Vampire Bats at the Library

 

A Jen (the Goth Librarian) and Emma (her ghost sidekick) Library Story

            Jen locked the library door and walked back through the dark building to her office. The rumbling of the elevator and grumbling of the furnace, no longer bothered her as she walked through the old building.

She didn’t even jump when Emma, the Ghost of Librarians Past, materialized beside her. “Do you have tomorrow’s story time planned, dear?”

Jen gritted her teeth. The ghostly librarian might use endearments when she spoke, but there was nothing sweet about the way she nagged and commented on everything Jen did. Only last week, she’d appeared after a very successful teen lock-in to sniff her nose and say, “we’d never have teens running around the library in the dark in my day.”

A teen would never have dared breath in the library in Emma’s day!

Jen sat down at her desk and picked up the book for tomorrow’s story time; Bats at the Library by Brian Lies. She loved the cute furry flying mice the pictures depicted. They wanted nothing but to fly in to the library and read stories all night. A clunk up in the attic brought her back to reality. Obviously, the real bats who lived in the attic weren’t cute story lovers.

The clunk was followed by a few more. Jen got up and walked out into the dark library. She stood listening to the thump, thump, thump coming from the attic. If that was bats, they’d grown feet and were walking around up there!

She made her way to the stairs. She placed her right foot on the first step and cursed the architects who’d put the light switch up in the attic, rather than at the bottom of the stairs. “Emma,” she whispered.

“Here, dear,” a disembodied voice said beside her.

Great! The ghost didn’t even want to materialize. Whatever was up there, even Emma didn’t want to see it.

The third stair tread creaked. She paused and then shook her head. It was a just a squirrel. A squirrel with big feet. She paused on the top step, her hand resting on the knob. From the other side of the door, she didn’t hear anything.  Either whatever had been there was gone. Or it was waiting right inside the door.

She threw the door open and lunged into the room. A tall man stood in the middle of the attic, moonlight cascading in the window and gleaming off his pale skin. He turned slowly to face her, the light sparkling off his fangs. Vampire bat in the attic!

Jen wiped her sweaty hands on her sweater. Along with garlic and a stake, she’d left the Librarian’s Guide to Fighting the Paranormal in her office.

The vampire smiled, looking past her. “Good evening,” he said in deep sonorous tones. He sounded like James Earl Jones.

Okay, not just a vampire, but a clichéd vampire inhabited her attic. She followed his gaze. He was smiling at Emma, who had not only materialized, but was smiling back at him.

Emma patted her hair. The old ghost was actually primping for a vampire. When she stepped toward him, she walked with her hands behind her back.

The vampire reached out his hand to her. “It’s been a long time, Emma.”

Emma, her skirts swishing behind her, reached out her right hand to the vampire. “It has been Dmitri.”

He bent to kiss her hand. As he straightened up, she leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “And I told you, to stay away from my town,” she said, as her left had flashed out. She drove her number 2 pencil into the vampire’s chest.

He stood perfectly still, his mouth a red round “o”, his eyes wide. And then he slowly turned to sand, dropping into a little pile on the floor. A breeze lifted through the window and blew the vampire out into the night.

Emma walked back to the door. “Close your mouth, dear,” she said, as she walked by Jen. As Jen hurried after her, the ghost added, “I keep telling you, all the iPads in the world will never replace a good no. 2 pencil.”