Experiment in Terror 05 On Demon Wings (21 page)

stil human beings, or at least were once. A demon isn’t

from this world. It’s not human. It has no sense of humanity.

It is pure…evil.”

He noted my face and added, “I’m not trying to scare

you. I just think we would both know it if you were

possessed by a demon. I reckon we wouldn’t be sitting

here having this conversation. Now, a ghost, maybe

Abby…we can work with that theory. We’l go to the library

and get cracking on this.”

To be honest, I was a bit amazed at his support. It

calmed my nerves and gave me the strength to finish the

rest of the food (despite Maximus’s overuse of hot sauce)

and gave me the first sense of hope that I’d felt in a long

time, the feeling that we were actual y going to do

something about it al and I final y stood a chance.

I suppose that sense of possibility translated into some

pretty amorous feelings because before I knew it, he was

taking his shower and poking his red head out from the

curtain and inviting me to join him. What I thought earlier,

about there not being a next time between us, was out the

window. At least for the time being. Traces of dirt from my

feet swirled down the drain but Maximus was so distracted

by the blowjob that he didn’t notice. I felt the negativity wash

away with the dirt as his fingers slid softly, and slickly

around my clit, and I was even able to orgasm without

feeling like everything would go to hel .

Needless to say, we were both fresh-faced (wel I was,

his face stil looked beat up, thanks to my nails) and

affectionate as we set out into the bright sunshine and

made our way farther downtown, hopping on and off the

free public trams. I figured the big, bad brick Central Library

would be our best bet for finding some occult-like things.

And if I didn’t find anything there, the extensive Powel ’s

Books would be our second best bet.

The Multnomah Central Library is a historic behemoth.

Within a few minutes of scrol ing through their online

catalogue system, we found a plethora of weird, spooky

and unexplained titles.

Luckily they were al spread out on the same floor. Some

sections dealt with ghosts and UFOs while others dealt with

demons and witchcraft. Despite what Maximus had said

about demon possession being out of the question, I was

stil curious and when I told him in the ghost aisle that I was

going to go check out those books, he didn’t object.

That area of the floor that held the occult books was a

little more remote and quiet than the other one. I felt a hush

around me as I located the catalogue numbers on the side

of the stacks. I did a quick look around for some sign of life.

It’s not that I thought it would be busy but the fluorescent

light above was flickering on and off and that was always

something that put me on edge.

I brushed off the creepy feeling and went down the aisle,

the tal shelves looming over me, like they were threatening

to topple over and crush me to death. I stopped at the right

numbers and began flipping through the books.

It immediately felt wrong. I felt like just picking up the

books and flipping them over in my hands was inviting

something dark and dangerous into my life. Of course, that

was ridiculous – there was already something dark and

dangerous in my life. And it wasn’t just me.

My back erupted in a mixture of icy prickles and cold

sweat and I tugged at the back of my jacket, trying to ease

my tunic off my sticky body. Even though I was in a public

library, it was a quiet Monday, I was away from Maximus

and the library itself was old and ripe with history. If I closed

my eyes I could imagine the way the section looked at the

turn of the century. Perhaps the occult books were sealed

up in a special tomb, covered in cobwebs and surrounded

by dripping water.

A cold breath blew against my cheek.

I let out a smal cry and jumped, dropping my books. I

ignored the pain as the largest book landed on my toe, and

I looked around wildly. The lights flickered, the aisle was

empty.

“Jesus, Perry,” I swore at myself, then cringed at my

poor choice of words.

I squatted down to the ground to pick up the books. As I

did so, I looked across the tops of the books on the very

bottom shelf.

I saw a pair of legs from ankle to knees standing in the

other aisle. They were bare with tons of little scratches on

them in red criss-cross designs. They were as stil as death

and the bookshelf was the only thing separating us.

I paused, my fingers blindly coiling around the spine of

the thickest book. I didn’t want to take my eyes off the legs,

especial y since no one was standing there two seconds

ago.

The legs turned and walked slowly, soundlessly, to the

right. I careful y rose, trying to catch a peek of movement in

between the books but I couldn’t see anything. I watched

anxiously, my pulse pounding rapidly in my throat, and

waited for the person to turn the corner and show

themselves.

A soft laugh from behind me.

I spun around, keeping the treacherous books close to

my chest. A hardcover at the end of the aisle was pushed

out of its spot by something on the other side and fel to the

ground with a thunk.

It could just be an actual person, someone careless
, I

told myself.
Just someone looking for books on gardening

and not realizing they’re making a mess.

From the opposite shelf, and closer to me, another book

was pushed out, splatting face down and open on the

library’s carpeted floor.

I took a step back.

A hand reached out from between the shelves and

grabbed the belt around my waist.

I cried out and pul ed away from the female hand that

tightened its bony grip around me. In my panic I glimpsed

up at the shelf and saw the red, gleaming eyes looking at

me. The bottom half of her face was obscured but I knew

what her teeth looked like and I knew she was smiling

wickedly.

With a final tug I ripped myself out of her grasp and,

losing my balance, flew back against the other shelf, nearly

knocking it over as the pointy edges of books dug into my

back. I wasted no time in getting to my feet and racing out

of there, hearing the continuous sound of fal ing books in

my wake.

