Contents
Copyright
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
Copyright © 2019 Cathy Williams
All rights reserved.
CHAPTER ONE
The main library on campus was usually a refuge for Liberty. Its tall shelves and atmosphere of quiet studiousness were balm to the soul compared to the sometimes raucous energy of college life. In some unused corners, the only movement was that of dust motes settling soundlessly onto rows of books.
But that was not the case today. For Liberty kept hearing the same, peculiar noise as she browsed the shelves. It could only be described as a sort of fluttering – a deep fluttering. She looked around in irritation. It sounded as if an enormous tarpaulin or beach umbrella was being buffeted by a strong wind. Only, of course, there was no tarpaulin or umbrella nearby.
For some reason, not being able to identify the source of the noise made her uneasy. She decided she’d take out only the two books she was already carrying, even though she needed three or four for her essay. As she hurried past the stacks towards the check-out counter, she spotted a lone man browsing the shelves. Only – was he a man? For a brief second he looked reptilian, something like an enormous lizard. She blinked, and blinked again. Yes, he was an ordinary, if tall, white man with brown hair and glasses.
“I must get my eyes tested,” she thought, and almost ran the rest of the way to check out her books.
Noticing her haste, the librarian behind the counter inquired, “In a hurry, are you?” while she stamped and scanned.
Liberty simply smiled in response. Her heart was still banging in her chest.
Relieved to be out in the wintry fresh air, she half-ran to her history tutorial. Moving fast helped to quell her panic and beat the feelings of unease.
By the time she reached the tutorial room, she was out of breath, but calmer. Her favorite tutor, PhD student Brett, was already there, setting up the data projector and shuffling papers.
“Where have you come running from?” Brett asked.
“Oh, I was in the library. It’s usually my happy place, but today it felt really creepy. I started thinking I saw a giant lizard in there.”
Brett looked amused. “What – on the wall?”
“No, it looked like a sort of giant lizard man.” Liberty began to feel embarrassed. Brett would think she was deranged. “It was only a guy browsing the shelves, but for a second, I could swear…”
She hesitated. Brett had stopped looking amused and was now frowning. “Well, I guess I need glasses. Or the library needs to improve its lighting. Ordinary people look demonic in there.”
She had tried to sound light and dismissive. But Brett reared back slightly at her words. As other students started filling the room, he scribbled on a piece of paper and passed it over to Liberty.
“He’s a Law student. Phone him,” he said, with quiet urgency.
Taken aback, Liberty just had time to absorb that Brett had written down a name and phone number when he stood up to change the focus of the projector.
“Come on, you stragglers,” he said, addressing those who were still filing in. “It’s time to start talking about colonialism.”
He was inundated with students at the end of the tutorial, so Liberty decided to slip away. Something in his abrupt, urgent tone had told her that he didn’t really want to discuss lizard-men with her any further, anyway.
She headed straight for what she optimistically called her ‘apartment’. It was actually one airy, bright room and bathroom attached to the house of the elderly Mrs. Lightbody.
“It’s not really your style,” her friend Maxine had observed when she’d come to visit.
“Yeah, I’d prefer a Gothic turret,” Liberty had dolefully agreed. “But it’s so close to campus.” Later, she’d found that a sunny, cheerful room had suited her more than she’d ever imagined, as she’d battled depression on and off. When the strange, dark numbness descended, she was grateful she didn’t live in the dramatically old, candlestick-festooned space that had seemed so appealing when she was younger.
Now, she sat cross-legged on her bed and spread out the scrap of paper that Brett had handed to her. She could barely make out the name he’d scrawled. “Dick,” she guessed. And a cell number.
With a few rays of weak sun lighting up her living space, and the smell of coffee hanging in the air, the creepiness of her library experience seemed far away, half-invented. Still, Brett had seemed to take her seriously. And she was intrigued by his insistence that she phone this Dick person.
So that decided it. Taking a deep breath, she picked up her cell phone and punched in the numbers Brett had written.
Immediately, a male voice answered. “’Lo?”
“Er, hi, is that Dick?”
“It’s Dirk.”
Liberty cringed. “Oh, sorry. Dirk, um, my name’s Liberty and…”
“Yes, Brett told me about you.”
Disconcerted, Liberty paused. Brett must’ve contacted Dirk straight after the tutorial.
It was Dirk who took the lead. “We’d better meet. Can you come to the study room of the Law library at two?”
“Yes, that’s fine. I’ve got to go to work at three, so … yes, see you there.”
“I’m wearing a black t-shirt.”
After ringing off, Liberty felt more rattled than ever. Dirk had been so clipped and abrupt. And she had no idea why her chance remark to Brett about seeing things in the university library had led to her agreeing to meet a stranger in yet another library.
“This is all so weird,” she muttered. The only thing to do for now, she decided, was to take refuge in her books.
A few hours later, she checked the clock app on her computer.
“Oh crap,” she murmured. It was nearly ten to two. She threw a pen and notebook in her bag, grabbed an apple, and shot out of the front door.
Was she destined to spend her life running around Elmswood and campus like a madwoman? Probably, she admitted to herself grimly. Her tendency to be caught up in the moment meant she was often late.
