The Library of Souls

by Richard Denney

  “Emerson is the owner. He’s also the town historian.” Jade explained and began banging on a bell that sat near a canister of ghost shaped lollipops.

  I heard an irritated grunt and then a giant man, almost the size of a Sasquatch stepped out from a beaded doorway, swinging his arms around, knocking strings of black beads out of his way. When he saw us standing at the counter, the annoyed look on his white bearded face disappeared and was replaced with a wide, welcoming grin.

  He looked familiar, like I’d seen him before somewhere, but it wasn’t registering with me. Maybe I’d seen him in my research of Childermass Public Library? Yeah, that had to be it. As if sensing my thoughts, he looked away from me and down at Jade.

  “Jade Madden! It’s been a while since I’ve seen you. And who might this young fella be? I know everyone and their dog in town and I’ve never laid eyes on you before.” he switched his gaze from Jade to me and pinched one eye shut, trying to peer into me. He was a Ghost Talker too.

  My name is Simon Santiago, I projected to him and he took a step back, not anticipating my move.

  “Welcome to Ghost Town Souvenirs Simon,” the hulking man said aloud and Jade glared at us both.

  “What’s going on?” Jade crossed her arms.

  “He’s like me. He can talk to ghosts too.” I told her. To be honest I felt a bit more comfortable being around someone like me. It didn’t happen as often as I would like it to. It was good to know that there were other people out there like me. It made me feel less alone than I already was.

  “So what can I do for you both?” Emerson leaned on the counter and smiled at us.

  I didn’t know how to do it. How do you just tell someone that there’s a portal to the other side just chilling in your local library? It’s not as easy as it sounds. I sneaked a peek at Jade and nodded at her to go ahead and do the talking. I wasn’t particularly good at explaining things, especially crazy stuff like this.

  “It’s the library,” Jade said. “Ms. Freestone hired Simon and his uncle to get rid of the ghosts and we just found out that it’s not as easy is it seemed to be.”

  “There’s too many spirits in that dang building, Jade. Ms. Freestone should know better than to mess with that mass amount of paranormal activity. I don’t even know why she still lets you help her run that place, you could get seriously hurt. If I were her, I’d shut the place down and try to open another library in town.” He was being blunt, and even though it hurt Jade’s feelings, she had to know that he meant it from a good place.

  “He’s right… but there has to be something we can do!” I looked up at Emerson. He took a moment and stared off into the shop behind us, thinking.

  “There might be something, but without anything to help us, it’s useless even talking about it,” Emerson looked down at a map of the town that was underneath a layer of glass on the counter.

  “We might have something after all,” Jade finally said and startled Emerson by slamming the book of shadows onto the counter, a cloud of dust erupting into the air. He looked at the book with wide eyes and pulled it toward him.

  “Yes… it seems you might.”

  After several minutes of Jade twisting her fingers and me chewing on my bottom lip while Emerson studied the mural, a pair of wiry glasses perched on the end of his strawberry shaped nose, the big man clapped his hands together in excitement and then turned the book back around to face us.

  “This is very dark magic and you two need to understand that before you go any further with this. This mural, I’ve seen it before and it’s one of the most powerful symbols in the world. I’m surprised it hasn’t caused a bigger ruckus at the library for being so dang strong.”

  “We have to stop it,” I said, determined. It didn’t matter how strong this thing was. We had to make it stop or something big was going to happen eventually and ruin everything this town held dear.

  “We understand, Emerson. We just need help. Please.” Jade stared at Emerson with a pleading gaze that would probably get her free ice cream for life at Baskin-Robbins.

  Finally, Emerson caved and sighed in defeat.

  “See, these runes are like keys and if you don’t have the key to something…” he looked at us from behind his glasses, waiting for us to finish his sentence.

  “Then you can’t unlock it,” Jade and I said in unison.

  “Correct! Which means you’ll have to destroy the mural somehow and since it’s a doorway for the spirit world, you can’t just remove the entire mural, you have to have a special spell for it… and I know the perfect person for you to get it from.”

  CHAPTER 10:

  MADAME HELENA

  I followed Jade through a bundle of trees behind a brick building that was for lease. I couldn’t help feeling weird about finding this woman, Madame Helena, who Emerson called a real witch. He told us where to go and to tell her that Emerson Lewis sent us. I just hoped that whoever this woman was, she could actually help us. If not, we were definitely screwed.

  I pushed a wad of willow tree branches out of the way and nearly tripped over a log as Jade began to walk faster.

  “Have you ever met this lady before?” I asked as I caught up with her.

  “Nope, this is all news to me. I’ve grown up here and didn’t even know about her. I just hope she can help us,” Jade explained as she lugged the book of shadows in her arms.

  “Me too,” I replied as I pulled a chunky branch out of the back of my shirt. How much farther did we have to go? But as if it could hear me, a house appeared in the distance across a tiny creek.

  The gloomy afternoon sun peered through the gaps in the branches above us as we approached the creek. Jade and I stopped and turned to each other.

  “Are you scared?” I asked her. I didn’t really have to ask, I could feel it. I couldn’t deny that I was bit spooked too.

