“I am.”
“Do you care for the company of a gentleman?”
I looked around me mockingly. “I would but I don’t see any.”
He chuckled to himself and tucked into his food. “Wel you just let me know then.”
“You can come if you help me. And not laugh at me. Not judge me.”
He paused, his eggs balancing on his fork. “Why would you say that?”
I leaned forward, making sure he knew how serious I was. “I’m getting books out on demon possession.”
I could so tel he wanted to say something to change my mind but to his credit he swal owed it down. Literal y, I could see his Adam’s apple bob against his long throat.
“What brought this on?” he asked in a steady voice. His eyes were a bit glazed as if he were already judging me in his head.
“It’s just something I’ve obviously been thinking about.”
“But Perry, demon possession is one thing. A ghost is another. They aren’t the same things.”
“They are similar,” I protested.
He shook his head adamantly, his eyes widening. “No they aren’t. A ghost is the spirit of a dead person. They’re 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 all and I finally 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 all 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 small 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.