Demons in the Library Read online

  The pair took it in turns to recount the details of what had happened, where and how. This time, Liberty didn’t hold back on any details.

  “Sorry I didn’t tell you how truly terrifying it was,” she said to Maxine when she came to the hissing part of the story. “I didn’t see the point of it when you still had your shift coming up.”

  Maxine nodded and held up her hand in a gesture of understanding.

  When they’d finished, all was quiet except for the sound of the professor scribbling on his notepad.

  “Wow,” he said, “that sounds horrendous – but it also sounds as though what you did was highly effective. I’m making notes here because we need to leave a description of these encounters behind somewhere, for someone else to find in the future.

  “Maxine and Dirk – tell us how you got on.”

  Liberty, Brett and Prof T listened intently as Maxine and Dirk talked. It turned out that Dirk had gone into the library early, as soon as dusk fell, to test how effective it would be to reflect electric light on the small mirror.

  “It was obvious it would be completely ineffective, so we decided we’d both be Salt People,” he said.

  Liberty glanced at Prof T’s face. He simply nodded at that point. It must have occurred to him earlier, as it did to the others, that mirrors would be useless for the pair going into the library in the evening.

  Then she stiffened as Maxine told the others that they too had begun by walking casually into the Agriculture section – where they had spotted not one, not two, but three demons.

  “Three!” Liberty exclaimed.

  Maxine and Dirk nodded.

  “They were obviously waiting for us,” Dirk said. “There have never been three in the library at once.”

  Tell us something we don’t know, Liberty thought.

  “Anyway, it was difficult,” Maxine continued, “because they weren’t standing in a clump.” She got up to demonstrate the roughly triangular formation that demons had made in one corner of the room. “There were two standing together on the left,” she explained, waving her arms, “and one standing some way away on the right.”

  She had muttered to Dirk that she would approach the ones on the left, but that hesitation had meant that the demons had immediately identified them as a threat.

  “They sort of … hunched down slightly,” said Maxine, her eyes wide at the memory, “like they were getting ready for us. I kind of ran up to the two on the left and threw salt at them, which made them cower, but… but…”

  Her voice trembling, she turned to Dirk, who picked up the story. “But the one on the right went for Maxine,” he said, “and managed to grab her arm.”

  Maxine’s allowed her right sleeve to slip down, revealing a bandage.

  “You’re hurt!” Liberty reached out a hand to her friend.

  “It’s only a small burn.”

  “A burn?”

  Maxine nodded. “Seems they burn you when touch you.”

  Prof T cleared his throat. He looked as shocked as Liberty felt. “Yes, I have read mention of that.”

  “Did you see a doctor?” Liberty wanted to know.

  “I went to the clinic on campus, which closes only at 7pm, thank goodness. I actually wasn’t sure what was wrong – only that it hurt like hell. But the nurse there is really good. She took one look and wanted to know how I’d burned myself on my upper arm.”

  “What did you tell her?”

  Maxine gave a small laugh. “Dirk made up something about how I tripped and fell on the stove.”

  “You could almost see her thinking, ‘typical students with their bizarre injuries’,” Dirk interjected.

  “Imagine if I’d told her the truth,” said Maxine lightly. “Actually, Sister, a demon tried to attack me.”

  “Yeah, she needs to stock that vaccine against evil, supernatural beings,” Dirk agreed.

  Liberty felt slightly reassured that Dirk and Maxine could joke about it. Imagining a demon coming close enough to cause her friend bodily harm filled her with panic.

  “So the demon grabbed your arm,” said Brett, “and then what?”

  “I was close by, since I wasn’t using the mirror,” Dirk explained, “and I smothered that asshole in salt.”

  The other four had to smile at the vivid image.

  “He actually howled, and then all three of them ran down the stairs and vanished. At that point, Maxi and I left the other way, and went straight to the clinic.”

