"Shit!" Baxter spun in a circle but Andrew was nowhere to be seen.
"Guapo" a hand touched his arm and Baxter whorled again to see Rodrigo, looking down at him with a small concerned frown. "We need to leave."
"Yeah." Baxter clutched the book more lightly to his chest. He could practically here Andrew's count down in his head. As if (1) stay alive and (2) get laid hadn't seemed hard enough before, now every minute counted.
"Look, there!" Guy called to them pointing into the darkness "I have sighted our goal!"
Baxter squinted into the darkness in the direction Guy was pointing and saw the glint of the coin. He grabbed Rodrigo by the one very nicely muscled arm. "Let's go." He started forward at a, admittedly slow, run before his common sense could catch up and tell him all the ways charging headlong into an void of unknown origin was probably a bad idea.
"Guapo wait!" Guy called right before Baxter ran head long into something hard.
He let out a very unmanly cry of pain and Rodrigo hissed a curse in Spanish as Rodrigo collided with Baxter's back. The feeling of the hard hot lines of Rodrigo's body pressed against his, hips nicely nestled against Baxter's ass was almost enough to distract him from the pain.
Baxter put out the hand not holding the book trying to figure out what he'd run into. It felt like bark under his palm, had he run into a tree? He squinted through the gloom, it … it looked kind of like a bookshelf but the feeling under his hand was definitely felt like bark.
"Be careful of the ground beautiful boy." Guy was beside the two of them now sword drawn. "We seem to have found ourselves in a marshland."
"Marshland? In the basement of a library?" That hardly seemed right but than neither had waterfalls down the escalader.
"We must proceed with caution." Rodrigo agreed taking Baxter's hand in his much larger, delightfully callused one. "We do not know what beasts might lurk in this swamp."
Baxter swallowed hard hoping whatever beasts were lurking among the bookshelf-trees they were as harmless as the card catalog had been.
"If only we had a lantern." Guy muttered, brows furrowed as he inched forward between the shelf-trees. Or a flashlight, Baxter thought as he and Rodrigo followed Guy their pace just as slow.
"Careful." Guy called out sharply but it was too late. Baxter let out a sound somewhere between a squeak and a scream as the ground under his feet gave way and he sank almost to his knees into murky water.
Below the water was several inches of sandy much that sucked at his shoes and legs as he tried to move. Baxter shuddered all over his mind filled with images from every man vs. animal nature show he'd ever seen about giant leeches and parasitic worms.
"Easy." One of Rodrigo's strong arms went around his waist, "It doe not seem to be too deep guapo but stay close to me."
"Oh don't worry." Baxter muttered wading through the water after Rodrigo "I'm not going anywhere."
God if he had a parasitic worm attached to his leg by the time they got out of here he'd probably die on the spot. There seemed to be some kind of mist curling around them now and the shelves they passed by were draped in vines, while the rustle of foliage came form above their heads. Baxter pressed the book against his chest hard enough that the corners of its cover dug into him. His sneakers were now completely waterlogged as was his jeans all the way up pas the knees.
"Oh ho!" Guy called from a few paces head of them "We are in luck my friends."
Baxter felt himself sag a little in relief, he didn't know what it was that Guy had found but hopefully whatever it was it would cut down on the likelihood that he'd pick up some kind of parasitic book worm.
"Look at these fine rafts!" Guy cried triumphantly as Rodrigo and Baxter drew along side him.
Baxter blinked making out several wooden book carts, the kind librarians used to re-shelve books.
"A magnificent find." Rodrigo clapped Guy on the back, "We can lash two together with vines and it will make a fine boat."
Guy began cutting down vines from the surrounding bookshelves and Rodrigo drew his own sword hacking at one of the extra carts until he'd cut off several long pieces of wood to use as paddles.
"All right guapo." Guy held out his hand when he'd secured two of the carts together with the vines. Baxter looked from Guy's hand to the cart-boat dubiously but their time was counting down and he didn't think he had much choice. Taking Guy's hand he clambered onto the carts.
