“Don’t be such a baby, Marvin! It’s just a library and it’s not even midnight yet! Sometimes I think my mother was right. I never should have married you…”
Marv, could hear these words in his head playing over and over again just like a broken vinyl record. He couldn’t really put a face on this memory, if it really was a memory and not a dream…or a nightmare? “Could it be a nightmare?”, he thought , although he was almost certain that monsters aren’t supposed to have nightmares or bad dreams or anything like that. They were supposed to give them. Marv gave out a hearty laugh so loud that it kind of shook everything around him. A few book pages moved uneasily as if unseen hands were leafing through them.
He wasn’t really a monster he guessed, he only looked a hell lot like one. “It is to help me get the job done”, he said out loud to no one in particular as all those currently in the library, could not possible see him. He wasn’t really in their world, he was somewhat hovering in and out of it just like someone can peer his head through a door and out of it again. However occasionally someone could feel him around, he didn’t know why but he believed these were special persons. They would look around him and through him and he could see the goose bumps on their arms and the slight panic on their faces. It always amused him but not today. Today he felt as if he was forgetting something…something important, something that had to do with him.
He tried to concentrate to the words in his head. It was a woman’s voice and it sounded so familiar as if it was part of his life for a long time. He closed his eyes and started a breathing exercise he couldn’t remember being teached. He could feel his head clearing and the noises around him grew fainter. ..
“Don’t be such a baby, Marvin! It’s just a library and it’s not even midnight yet! Sometimes I think my mother was right. I never should have married you…” Marie said giving him a look of disapproval.
“I’m not scared honey. I just don’t understand why it is so important for you to have that book now on Halloween eve. That’s all.”, replied Marvin while looking down on his hands with a pinkish color on his cheeks.
“Because I need it baby! Myth says it the actual Necronomicon from the Lovecraft stories!”
“But they are not real, the myths are not real! “ , said Marvin, his a voice a bit trembling.
“I know it’s not real! Do you thing I’ m stupid? Is this your love? You said you would do anything for me. Now this is what I want. That book on our porch tomorrow. Get it for me.”
Marvin could hear the anger in Marie’s voice. He could see it in her eyes. She wasn’t a bad person, she might actually loved him a little and sometimes she would even hug him for no reason but most of the time she ignored him. He was madly in love with her though and couldn’t stand seeing her sad or angry. So deputy sheriff Marvin S. , dragged his feet towards the city library.
The library was closed, after all it was 23:30 and even when it wasn’t Halloween eve, closing time was around 20:30. Marvin of course had a key same as all the other deputies for safety reasons. “It is for checking if everything in the library is ok and not for borrowing books without telling Mrs. Newton”, he thought and sighed.
He walked to the back of the library, to the old cheap wooden door that creaked when he pushed it open. Inside it was so dark that Marvin thought even his flashlight wouldn’t do him any good. “Maybe I could turn the lights on”, he thought. If anyone should see him, he would say he heard a noise or saw a movement and came to investigate. It was as good an excuse as any so he flipped the switch and there was light. In fact it was so bright that he couldn’t see anything for a moment.
He opened his eyes slowly to help them adjust and sighed once more. He loved two things more than Marie. That was helping people, and books. He was a very shy and lonely boy when growing up and books were his only true friends. He had spent so much time in this library that he knew it like the back of his hand. He was walking through the corridors and the selves with the sure step of a man who has done this a million times before.
That is why that door at the back of the horror and fantasy books corridor made him jump with surprise. He didn’t remember ever seeing it before. “When did they make this extra room?”, he thought puzzled while making his way there. The oak tree door seemed very old, which was strange as the whole library was renovated last year after a flood that almost destroyed it. He touched it reluctantly and it felt warm under his fingers. He couldn’t help but push it open.
It opened smoothly as if it’s hinges where just oiled and behind it was a small room with some selves full of books, a small fireplace with a big cozy chair in front of it and a big heavy desk in the corner. A warm fire was crackling and the whole room was coming alive with the dancing shadows caused by it.
He opened his mouth in astonishment and closed it again with no sound coming out. He looked around, waiting for someone to come out of the shadows and explain what was all these about but the room was empty. He started walking around, looking at a room that shouldn’t be there. Somewhere in the city a clock sounded midnight but Marvin couldn’t have heard it.
Suddenly he thought he saw movement near one of the shelves on his far left. He turned and walked there uneasily. It was full of books he didn’t recognize but one of them struck his curiosity. It was by an author called Stephen King, the name seemed somehow familiar but he couldn’t remember having ever read something of his. It was quite an old book with a hard leather cover full of strange illustrations.
As he took the book in his hands he thought he felt it moving. He left out a panicked cry and dropped it to the floor. “Oh my god you are such a cry baby” he thought and bend over to grab the book. Swiftly he opened it and had just peered inside when everything changed. He started feeling old and his hands and face started wrinkling and a terrible voice echoed in his head. “Finally, I thought I would have to do this job for yet another millennia. It’s your job to take care of the books now…”
Marv suddenly opened his eyes. He could hear a book crying in horror while someone was tearing its pages. “I hate it when people do that” he thought and started towards the noise. “Let’s see if you like it when I’ll tear your body in pieces” he whispered with fire in his eyes. Behind him, on a shelve, was a very old book by an author called Marvin S.
The end
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου