February 14th
Antonio and OPEN Public Library Afternoon
He thought that once he "rescued" Aliandra from her imprisonment in the resin doll she would be happy. In retrospect, he wasn't sure why he figured that was a good thing. She was obnoxiously clingy, and for some reason she was all wound up today. February 14had no significance that Antonio knew of and the myriad of hearts decorating the walls and dangling from the ceiling of the library didn't clue him in either.
This was the library where she had worked before her abduction, and while he had been here before, he was opting to go back and have a second look. He wasn't sure what he hoped to find. Honestly, he just needed a break from Ali and her incessant questions. It was the first time in his life he had been chased from his own laboratory. He would probably have been ashamed if he wasn't so damn relieved.
He was trying to be inconspicuous, so as he wandered the isles, he plucked a book from the shelf here and there. Nothing in this place was something he actually cared to read, but he would pretend to look it over or flip it open and then discard it somewhere else like a table or the top of another shelf. As always, his arms were covered, but the beginnings of sigils inked onto his skin peeked at the collar of his shirt and the hem of each sleeve. If anyone wandered too close to him, he moved away, the warning runes making his skin crawl. When he had them etched onto himself, he hadn't anticipated spending so much time around actual living creatures, aside from the wretched imps...