by Rose Pressey
I arrived at the library early today. Tammy would be here soon, but for now I would be all alone. Well, except for Annie and Jane Austen. I unlocked the door and switched on the light immediately. Being in this place when it was dark was still something I didn’t enjoy. Annie said she didn’t mind the dark as long as the other ghost stayed away. She said she enjoyed it, and apparently the cat did too. Jane Austin ran out and over to me.
“Good morning, Jane. I know you want breakfast, but you can’t have my pastry.”
Jane always enjoyed the tuna treats that I gave her, and her favorite food was the salmon delight.
“Annie, where are you?” I called out.
Usually she popped up right away. I looked at my phone to see if she had sent me a text, but there was nothing. I placed my bag under the counter. Next, I set my coffee and pastry on top.
“Don’t bother those, Jane Austen,” I said with a wiggle of my finger. “I’ll get your food.”
I placed her food and water in the dishes and then switched on the rest of the lights around the library. Still there was no sign of Annie. I was getting an uneasy feeling now that I couldn’t find her. I left Jane Austin at the front of the library eating her food. I needed to go upstairs and turn on the lights, but I still couldn’t get the image of that shadow figure out of my head. What if it was up there again? Maybe that was why Annie was hiding out.
Lights had to be on though. I inhaled and released a deep breath. Forcing my legs to move forward, I headed up the stairs. The library was so quiet at this time of day. Sure, it always was quiet, but this was the best time. The only noise was the squeaking of my shoes against the floor.
When I reached the top landing a cool breeze drifted across my skin. That could be a sign that a spirit was around. Though the dark shadow had made the room hot, not cool. I hoped that the spirit was Annie. I flipped the switch in the hallway. Light flooded the space. No sign of Annie. Next, I turned on the lights in each of the rooms to my right. The faster I got this done the faster I could get back downstairs.
There was an open area upstairs that had tables and chairs just like downstairs. When I glanced around the room I spotted books lying on the floor. I didn’t know how they had gotten there, but I walked over so that I could pick them up.
Just as I reached down to pick up the books, footsteps sounded from behind me. I looked over my shoulder and out of the corner of my eye saw that someone was standing behind me. I screamed and tossed the books in the air. They tumbled to the floor. Annie was peering down at me.
“Please don’t sneak up like that,” I said, clutching my chest.
I didn’t mean to scare you, Rip. That was the text that appeared on my phone.
“What are you doing up here?”
I was looking for you. Another text appeared on my phone. I was hiding.
“The dark shadow came back again, didn’t it?” I asked.
Yes, I saw it again, was her response. I’d known the thing had been around here. I reached down to the floor and grabbed the books. I hurried to place them back on the shelf. “Let’s go, Annie. We need to get back downstairs. I need to get rid of this thing once and for all. Tammy will be here soon and I don’t want it coming after her again.”
What will you do? Annie asked.
I sighed. “I’m really not sure. One thing I can do is confront it. Let’s go.” I motioned for her to follow me back down the steps.
Annie didn’t even wait for me. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, she was already standing there. I looked around as I headed back to the reference desk. The black shadow wasn’t there, but I was going to tell it to leave anyway.
“I know you’re still here and you’re not welcome. Leave now.” I placed my hands on my hips.
Annie and I looked around the room for any sign of the black shadow, but nothing happened.
Again, I said, “You’re not welcome here. Leave now.”
Just then the main door opened. I expected to see Tammy, but it was the girl from the tour.
“Do you mean I have to leave now?” she asked with a frown. She must have overheard me talking to the shadow.
“No, of course not. Come in.” I motioned for her to step further inside the library.
She stared at me for a few seconds reluctantly and then headed my way. I would say I was surprised to see her, but in a way I wasn’t.
“What can I help you with?” I asked.
“My name is Emma Bright.” She tossed her hand up in an awkward little wave.
“Ripley Van Raden,” I said.
“Yes, I know,” Emma said. “Anyway, I guess I just have some more questions about the séance stuff we were talking about. Do you have a minute to talk?”
“Sure, I guess I have a second. If someone comes in I’ll have to help them if they need it.”
“I completely understand,” she said.
“So what is it that I can help you with?”
I was still a little standoffish after what she had said to me on the tour, and I wasn’t so confident hanging around with her here alone. So far Emma seemed okay. Maybe that incident was just a one-off. After all, she’d said she wasn’t sure why she’d made the comment. It was as if something had come over her and made her do it.
“Like I said, I wanted to speak with you about the séance stuff. There’s a little more to it than what they said last night at the tour,” she said.
“Really?” I asked. “Like what more to it?”
“This séance was done for another person. Someone who needed help doing it.”
“And who was that?”
“Her name is Joanna,” she said.