  “Well, that sounds like an awful experience,” said Prof T. “You must be really shaken up, all four of you. I hope that they won’t come back after that – after all, you’ve made it clear they’ve been spotted, and we want them to go away.”

  “I’d like to suggest that we don’t return to the library tomorrow,” said Brett. “I don’t like this escalation in violence. I can retrieve more camera footage on the weekend, and we can check on demon activity from a safe distance.”

  “You won’t have any argument from me,” said Dirk, looking at Maxine.

  Liberty had half-expected Dirk to put up a macho façade and try to insist that they confront the demons. She liked the fact that he was quick to agree with Brett, seemingly mindful of Maxine’s injury.

  “No argument from me either,” she said.

  “Hell, no!” said Maxine.

  “I think that’s an excellent plan,” said Prof T. “You need to look after yourselves. Now, while you lot were bravely fighting demons, I distracted myself by cooking. I can offer everyone home-made ice cream and blueberry pie, if…?”

  Everyone accepted with alacrity. There was much joking about “Prof’s post-demonic pie”, and “perfect demon-hunting food”.

  As the boys went to help themselves to more, Liberty leaned across to Maxine and said, “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

  Maxine had dark smudges under her eyes. “Oh, yeah, I’m okay. I’m just mad, now. If they return after today I want to go back and banish them for good.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, for sure. Don’t forget, to me they looked like ordinary men, which helps. If I’d seen him in demon form, I’d have turned tail and run to my grandma’s house. I’d still be running right now.”

  Despite her apprehension, Liberty chortled at the thought of Maxine sprinting through the countryside for hours.

  “I must work hard on my Anatomy assignment tomorrow,” Maxine said, “but let’s do a kick-boxing class in the evening.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  “We need to be prepared to kick demon ass, right?”

  “Right,” said Liberty, trying not to think about her feet coming into contact with a demon.

  *

  After a few days, Brett reported that the demons were still to be seen entering the library regularly. “They’re always in pairs now,” he told the others in a text message.

  It was Maxine who suggested that they resume their salt attacks. “Maybe each pair could give it one more try tomorrow,” she wrote. “After that, we could regroup and decide what to do next.”

  The general consensus was that if Maxine was prepared for one more attempt, they all were.

  This time, Brett and Liberty arranged to meet a little after 10.30 – but to walk into the library separately this time, in case anyone, or anything, were watching. Once inside, they would walk around the demons’ favorite places together.

  All went according to plan. Liberty was aware that her stomach was churning, and that her hands clutching the fabric pencil case were sweating.

  As they walked into the Agricultural section, Brett gave a small grunt, and jerked his head towards the staircase on the opposite side of the room. There, she spotted two demons vanishing down the stairs.

  “No point in chasing them now,” Brett observed quietly.

  Liberty agreed. Then a thought struck her. “You know, it was that fluttering noise that alerted me their presence initially. But I’ve never heard that sound again.”

  “Yeah, I was thin
king about that. The demon you heard must’ve made a huge mistake, flapping his wings like that when other people were around. Lucky for us, really, that he made that mistake.”

  “Strange idea of luck you have!”

  Brett smiled ruefully in response.

  Emerging from the library again a few minutes later, Liberty had a guilty feeling that they had got off lightly. She hoped fervently that Maxine and Dirk would be as lucky that evening.

  As evening approached, Liberty was again filled with anxiety. This time, she didn’t have pharmacy work to distract her, and cursed herself for not thinking to ask Sadie about taking on an extra shift that evening.

  Instead, she set her phone to its loudest volume settings, and got to work dusting furniture, sweeping floors – any physical activity she could think of that would take her mind off Maxine and Dirk. Outside, the rain began to fall, pattering relentlessly onto the ground.

  When her phone eventually pealed loudly, she jerked upright from her position on the floor, where she was kneeling to clean her bath, and clumsily tore off the rubber gloves. As she did so, she realized that it wasn’t a text message coming through. It was a phone call.

