“Oh, you know. The Valium helps,” he said grimly.
Alarmed, she studied his face.
“Don’t worry, I’m joking.”
“Have some chamomile tea,” she suggested. “It actually helps.”
“Really? We have time? Okay, then.”
When he returned to the table with tea for both of them, Liberty had to giggle. “This is so surreal. We’re sitting here drinking herbal tea with a completely nightmarish task ahead of us.”
A flash of the old, sanguine Brett re-emerged. “Nah – we’ll cope. We’re prepared, remember, and they aren’t.”
They were both careful to avoid saying the word ‘demons’ as Granules filled up and tables around them were occupied by students.
“I hadn’t thought of that. We’re actually lucky we’re going first, because we have surprise on our side.”
“Exactly. And we might find that a short, sharp shock is all that’s needed to get rid of… them.”
Much later, remembering Brett’s words, Liberty was glad that neither of them could have predicted the horrors that lay ahead.
CHAPTER SIX
“Time to go,” said Liberty, slinging on her backpack. Then she winced, feeling its weight. “I need to dump some of this stuff in my locker on the way to the library.”
“Yeah, sure.”
Once her backpack was safely stashed in the History department, she made sure her mirror was in her coat pocket and she was casually clutching her pencil case full of salt, along with an A4 notepad. Feeling lighter and freer also made her feel more confident, although her stomach was still churning.
She and Brett then continued striding down the avenue towards the main library.
“So,” said Brett, “who should be the Salt Person?”
“I’m happy to be the Salt Person,” said Liberty. “Okay with you?”
Brett nodded.
Suddenly, the unpleasant thought from the previous night popped into Liberty’s head. No longer half-formed, it shouted at her: No-one knows how to do this. We don’t really know what we’re doing. We’re making it up as we go along and we don’t know for sure whether it will work.
Liberty gulped. Her armpits grew damp. She slowed down.
Brett looked back at her and also slowed. “What is it?”
“God, I’m terrified!”
“Don’t be terrified,” he said urgently. “Being terrified doesn’t help. They’re only big lizards, Liberty, and we are not going to be terrified of stupid reptiles, right?”
Liberty tried to smile, but the world was spinning slightly.
“Look at me!” he hissed at her.
She looked.
“We are going to give them such a helluva fright that they are going to get the hell out of this town, right? We are powerful. We are prepared and they are not. We are going to beat them, Liberty! Say after me: We are powerful. We are going to beat them.”
“We are powerful. We are going to beat them,” said Liberty obediently.
“Again! Believe it!”
“We are powerful. We are going to beat them.”
“We are going to beat those pathetic creatures until they wish they’d never been born, okay?”
Brett looked so fierce at that moment that Liberty did believe him. The man who’d joked about Valium earlier had vanished. She nodded.
“Don’t doubt yourself for a moment, Liberty. Keep telling yourself that we are powerful; that we are going to beat them. It helps! It’s true and it helps.”
Just like the mantra about the ocean helped earlier, Liberty thought. She kept her mind firmly fixed on Brett’s words as they picked up their pace once more.
Once through the turnstile at the library’s entrance, she breathed deeply and forced herself to relax. Everything seemed so normal inside. There was the smell of old papers and new furniture, the small groups of students chatting, individual students hurrying to check books out before their next lecture.
Brett paused.
“Let’s check out Agriculture,” said Liberty, hoping she sounded resolute.
“Yeah – and then Economics,” said Brett. He smiled at her, obviously hoping to be encouraging, but with a manic edge that was slightly alarming.
For a brief moment as they climbed the steps to the first floor, Liberty considered fainting. But, nope, it wasn’t an option, she told herself fiercely. Instead she channeled her inner Angelina Jolie – the most powerful female figure she could think of in the moment, since she’d seen the actress vanquish baddies in Salt, Wanted, and the two Lara Croft movies – and repeated Brett’s mantra to herself.
