Revenge of the Evil Librarian

by Michelle Knudsen

  “Annie did not belong to you!” I struggle hard enough to push him away, which seems to startle him. “Why does it have to be her, anyway? Go find yourself someone else! Find yourself someone who wants to be a demon’s consort. Like Aaron! He can’t be the only insane person with a demon fetish out there.”

  “It has to be Annie. We were in love until you ruined it. I still love her. I want her. I don’t want anyone else.”

  “You don’t love her, you psychopath. You’re just obsessed with her because you can’t have her. It’s really a very big difference. Maybe you should find yourself a therapist. Do they have those in the demon world?”

  He growls and lunges at me, but I manage to move out of his way.

  “You seem a little off your game tonight,” I tell him. “Everything okay?”

  “Mock me while you can,” he says. I notice he doesn’t try to lunge at me again. “Tomorrow you will regret every last word.”

  “Well, I guess we’ll have to see, won’t we?” I sound a lot braver than I feel. But really, what’s the risk? If he wins, he’s going to torture and kill me no matter what. I doubt I can do anything to make it worse at this point.

  He vanishes, and I spend an uncomfortably long, lucid time waiting for him to return before the dream fades into something else and I’m back in normal sleep and dreaming mode again.

  I get up early and shower before breakfast, just in case I don’t have time later. I don’t want to be dirty when everything goes down. I know that doesn’t make any sense, but I always feel more ready to face things when I’m clean and have washed my hair. I even wear my special power-red underwear that I usually save for opening nights.

  Look, sometimes that kind of thing really makes a difference in your confidence level. Don’t judge me.

  No one seems to have much of an appetite at breakfast, but everyone eats anyway. And then we all go off to rehearsal. It’s the last day before tech starts, and we can’t just sit around waiting for Mr. Gabriel and his brother to attack. And we’re all pretty sure it won’t happen until tonight. It’s just hard to imagine fighting an enormous raging spider-bull-bug possessed by the spirit of his evil librarian big brother in the middle of the bright and sunny afternoon.

  I’m so lost in my own worried thoughts on the way to Blake that it takes me a while to realize someone is calling my name.

  Several someones.

  No time for origami this time. My heart shrivels instantly into a tiny little ball of panic inside me.

  I know those voices.

  I turn around.

  Annie and Leticia and Diane. And William. They are running up the hill behind me.

  “Surprise!” Annie shouts, literally skipping with excitement. “We’re early!!”

  “What . . . what are you doing here?”

  Annie reaches me and throws her arms around me, nearly knocking me to the ground. “We wanted to surprise you! We’re staying at a place in town and figured we’ll see a little of the area while we’re waiting for opening night. But we wanted to come see you right away, obviously.”

  She finally notices that I am not returning her happy embrace. “What’s wrong, Cyn? Are you okay?”

  I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to tell her. But I don’t want to lie to her. But I am not at all prepared for this moment and everyone is staring at me and I have to say something.

  “Cyn?” Diane says, coming closer. “What’s going on?” Leticia is right beside her. William hangs back, clearly confused by the unanticipated awkwardness of this reunion.

  “Okay,” I tell them. “First, you are all awesome and lovely, and under different circumstances I would be ecstatic that you came up early to surprise me. Really. But . . . there are some not-so-good things happening here right now.” I look around, then take Annie’s hand. “Come with me. I’ll explain . . . what I can, but not here.”

  Annie’s face has gone very pale. She’s the only one who has some idea what kind of not-so-good things I might be referring to.

  I lead them all to bunk 6; no one else should be there right now, since everyone is supposed to be at their morning activities. I wonder if all the sneaking around and skipping things that we’ve been doing has been successful because the demons have made everyone not notice a lot of things or if camp counselors are always this inattentive. I’ll have to ask Ryan. Someday. If we survive long enough.

  Annie, Diane, and Leticia sit on my bed. William and I sit on the floor facing them. William looks very uncomfortable. I reach over and pat his arm.

