Ghoul Interrupted (20 page)

Gilley nearly growled at me. “Of all the harebrained, stupid ideas you’ve had, M. J. . . .”

“This is your favorite?” I asked with a winning smile

Gilley’s glare became downright murderous.

I decided to quit while I was ahead. “Over there,” I said, dropping the grin and pointing to the side of the building. “That looks like a side entrance.”

“How’re you planning to get in if it’s locked?”

I shrugged. “I thought I’d figure that out when we got there.”

“Oh, perfect!” Gilley snarled. “What a
great
plan that is!”

I moved over to the side door and tested the handle. It was locked. I looked back to see Gilley still huddling next to the sheriff’s station. I pointed to the front of the library to tell him I was going to try the front door. He crossed his arms, scowled hard, and shook his head. Encouraging.

I edged to the front of the library and peeked around the corner. All was quiet. Even the dog that I’d heard barking from a few days ago was quiet. I didn’t like it, but I moved to the front door anyway. I tested the handle. Locked.

“Crap,” I muttered, glancing around. And that’s when I noticed that a window along the front was cracked open. “Eureka!” I mouthed, moving over to it. Carefully I pushed on the pane and it lifted with only a slight creak.

I stopped again and eyed the area. Still quiet. I shoved hard on the rim to make the opening big enough to let me in, then hoisted myself up and slid over the sill into the dim interior, which was musty and cluttered.

I blinked several times until my eyes adjusted, then made my way through the tightly packed volumes of books, pottery, scrolls, etc., to the side entrance.

I opened it with a big old “Ta-da!” smile only to find that the spot where I’d left Gilley was completely empty. “What the . . . ?” I said, looking right and left but seeing no sign of him.

I leaned out of the entrance and craned my neck around, trying to spot him, but he was nowhere in sight, and the longer I looked, the more panicked I got. “Gilley!” I called in a harsh whisper.

“What?” came his reply right behind me.

“Eeeeeeeek!”
I screamed, and let go of the doorframe, only to land hard on the top step.

Gilley leaned over and placed a hand over my mouth. “Shhh!” he said.

I slapped his hand away. “Don’t you
ever
do that again!”

Gilley helped me up. “It’s your own fault for insisting that I come with you.”

It took a bit of effort, but I resisted the urge to argue with him. Instead, I closed the door quickly and shooed him deeper inside.

Once we were in the main room, Gil put hands to his hips and declared, “This place is a mess!”

“I know,” I said.

“How’re we supposed to find this tribal-histories book in all this?”

I looked at Gilley expectantly. “Isn’t that
your
area of expertise? I mean, you’re the guy who knows how to find the needle in the haystack.”

Gil grinned. “I am good, aren’t I?”

“The best,” I said. Sometimes, the only way to get Gil to do what you want is to pile on the flattery.

Gil surveyed the area with renewed interest. “Well, there’s not a computer in sight,” he said. “Which means all my normal methods for locating the book are out.”

“Then what would you suggest?” I asked.

Gil pointed to an area off to the left. “I’ll take that section,” he said, before moving his finger all the way over to his right. “You take that section and we’ll meet in the middle.”

“Awesome,” I said, already moving off.

Gil caught me by the arm. “Do we know what this book is called?”

“We’ve got no clue.”

“Awesome,” Gil mimicked, but with far less enthusiasm.

He let me go and we got to our tasks. My section began over near the open window and I could see from outside that the sun was sinking fast. It’d taken us a little longer than I’d anticipated to get here and I also hadn’t factored in that the library would be this cluttered and disorganized. Locating the histories book would take some time, and time was something we weren’t in large supply of.

I felt a small tingle of fear when I thought about the long trek back to the car without any protection save my spikes and Gilley’s sweatshirt. And I didn’t know exactly how long it would be before members of the tribe came back from the burial grounds. What if only the Whitefeathers stayed until midnight, but other families came back earlier? All I could do was dig through the piles of stuff and hope we’d get lucky sooner rather than later.

