection and these are the ones that we will open:

The Shadow Hunters

The Vampire Diaries

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hollows.

Macbeth

I know they said I shouldn't open the last one, but I need all the help I can get, and those witches are the ones that started this.

"Are you ready?" I ask Dean. "Remember to hold the books close to you, so that if something happens, you shut them, okay?" I instruct him. He nods. He is terrified but he is also kind of fangirling because he had a Harry Potter phase during his teens. Judging from the look of him, that phase is so not over.

I grab Shadow Hunters and Macbeth, and he grabs Harry Potter and The Vampire Diaries.

"On the count of...one..." I say.

"Two," Dean utters.

"Three." We open the books at once.

The small crowd of witches and wizards materialize before our eyes.

"Sunset Williams, we meet again," one of the witches slurs. The other one cracks in an evil laugh. I jump closer to Dean when I hear the massive rummble of thunder coming from outside.

What the hell?