He expected them to sink straight into the water and muck and stick there. Instead the entire thing as improbably as it seemed floated. Baxter knelt on their cart-boat trying not to rock it or make any sudden movements as Guy climbed on to kneel beside him. The cart-boat tipped and rocked as Rodrigo also climbed on too but to Baxter's relief they did not tip over. "And off we go." Rodrigo picked up one of crude pieces of wood that was standing in as a paddle and pushed them forward. Guy too picked up his paddle.
Their not-really-a-boat-at-all rocked as Guy and Rodrigo guided them through the water but they stayed upright. More than that, they were actually making pretty good speed, cutting through the swamp of vine and bark covered bookshelves.
There was a glow up head of them, between the bookshelves and through the gloom and creepy mist. Oh God, was something on fire?
"A light up ahead." Guy called out.
"Yeah I see it, is it a fire or lamp or something?" Baxter was trying to make it out but they were still too far away.
Beside him Guy shook his head "Nay, or if it is some sort of sorcery has been used to make it spell out a word."
"What?" Baxter squinted and then realized they were looking at a glowing red 'exit' sign. "Head for the light!" He grabbed Guy's arm in his excitement, finally, a way out. "Head for the light!"
Their makeshift boat shuddered and Baxter jerked, half falling to the side into Guy.
"We have run aground on a sand bar." Rodrigo prodded it with his paddle before jumping off the book cart and into the water. "We must walk from here."
He held out his arms to Baxter, who splashed with much less grace into the water, while Guy jumped in after them. They all waded forward the water wet sand pulling at their feet. Baxter almost lost one of his sneakers in the gripping sand, stumbling forward until Guy caught him from behind.
"Easy guapo."
Rodrigo reached back gripping Baxter's arm and hoisted him onto dry land.
"There." Baxter pointed ahead of them to where the exit sign was flowing clearly. "That's the way out." "But we have not found the coin yet beautiful boy." Guy reminded him.
"I know." For the first time since seeing the exit sign Baxter faltered." But …" He thought of the count down and what Andrew had said about him being stuck here forever if he did not check out in time. "I need to get the book to the check out desk." He held it out.
"We should at least explore the strange light letters." Guy touched Rodrigo's shoulder and Rodrigo nodded.
"Very well." He smiled down at Baxter "for you beautiful."
Swallowing hard, Baxter resisted the urge to push himself up onto his toes and kiss those warm, supple lips "Thanks."
He'd been expecting to see a door leading to the stairwell when they got close enough to the exit sign to make anything out at all. Instead there were the smooth metal sliding doors of an elevator. Which was weird since Baxter was pretty sure there was some kind of laws or fire codes against labeling elevators as exits. It was a way out though, and Baxter wasn't going to look a gift elevator in the mouth.
As they approached the number lights above the elevator flicked on and began to descend towards the B where, Baxter could only guess, they were. It was a little creepy actually. Weren't elevators that descended by themselves a staple of horror movies? Baxter wasn't sure; he wasn't really a horror movie kind of guy.
"What sort of magic is this?" Rodrigo asked gazing up at the lights.
"Technology again not magic." Baxter said as the doors pinged open. He stared dubiously at the perfectly ordinary looking elevator interior. Should they risk it?
"Look." Guy pointed at something lying on the elevator floor. "It is the coin!"
That decided it. All three of them dove for the elevator. Which in hindsight was not the smartest move since Baxter tripped over his own feet almost immediately with Rodrigo falling on top of him. Guy landed on top of them both with a pained grunt. The elevator doors slid silently shut.
"First floor, first floor!" Baxter yelled, flat on his stomach being crushed under the weight of two large hunky men. It sounded nicer than it actually was. "The button with the star, push the button with the star!" They had the coin, now if only they could make it to the check out desk in time.
Guy pushed himself up and frowned at the panel of buttons.
"Press the one with the star!" Baxter called and Guy pushing the button with the right 1 and small star on it.
The elevator shuddered but began to rise and Baxter tried to draw in a sigh of relief but with Rodrigo still on top of him it turned into pained wheeze. Rodrigo rolled off and Baxter sat up and looked down at the coin he'd fallen directly on.
It was the same heavy silver piece with some dude on it, it had been the last time he'd seen it. He picked it up gingerly, careful not to rub it even a little bit.
"You have done it guapo."
Baxter looked up to see Rodrigo sitting next to him, gazing him in awe. "We have found the coin and the book now you will be able to break Black Burt's curse."
"Indeed." Guy knelt on his other side picking up the, at this point very bedraggled, book and pressing it into Baxter's hands. "Then Rodrigo and I will have to do your best to properly thank you for your courage and valiantly saving us both."
"I, well … " No one had every called him courageous or valiant before, Baxter wasn't quite sure to respond.
Guy solved the problem for him by leaning forward and kissing him passionately. Baxter gasped against Guy's lips and Guy's tongue pushed into Baxter's mouth in a way that made Baxter's toes curls in his sodden sneakers. Stubble rubbed his face against Baxter let his free hand grope across Guy's magnificent chest.
They pulled apart slowly and Rodrigo's fingers cupped Baxter's face, turning him to meet Rodrigo's own kiss. Rodrigo's arms went around him, pulling Baxter tight against his equally fine, very bare chest.
The elevator screeched to a halt, shaking and grinding as it did so. Rodrigo and Baxter jerked apart. Baxter's gaze flew to the button panel but all of the numbers were dark the doors staid closed. "Oh no."
"Is there something wrong?" Guy asked leaning towards Baxter.
"I think –"
There was a horrendous screech of metal on metal from the ceiling. They all looked up to see what looked horribly like a cutlass sawing in through the metal roof of the elevator.
Both Guy and Rodrigo jumped to their feet, their own swords in their hands.
"You have got to be fucking kidding me." Baxter grabbed the coin and the book and scooted on his butt as far away from the soon to be hole in the ceiling as possible.
A circle of jagged metal the size of a manhole cover fell with a crash to the elevator floor. A large black shaggy head peered down at them from the hole in the ceiling.
"Black Burt." Guy growled eyes narrowing and jaw setting into a grim line.
"Guapo" a hand touched his arm and Baxter whorled again to see Rodrigo, looking down at him with a small concerned frown. "We need to leave."
"Yeah." Baxter clutched the book more lightly to his chest. He could practically here Andrew's count down in his head. As if (1) stay alive and (2) get laid hadn't seemed hard enough before, now every minute counted.
"Look, there!" Guy called to them pointing into the darkness "I have sighted our goal!"
Baxter squinted into the darkness in the direction Guy was pointing and saw the glint of the coin. He grabbed Rodrigo by the one very nicely muscled arm. "Let's go." He started forward at a, admittedly slow, run before his common sense could catch up and tell him all the ways charging headlong into an void of unknown origin was probably a bad idea.
"Guapo wait!" Guy called right before Baxter ran head long into something hard.
He let out a very unmanly cry of pain and Rodrigo hissed a curse in Spanish as Rodrigo collided with Baxter's back. The feeling of the hard hot lines of Rodrigo's body pressed against his, hips nicely nestled against Baxter's ass was almost enough to distract him from the pain.
Baxter put out the hand not holding the book trying to figure out what he'd run into. It felt like bark under his palm, had he run into a tree? He squinted through the gloom, it … it looked kind of like a bookshelf but the feeling under his hand was definitely felt like bark.
"Be careful of the ground beautiful boy." Guy was beside the two of them now sword drawn. "We seem to have found ourselves in a marshland."
"Marshland? In the basement of a library?" That hardly seemed right but than neither had waterfalls down the escalader.
"We must proceed with caution." Rodrigo agreed taking Baxter's hand in his much larger, delightfully callused one. "We do not know what beasts might lurk in this swamp."
Baxter swallowed hard hoping whatever beasts were lurking among the bookshelf-trees they were as harmless as the card catalog had been.
"If only we had a lantern." Guy muttered, brows furrowed as he inched forward between the shelf-trees.
Or a flashlight, Baxter thought as he and Rodrigo followed Guy their pace just as slow.
"Careful." Guy called out sharply but it was too late. Baxter let out a sound somewhere between a squeak and a scream as the ground under his feet gave way and he sank almost to his knees into murky water.
Below the water was several inches of sandy much that sucked at his shoes and legs as he tried to move. Baxter shuddered all over his mind filled with images from every man vs. animal nature show he'd ever seen about giant leeches and parasitic worms.
"Easy." One of Rodrigo's strong arms went around his waist, "It doe not seem to be too deep guapo but stay close to me."
"Oh don't worry." Baxter muttered wading through the water after Rodrigo "I'm not going anywhere."
God if he had a parasitic worm attached to his leg by the time they got out of here he'd probably die on the spot. There seemed to be some kind of mist curling around them now and the shelves they passed by were draped in vines, while the rustle of foliage came form above their heads. Baxter pressed the book against his chest hard enough that the corners of its cover dug into him. His sneakers were now completely
waterlogged as was his jeans all the way up pas the knees.
"Oh ho!" Guy called from a few paces head of them "We are in luck my friends."
Baxter felt himself sag a little in relief, he didn't know what it was that Guy had found but hopefully whatever it was it would cut down on the likelihood that he'd pick up some kind of parasitic book worm.
"Look at these fine rafts!" Guy cried triumphantly as Rodrigo and Baxter drew along side him.
Baxter blinked making out several wooden book carts, the kind librarians used to re-shelve books.
"A magnificent find." Rodrigo clapped Guy on the back, "We can lash two together with vines and it will make a fine boat."
Guy began cutting down vines from the surrounding bookshelves and Rodrigo drew his own sword hacking at one of the extra carts until he'd cut off several long pieces of wood to use as paddles.
"All right guapo." Guy held out his hand when he'd secured two of the carts together with the vines. Baxter looked from Guy's hand to the cart-boat dubiously but their time was counting down and he didn't think he had much choice. Taking Guy's hand he clambered onto the carts.
He expected them to sink straight into the water and muck and stick there. Instead the entire thing as improbably as it seemed floated. Baxter knelt on their cart-boat trying not to rock it or make any sudden movements as Guy climbed on to kneel beside him. The cart-boat tipped and rocked as Rodrigo also climbed on too but to Baxter's relief they did not tip over.
"And off we go." Rodrigo picked up one of crude pieces of wood that was standing in as a paddle and pushed them forward. Guy too picked up his paddle.
Their not-really-a-boat-at-all rocked as Guy and Rodrigo guided them through the water but they stayed upright. More than that, they were actually making pretty good speed, cutting through the swamp of vine and bark covered bookshelves.
There was a glow up head of them, between the bookshelves and through the gloom and creepy mist. Oh God, was something on fire?
"A light up ahead." Guy called out.
"Yeah I see it, is it a fire or lamp or something?"
Baxter was trying to make it out but they were still too far away.
Beside him Guy shook his head "Nay, or if it is some sort of sorcery has been used to make it spell out a word."
"What?" Baxter squinted and then realized they were looking at a glowing red 'exit' sign. "Head for the light!" He grabbed Guy's arm in his excitement, finally, a way out. "Head for the light!"
Their makeshift boat shuddered and Baxter jerked, half falling to the side into Guy.
"We have run aground on a sand bar." Rodrigo prodded it with his paddle before jumping off the book cart and into the water. "We must walk from here."
He held out his arms to Baxter, who splashed with much less grace into the water, while Guy jumped in after them. They all waded forward the water wet sand pulling at their feet. Baxter almost lost one of his sneakers in the gripping sand, stumbling forward until Guy caught him from behind.
"Easy guapo."
Rodrigo reached back gripping Baxter's arm and hoisted him onto dry land.
"There." Baxter pointed ahead of them to where the exit sign was flowing clearly. "That's the way out."
"But we have not found the coin yet beautiful boy." Guy reminded him.
"I know." For the first time since seeing the exit sign Baxter faltered." But …" He thought of the count down and what Andrew had said about him being stuck here forever if he did not check out in time. "I need to get the book to the check out desk." He held it out.