  She snatched up the phone, noting Dirk’s name on the screen, and said a breathless hello.

  “Hi Liberty – Maxine’s in hospital,” said Dirk.

  “What?”

  “She’ll be okay,” he said. “But a demon got hold of her again and burned her other arm this time, plus left a deep scratch on her.”

  “Oh no. And you? Did they do anything…?”

  “I’m okay.”

  “Are you at the hospital now?”

  “Yeah. If you want to see Maxi, I’ll wait for you, and we can catch a taxi together afterwards, if you like.”

  “I’ll come straight away.”

  For the thousandth time, Liberty was grateful that Elmswood was a small town. She was deposited at the hospital by a taxi fifteen minutes after hearing from Dirk. She spotted him immediately, looking serious and hunched, near the entrance.

  “They were checking her dressings, so I came downstairs to wait for you,” he explained. “She’s in the general medical ward, on the first floor.”

  By the time they reached Maxine’s bedside, the nurse was wheeling away the trolley containing dressings. “Make it a brief visit, please,” she said to the students, friendly but firm. “Visiting hours are over, and Maxine needs her rest.”

  “Hi,” said Maxine sleepily to Liberty. Half of her left arm was swathed in bandages. “Don’t freak out.”

  “I’m not freaking out,” Liberty assured her. “Are you in pain?”

  “No – they’ve given me great painkillers! And I’ll be out of here tomorrow. It’s not serious.”

  Worry made Liberty sarcastic. “Right – landing up in hospital is really trivial.”

  Maxine smiled. “Ah, it’s a scratch and a burn. And Dirk was amazing. He bundled us into a taxi immediately and thought up a story to tell the admission people and generally took care of things.”

  Liberty turned to Dirk. “What did you tell the admission people?”

  Quietly, he said, “I didn’t know what the hell to say, so I repeated my story about her falling in the kitchen. I made up something about linoleum on the floor that tripped her up twice, because they could see that she had a burn mark on the other arm.”

  “Good call.”

  Spotting the nurse shooting warning looks at them from the other side of the ward, Liberty said, “We’d better go, Maxi. I’ll see you tomorrow at home, okay?”

  “Okay,” said Maxine.

  Without warning, she grabbed Liberty’s hand. Her sleepy, relaxed manner had gone. “Libby – I’m not going near those things again.”

  “The demons, you mean?” Liberty whispered, bending over her.

  “Yeah. We shouldn’t be messing with them. They’re deadly. We can’t fight them anymore, Libby. I mean it.” Her right hand held Liberty’s in a vice-like grip, while her intense gaze belied the quietness of her tone.

  “I’ll tell the others,” Liberty assured her. “You’ll never see them again.”

  “Okay.” Maxine’s grip relaxed and she waved to both of them.

  As they waited for the elevator, Liberty said, “What actually happened?”

  Dirk took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “Man, it was intense. But it was much like last time, except I think they were different demons, and the one who grabbed Maxine was more aggressive.” He shuddered. “God, they’re disgusting things. And it really seemed like they wanted to take Maxine with them. The one who had her arm was trying to drag her away. I don’t know how nobody else saw what was going on, but that section of the library never seems to have any students in it.”

  “Yeah, I’ve noticed that,” said Liberty. “And did you see the demons leave?”

  “No, I grabbed Maxine’s hand as soon as the demon let her go and got out of there.”

  She looked at him. He looked, rumpled, exhausted and puffy-eyed with strain. She spotted a tiny smear of blood on his sleeve.

  Then she noticed his shoes.

  “What happened there?” she asked, pointing at his right shoe, which was darker than the other one, its shape distorted.

  “Oh, I’ve been hoping none of the hospital staff would notice that. I had to kick at the demon to make him let go of Maxi.”

  “Kick him?” By now they were in the hospital lobby, which was now nearly deserted.

  “Yes – basically, he burned my shoe!”

  Now Liberty could see how the fabric top of his sports shoe was scorched, while the rubber sole had melted on one side.