But it was only a couple of minutes after two when she half-skidded into the Law library. She spotted only one student wearing a black t-shirt sitting in the glass-walled room that constituted the study area. With a floppy fringe falling over his glasses, he looked a little like Harry Potter’s older brother.
“Dirk?” Liberty asked.
He tore his gaze from the book in front of him and said unsmilingly, “Liberty? Hi.” He gestured that she should sit down next to him.
The four or five students sitting nearby were all scraping back their chairs and sliding laptops into backpacks, obviously needing to attend 2.15pm lectures. By the time Liberty had settled into a chair next to Dirk’s, they were the only people left in the room.
“Okay, we’ve got a few minutes before this place gets busy again,” said Dirk. “So I’m going to get to the point straight away.”
“Fine,” Liberty said. She tried not to feel intimidated by his confident, curt way of speaking.
“Can you tell me exactly what you saw in the main library?”
She recounted the story again, and this time included the strange fluttering sound she’d heard.
Dirk nodded, his expression unchanging.
“What you saw was…” He stopped, and then looked around as if searching for the right words. Raking his fringe, he grimaced. “God, this is going to sound so crazy.”
Reassured by this first hint of doubt, Liberty said, “No, go on. After all, I’m the one havi
ng weird hallucinations.”
Dirk smiled briefly. “Thing is, they’re not hallucinations. I’m pretty sure the sound you heard was of wings.”
“Wings,” said Liberty flatly. Instantly, she imagined bats.
Dirk still seemed to be struggling to find the right words. “And what you saw… Well, ‘lizard-man’ is a pretty good description, actually.”
He glanced at Liberty’s face. As his words sunk in, she felt the cold clutch of fear.
“Okay,” she said, more calmly than she felt.
“Basically, there is reason to believe that the library is being haunted by something. It seems that only a few of us can sense this. You’re obviously one of them.”
He paused, eyes searching Liberty’s face for her reaction. Her jaw was hanging open, so she shut it again smartly.
She swallowed. “You mean, I saw a ghost?”
Dirk indicated that she should keep her voice down as the door swung open and two students entered.
“You saw a type of… being, yes.”
“Not a ghost? Or a lizard-ghost?”
“A really bad… being.”
Suddenly Liberty realized what Dirk wasn’t saying. “Do you mean it was evil? Like a demon?”
At last, he nodded.
Overcome, Liberty put her face down on the desk in front of her and focused on breathing. In-out. In-out. There was a roaring sound in her ears.
“Don’t panic!” said Dirk urgently. “Want to get coffee?”
Liberty nodded, then stood up and followed him blindly out of the library, into the main plaza of campus, and across to Granules, the popular coffee shop. At that time of the afternoon, it wasn’t crowded.
Dirk asked Liberty to find a table outside for them, while he went in to buy the coffee. When he joined her, he looked at her with concern.
“You feeling okay? I know it’s a lot to take in.”
Liberty nodded, then shook her head and shrugged. “I don’t know what to say. It’s almost…”
“Ludicrous?” he suggested. “Ridiculous? Bizarre?”
“Yeah, ridiculous. Is this real? You’re not joking?”
“Nope, not joking at all,” he said, gulping at his coffee. He had a nice jawline, Liberty noticed through a fug of shock. He looked strong and determined. A guy you could trust not to be the sort of idiot who might think it was funny to tell someone there were demons about when there weren’t.
“What helped me when I first found out about these things was to think about it this way: we all know there are bad things happening in the world, right?”
“Right,” said Liberty. “We’re not living in Eden.”
“Exactly. There is greed and violence and famine and war and bigotry and stupidity. And while we weren’t brought up to think of demons as being partly responsible for all that – well, I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t – they are partly responsible for all that. Think of them as the evil you’ve always known about, but in a surprise package.”
Liberty sipped at her steaming mug thoughtfully. The roaring in her ears had abated slightly. “Yeah, that does sort of help. The same old evil, but in a shocking new form.”
Dirk nodded enthusiastically. “And that’s the way to think about all this stuff without going completely mental.”
“But – I saw this guy’s demon form for only a second. When I looked again, he looked human.”
“Yes, they disguise themselves really well. They can take on any human form they want. But their true selves, if you can call them that, are demonic.”
“So how come I saw what was underneath?”
“Because you’re a Chosen One?”
Liberty caught Dirk’s wry smile. “Huh. Like hell.”
“Yeah, I don’t know. All I know is that I can see them too. Did you turn 21 recently, by the way?”
“Yes, last month. Why? Is that part of it?”
“Might be. The very day I turned 21, a few months ago, I started seeing them.”
“Did you think you were going mad?”
“Oh yeah,” Dirk said lightly. “I thought it was punishment for trying weed for the first time.”
Liberty laughed, but could imagine how terrifying it must’ve been. “At least I was given an explanation within a few hours.” She checked her watch. “Oh man, I should go.”
“Sure, go to work. I can tell you the rest another time,” Dirk said. “It’s probably better that way – gives you time to absorb what you’ve learned.”
At Dirk’s words, Liberty felt a stab of indignation. He sure had an arrogant way about him, telling her to go to work, and implying it would be good for her.
