Curse of the Evil Librarian

by Michelle Knudsen

  Suddenly LB drags himself forward from his corner. I’m shocked that he’s alive, then relieved, and then confused. I have no idea what he hopes to accomplish.

  “You must stop,” he says to Mr. Gabriel. “You must not hurt them.”

  “You must shut up and think about what you’ve done,” Mr. Gabriel snaps. “If you keep annoying me, you’re only going to make it worse for yourself.”

  “I do not,” LB says, still dragging himself forward, “listen to you anymore.” He begins struggling to get to his feet.

  Mr. Gabriel rolls his eyes. Then he looks back at me. “Okay, why don’t I just choose for you. How about this one?” He points at Ryan.

  “Stop!” Annie shouts. “Stop it!”

  She is standing on her ledge, fists clenched tightly at her sides. Mr. Gabriel turns to look at her, eyebrows raised.

  “Don’t hurt them,” she says. “Any of them. Please.” She looks down, takes a breath. “I’ll do what you want. I — I won’t fight you. Just let them go.”

  “Annie, no!” I stare at her, appalled.

  She looks at me. “Cyn, he’s going to win. There’s nothing we can do. I — I’m going to have to go with him no matter what. If I can save you —”

  “You can’t save that one, sweetling,” Mr. Gabriel breaks in. “Cynthia has to pay for what she’s done.”

  “But the others?”

  He gazes at her, considering.

  “Annie, no, you can’t —” It’s Ryan who says it this time. Mr. Gabriel doesn’t even look at him, just waves a hand in his direction, and Ryan’s mouth snaps shut.

  “Annie, please.” I’m begging now. “Please don’t do this. We’ll — we’ll find another way —”

  Annie laughs a sad, heartbreaking little laugh. “Still trying to tell me what to do,” she says, shaking her head. “When will you learn that you can’t keep making everyone’s decisions for them? I’m a big girl, and I can make my own choices.” She looks me right in the eye. “Just like I did when we were in the prison.”

  My heart falters to a stop inside my chest. She can’t mean what I think she means. She looks away again almost at once, turning her eyes to Mr. Gabriel instead. “Let me come to you of my own free will. Isn’t that what you really want anyway?”

  “Yes,” Mr. Gabriel says. He takes a step toward her. Something in his face is different — it’s like all the layers of power and threats and sarcasm have been peeled away, and what’s left is raw desire . . . the part of him that has always believed in their supposed “love,” the part of him that wrote those horrible poems, the part that wants so desperately to think that she really would come to him now, at the last, because she wants to. “Yes. That is exactly what I want.”

  She’s crying again now, and I think that’s what convinces him. She looks terrified and miserable but resolved, like she really is giving herself up to save Ryan and Peter and maybe LB, too . . . and I suppose she might be, because if this goes wrong, Mr. Gabriel will punish her for all eternity.

  “Show me,” he says, moving close to her. “Come and kiss me, like you mean it.”

  He leans down, his mouth by her face, big enough to eat her, but he only waits, tilting his head slightly. Waits for her to press her lips against him by choice, unglamoured, uncompelled.

  She reaches out, resting one hand gently against his furry shoulder. Then she leans forward and touches her mouth to the very edge of his.

  And then she grabs the amulet in both hands and leaps from the ledge.

  The force of her fall breaks the delicate chain, and Mr. Gabriel roars in surprise and dismay and something deeper, darker — he had believed her, in that moment, and she had fooled him. The realization of that trickery, of that betrayal, sends him over the edge with maniacal rage.

  In the second that she jumps, in the second it takes Mr. Gabriel to realize what is happening, I yank my protection back again and grab the cart-demon’s tentacle in both hands, slamming my power into it with every fiber of my being. The cart-demon jerks back in surprise and pain, releasing us as all of its tentacles fly up to protect it from whatever is hurting it, unable to recognize the source of the attack.

  While I’m doing this, I am also aware of Annie screaming Ryan’s name as she falls.