I almost fell over from shock.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” she said.
She had no idea.
“Why did Joanna come to you for a séance?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess she needed more people to be part of it.”
“How do you know Joanna?” I asked.
“She used to date one of the guys who was on the tour last night.”
I quirked an eyebrow. “How old is Joanna?”
“I think she’s probably around twenty-five.”
“And how old is the guy was on the tour?”
“He’s eighteen.”
“Oh…” I nodded. “I guess that’s all right. I thought he was younger.”
“Yeah, he does look a little younger, doesn’t he? I think they only went out a few times.”
“So why did she want to do a séance?” I asked.
“I’m not really sure. It was something about wanting to contact a deceased loved one.”
“And then something else came through when you did it, right? The black shadow?”
“Yeah, something like that,” she said, looking down at her shoes.
At least now I knew where the shadow had come from.
“What happened during the séance?” I asked.
“Well, nothing much at first. It was probably about five minutes in and we were going to give up.”
“But you didn’t,” I said.
“So then we started getting answers for some of the questions.”
“But they turned evil, right?” I asked.
“Exactly. It was really scary,” she said.
“Did he give you a name or anything?”
“You mean the spirit?”
“Yes, did he give you his name?” I asked. “It was a demon if it was giving you mean answers like that. That means it was demonic.”
She looked as if she might be sick. “We didn’t get a name.”
“I guess I need to give the demonologist I know a call.”
“You know a demonologist?” she asked.
Didn’t all librarians know a demonologist? “Yes, I do, and we’re going to need him for this.”
“This sounds serious,” she said.
“Can you get your group together for this evening?” I asked.
“Yeah, I think so.”
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“This is really important. If you want to get rid of this thing then you have to get them together,” I said.
She nodded. “All right, I understand. I’ll make sure that they’re available tonight. You can come by my place.”
“Where do you live?” I grabbed paper and a pen to write it down.
She gave me the address and I assured her that I would be in touch as soon as I got the demonologist to agree to this. I was sure that he would show up because this was serious. I should have called him at the first sign of any evil activity.
She thanked me and then left the library. Just as she was walking out Tammy walked in. “Am I late?” she asked.
“No, you’re just on time.”
Tammy quirked an eyebrow. “What was that all about?”
I explained to Tammy why Emma had been here. Needless to say she was suspicious, but Tammy was suspicious of everyone. I didn’t blame her though because I had an uneasy feeling as well. But if what the girl said was true, then it had to be addressed immediately.
I called the man Brannon had introduced me to and asked if he could meet us later. He agreed, so we set up a time at nine. I would be finished with the tour then and could head straight over. Brannon also had the evening off, so he would be available too. I had the rest of the day to think about what would happen tonight. I just wanted to get through the day without the dark shadow showing up. So far, it hadn’t visited. My fingers were crossed that it would stay that way.
As I was closing up the library for the day, Brannon sent me a text. Are you sure this is a good idea?
I have to do this now or else things will get much worse.
Tammy was asking me the same questions. I promised both of them that things would be fine, but it was something necessary.
“And you’ll call me as soon as it’s over?” Tammy asked.
“I promise, as soon as I’m done I will call you.”
She gave me a hug. “All right, if you don’t call I’ll be calling you. I’ll come looking for you.”
“I know you will,” I said with a smile.
She grabbed her bag and headed for the door. When she reached the door she turned back to look one more time. I waved and she reluctantly smiled then headed out the door.
I grabbed my bag. “Okay, Annie, I’ll see you in the morning.”
Be careful. I’ll be worried about you.
Chapter 13
I left the library and headed for the cemetery. I knew that I wouldn’t be completely into the tour tonight because I would be thinking about what came next. Nevertheless, I led the group around town, explaining all the stories of the haunted locations. Once we got back to the cemetery Brannon was already waiting for me. We would leave there and head straight for the address. As soon as I’d thanked the group for coming tonight I asked Brannon, “Are you ready for this?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.” He grabbed my bag and we headed down the alleyway toward his car. “Don’t worry, we’ve been through this before and we can handle it again,” he said as he opened the car door.
I slid into the car and released a deep breath. Now was the time. Brannon came around and got behind the wheel, starting the car.
The address was on the outer edge of town. Within a few minutes we had pulled up in front of the house. It was Devil’s Moon. It wasn’t that big of a place.
Brannon put the car in park and shut off the engine. “I suppose we can just wait out here until Davis shows up.”
“That’s probably a better idea in case he can’t find the place. We can flag him down.”
“So we should have some sort of plan of action tonight in case things get a little crazy.”
“I think we can let him handle it. He’ll tell us what to do. We can follow his directions.”
“Once the demon’s gone we are out of there.”
“You make it sound so easy,” I said.
