When I arrived to class, I found a slip of paper protruding from my book.

"Meet me at the library at 8:30. -Artie"

Throughout the day, I couldn't stop wondering why she would want to meet me there. When I asked her about the note, she replied, "What note?"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I gingerly closed the door to the library, careful to not extinguish the candle. I lost the sight of Artie's silver hair as she rounded the corner of one of the many towering bookshelves.

I slowed, listening for her footsteps. I breathed the flame out and placed the candle on the floor,  waiting for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. The library gradually revealed itself in shades of grey in the moonlight.

"Artie?" I called quietly as I hesitantly moved forward.

"Over here," she called back, and I was flooded with relief as my growing fear faded.

I made my way towards the windows where I heard her voice and I nearly gasped at how luminous her hair was in the light.

"This way," she whispered as slowly vanished into a bookshelf.

What the hell?

I moved to where she once was and peered at the bookshelf, befuddled.

"Thomas, come on!"

I scanned around me but saw no sign of her. My arm lurched forward and I almost smashed my face against the shelf. I saw Artie's laughing aquamarine eyes as she tried to pull me in between the sliver of space between the wall and the bookshelf. I held my breath and squeezed my stomach inward as I inched sideways. Even my feet had to be pointed to the sides to make it through. Once I made it through, I took a deep breath from being compressed, and Artie laughed. A window was to my left and to my right was a span of space  of a few feet that ended with what looked like the back of another bookshelf. On the ground were more cushions, a few blankets, and a stack of books and drawing materials next to an oil lamp.

"Welcome to my favorite place in the whole school," she said, patting the cushions that were on the window seat.

"I can see why," I said as I stared in awe over the whole school. It looked magical with the floating lights against the night sky.

"I think I'm the only one who knows about this spot."

I sat on the cushions on the window while she knelt to light the oil lamp.

"I'm curious. Is Artie your real name?"

Her eyebrows rose in surprise.

"I'm sorry, but I've always wondered that. It's not really...you know...traditional."

After a pause, she replied, "My name is really Artemis."

She hugged her knees. "My mom named me after the goddess of the moon. She said that the moon kissed me on the head with her light the night I was born, and that's why my hair is this color."

I smiled but then it slowly sank as I saw she wasn't smiling back.

"I like your name. It doesn't sound strange or odd at all," I said softly.

She shrugged and made her way to the window seat. With her sitting across from me, our feet became interlaced and our knees touched. She gazed out the window or maybe at her reflection in the glass.

"I'm ghastly. The girls call me a living ghost. A few have actually screamed when they've seen me come around a corner."

I didn't know what to say. She fiddled with a lock of her hair, and the silence between us grew more uncomfortable.

"I like ghosts."

Artie scoffed and rolled her eyes.

I chuckled, "Really, I do. I think...dark things are fascinating."

She met my eye and I continued.

"I think darkness can be beautiful. I think it can touch a different part of us and, without it, we feel incomplete. Maybe it's a part of us that wants to..."

I was at a loss for words. Artie's eyes seem to gloss over, deep in thought.

"To do something forbidden?"

I nodded, keeping the memories at bay. "I guess that's a good term for it. And maybe there's a strange...comfort to it as well. I don't know if I'm making any sense."

I blankly looked out the window, replaying the words in my head and wondering what she was thinking. Just then, the clock started to chime, signaling curfew.

"Do you really think that's true?" Artie asked, tilting her head to the side and making no move to leave.

"That what is true?"

"That there's darkness in all of us?"

I hesitated. No one could possibly understand.

"We have to go," I said as I untangled my feet from hers. I paused just before the opening.

"Artie, why did you bring me up here?" I said, turning towards her. She extinguished the lamp and again my eyes began to adjust to the darkness. Her hair glowed and even her eyes seemed to have changed into a shocking turquoise.

"Because you're the only person I've ever wanted to share a secret with."

A/N: Hey, I hope you've enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a vote if you did, and I would love to read your thoughts in the comments below!