  “Hey, William. It’s good to see you. I apologize for all of the crazy that I am about to share.”

  “Um. Okay.” He looks at Annie, then back at me. “Thanks?”

  Annie is still sitting silently, eyes fixed on me with a heartbreaking mix of hope and fear. Leticia and Diane look nearly as confused as William. I can’t believe I’m about to tell them what I’m about to tell them, but I don’t see any other choice. Now that they’re here . . . keeping them in the dark would be unfair. More than unfair. Possibly fatal. Of course, telling them won’t necessarily save them from dying, but at least they’ll know what’s going on. Maybe it will reduce the amount of time they spend in paralyzed disbelief later, when things start happening. That could be important.

  I take a breath and begin, looking at L&D. “So, remember all that stuff with Mr. Gabriel last fall?”

  “Cyn,” Annie says. “Are you sure?”

  “I think we have to tell them,” I say. “I don’t think we have a choice anymore.”

  “Tell us what?” Leticia says, looking back and forth between us. “You guys are seriously starting to freak me out.”

  Annie gets up abruptly and comes to sit on the floor on the other side of William, taking his hand and holding it in her lap. He gives her a reassuring smile, and I am filled with gratitude for him. Annie deserves someone like that.

  “This is all going to sound crazy. I’ll just say that up front. But here goes. Okay. So, Mr. Gabriel was not just a creepy librarian trying to have an inappropriate relationship with our Annie.” I look at her apologetically. She surely hasn’t told William any of this. “I mean, he was that, too, but not just that. He —”

  Suddenly there is a . . . feeling, in the room. Before I can pinpoint where it’s coming from, William shifts beside me, and when he speaks, his voice is not his own.

  “Now, Cynthia,” he purrs, “you know it’s not very nice to talk about people behind their backs.”

  Annie’s head whips toward him. She knows the cadence of that voice as well as I do.

  “No . . .” she whispers. She starts trying to pull her hand away from him. “Cyn, you said he wasn’t, you promised . . .”

  “It’s not William!” I tell her urgently. “It’s not him, Annie, do you hear me? It’s . . .” Oh, God, this isn’t going to be any better, but I can tell she already knows. “It’s . . .”

  “She knows who it is,” Mr. Gabriel/William says, reaching out to touch her face with his free hand. “Don’t you, my love?”

  Annie screams and jerks away, trying desperately to get free. He grabs her by the hair and pulls her back. “Aren’t you happy to see me?” There’s an edge of anger in his voice now. “I’ve been working very hard to get back to you. The least you could do is show me that you’ve missed me.” He gives her head a violent shake and pulls her closer to him. She’s still screaming, pushing at him, trying to scramble back along the floor, her eyes as wide and white as I have ever seen them.

  Leticia and Diane seem frozen in shock. I am, too, momentarily, but not for long. The sight of Annie back in that place of helpless terror . . . I can’t bear it. I can’t. I throw myself at Mr. Gabriel/William, knocking him away from her and back onto the floor. Annie screams again as his hand rips out some of her hair when I force it free.

  “Get out!” I scream into his face, climbing on top of him to pin him to the ground. “Get out and don’t you dare touch her again, you bastard! I will kill you,
do you hear me?” He struggles to rise but I am filled with furious strength and I slam him back against the floor. “I’m going to rip your fucking heart out and you will never ever touch her ever again!”

  And when I slam him down again this time, something flows out of me, some energy from deep in my soul, and it knocks him back again in a wave of invisible power. And suddenly he’s gone. And it’s only William there beneath me, looking confused and terrified and in pain.

  I roll off him and sit back on the floor, feeling spent and a little like I might throw up. Annie is sobbing. William sits up and stares at me, then down at his hand, which is still holding a chunk of Annie’s brown curls.

  “What . . .” He swallows and tries again. “What just happened?”

  Leticia is finally able to move and slides down next to Annie, wrapping her arms around her. “It’s okay, honey. It’s okay. Shh. It’s okay.”

  Diane, still sitting up on my bed, clears her throat. “Cyn? You were, um, saying?”