"We should at least explore the strange light
letters." Guy touched Rodrigo's shoulder and Rodrigo nodded.
"Very well." He smiled down at Baxter "for you beautiful."
Swallowing hard, Baxter resisted the urge to push himself up onto his toes and kiss those warm, supple lips "Thanks."
He'd been expecting to see a door leading to the stairwell when they got close enough to the exit sign to make anything out at all. Instead there were the smooth metal sliding doors of an elevator. Which was weird since Baxter was pretty sure there was some kind of laws or fire codes against labeling elevators as exits. It was a way out though, and Baxter wasn't going to look a gift elevator in the mouth.
As they approached the number lights above the elevator flicked on and began to descend towards the B where, Baxter could only guess, they were. It was a little creepy actually. Weren't elevators that descended by themselves a staple of horror movies? Baxter wasn't sure; he wasn't really a horror movie kind of guy.
"What sort of magic is this?" Rodrigo asked gazing up at the lights.
"Technology again not magic." Baxter said as the doors pinged open. He stared dubiously at the perfectly ordinary looking elevator interior. Should they risk it?
"Look." Guy pointed at something lying on the elevator floor. "It is the coin!"
That decided it. All three of them dove for the elevator. Which in hindsight was not the smartest move since Baxter tripped over his own feet almost immediately with Rodrigo falling on top of him. Guy landed on top of them both with a pained grunt.
The elevator doors slid silently shut.
"First floor, first floor!" Baxter yelled, flat on his stomach being crushed under the weight of two large hunky men. It sounded nicer than it actually was. "The button with the star, push the button with the star!"
They had the coin, now if only they could make it to the check out desk in time.
Guy pushed himself up and frowned at the panel of buttons.
"Press the one with the star!" Baxter called and Guy pushing the button with the right 1 and small star on it.
The elevator shuddered but began to rise and Baxter tried to draw in a sigh of relief but with Rodrigo still on top of him it turned into pained wheeze.
Rodrigo rolled off and Baxter sat up and looked down at the coin he'd fallen directly on.
It was the same heavy silver piece with some dude on it, it had been the last time he'd seen it. He picked it up gingerly, careful not to rub it even a little bit.
"You have done it guapo."
Baxter looked up to see Rodrigo sitting next to him, gazing him in awe. "We have found the coin and the book now you will be able to break Black Burt's curse."
"Indeed." Guy knelt on his other side picking up the, at this point very bedraggled, book and pressing it into Baxter's hands. "Then Rodrigo and I will have to do your best to properly thank you for your courage and valiantly saving us both."
"I, well … " No one had every called him courageous or valiant before, Baxter wasn't quite sure to respond.
Guy solved the problem for him by leaning forward and kissing him passionately. Baxter gasped against Guy's lips and Guy's tongue pushed into Baxter's mouth in a way that made Baxter's toes curls in his sodden sneakers. Stubble rubbed his face against Baxter let his free hand grope across Guy's magnificent chest.
They pulled apart slowly and Rodrigo's fingers cupped Baxter's face, turning him to meet Rodrigo's own kiss. Rodrigo's arms went around him, pulling Baxter tight against his equally fine, very bare chest.
The elevator screeched to a halt, shaking and grinding as it did so. Rodrigo and Baxter jerked apart.
Baxter's gaze flew to the button panel but all of the numbers were dark the doors staid closed. "Oh no."
"Is there something wrong?" Guy asked leaning towards Baxter.
"I think –"
There was a horrendous screech of metal on metal from the ceiling. They all looked up to see what looked horribly like a cutlass sawing in through the metal roof of the elevator.
Both Guy and Rodrigo jumped to their feet, their own swords in their hands.
"You have got to be fucking kidding me." Baxter grabbed the coin and the book and scooted on his butt as far away from the soon to be hole in the ceiling as possible.
A circle of jagged metal the size of a manhole cover fell with a crash to the elevator floor. A large black shaggy head peered down at them from the hole in the ceiling.
"Black Burt." Guy growled eyes narrowing and jaw setting into a grim line.