  “No! That’s exactly what I was scared would happen.”

  Dirk only nodded abruptly, before saying, “I’ll call a taxi for us.”

  While he made the call, Liberty stared unseeingly into space, trying to calm herself. She knew what she had to do.

  In the taxi they were both quiet, listening to the sound of the wipers slide back and forth across the windshield, until Dirk gave the driver his address.

  “By the way,” said Dirk, “I met a guy on campus who knows you. His name’s Joel?”

  “Oh yes,” said Liberty. “My ex-boyfriend.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. You’re surprised?”

  “Yes! He doesn’t seem your type.”

  “Oh, he was. He dumped me and broke my heart and now walks around campus attached to his new beauty queen girlfriend.”

  Dirk gave a bark of laughter. “She’s quite pretty,” he allowed, “but they are both so boring. I met them at the campus golf club annual social, and they were so unbelievably dull I couldn’t talk to them for longer than five minutes.”

  Liberty had to smile at the thought of the three yuppies-to-be trying to make conversation. Turning to the window again, watching raindrops slide down, she had to admit she hadn’t thought of Joel for a while. He was completely irrelevant to her life now.

  “I’ll go to Prof T’s house after you’re dropped off, and let him know what happened this evening,” she told Dirk.

  “Thanks,” he said, slumping back against his seat, clearly exhausted.

  After he was dropped off, Liberty watched him walk up the path to the house he shared with two other students. From behind, he looked gangly and almost as vulnerable as Maxine had seemed in her hospital bed.

  The anger that had begun building as soon as Dirk told her that the demon had grabbed Maxine grew further.

  By the time she climbed out of the taxi, she was clear-eyed and cold with fury. “Please will you give me ten minutes, and then take me to campus?” she asked the driver, who agreed.

  Prof T answered his door looking rumpled and alarmed.

  Briefly, Liberty filled him in on the evening’s events. Before he could respond, she said, “Prof, I suspect they’re probably still in the library. I know what I need to do. It’s time for serious action. Please let me look at your knives.” She gestured to the wooden disp
lay case.

  She had expected him to object, but instead he slowly nodded, smoothing his hair down with one hand. Then he fetched a key from the hallway, and unlocked the case, stepping aside silently for Liberty to examine its contents.

  Amid the more ornate knives and daggers there were two short-bladed swords. Neither of them was enormous, and Liberty thought she could probably handle any of them. She tested them by picking up each one in turn, eventually deciding that the smallest one was best for her purpose.

  “May I take this one?”

  Prof T nodded. “Yes, I can see that one is the most comfortable for you. Do you know how to use a sword?”

  “Isn’t it simply a matter of…?” Liberty held the sword up near her shoulder and made stabbing motions.

  “That’s actually not the best, no,” said Prof T. “Let me show you.”

  Later, Liberty wondered what circumstances had led to Prof Trelawney learning to wield a sword in combat. In the moment, though, she simply concentrated on what he showed her.

  “It’s best to keep the blade horizontal to the floor,” he said. “It gives you more options. If the demons don’t have knives, you want to thrust the blade downward.

  Now you need to carry it in something. Wait a moment.”

  He disappeared into another room, then reappeared with a violin case. “I used to take lessons,” he said by way of explanation, before removing the violin, laying it gently on a chair, and replacing it with the sword. It fit well, with an inch or two to spare.

  “Now,” he said, “practice opening and shutting the case.”

  Liberty looked at him in surprise.

  “You’ll probably need to withdraw the sword as quickly as possible.”

  He didn’t need to say any more. Liberty practiced snapping the violin case open and withdrawing the sword. She quickly worked out that the best thing to do would be to put the case down on one of the library’s desks. That would give her the quickest access to the two-handed opening mechanism, which in turn meant it would then take her only a split second to snatch up the sword in her right hand and whirl around.

  Eventually, Prof Trelawney said, “I think you’ve got it now.”