Book S-M-R-Tz (Emi)

Xavia/Layla sat within the vast expanse that was the New York Library, turning the knob of the machine that let you see negatives of old news papers and such. She had been there for hours, a yellow legal pad in her lap, the paper still fresh and the pen laying halfazzardly across the expanse of the object. And as of yet, nobody paid any attention to her except the occasional Librarian, stopping long enough to make sure she was alright where she was at and if they could help in any way. She declined politely every time, and they left her to whatever task it was she was setting herself on.

She reached a hand up and curled it around the back of her neck, her efforts proving futile. She started with the newest of the archives, and worked her way back through days, weeks, months, and years. She had gone through two or three years by now, but didn’t find anything that was worth marking down. Her eyes were tired, she most definitely needed a break, but she still stared at the projected print as if she couldn’t peel her eyes away.

The woman didn’t know if she was going to find anything, but she did know that she had to look…

Stuffing her belongings into her tote bag, she stood up with a grim expression on her face. She took care of the film she was looking at, and after putting it away, she roamed through the books, heading into the adult fiction section, thumbing over the book spines on her way down the row, eying the titles for something interesting, keeping pretty much to herself.