Chapter 19
Anne was confused by the noise at first. That didn’t sound like the echo of the library where she’d been trapped for what seemed like years. That sounded like it came through her ears, her real ears.
She’d given up on her real ears working a long time ago.
“Anne, hon, I’m here.”
The scent washed over her then, not just in her nose but all over. The dry aroma of thousands of books in that library and the warm, acrid scent of all the screens had numbed her sense of smell. Now smells overwhelmed everything else.
Her own skin, sharp citrus cleaner, something made with chicken, maybe, and… and something so familiar, so welcome, that it made her eyes and jaws ache. A musky smell and a flowery one, and just underneath, a faint, almost vinegar trace.
“Dad?” she whispered, her voic