After forty-five minutes, I knew we weren’t going to get lucky anytime soon. The sun began to disappear into the early-evening sky and the already dim interior quickly grew dark. I was about to dig out my flashlight when all the lights came on.

I froze. Had someone come in?

My eyes darted around the room, and I saw Gilley walking away from the light switch in the corner. “Turn that off!”

“I can’t see!” he told me.

I marched over to the panel myself and flicked it off. Then I dug through my messenger bag and came up with two flashlights. I handed one to Gil. “Keep the beam low,” I told him.

“What’s the big deal, M. J.? Everybody’s still at the burial grounds.”

“We don’t know that, Gil. What if some people come back early?”

He frowned, still grumbling, “They can take as long as next week and we’ll still be here looking for that stupid book.”

I gave him a pat on the back. “That’s the spirit.”

We got back to work and I found myself constantly checking my watch as my nerves began to get the better of me. It was nearly seven thirty and I had a feeling some people would be back any minute. Plus, it was now completely dark out and the persistent nagging thought about walking the four miles back to the car kept tugging at me.

I noticed that I started to skim the titles of the books in boxes, on the floors, and along the shelves more quickly and I had to mentally check myself a few times to make sure I hadn’t skipped right over the volume we were looking for. I also berated myself for not asking Mrs. Lujan or Heath what the name of the book was, or even what it looked like, but there was no hope for it now.

And then, just like a lightbulb going off, I had an idea. I sat down on the floor, closed my eyes, and whispered, “Sam! I need your help! Where is this tribal-histories book we’re looking for?”

I felt a tugging sensation in my solar plexus and I opened my eyes, got back to my feet, and followed the tug.

It led me to the left side of the room, where Gilley was working with his back to me. In fact, it led me right to Gilley. I walked to him and sure enough, I saw a regular-sized volume in his hand. He was hovering his flashlight over the cover and in the next moment I saw him lift his head slightly and say, “M. J.!”

“I’m right here.”

“Shhhhhhh!”

Gil clutched a hand to his heart. “Don’t
do
that!”

“Not so fun when the shoe’s on the other foot, is it, Gil?”

He glowered at me.

“What’cha got there?” I asked, pointing to the volume.

He glared harder.

I sighed. “Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Satisfied with my apology, he held up the text and read, “
History of the Zanto Pueblo Tribe
, volume one.”

“Thank—God,” I said, breathing a huge sigh of relief and reaching for the book, but Gil held it away from me.

“I got it,” he said, flipping to the back.

“See if there’s anything about the black hawk demon in the index.”

Gil stopped and eyed me with irritation. “Will you please?”

“We’re running out of time, Gil!” I said, out of patience myself. “Seriously, look it up and read it to me.”

Gil handed me his flashlight so that he could hold the book more easily, and I was about to shine some light for him onto the page when outside something slapped against the side of the building hard and the sound was eerily similar to what we’d heard at Teeko’s lodge the night the demon paid us a visit.

Gilley and I immediately squatted down behind a stack of boxes and froze.

All was quiet.

I clicked both the flashlights off and listened.

Nothing.

“
What
was
that
?” Gil whispered in my ear.

I was about to tell him that I wasn’t sure when a growling sound rumbled along the wall.

Gilley made his usual scared-witless squeaking sound. I shook my head at him and squeezed his hand. I could feel him trembling next to me. Then, a slow grating sound began from the outside wall of the library, originating from the far right corner all the way along the wood.

I followed the sound with my eyes, holding my breath as it grated, and grated, along the wood.

Gilley crouched even lower and scooted behind me, shivering so badly that I could practically feel the floor vibrate next to him.

I released his hand and dug into my messenger bag. Careful not to make a sound, I pulled up a fistful of new spikes and held them close to my chest.