As soon as they were within sight of the Agriculture section, Liberty spotted him.
Demon!
Her heart thudded.
Liberty muttered, “See him? On the left?”
The tall figure in a long, navy blue coat was unmistakable even if you were unable to see the lizard features. Luckily, at that point, nobody else was around.
Brett nodded. “Okay,” he said softly. “I’m going to check out those books, about twelve feet away.”
Part of her wanted to pull a face at Brett, to tell him that she didn’t need reminding of what to do.
“Right, see you later,” she said.
Pretending to be deeply involved in the process of looking for a book, Liberty moved closer to the demon, while opening her pencil case.
Unexpectedly, the demon began moving away from her.
Still pretending to ignore him, Liberty paused, gazed at a shelf of books, muttered to herself, and then moved on once more.
The demon moved more quickly, towards the stairs.
Determined not to let him get away, Liberty also quickened her pace.
The demon was now only a few feet from the stairs. He was going to vanish before Liberty could do anything.
Over her dead body, Liberty thought.
“Gaaaahhhh!” she screamed, breaking into a run.
Startled, the demon turned toward her, pausing.
Liberty flung her right arm outward. Salt scattered in a wide arc, snowing towards the ground.
The demon hissed. His face would haunt Liberty’s nightmares for weeks. His lips were drawn back from small, pointed teeth. Black eyes were slits that glittered, full of hate.
“Fuck off,” she hissed back, with more aggression than she ever suspected she could muster.
A small, circular patch of light skittered over both of them. Brett had obviously managed to reflect some sunlight coming in through the windows. But before it illuminated the demon, he turned and ran, vanishing down the stairs.
Brett ran up to Liberty.
“Well done! You okay? I want to see that he leaves.”
“Yes, yes – go after him,” Liberty said. Her knees were shaking. She leaned against a nearby desk, and then lowered herself into a chair, feeling scooped out by terror.
Two minutes later, Brett was back, panting slightly.
“He’s left. Let’s do what the Prof said and get the hell out of here.”
Students were coming in. Before anyone could spot the salt that was scattered all over the floor and ask questions, Brett and Liberty hurried out.
Back outside again, Brett and Liberty looked at each other and laughed shakily.
“Okay, I never do this, but … Let’s go to the pub,” Liberty suggested.
“Yeah, let’s.”
Twenty minutes later, they were huddled in a dim corner of the Rabbit and Hutch.
“If ever there was a time for an 11am beer, this is it,” said Brett, taking a gulp of his drink.
Liberty didn’t reply. She was too busy trying not to slop her brandy and ice.
“Hey, you okay?” Brett eyed her shaking hands.
Once the burning in her throat had stopped, Liberty exhaled. “I’m fine.”
“That was intense.”
Liberty sipped again. The brandy was helping. “Yeah. The salt-and-mirrors thing seemed to work, though, which is great.”
> “It is great. Telling the others should help them.”
Except now the demons know what to expect, Liberty thought. Before she could express her doubt, her phone vibrated in her pocket. It was a message from Maxine, saying only, “???”
“All okay,” Liberty typed. “More to follow. Xx”
Slightly embarrassed, she said to Brett, “Do you mind sending the message to the others?” Her hands were still shaking.
“Of course, of course.”
After spending some time typing on his phone, Brett read to Liberty what he’d written. It obviously wouldn’t occur to him to tell the others what happened without her input. Gratified, she couldn’t help comparing him to Dirk, imagining how, in Brett’s shoes, he would tap out a long message, press ‘Send’, and then look amazed when she objected.
Reluctantly, she smiled at the made-up scenario. Brett saw her and said, “Feeling better?”
“Yeah, much. I hope we don’t have to do that again, though.”
“Me too.”
“Tell me, what did the demon look like to you?”
Brett thought. “He looked like a very ordinary, middle-aged white man. The kind of guy who would be very difficult to describe to police, you know? He had no stand-out feature.