  I hold up a hand. “Wait.”

  “But —”

  “Please, just . . . I need a second.” I need a lot more than a second, but I know I don’t have that luxury right now. I want to figure out what just happened. I pushed Mr. Gabriel out of William somehow; that much is clear. Is it possible my roachiness can be used as a weapon? Although I’m not sure I actually hurt him. I just . . . pushed him out. I’m pretty certain my resistance means he can’t possess me. And surely what I felt flowing out of me and into William just now was some aspect of that resistance. What else could it have been? Mr. Gabriel said I couldn’t share my power with Michael to protect him . . . but Mr. Gabriel is sometimes a very big fat liar.

  Maybe . . . maybe I can share it, in the way I let the demoness borrow it. Only more voluntarily. Giving it, rather than just letting it be taken.

  If I can do that, I should do that now. For all of them.

  “Okay. I swear I am going to explain everything. But first, everyone needs to get in a circle and hold hands.”

  “What?” Leticia asks, still holding Annie. “Why?”

  “Please. Just do it. I think I can protect us from what just happened happening again. And then I will tell you everything.”

  They do as I ask. Annie’s sobs have reduced themselves to sniffles. I notice that she manages not to be next to William for the hand-holding.

  I am going to need to fix that.

  I hold William’s and Diane’s hands. Annie holds Diane’s other hand and Leticia’s, Leticia holds Annie’s and William’s. William has dropped the piece of Annie’s hair, which is probably for the best. I ask everyone to be very quiet and to close their eyes. I close mine, too, trying not to think about the fact that I don’t really know what I’m doing.

  Instead, I try to think about how it felt to share my resistance with the demoness, and how it felt just now, forcing it into William. I want to find something in between . . . nothing quite so violent as what I did to push out Mr. Gabriel, but since Annie and the others don’t have the demoness’s ability to actively take hold of my protection and pull it over them . . .

  I concentrate inward, grateful for everyone’s patience when I know they must be terrified and confused and bursting with questions. I try to visualize my roachiness as a glowing energy force inside me. The demoness made my resistance feel like a thin-but-strong piece of fabric that settled onto and around her. But what I did to William felt more like something from inside me pushing out. I try to re-create that sensation, a little more gently, and then to send the energy out through my hands and into the rest of the circle.

  After a moment, I feel it working.

  William and Diane both tense on either side of me, and I hear Leticia and Annie breathe in sharply as it reaches them as well. I give it another few seconds, and then I try to will it to stop moving. To stay where I put it, in my friends. To protect them the way it protects me.

  “Okay. You can let go.”

  They do, and we all open our eyes. I have no way to tell if it really worked . . . but I think it did. I feel a tiny bit weaker, which seems like a good sign. I mean, I wish I could share it without feeling weaker, but if I have less, that must mean that some of it is elsewhere, right?

  “What did you just do?” Annie asks, sounding almost back in control of herself.

  “You know how I told you I have that resistance? The roach thing?”

  She nods.

  “I think . . . I hope . . . I just shared it with you. With all of you. So that Mr. Gabriel won’t be able to do that again.”

  “Do what again?” Leticia says impatiently. “Cyn, what the hell is going on? What . . . what happened to William before?”

  “Yes,” William says quietly. “I would really like to know that, too.”

  I look around the circle. “Mr. Gabriel was . . . is . . . not a human person. He’s a demon. Principal Kingston was also a demon. And Ms. Královna, that sub we had for Italian after Signor De Luca left. Only he didn’t leave, he was murdered. By Mr. Gabriel. Because he tried to help us.” I look at Leticia and Diane, who are staring at me with uncertain expressions. “Which is why I never told you guys what was going on. Because I was afraid he would kill you, too.”

