Featured Creature: Reunion at the Merrimon Library Part VI, Towards the Circle

Reunion at the 

Merrimon Library:
Part VI, Towards the Circle

~ Continued from Part V ~

Alan crawled slowly towards the corner.  He held on tightly to the copy of Die Tür Des Bösen with his good hand and angled the wrist of his wounded hand to keep from putting too much pressure on it.  It had swollen up in an ugly way, the fingers grown to twice their size.  Luckily the intense pain had faded into a dull throb.  Small favors, he thought.  In short hobbled movements, he slithered towards the corner.

From what Alan could see in the dim light, most of circle that Tim had created was still intact.  One of the piles closest to him had been knocked over when Tim rushed from the circle.  The books had not scattered but merely lay down like a sliced loaf of bread.  They could easily be stacked again in their original positions.  He would need them to be as exact as possible to attune the energies so that he might close the gate Tim had opened, if he could close it at all.  He clung to that hope as he crawled, eying the shapes that moved beneath the skin of the walls.

He paused halfway to the corner to calm his breath and to monitor the other small creatures that were floating about.  None seemed interested in his crawling.  One was darting in and out of the bookshelves at the far end and two very small ones had attached themselves to Tim's dangling arm.  Alan looked away.  

He had to perform the ritual as quickly as possible.  As long as they were nearby, the jellyfish creatures would be pulled back into the gate when it was sealed, but if they had wandered too far away, they would remain a threat within earthly reality.  He could still see all of the creatures that he'd observed after Tim's death but one.  There were eight in all that he could see, but the second of the larger creatures was missing.  He leaned into the nearby shelf to look between the books into the next aisle, but saw only darkness.  He would reconstruct the book circle and if necessary, go bait the creature to get it closer to the circle.  His stomach twisted up at the thought.  He returned to crawling and soon reached the end of the aisle.  He pulled himself up gradually to a standing position and exhaled in relief.

 

Suddenly the wall before him glowed brightly as the other large creature floated towards him.  It flared its tentacles and came at him.  He backed away quickly, but the creature was locked onto his motion and immediately followed.  He glanced frantically behind him.  Within a few feet he would back up into the crowd of creatures that floated with Tim's corpse.  Panicking, he pushed books off the shelf at the larger creature as it advanced.  It paused momentarily, but continued floating forward.

As he backed away, he passed a seam between two sets of shelves and had a desperate idea.  He tossed Die Tür Des Bösen towards the corner circle and pushed more books off the shelf at the creature. It paused again and in that moment Alan leapt up.  He grabbed the top of the shelf and held on with his good hand, putting all his weight opposite the shelf.  He put his foot against the second shelf and wiggled hard until he felt their connectors loosen.  One of the creatures tentacles whipped past his face.

"C'MON!"  He yelled and yanked the shelf.  The shelves came apart with a loud metallic clank.  The first unit came down upon the larger creature, dumping books on top of it and pinning it under the weight.  The second shelf leaned the opposite direction and dumped most of it contents into the other aisle.

One of the smaller creatures, drawn to the activity, came rushing at Alan.  He screamed again and grabbed the nearest, largest book he could find.  Opening the book wide, he rushed at the creature and flattened it and the book against the wall.  He grunted and pushed hard against the book until he heard a soft wet pop.  Feeling no more resistance, he let the book slide to the floor. It left a gooey luminous smear.  Breathing heavy, he turned and climbed across the downed shelf and into the circle of books.

~ Continued in Part VII ~

 

 

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