“What did he look like to you?”
Rattling the ice in her glass, Liberty said, “He really looked like a giant lizard – or a small dinosaur – in a coat. When he turned and hissed at me, it was the worst face you could imagine.”
“He hissed at you?”
“Yes, didn’t you see?”
Brett looked dismayed. “No – I saw him turn his head towards you, which is when I caught a glimpse of this very unremarkable face. I didn’t realize he’d hissed at you.”
Liberty shuddered, and described the bared teeth and the malevolence.
“Sounds terrifying.”
“It was. Let’s go back into the sunshine and normal life,” Liberty suggested. They both drained their glasses and left.
Although it was a relief to step back into fresh air, the sun had vanished behind brooding, dark clouds, and a cold breeze suggested that rain was on its way.
“I’ve got a meeting I should go to,” Brett said. “Will you be okay?”
“Oh, yeah, I’m fine,” Liberty assured him. “I’ve downloaded a pile of journal articles, so I’ll go home and do some reading.”
Brett held up his hand in his usual gesture of farewell. As he walked off, Liberty felt as though she was saying goodbye to a favorite older brother. She knew now that she would probably never be romantically interested in Brett. He was too earnest, too clean-cut, she thought, as she trudged up the familiar Elmswood streets. Besides, her break-up with Joel was too fresh in her memory.
She let herself into her apartment with a sigh of relief. After only one night away, it already had an unused, airless feel. She flung open the windows to let the breeze blow away the staleness, whizzed the Hoover around, then put the kettle on.
Suddenly ravenous, she made herself two pieces of toast, as well.
Her phone beeped. It was Maxine again. “Are you home? Can we meet?”
“Yes – come over!” Liberty replied. Good. She would be glad to see Maxine, who in turn must be growing nervous for her visit to the library that evening.
Only fifteen minutes later, Maxine knocked on her door.
After a warm hug, Maxine asked with concern, “How was it, Lib?”
Liberty took a deep breath and said, “It was really okay. It was scary, but it was all right.”
“Tell me everything.”
Making yet more tea, Liberty described exactly what had happened, although she skimmed over the horror she had felt.
“It’s probably better if you are the Salt Person, Max,” she pointed out as she handed tea to Maxine. The latter perched on Liberty’s bed, while Liberty herself sat on the sofa opposite.
Maxine understood immediately. “It’ll be less scary for me, right? Because I’ll see the demon’s human form.”
“Exactly. Dirk will see the demon in all his ugliness, but if he’s standing well away, concentrating on reflecting light on his mirror… Oh, wait; there won’t be any sunlight for him to reflect!”
“Oh shit! Of course there won’t be.”
Dismayed, the two women stared at each other, before they both broke into giggles.
“Five academics sat together planning this little intervention, and we forgot that the sun doesn’t shine at night,” said Maxine, between peals of laughter.
“It’s ridiculous,” said Liberty, feeling on the edge of hysteria.
Then she wiped her eyes and said more soberly, “Ah, well. It’ll be worth trying to reflect the overhead electric light, I guess.”
“It might work,” Maxine agreed. “We might have to try many different things before…” Her voice trailed off.
All amusement died away as they both contemplated the possibility of having to face demons over and over again.
“Oof!” Maxine abruptly threw herself lengthwise on the bed. “I wish we could involve other people in this!”
“Yeah. Not the police, though. Perhaps the army could be called in.”
“The army – yes. With a large selection of weapons, including laser guns and small bombs.”
“Small bombs?”
“Yes!” Maxine sat up again. “Never mind all this faffing around with mirrors and salt – just bomb the fuckers!”
“Maxine.” Liberty pretended to be outraged.
Then she had to laugh. “The thought of blasting demons into nothingness is actually really attractive,” she admitted.
“You see? Imagine!”
After a few seconds’ reverie, Maxine said, “I’m missing a lecture to be here. I’d better go.”