  She throws him the amulet, her aim pretty wildly off, but Ryan — having apparently also understood what Annie had planned to do — is ready, and he dives for it, catching it neatly before it hits the ground. He turns immediately and throws it to Peter.

  Peter stares at it for a second and then turns and races for LB, jumping up and fastening (with a small burst of what I assume is some kind of magical demonic adhesive) the chain around his bull-bug head.

  “Now,” Peter tells him. “Go show your asshole brother who’s boss.”

  Mr. Gabriel is already lumbering across the chamber, his eyes darting between Annie and the amulet, clearly torn between these two desperately compelling targets. The cart-demon realizes what has happened and turns to LB, reaching with many limbs to grab the amulet back, but LB has regained his feet with a quiet, awed kind of composure, seeming nearly overcome by the level of power that must now be racing through his battered body. He reaches out almost lazily toward the cart-demon with his pincers, and I see the impossibly bright red energy gathered there just before he strikes.

  The cart-demon explodes into ribbons of purplish-blue gore.

  Now LB has Mr. Gabriel’s full attention. “That is mine!” he screams, jumping onto his brother with arms and claws spread wide.

  Ryan, Peter, and I all run to the other side of the chamber where Annie is crouched against the wall.

  “Are you okay?” I ask her, scanning for damage. “Are your legs broken?”

  She shakes her head. “I thought for sure I’d have broken something —”

  “That was me,” Peter says, panting a little from all the running. “Slowed your fall.”

  If it weren’t forbidden to kiss Peter, I would totally do it now. Annie nearly tackles him with her thank-you hug. Satisfied that she’s all right, I turn back to face the battle; we’re not out of the woods yet. I send my power once more to LB so that his brother’s magical blows, now at only regular Gabriel strength, fail to achieve the level of damage intended. Between the amulet and my protection, LB is now more than a match for his brother. And he is giving it all he’s got, which is not an insignificant amount — fueled by who knows how many years of abuse and fear and desire for payback.

  Despite his very close acquaintance with the power of the amulet, Mr. Gabriel seems horribly surprised by how much effort the fight is requiring of him.

  LB has Mr. Gabriel fully on the defensive now, pummeling him with both body and demon energy. “You,” he shouts in between blows, “are . . . a very . . . bad . . . brother!” After a few more seconds, he stops, rearing up on his hind legs and staring down at the cowering form of Mr. Gabriel beneath him. “You must be punished,” he says calmly, and raises his pincers for a final, crushing blow.

  I don’t want to take any chances. Remembering what the tiny demon had told Peter about the amulet amplifying power, I use my spotlight visualization again and — repurposing the protection I’d granted to LB — focus my weaponized resistance through the amulet, adding my own energy to what LB is already providing. I don’t know for sure if it will work, since I’m not actually wearing the amulet myself . . . but perhaps the amulet recognizes that my efforts are intended to help its new owner, and so allows my contribution. Or maybe LB himself is the one who allows it. In any case, together we let everything fly against our common enemy.

  Mr. Gabriel screams as the blow hits him, and then lies still upon the floor.

  Before we can fully take in this very welcome spectacle, Mr. Crunchy comes bursting into the room.

  “What — I thought you killed him!” Peter shouts at LB.

  “I thought —” LB begins, then shakes his head and raises a pincer in Mr. Crunchy’s direction. A burst of energy flies out and
hits Mr. Crunchy square in his horrible smiling face. He explodes, showering us with more demon blood and guts and crunchy bits.

  When the dust — and everything else — settles, LB limps over to us. He seems a bit tired and in a lot of pain. But also exultant. “I defied my brother.”

  “You sure did,” I tell him. “And now you won’t ever have to worry about him again. None of us will.” I try to let the truth of that wash over me. It’s over. It’s really over. It’s —

  “Um,” Annie says, looking past LB.

  We all follow her gaze.

  Mr. Gabriel is not dead.

  Being much stronger than either Mr. Crunchy or the cart-demon, he apparently wasn’t quite as easy to kill even with the help of the amulet. He does look to be in supremely bad shape, however. His legs are visibly broken in multiple places, his wings are mangled — one appears to be only attached by a thread — and there is a great deal of blood pooling beneath him on the ground.