“Positive thinking, I suppose,” he said with a smile.
A few more minutes of waiting and I spotted a car drive past.
“I think that was him. He probably missed it.”
The car went down and turned around. We got out of the car in case we needed to motion for him to pull over. Luckily, he stopped in front of the house, and then pulled into the driveway.
Davis got out and greeted us. “It’s good to see you all again. Too bad it’s under these circumstances.”
“Yes, it’s good to see you again too,” I said.
He gave me a hug and shook Brannon’s hand.
“Should we go in now?” Brannon asked.
“Yes, please, we should go.” Davis motioned toward the door.
We walked up the porch to the front door and Brannon knocked. No one answered. Had they led us to the wrong location or had they lied? If so I would be furious and track them down. Brannon and I exchanged a look. He was thinking the same thing. Brannon raised his fist to knock again and the door opened. One of the guys from the tour was standing in front of us.
“Come on in.” He motioned with a tilt of his head.
We walked into the house. It was dark, as the only light came from the back room of the house. There was hardly any furniture—a sofa and a couple of folding chairs was all. There was a small table at the back of the room, but no dining chairs around it.
“Did you just move in?” I asked.
“No, we have been here about six months,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of chairs. I thought maybe we could just sit on the floor.”
I looked at the guy. “Sure, that’ll be fine with us.”
“The floor works,” Brannon said.
“Where is everyone else?” I asked.
Just then the rest of them stepped out from that back room. It was the kitchen.
The faster we got this started the better off we would be. The house seemed normal though. There was no foreboding feeling or darkness, other than the actual dark rooms with no light. Emma walked over to a cabinet and pulled out the Ouija board.
“I have the board right here,” she said.
“I thought you were done with that. You need to get rid of it right. Right?” I asked Davis.
He nodded. “Absolutely. I can take it and get rid of it for you.”
“But I paid good money for that thing,” the guy said.
“Do you want this demon to hang around?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No, go ahead and get rid of it.”
Emma placed it down on the floor and we all walked over, taking position around it. “So what do we do now?” she asked.
“What did you all do before when you had a séance?” I asked.
“Just the usual stuff. Asking questions, although we didn’t know what we were doing,” the guy said.
“We had no idea what we were doing,” Emma said. “Haven’t you done this before? I mean, that’s why I asked for your help.”
Yes, we’d done this before, but Brannon and I wanted the expert’s opinion. The demonologist had spent many years studying the subject and dealing with it. I really had no idea how he did it. I would have snapped and had a breakdown years ago. I supposed everyone had their thing though and I was glad this was his.
“All right, what we need to do is find out who we’re dealing with and then we can go from there. How to get rid of each of them is different,” Davis said.
The kids’ eyes widened. “Each of them? How many do you think are here with us?”
“Probably only one here, but we have to know which one it is. There are lots of demons. We should all hold hands to join our energy,” Davis said.
We followed his instructions and then said a prayer for protection.
He opened his eyes. “All right, now we touch the planchette. Everyone place a finger on it, just as you did before, but don’t put too much pressure.”
I tried to avoid these boards as much as possible.
“Just try to clear your mind and don’t have any fear, because these things feed on fear.”
; That was easier said than done. Now that he mentioned it I would be overthinking everything. Okay, I had to clear my mind now.
“We would like to know who is with us,” Davis asked.
We waited to see if the little plastic thing moved. I was just about to give up when it started to move around the board.
“Maybe it’ll give us a name,” I whispered.
First it moved to the C. Next it went on to the R. Before we got another letter the room started to shake.
“Is it an earthquake?” I asked in a panic.
“This is what happened before,” Emma said.
“This is the demon,” Davis said.
I’d rather have had the earthquake.
The board lifted from the floor and then flew across the room. It smashed into the wall and broke in half. The room stopped rattling and things settled back to normal. We stared in stunned silence for a moment.
I made eye contact with Davis. “The demon?”
“Yes,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Looks as if the séance is over,” Brannon said.
“That’s probably for the best.” Davis stood and walked over to the broken part.
Chapter 14
Nothing more happened at the séance. Even when we asked questions the spirit remained quiet. The demonologist walked around burning sage and commanding the thing to leave. I had a feeling that it didn’t matter because I didn’t think that demon was there any longer. I thought it had its sights set on someone else now. And I was pretty sure that person was me. Why else would it be at the library? I supposed I would just have to wait and see what happened.
We said goodbye to them and headed outside to our cars. When we reached the cars we stopped.
“So what do you think about what happened?” Brannon asked.
“I didn’t get a sense anything was there,” Davis said.
“Just as I suspected. I don’t think it is either,” I said.
“Where do you think it is?” he asked.
“I think it’s with me at the library,” I said.