Still, he had a point. And she didn’t want to be late. “Okay,” she said stiffly. “Thanks for meeting with me.”
“No problem. I’ve got your number. I’ll give you a call.”
As she walked to the pharmacy where she worked as a sales assistant three times a week, Liberty’s brain churned with questions. There was so much she still had to find out, she realized. She hadn’t asked what part Brett played in all this. She didn’t really know what sort of danger these … demons … posed. (She couldn’t get used to the word ‘demon’, which seemed so dramatic.) And she had no idea what she was meant to do with the knowledge she’d just acquired. Alert the media? Leave town?
In the brightly lit pharmacy, she could relax slightly. There were no secrets or hidden threats here. It all seemed so normal. People wanted flu medication, painkillers, and make-up. She helped a limping schoolboy and his mother find a knee brace that would fit him. Sadie Cooper, her boss, needed her to dust, tidy and help to set out some new merchandise on the shelves.
By the time her shift ended, she knew what she had to do. She rang Maxine as she walked home, and invited her for supper.
“Cool,” Maxine said immediately. “But I’m bringing pizza. Your cupboards are always pathetically empty. See you at eight. Bye!”
Typical Maxine. She never held back her opinion, but was the most loyal friend Liberty had ever had. Her parents were Nigerian, and Liberty was convinced that her tall friend could’ve been a model, always exuding a cool elegance. She arrived at Liberty’s place at 8.15, bemoaning the queues at the pizza place, and insisting that they each needed to eat an entire, large pizza.
Side by side on the couch, half-watching TV, they caught up on each other’s week. While Liberty was doing an MA in history, Maxine was battling through her physiotherapy qualification after acing her BA in English and psychology.
“But you’re not regretting your decision to do physio, are you?” Liberty asked, relishing the hit of garlic from her usual Veggie Surprise pizza.
“Mm-mm,” Maxine shook her head emphatically. She was eating daintily, despite the gigantic slices of salami-and-onion that were her staple choice.
“No,” she continued, wiping her fingers on the paper napkin. “It’s hard, but it’s worth it. I wish I’d paid more attention in school to physics and biology, though.
“And you? Are you coping with seeing Joel and the Beauty Queen on campus?”
Joel was Liberty’s ex, who’d broken her heart and then immediately hooked up with a ravishingly pretty medical student.
Then she frowned at her friend. “Why are you eating so quickly? You always eat fast when you’ve had a bad day. What’s up?”
Liberty shook her head. Suddenly, she had no idea what to tell Maxine. “Crazy day.”
“Like what?”
“You wouldn’t believe it.”
“Try me,” Maxine insisted.
“Okay, then.” Liberty made her tone deliberately light and casual. “How about this? I saw a hideously ugly man in the old library, and when Brett, my tutor, heard about it, he made me tell this Law student called Dirk about it, and Dirk explained to me that I’d seen a demon.”
She stole a glance at Maxine’s face. She’d expected disbelief or exasperation, but Maxine’s mouth was hanging open.
“A what?” she bellowed.
“A demon. Apparently I’m a demon-spotter now.”
Maxine clapped her hands over her face. “Are you serious?”
“Yes.” Liberty put down the pizza slice she’d been holding. “It’s so freaky. But – you believe me?”
Maxine took a deep breath, removed her hands from her face, and said, “Girl, my family is Nigerian. My grandmother on my mother’s side believes in witchcraft and all those funny-funny things. You know I’m a sort-of Christian, right?”
Liberty nodded.
“… But I’d never say demons and witches and spells and juju are fiction – no. So if you say you saw a demon, then I’ll take it seriously and I’m very sorry for you.”
At that, Liberty had to giggle weakly.
“Tell me, do these demons follow you around?”
“No! They live in the library … or something like that. There’s so much I don’t know still,” Liberty confessed.
“But they’re definitely not here?” Maxine looked round wildly, as if expecting other-worldly beings to be hiding behind the curtains.
“Definitely not. I feel safe here,” Liberty reassured her.
Maxine relaxed slightly. “Okay. That’s good.”
Then she made Liberty tell her every detail of what she’d seen, and what Dirk had said.
“So the last thing he said to you was that he’d ‘tell you the rest’ when you see him again?”
“Yeah. I hate to think what ‘the rest’ is.”
“You should meet with him soon,” Maxine told her. “Put your mind at ease. In the meanwhile, do you want me to spend the night here?”
“No, I’ll be fine, I swear. Thanks, though, Maxi.”
Later that night, Liberty wished she’d asked her friend to stay. She tossed and turned for hours. When she eventually slept, it was to dream of lizard-men with the teeth of Dracula leaping out at her from behind the library bookshelves.
CHAPTER TWO
The following day was miserably cold, with a mean wind that made Liberty’s eyes water and her nose run as she walked to campus.
Of course, she then had to bump into Joel and Beauty Queen. The latter was a vision in cream: cream leggings, a cream knitted gilet, and stylish cream beanie. She was chatting to a friend and smiling radiantly, Joel’s arm around her shoulders as if it had been welded there.
Demons in the Library Page 1