“Ah, thanks for coming, Maxi. Don’t worry. You and Dirk will be fine tonight. I’m working at the pharmacy this evening, but I’ll keep checking my phone. Will you send me a message when it’s over?”
“Of course – and my message will be informative,” said Maxine severely.
“Okay, okay.” Liberty decided not to tell her that she’d been far too shaken up to send a detailed text message earlier. “Brett gave me a kind of mantra, which helped: We are powerful. We are going to beat them.”
Maxine repeated the words. “Hm. I like that. I’ll keep saying it.”
Once she had left, Liberty repeated the mantra to herself once more. Waiting to hear that Maxine and Dirk were all right was going to be nearly as bad as seeing the demon herself, she realized.
CHAPTER SEVEN
By late afternoon, Liberty had been reduced to pacing up and down with anxiety in her tiny living room. She stopped only when the time came to leave for work. Never before had she been so grateful to be working at the pharmacy. Its atmosphere of bright, cheery briskness was the perfect antidote to angst.
Once she’d arrived, Sadie had told her that they needed to prepare for the upcoming sale. That meant double-checking stock levels, in between answering queries from customers needing various remedies. It seemed that the changeable weather had led to the usual upsurge in coughs and colds. For the first time in several days, time seemed to fly past.
When she had a few seconds to check the time on the clock on the wall behind the till, she saw it was ten to six. She’d slipped her phone into her pocket, but since pharmacy employees were strictly forbidden from using their phones during work hours, she dared not check hers just yet.
Dirk and Maxine would be entering the library at about six.
She could feel anxiety levels shoot up, but before she’d finished saying the new mantra to herself, someone was asking her where the cough syrup was.
A little later, an idea occurred to her.
“Sadie, the vitamins shelves are half-empty,” she told her boss.
The older woman responded as Liberty knew she would. “Oh, won’t you unpack some bottles for me? Keep a record – you know how, right?”
“Sure.
”
The vitamins were kept on the shelves furthest from the dispensary, which was where Sadie usually worked. Crouching down in that corner, unpacking bottles and scribbling down codes and quantities, gave Liberty the perfect opportunity to check her phone for messages every few minutes without being seen.
It was about 6.30 when a message from Maxine finally came through: “Done! We’re okay, but scared. Please let’s NOT go to the library tomorrow. Can we meet at Prof T’s house in the evening? We need to compare notes.”
Liberty sagged over a box of Vitamin C pills, tension abruptly draining from her. She had time only to send a thumbs-up emoji before a customer approached her asking about corn plasters. The old man must have been startled by the dazzling smile that Liberty bestowed on him in response. It was sheer relief.
By the time the pharmacy shut and the cash was counted up, it was 9.30. Sadie gave her a lift home, as she always did when Liberty’s shift ended after dark.
Checking her phone once more, she saw that Brett and Prof Trelawney had replied to Maxine, both expressing relief that the other two were fine, and agreeing to meet.
There were no further messages from Maxine, which made Liberty smile wryly. She hoped her friend and Dirk had repaired to the Rabbit and Hutch, or somewhere similar, to steady their nerves.
Right now, all she wanted to do was run a deep bath and wallow in it, imagining that every last microscopic particle of salt and library dust was rinsed right off her.
*
The following evening, the students made their way separately to Prof Trelawney’s house. They must be keeping the local taxi company afloat, Liberty thought, as she saw Dirk climbing out of a taxi seconds before her own drew up.
When she saw Maxine, she gave her a warm hug. Maxine didn’t seem to want to let go. When she finally pulled away, Liberty saw tears in her eyes.
“You okay?” she whispered, feeling the inadequacy of the words.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Liberty doubted that, but waited until with the others until they were all settled in what had become their usual chairs, with their usual drinks.
“Right,” said Prof T without preamble. “Now, please share with everybody the details of what each pair went through. First, Brett and Liberty – tell us exactly what happened.”
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