The Scream of A Thousand Libraries Chapter 14: Chapter 14: Between Numbers and Words.

Read chapter 14 of The Scream of A Thousand Libraries by Susangja on NovelPedia.

POV: HELENA IVYRA. Time stopped. My breathing became short, almost nonexistent. It was as if the hospital air was denser, as if the walls were slowly closing in around me, suffocating me, compressing my chest until I could no longer bear my own emotional weight. Rose didn't survive. Noah's words floated through my mind like an inescapable sentence. That combination of senses was simple, yet, at the same time, a semantic whose meaning I didn't want to accept. In truth, I wanted to deny it with all my might. I wanted only my resistance to be enough to make reality adjust to it… However, I knew that, no matter how much I wanted it, I couldn't. No matter how much I tried to deny them, no matter how much my soul twisted in a silent scream of negation, something in me already knew it was true. I felt it. I felt the emptiness. The absence. The cold. Tears began to fall. Heavy, warm, and silent. They soaked the white sheet as if they wanted to erase a truth that could never be undone. Like an eraser trying to wipe away a pen mark… I didn't sob. I didn't scream. I just cried. Quietly… Understanding that, unfortunately, it was true. Brief flashes of that memory where she had woken me up in the library when I was younger. 'Always so patient… why did it have to end like this?' My indignation flowed along with my nonconformity. Rose wasn't just someone I considered an aunt… She was a lighthouse. One of those rare people who make us feel at home even when the world seems like a battlefield. When I arrived in the city several years ago, I knew no one, nothing. I was a lost, displaced child. And she was one of the first people to reach out to me. She heard me. She saw me. She understood me. And now, all that remained of her was a memory. 'How can an entire person's life be simplified to something so quick, so simple?' And then Noah, as if all this wasn't enough, said what I never imagined hearing at that moment: "Listen to me, Helena… I understand that what you must be going through right now is very bad, losing a loved one is always complicated… but I need you to stay calm," he said cautiously. I felt slightly indignant at the request. I had just found out that someone very important had died… and he was asking me to stay calm? "How can you ask me that now?" I questioned incredulously. "Because I need your help," he replied, in a firmer tone. "It's necessary for us to go after H and get justice for what happened to Rose." I understood his side, but still, I decided to ask what had been pounding in my mind for some time. "Was H after that papyrus?" I asked, looking directly into his eyes. "So, you really found file S," Noah affirmed, crossing his arms. "What you found is an ancient document that H is looking for. The reason is still unknown to us. Did you come into contact with it?" I explained how I had found file S on the shelf, hidden by an illusory enchantment. "It gave me a…" I began to say, but as I ran my hand over the mark left by the papyrus, I encountered… nothing. The mark that had formed… It disappeared as abruptly as it appeared. I found it strange and told Noah what happened, detailing how the mark appeared on my arm after I touched the papyrus. He frowned. "Are you sure about that?" he questioned, skepticism in his voice. "That's… extremely strange." "Do you think I'm lying?" I retorted, offended. "Do you think I'm a child who would fake strength at this point?" Noah hesitated for a moment, as if he was about to answer. But he looked away towards the door and fell silent for a few moments. 'Is he waiting for someone? Wait… That mental conversation enchantment?' "Who are you talking to?" I insisted, narrowing my eyes. "I am not authorized to say," he replied dryly. His posture changed suddenly. And a formal, cold voice, completely different from before, sounded next: "Is there anything else to report, Helena?" I raised my eyebrow, confused by the change. "What's going to happen now?" I asked. "That will be my responsibility and