We were near the center of the room, tucked behind a pile of boxes and directly opposite the window I’d climbed in through. I peeked up over the boxes as the clawing continued to gouge its way along the side of the library, and in the next moment a giant black shadow emerged in the window, blocking out the faint twilight from outside.

I felt myself tense, and I held perfectly still, waiting for the shadow to pass, but only the grating sound stopped while the shadow hovered there.

Behind me and very faintly I heard Gilley whisper,
“Please, God, please, God, please, God!”

I reached back and tapped him very gently with the flashlights I was still holding. He stopped whispering immediately.

The demon continued to hover there, as if listening for any sounds of life from inside the library, and I waited for it to start moving again. And then, it did move on, the grating sound against the wood picking up where it’d left off to travel down the length of the building. My fight-or-flight impulse took over, and I scooped my arm under Gilley’s armpit, lifting him to his feet. Then I tugged him away from the boxes and mouthed,
“Move!”

Gil grabbed my wrist and we darted around the piles of books and clutter. I nearly went down when my foot caught on something, but Gil managed to keep me upright.

Behind us the growling started up again, and there was another slap against the side of the building so hard that it made the walls shake. I didn’t stop, though; I kept pushing us on tiptoe to the opposite side of the building, near the side door. I had no idea if the demon knew we were inside the library. I hoped that it was only trying to scare us into making a sound and reveal ourselves, because if it came inside, we’d be toast.

“Where do we go?” Gil said, his whisper high and pitched with fear.

I spotted what I was looking for and pushed him inside the restroom; following him in, I whirled around, closed the door softly, and locked it from the inside.

The space was somewhat cramped with a single toilet and only a small window at the top of the wall. Gil and I pressed ourselves against the door while we listened for any sound from the demon, but all was once again quiet. Well, save for Gilley’s wheezy panting.

After ten minutes of silence I finally nudged him and said, “Easy there, Gil. You’re going to give yourself a heart attack.”

He stared at me incredulously. “I’m not going to give myself a heart attack! That
thing
is going to give me one!”

“I think it’s gone.”

“Yeah, well, you can stick your neck outside and see,’cause I’m not moving.”

I looked around the restroom. “We can’t stay here, Gil. We have to get out of here before the tribe comes back.”

Gil’s jaw dropped. “And
where
exactly do you want to go, M. J.? I mean, there’s no way in hell I’m walking outside in the open tonight with that thing out there!”

“Maybe we can go to Ari’s,” I suggested. “She might’ve kept a door unlocked and we can get inside and hide there.”

“How is that going to be any better than hiding here?”

I stared at the door nervously. “The demon may know we’re in here,” I said. “And if it does know we’re in here, Gil, it’ll kill us for sure. We’ve got to go someplace else and try to hide out until the tribe comes back.”

“Don’t you think Ari and Brody are gonna be a little ticked off when they find out that we’ve burglarized our way into their home?”

“Better than someone from the tribe discovering that we’ve burglarized our way in here,” I told him.

“Yeah, well, I’m not leaving,” Gil insisted. “It’s too risky, M. J.! What if that thing sees us!”

I sighed. “Okay. I’ll go and make sure it’s safe.”

“You’re leaving me?” he whined.

“Yes,” I told him bluntly. Handing over two of the four spikes I held, I added, “You should be safe enough here with your sweatshirt and the spikes.”

Gil stared at me like I’d gone insane. “It’ll kill you!”

I cupped his face and looked directly into his eyes. “Stay here. I’ll be back soon. I promise.”

“Don’t go!” he whispered.

I kissed the top of his head and left before I changed my mind. Making my way out of the restroom and over to the side door, I hesitated with my hand on the doorknob for a full minute before I worked up the courage to open it a crack.

The cool night air seeped in through the opening, tickling my skin. I listened carefully but heard nothing.

I took a deep breath and opened the door a little more. Gripping my spikes tightly, I leaned out and swiveled my head right and left. Nothing disturbed the night air.

Still, my heart was racing a mile a minute and I wondered if this demon could sense my fear.