  “A little,” a smudge of a smile grew on her face and she walked over to a tiny bridge that looked like it was made from Popsicle sticks and couldn’t even hold a dog’s weight.

  I waited for Jade to cross since I couldn’t swim. She made her way over in a dash and I put one foot on one plank, feeling like a wuss. Jade looked back and saw me still standing on the other side and couldn’t help but let out a tiny chuckle.

  “Are you scared?” she tilted her head to the side and smirked.

  “No,” I said and pushed myself onto the bridge and ran across as if the whole bridge were on fire. I tripped at the end and tumbled onto a pile of dead leaves. My right knee was stinging and I didn’t have to look down to know that I’d scraped myself pretty bad.

  “You’ll live,” Jade giggled and began to walk toward the house.

  “Ha-ha!” I dusted myself off and picked myself up from the ground. Luckily I was wearing a pair of jeans and Jade couldn’t see that I’d messed up my knee pretty bad. I made a mental note to clean it up when I got back to the hotel.

  I followed Jade up a tiny hill and into the front yard of a rundown looking cottage. Candles of various sizes and colors were burning in the windows, seemingly warding off bad spirits. I could smell incense burning and I got the chills thinking of Texas again.

  “You okay?” Jade turned back to me. She was worried about me.

  “That smell… it reminds me of something,” I said.

  “Of what?” Jade probed, leaning forward, wanting to know more. I told myself I’d never bring up what happened in Texas again, but maybe it would bother me less if I told someone. So I looked down at my shoes and told Jade everything.

  “When I was nine, Monty took me on a job to El Paso, Texas. Someone had called us about a haunt called The Diamond House. It was a white house that sat on a hill on the corner of a dead street and most of the windows were shaped like diamonds. The two houses on either side of it had been demolished because whatever was happening in that house was affecting the neighbors…”

  I took in a deep breath, exhaled, and continued.

  “The people who called us didn’t tell un
cle Monty how bad everything was and they forgot to mention that it wasn’t a spirit that was haunting The Diamond House… it was a demon. We weren’t in the house but a half hour before things started getting crazy. The people who brought us there ran out of the house and left me and Monty in there. That was the first time I saw my uncle scared of something…”

  I stopped for a moment and caught my breath. Even talking about it was making me feel horrible again. Jade placed a hand on my shoulder.

  “It’s okay, Simon. Keep going,” Jade told me. So I did.

  “Well, we tried to leave but the demon wasn’t going to let us. So I tried to tell it to leave me and Monty alone, but that just angered it more. Then it did something I will never forget… it glamoured itself as my parents and started telling me that they didn’t love me and that they were happy they were gone because they didn’t have to deal with me anymore. Monty saw and heard everything because the demon let him…”

  I realized that I was crying and that was new for me. I never really cried and I couldn’t remember the last time I had. And now someone I didn’t even really know too well was watching me cry like a baby. But I sucked it up and kept going.

  “The house was full of candles and incense burning so I kicked a row of candles to the side and the entire living room caught on fire. I don’t really know what happened after that. I just know that I woke up in the hospital and Monty told me that I did a good job and then told me we almost got ourselves killed. But I’ll never forget any of that. It was the only time I saw my parents after they died and it still messes with me to this day.”

  “I’m sorry, Simon. But we’re going to fix this. I promise.”

  “What is it that you want!” a voice startled Jade and I as we flew back in fright and nearly fell into a puddle of rain water near the wooden fence that surrounded the house.

  Jade composed herself before she spoke.

  “Emerson Lewis sent us,” Jade squeaked. This woman was dressed from head to toe in what looked like scarves sown together. I’d never seen anything like it. She had stark white short hair and what looked like a thousand beaded necklaces hung from her withered neck. Her eyes were so blue I almost expected for them to glow. She reminded me of the bayou witches from a case Monty and I had in New Orleans last year.

  “Ah, yes. He called me and told me everything. Now, get inside before all the bad juju out here in these trees follows you inside my house- and wipe your feet.” Jade and I didn’t need to be told twice. We rushed inside as the woman closed the door behind her. She led us through a curtain of beads into a room with a large round table covered in tarot cards and candles, some with saints on the outside.

  On the walls were mirrors of all different shapes and sizes, most covered with black veils. This must’ve been the most powerful room in the house. I could just imagine how many ghosts were in these mirrors. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as a rush of cool wind came out from one of the mirrors by my jacked up knee.

  “Thank you for helping us, Madame Helena,” I told the woman.

  “You are welcome, young spirit seeker. I can feel your energy. I can taste it, which means it’s immense and will do great things. Your bloodline is a good one, Simon Santiago. Don’t let the fear of failing ruin you. If you put your soul into it, you will be unstoppable.”

  “Um, thank you,” I said, not really expecting a pep talk from a woman I’d never met before. How did she know so much about me and my bloodline? What else could she tell me?

  “That’s awesome and all, but we’re kind of on a time crunch here.” Jade said as she put the book of shadows on the table and flipped to the mural page for the woman.

  “I see…” Madame Helena put a hand on the page and began tracing the intricate design of the mural with a broken finger nail.

  “We’re going back to the library tomorrow and we-” Madame Helena held up and a finger, interrupting me.

