The Villains Must Win-Chapter 129: Reid Graves 9

One moment, Tabitha had been talking to Reid, half-listening as he rambled on about some absurdly complicated mathematical theory—something about quantum mechanics, chaos theory, or maybe the probability of her ever passing calculus (spoiler: low). The next moment?

Darkness. Silence. A suspiciously comfortable warmth next to her.

Tabitha groggily blinked awake, feeling oddly disoriented. The library, which had been bustling with students earlier, was now dead silent. The dim glow from the emergency exit lights barely illuminated the endless rows of bookshelves, casting eerie shadows across the room.

And most importantly—Reid was asleep next to her.

Like, right next to her.

His head was slumped forward on the table, cheek squished against an open textbook filled with equations she couldn’t even pretend to understand. His glasses were slightly askew, his usually sharp expression softened in sleep, and—was that drool on the page?

Tabitha sat up with a start, her chair scraping loudly against the floor. She immediately looked around.

Wait.

Wait a damn second.

Why was it so dark?

Why were they the only ones here?

And why were the library doors locked?!

Panic set in. "No, no, no, no, no—" She shot to her feet and stumbled toward the entrance, grabbing the handles and shaking them like a crazy person. Locked. Completely, utterly locked.

"Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me," she groaned, pressing her forehead against the door. "How the hell does this even happen?!"

Her mind raced.

How did no one wake them up?

Was this a prank?

Had the librarian purposely locked them in here?

Did they not do headcounts in this school?!

Or—had the staff just seen her and Reid sleeping and gone, Yeah, those two nerds can stay. They’ll be fine.

Tabitha let out an exasperated sigh. Just as she turned back to the table, she noticed Reid beginning to stir.

With a soft groan, he shifted, his arms stretching over his head as he sluggishly opened his eyes. For a moment, he looked adorably confused—squinting at his surroundings like he had just woken up in another dimension.

Then, his gaze landed on her. ". . . Tabitha?"

She crossed her arms. "Took you long enough, Sleeping Beauty."

Reid blinked, still groggy. "What . . . time is it?"

"Oh, you know," Tabitha said dryly, "Night. Midnight. The witching hour. We’ve been abandoned and locked inside a haunted library."

Reid stared at her. Then at the empty library. Then at the locked doors. His brain clearly took a full five seconds to process the situation.

Then he deadpanned. "You’re exaggerating. It’s probably just after closing hours."

"Oh, gee, thank you for that very useful observation, Einstein. Because I definitely couldn’t tell from THE LOCKED DOORS AND COMPLETE DARKNESS."

Reid yawned, rubbing his eyes behind his glasses. "Alright, calm down. No need to yell."

Tabitha threw her hands in the air. "HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO BE CALM, REID?! We are LITERALLY trapped! How does this even happen? Did the school just . . . forget we exist?!"

Reid adjusted his glasses, looking annoyingly unbothered. "That’s not surprising. Statistically, it happens more often than you’d think."

"REID. NORMAL PEOPLE DON’T GET LOCKED IN LIBRARIES."

"They do if they fall asleep here, and . . . if they’re us . . ."

Tabitha pinched the bridge of her nose. "Unbelievable."

She paced the room, trying to figure out what to do next. They could try calling someone—but of course, her phone was dead, and Reid’s was probably loaded with chess apps instead of useful things like emergency contacts.

"We should check if there’s another way out," she muttered.

Reid raised an eyebrow. "What do you suggest? Breaking a window? Scaling the bookshelves? Digging an underground escape route?"

"I don’t know, genius. Do you have a better idea?"

Reid sighed. "We could . . . wait until morning."

Tabitha stared at him. "So your master plan is to SLEEP in the library like a couple of hobos and hope the janitor doesn’t just ignore us again?!"

Reid shrugged. "Well, do you want to fight your way out past a security system?"

She opened her mouth. Closed it. Okay, fine. Maybe picking a fight with an alarm system at 2 AM wasn’t her best idea.

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"Ugh, whatever," she grumbled, collapsing into the chair next to him. "We’re doomed."

Reid chuckled softly. "We’ll survive."

"Easy for you to say, you like books."

Reid smirked. "You like annoying me. Looks like we both get what we want."

Tabitha threw a balled-up piece of paper at him.

Reid didn’t react; he simply stretched languidly in his seat.

"Based on that unruffled expression, I’d say this isn’t your first time being locked in here," Tabitha quipped.

Reid just shrugged, his tone dry. "Oh, it’s not. I’ve been locked up in toilets, lockers, storages—you name it. But this is the first time I’ve had company. I kind of appreciate the silence in my previous captivity."

Tabitha fell silent for a moment, watching him carefully. Though Reid’s nonchalance was evident, she suspected it was just a facade hiding all that bottled-up emotional stress.

She was surprised he hadn’t turned into a serial killer earlier. With his level of genius, murder would hardly have been a challenge. But it must have been Gwendolyn—she was the one who anchored him to reality. And when the woman who kept him grounded was about to be married, that stress shattered his control and drove him to madness.

Yet now, with her here, she vowed to become his new anchor.

They settled into a quiet corner of the library, the ambient hum of overdue book alarms in the background. Tabitha leaned forward, her eyes curious. "So, Reid, how did you end up being the walking encyclopedia of pain and brilliance?"

Reid chuckled and adjusted his glasses. "Honestly, I think I was just wired that way from the start. Ever since I was little, I’d ask endless questions about everything—so much so that my teachers started calling me ’genius.’ And my parents calling me a ’pain.’ he chuckled. "I’d read books that were way over my head, and somehow, all that information just stuck."

Tabitha smiled sympathetically. "That must have been rough, being different and having your brain work a million miles an hour. I can’t imagine having to be smart all the time, especially when everyone expects something from you since young."

Reid just shrugged. "It isn’t all fun and games. It feels like I’m always solving puzzles even when I just want to play. Sometimes, I’d rather not know everything, but there’s no switching off this brain."

Tabitha shook her head, offering him a warm smile. "Well, I think it’s pretty cool, even if it’s a bit of a burden. Being different isn’t easy, but it does make you uniquely you."

Reid’s eyes softened for a moment as he looked at her. "Thanks. I suppose it’s all part of the package deal."

They both laughed, their conversation drifting to lighter topics as they found comfort in the shared understanding of living life on the fringes of normality.