I ran throughout the stacks, my heart racing, ignoring the

dirty looks of old people reading newspapers and students

trying to study at random desks. I ran until I found Maximus

with a mound of books spread out on a table, flipping

through the pages.

He looked up at me and immediately got out of his chair.

“Perry, what happened?”

I shook my head, too out of breath and scared to speak.

He was getting better at reading me. He put his hand on

my shoulder and hunched over, looking at me closely. “Do

you want me to go take a look?”

I shook my head again. “Can we go?”

“Of course,” he said, and immediately began to pick up

a few books, leaving the rest for the librarians to pick up.

He eyed my chest. “You’re taking that?”

I looked down. I was stil clutching the largest book to my

chest, holding on to it for dear life. It was dark brown with

the dust jacket missing and read
Demonology 101
in gold

script. I guessed it was coming with me.

~~~

“So what did you end up doing al day?” my mother asked

during dinner, another mound of mashed potatoes and fried

chicken that I didn’t want to touch.

Oh you know,
I thought as I made fork impressions in the

potatoes.
Woke up after a night of sex and sleepwalking,

had breakfast, gave an awesome blowjob in the shower,

went to the library for books on possession, saw a demon.

The usual.

Instead of saying al that though I looked up and gave her

a smile. “Went to the library, got some books.”

“Are you working tomorrow?” my dad asked. He was

looking worse for wear, with puffy rings of sleeplessness

beneath his eyes. After Maximus and I left the library, he

wanted to know if my dad needed a hand in cleaning out

the study. By then it was too late; my dad had the cleaners

in the wee hours of the morning and everything was done.

Looking at my dad, I could see how much of a strain the

whole situation was putting on him. I wasn’t the only one

suffering.

“No, I’m not on many shifts this week,” I said. It was true,

too. I mean, I wasn’t on any shifts until I could prove to Shay

that I wasn’t a psychopath, and I had a feeling that was

easier said than done.

I expected him to grumble in disapproval but he didn’t.

He just went back to eating.

I looked over at Ada, who was being unusual y silent.

She was eyeing my neck strangely and as soon as she

caught me looking, her lips squirmed into a knowing smile. I

had a feeling I probably had a huge hickey and I

immediately moved my hair over to that side to cover it,

which in turn made Ada laugh.

“Maybe you should ask Perry how her night was,” she

said gleeful y.

My parents exchanged an awkward glance and I shot her

the dirtiest of looks.

My mom cleared her throat. “I’m sure Perry had a lovely

time with this Max character. He seems like a real dol .”

“He is,” I agreed, and sat up straighter in my chair,

prepared to go into my spiel. You see, I had a plan.

“Mom, dad, I was wondering…things are going real y

wel with Maximus and I want to keep seeing him. Since I’m

trying to save money,” I gave my dad a pointed look, “I

thought perhaps we could have a date in. Like, here.

Because his apartment is too smal . And I wanted to cook

him a real y nice dinner.”

My mom snorted, the first time I’d heard her laugh in a

while. “Perry, you can’t cook. You can bake, but you can’t

have apple pie for dinner.”

“Yes you can,” I said quickly, “But the point is that I

wanted us to have some alone time. Here. So…if it’s not

too much, I thought maybe you two could go out for dinner.

You know, on a date of your own. Then we can al have our

private time.”

“What about me?” Ada asked with annoyance.

“Oh, you have friends, go hang out with them,” I told her.

She was put out as she crossed her arms and sat back. I

wanted to wink at her because the truth was, Ada wasn’t

going anywhere. I wanted the time alone with Maximus so

we could do a cleansing ceremony on the house and Ada,

even though she didn’t know it yet, was a needed

participant in the event.

I looked back at my parents, putting on my most hopeful

and love-struck face. After a few seconds of telepathic

hemming and hawing between them, they both looked at

me and nodded in peculiar unison.

“OK, sweetie,” my mom said. “Just for a few hours,

though. And no funny stuff.”

She wagged her finger at me, though we al knew I had

gotten the funny stuff out of the way last night.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” I said with a smile. Things were

slowly fal ing into place. For once.

After the library, Maximus and I had gone back to his

apartment and I explained what happened with the books

and seeing Demon Girl. It came down to two things. Either I

was so worked up that I was imagining things (not bloody

likely), or that some supernatural presence was fol owing

me around (more likely). If it was the latter, we had to

cleanse the house, the place where the haunting original y

started. At least at that rate I would be protected in my own

home and perhaps libraries and coffee shops would fol ow

soon after that.

A lot of the books that Maximus had checked out had

cleansing rituals in them as wel as shopping lists of what

herbs and oils and candles to buy. He promised he would

handle al of that if I could secure the house for an evening,

the sooner the better.

“What night would work best for you?” I asked my

parents, knowing I’d ask it to be ASAP no matter what their

answer was.

Luckily, my dad said, “I have to do some work tomorrow

night, so Wednesday wil work. How about you, honey?”

My mother nodded and I breathed a sigh of relief.

When dinner was over, I volunteered myself and Ada to