  Cautiously, we walk toward him.

  He looks up, but he only seems to see Annie.

  “Beloved,” he whispers, reaching one nonhuman arm in her direction. “Come to me. It’s not too late. I will forgive you your trespasses. Just . . . just a little atonement and all will be well. You can still be mine.”

  “You really just can’t give it up, can you?” I ask him.

  Now Mr. Gabriel notices the rest of us. His expression hardens, and he looks at me with fire in his eyes. “Your time will come, you bitch. I will make you suffer as no one has suffered in millions of years.” He begins to smile, imagining this happy scenario.

  Then he lashes out with completely unexpected speed and grabs Annie. He pulls her down against him, holding her there with surprising strength. I lunge forward, but he puts the tip of one claw against Annie’s throat, and I force myself to stop.

  “That’s right,” he says. “Don’t you see? I will always win. Because we are meant to be together. Nothing — nothing can keep us apart.”

  Annie had ceased struggling when she felt the claw at her throat, but suddenly she begins again, throwing herself violently backward and out of his grasp.

  “No means no, you asshole!” she shrieks at him.

  He reaches for her again, but weakly; he must have used the last of his strength for that one final grab. Annie looks down at him for another second, her face filled with hate and fear and revulsion. Then she picks up one of the pieces of Mr. Crunchy that landed nearby. With a fierce grunt of effort, she lifts the severed crab leg, point down, and stabs Mr. Gabriel in his furry chest.

  He screams, and then she stabs him again.

  Ryan, Peter, and I pick up tools of our own, and we all begin to help her.

  By the time we’re done, his head has been completely severed from his body, along with several other parts of him. We didn’t want to stop until we could feel really, really certain that he was absolutely dead this time.

  “He’s really gone now, isn’t he?” Annie asks, rather breathlessly. She was the most energetic participant in the stabbing and dismembering activity.

  “Yes,” LB says with reassuring certainty. “My brother is truly dead. Not even his spirit remains.”

  Annie drops her claw and collapses in a heap to the ground. “Good,” she says. “That’s good. I — I might just need a minute now, okay, you guys?”

  “Sure,” I say. “There’s one more thing I have to do anyway.” I have suddenly remembered a promise that I made. I go over to Mr. Gabriel’s mutilated torso, my jagged bit of Mr. Crunchy’s exoskeleton in my hand. I use it to carve away at his chest until I find his heart. My wounded shoulder protests loudly (I think it’s stopped bleeding, but now that I’m less distracted, the pain is becoming rather difficult to ignore) but I keep going anyway. His heart is bigger than I expected, but the rest of it fits what I’d imagined perfectly. It’s a blackened, bloated, sickly-looking thing, with misshapen edges and a faintly rotten smell.

  I put down my cutting tool and reach into Mr. Gabriel with both hands.

  And then I wrench his heart from his body.

  I lean down to where his lifeless head is lying in the dirt. “I told you I’d rip your heart out if you ever touched her again, you bastard,” I whisper.

  Then I walk back over to the others.

  “What are you going to do with that?” Ryan asks.

  “You must eat it,” LB says.

  We all turn to stare at him.

  “You would gain much strength. It is a thing that is done.”

  Okay, obviously that is not going to happen.

  I offer LB the heart instead. “Do you want it? I, um, don’t think it would agree with me.”

  His beetle eyes widen in surprise. “Truly?”

  “Sure. You had to put up with him longer than any of us. And we never would have defeated him without you.”

  He reaches forward with his two good legs and takes it reverently. Then he begins tearing into it with his bug-pincers, stuffing bloody black chunks of it into his mouth, and we all have to look away.

  After he’s done eating his brother’s disgusting heart, LB removes the amulet and holds it out to me.

  “Are you sure?” I ask him, secretly and enormously relieved. I’d been a little worried that he’d want to keep it. Not everyone could experience that much power and willingly give it away.

