If a dream is a wish your heart makes, what is a nightmare?

[crazyspacegirl]

River was the consciousness of the bookshelf. She smugly gave people the information she decided that they needed with no regard to what they asked for or wanted

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[neptune_sleuth]

"What's the book?" Veronica asked, curiosity getting the better of her yet again.

Well, she had said to Logan, you know where to find me. But she had done her best, in the days since, to make sure he didn't, spending no more than a few hours in her room. Instead, she had walked the beach and the jungle, avoided him the best she could. They'd find each other again when they had to. If it came to that, she was feeling pretty frakked with, too.

"I mean, if it's meddling with people's brains . . ." She trailed off. She didn't feel like snarking at the kid. Whoever this was, she looked as determined and unhappy as Veronica had been feeling.

Off to get lunch, but I'll be back soon. Couldn't resist!

[crazyspacegirl]

"Doesn't matter what it is," answered River grimly. "Matters that it's not what it was."

She tore out another page, ripped it to shreds, and fed it to the fire.

She looked up at this girl she hadn't met suspiciously. She'd seen her before, and long enough ago so that she probably wasn't the "therapist." She was too young, anyway. Still, didn't hurt to ask questions. "Who are you?" she asked bluntly.

[neptune_sleuth]

"Veronica Mars," she said, eyes watching the other girl with equal suspicion. Maybe she was just jumpy these days. Didn't matter. The girl's words reminded her of things she had never seen - her father's quiet description of what he had found in the penthouse of the Neptune Grand, of how the tapes had been destroyed. Didn't matter what they had been - only that they were gone. "Who are you?"

[crazyspacegirl]

"River Tam."

She relaxed a little bit. Not the doctor who had left the note on the bulletin board.

"Mars was a planet. Next to Earth that was. Polar ice caps. Couldn't live there."

She ripped out another page.

[land_underwave]

"Why are you doing that?"

The dairy was finished, but she was (not nervous. That would be silly) hesitant to begin cheesemaking.

So she had come out to walk by the ocean. She liked the salt smell, even if she hated the falling horizon.

There was River, burning something. A book? That wasn't a good thing to do to a book.

[crazyspacegirl]

"Because it needs to be stopped before they multiply."

She had to pull hard at the book to tear out several pages at once, which she then began to feed carefully one by one to the fire.

[land_underwave]

"...Books breed in your world?" Tiffany craned her head to watch the pages being fed into the fire. "Do they have to do it in twos, like sheep?"

[crazyspacegirl]

"They're not alive." She paused. "I don't think they're alive," she amended. "Yesterday there was one book that changed into another and today there are four. They need to be stopped."

[jim_halpert]

He had seen the fire before he had seen River as he walked aimlessly away from his hut. He didn't think much of the rather strange sight (someone making a fire in this kind of weather?) but when he saw River hovering over it, looking upset as she threw something into it, he walked over to investigate.

He got to her just as the third page was thrown in.

"...Sort of warm to be making a fire, don't you think?" he asks quietly, looking a little concerned.

[crazyspacegirl]

"Not burning to get warm. Burning to get free."

She ripped another page into four pieces and added them to the fire.

"I'm not a game for this place to play. Not a gorram toy."

[jim_halpert]

"Burning to get free?" he repeats, looking a bit confused. It looked like she was just ripping up some kind of book at the moment.

He had no idea what 'gorram' meant, but he had a feeling it was not unlike a certain swear word he knew.

"This place? You mean the island? What did it do to you?"

[crazyspacegirl]

"First, it sent a doctor here to poke at people's brains. And now it's changing books to remind me of things I try to forget." The pages she was trying to tear out out were giving her trouble. She tore at them hard and got a paper cut for her trouble. "Go tsao de island!" she exclaimed, flinging the entire book into the fire at once.

"I don't mean that!" she said immediately, in case the island was listening. "I don't want to go back."

[go tsao de: dog humping]

[doctor_simontam]

Simon had been feeling restless, so had gone to take a walk until he calmed back down. River had been sleeping soundly when he left, and he couldn't think of a reason to wake her. Besides, it would only be a short walk.

On his way back when he saw the fire. He walked faster towards it, and when he saw his sister, he ran.

"River," he knelt beside her, gazing in awe at the books, "River what are you doing?" He moved to take the book away before she could burn any more.

[crazyspacegirl]

She jerked the book back from Simon. He wasn't going to stop her. "It's bad," she told him. "Can't be trusted. Burning is best."

River had Reasons for doing things. Simon just didn't always understand them. He got confused.

"Don't worry," she assured him. "I got to them before they could get into my brain."

[doctor_simontam]

"What's bad? The book?" He tried to at least look at the title to see what was upsetting her so much.

He winced at her words, "No one is trying to get into your brain, River. We're safe, here. It's ok."

[crazyspacegirl]

"The island is getting into my brain," she whispered so it wouldn't hear her. "Changed other books into these to tell me so. Brought a doctor here to meddle with people's minds, but I won't go! Don't need to be studied or worked on.

"Won't be anyone's experiment," she finished grimly, throwing several more pages on the fire.