  “Does insanity run in your family, Simon Santiago?” Madame Helena peered at me like I was an idiot. I didn’t understand what I’d done.

  “What does that have to do with anything?” Jade piped in, crossing her arms. She was trying to defend me.

  “A full lunar eclipse, the blood moon, is happening tomorrow night. It would be ludicrous to go into that building during a blood moon when the supernatural activity is at its highest. It’s plain suicide, young man.”

  I hadn’t thought about it that way and now I felt like a freaking idiot. I guess insanity does run in my family after all. But then I thought about it for a minute and if it could give that much power to paranormal energy… why couldn’t it do the same for a spell?

  “Wouldn’t the blood moon’s energy work just the same for this spell that we need to do?” Madame Helena didn’t speak. She stood staring into a mirror, seemingly having a silent conversation with someone inside of it.

  Then she turned back to Jade and I and nodded in agreement.

  “Yes, it would… but you do understand that you will be putting your lives in complete danger? You could die and end up haunting that library just like all the other spirits for eternity. Think about it.”

  So I thought about it. I stood there, going through everything in my head: Jade and Ms. Freestone risking their lives every day to keep that library open to the public, Monty not listening to me when he should, me being the only one with the ability to talk to the spirits… and finally that Diamond House demon trying to hurt me.

  I was done letting the dead mess with my life. I needed to take control and set things right.

  “I understand,” I told Madame Helena.

  “Me too,” Jade chimed in, smiling at me.

  “Then I have what you need. I just need to tell you how to use it- Girl, yes, you-” the woman pointed at Jade with a long red nail. “Go into the room with the red door and bring me the purple sack sitting on the table and be quick about it!”

  Jade spun on her heels and left the room. Madame Helena and I were alone and I had an eerie feeling that this was exactly what she wanted.

  CHAPTER 11:

  TRUST

  “I needed you alone, Simon Santiago. Please don’t be frightened, I just need to speak with you, candidly of course. Don’t worry about the girl, she’ll be stuck in that room until I say so.”

  Even though she told me not to be frightened, I couldn’t help but be a little worried for my life. My heart beat crept up into my throat and felt like it was trying to rip itself out of my neck. I tried to calm myself down, but I just made it worse.

  “I’m listening,” I told Madame Helena.

  “Good. Now, something doesn’t feel right. The spirits are trying to tell me something, but it’s coming in muffled and broken. Who exactly invited you to the library to rid it of these spirits?”

  I didn’t know where she was going with this, but I had to find out.

  “Octavia Freestone, the head librarian.”

  Madame Helena pressed her hands into her temples and listened. I tried my best but I couldn’t hear anything. Whatever these spirits were telling her, they obviously didn’t want me to hear it.

  Suddenly the mirrors on the walls began to rattle and glow. I could feel them, all of the spirits in this room, but I couldn’t hear or see them for the life of me.

  After a few moments of her talking silently to the air, she opened her eyes and stared at me head on.

  “Be careful of this woman, this Octavia Freestone. The spirits are telling me that she cannot be trusted… that she did not bring you here under the circumstances of which you were told… and that the girl is in grave danger as well.”

  “None of this makes sense. Why would she really bring me here?” I tried to think, to decipher what it could be that Ms. Freestone could want from me… but I came up with nothing. And why was Jade in danger?

  “The spirits will not tell me… I’m sorry. But if they are right, then you must be on high alert when entering the library tomorrow evening.” Madame Helena released her hands fr
om her temples and nearly collapsed onto the round table in front of her.

  “Are you okay?” I hurried up to her and helped her back up. She turned to me and laid both of her hands on my shoulders.

  “You must be the one to do the spell. When the entire moon has been draped in darkness, the mural will reflect onto the ground of the library. Then and only then can you erase the runes, with your own blood, of course.” My face contorted as I looked at her. “I never said it would be easy, Simon Santiago. And once you’ve done this… you must get out of that building as fast as your feet can take you… because without the mural, the entire building will come down. Do you understand?”

  I took in a deep breath, exhaled, and stared into Madame Helena’s eyes. I could feel the warmth in her soul. She didn’t even know me… but she believed in me.

  “Yes, I understand.”

  CHAPTER 12:

  MUMS THE WORD

  The whole way back to the hotel, Jade and I were silent. It was mostly because of me. I needed to focus. And I really wanted to tell her about Ms. Freestone, but Madame Helena told me not to. She even told me not tell her the real way to destroy the runes. She couldn’t be sure if Ms. Freestone could get into Jade’s head and manipulate her. It could ruin everything.

  So when she brought Jade back into the room, she made up a spell for us to do, which was the reason why Jade was carrying a purple sack of chalk dust and vile of snake venom. Jade didn’t even remember being stuck in that room for so long. It was like it never happened.

  I felt bad not telling Jade the truth, but it was for a good reason and I just hoped she forgave me after this was all over with.

  We made it to the hotel room door as the sun began to go down and I could hear Monty in the room watching TV. He was going to give me hell when I walked into that room.

  “Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” Jade smiled as she heard Monty rooting for something he was watching. “Good luck with him.”