  “Yes. You are our leader. The spoils are yours.” He hesitates, then adds, “Also you already let me eat the heart.”

  I take it, holding it tight in my hand. Inside the milky-white stones, I can see swirling shapes that I suppose are the captured souls of the demons Mr. Gabriel killed to power this thing. I wonder if they know where they are. The red stone is, for the moment, quiet and dark.

  “Are you going to keep it?” Ryan asks.

  “No. I think — I think I have a better idea. A safer idea.” I turn to Peter. “Can your tiny demon friend find out where the queen is holed up?”

  The answer turns out to be yes, sort of, eventually. First, though, once Peter has summoned his little friend, he directs him to do something about my shoulder. (Apparently, the tiny demon is good at healing minor physical injuries, which is one of the ways he makes himself valuable to larger demons who might be able to help him survive.)

  “Oh, yes, Great One!” he says, coming over to peer at the wound through my torn shirt. “It is very important to take care of these things right away. Tentacle demons can leave such nasty infections.” He puts his tiny reptile hands on the skin around the bite, and I feel a surprisingly gentle warmth flow through me. When he’s finished, it’s still a little sore, but most of the pain is gone.

  Peter offers his friend’s services to LB, but the spider-demon refuses. “My brother’s heart is already making me stronger,” he says. “I do not need tiny-demon help.”

  Peter shrugs and sets the tiny demon to the next task.

  He can’t find the queen’s hideout directly, but he can find some of Mr. Gabriel’s supporters who were with the group that found her and made the deal with Aaron.

  It also turns out that Aaron, in his haste to save his mistress, didn’t think to make it a condition of the deal that the demons who agreed to let her live would also refrain from telling other demons where she was.

  This makes it somewhat easier for Peter’s demon to find out where she is — at the center of a violent mass of demons ready to finish the job that the other demons started — but it also means there is a violent mass of demons standing between us and our current objective.

  “I will fight them,” LB assures me.

  I really kind of wanted to be done with the fighting by this point.

  “Wait,” Annie says. “Maybe you won’t have to. No one but us knows that Mr. Gabriel is dead yet, right? So if LB shows up pretending to be speaking for his brother —”

  “No,” LB says.

  “But —”

  “No. I will not pretend.”

  “That’s okay,” I say quickly. “We’ll think
of something else. Maybe . . . what if you show up and tell everyone that your brother is dead? That would probably give some of his former supporters second thoughts, at least, right?”

  LB nods his head slowly. “Yes. Many will not support him once they know he is dead.”

  I want to ask about those remaining few who might still support a dead Mr. Gabriel, but then I decide it’s probably better not to know. And then I take a moment to marvel again at the fact that he’s really dead. Gone. For good. For real. And then I look back at his massacred corpse to show myself that it’s really, really true.

  Because it’s still so hard to believe.

  In the end, I give the amulet temporarily back to LB, and Peter makes himself look like the blob monster again, and together they give the general impression that the rest of us are under their control. Then we let the tiny demon guide us to where the demon queen’s hideout is. LB flashes the amulet around and announces his brother’s demise and only has to make a few argumentative demons explode before the rest of them decide to disperse.

  And then we are standing alone at the entrance to another shifty abandoned building/deep, dark cave/hole among the roots of a monstrous tree. Peter dismisses his little demon, who winks out at once. I’d wondered about bringing him inside with us, but Peter thought the queen’s injuries, if she’s really close to death, must be far beyond what his friend could deal with. And anyway, it’s better for our plan if I’m the one doing the dealing.

  Everyone has asked me, several times, whether I am really sure I want to do this.

  I am. Whoever has the amulet is going to have to worry constantly about other demons trying to take it away. I really don’t want that person to be me. And Ms. Královna is still the closest thing we have to an ally down here. If this works, she’ll be able to stay the queen. That seems far better than having some new horrible demon in power who doesn’t share our semi-friendly and mutually beneficial relationship history.

  And besides — it gives me one last chance to make something good come out of all this.

  “Well, you’re the boss,” Annie says, after asking me if I’m sure one more time.