  I keep talking, not wanting to give anyone a chance to interrupt before I get the basic story out there. “Mr. Gabriel wanted to steal Annie away to be his bride in the demon world. Having a human consort was one of the requirements for joining the battle for the demon throne, which he was trying to win. He messed with her brain a little, which is why she was acting so weird. Ryan knew what was happening, too, and he helped me try to stop Mr. Gabriel. And eventually I made a deal with Ms. Královna, and she helped me get what I needed to save Annie and defeat Mr. Gabriel and then we killed him and Ms. Královna became the demon queen and the rest of us came home and we thought that was the end of it.

  “But apparently Mr. Gabriel didn’t die all the way.” I look at Annie, wishing so much I could make this not be true. “Someone did something at the moment of his death to save his spirit, or something — I still don’t entirely understand this part — and now he’s back, but only in spirit form. For now. But he can possess people for short periods of time, take over their bodies, which is what he did to William. There’s another demon here, in physical form, who kind of looks like a giant spider-bull with some extra insect parts, and he’s Mr. Gabriel’s brother, and Mr. Gabriel is planning to use his body to kill me and Ryan and, oh, Peter, who is also a demon but not an evil one, and . . . and as you just observed, Mr. Gabriel is still pretty obsessed with Annie and wants to get her back, too.”

  She whimpers a little at that, and I make my voice and my expression very firm. “That is not going to happen. I swear, Annie. I won’t let him. We have a plan, and Peter is helping, and so is Ms. Královna again, because he’s trying to kill her, too, and also that guy Aaron, whom you may or may not remember — from the bookstore? He’s her human consort, and he lives down there now, only he wants to be there, because he’s crazy and also he’s not quite fully human anymore.”

  I stop, trying to think if I’ve left anything out.

  “Oh, and there’s also that girl Jules, Ryan’s friend, she’s involved now, too, unfortunately.”

  Everyone is quiet. I give them a minute to just kind of sit with all of this. I’m sure they need it. Their expressions are various forms of confused and alarmed and scared, but no one seems to be thinking that I’m messing with them or otherwise not telling the truth. I guess that’s one upside to Mr. Gabriel’s unscheduled appearance. Everyone saw William change into someone else. Well, except William himself, obviously, but he experienced it, which is probably even more convincing.

  “I didn’t tell you what was happening”— I am speaking just to Annie now —“because I was really, really hoping we could take care of it before you got here. So you wouldn’t need to know that he was still kind of alive. I just . . . I didn’t want you to have to go through that again. Please . . . please do
n’t be mad. I had no idea you would come up early.”

  Annie lets out a long, slow breath. “I’m not . . . I’m not mad, Cyn. I understand why you thought that was the right thing. But . . .” She looks me in the eye, and I’m surprised by the steel in that gaze. “You can’t do that. You can’t hide things from me like that. Not these kinds of things. Promise me you won’t ever do that again.”

  “But —”

  “Promise me. I’m not a child, Cyn. You have to trust me to be able to deal with things. And this . . .” She gestures around, indicating the recent events of this room. “This was way worse than it would have been if you’d told me before now.”

  Ryan was right, dammit. I do keep deciding what’s best for everyone else. Why does that always seem like such a good idea at the time?

  “I promise. I’m sorry.”

  “Did I . . .” William looks at me and then at Annie. “Did I hurt you? It was like . . . I wasn’t really there for a minute. But I almost . . . I almost remember . . .” He looks down at his hand again, now empty.

  “It wasn’t you,” Annie says. “It wasn’t your fault.” I can see that it’s hard for her to keep her eyes on his face as she says this. But she manages. She even gives him a tiny smile, which makes him smile back with visible and immense relief.

  I’m such an ass.

  She’s a lot stronger than I give her credit for.

  Diane turns to look at Leticia. “I told you something else was going on last semester. You owe me a dollar.”

  Leticia just nods, apparently not having anything to say. Which I don’t think has ever really happened before ever.

  “Well,” I say, “you might as well come meet Peter.”

  We head over to Blake Theater. Peter runs out as we approach. “There you are! I thought . . . I don’t know, that something might have . . . happened. Who, uh . . .” He stares at the new arrivals, and of course he knows exactly who they are, but tries to act as though he has no idea.