Confessions of a Demonically Possessed Librarian

Part 4 - Burial at Keepers Woods

Driving back at unadvisable speeds through the deserted backroads of Depletion. Summer night air whipping through Gracie's windows to give me some relief. Yes, I gave my blue Cadillac a name, who wouldn't?! I crank up the radio to drown out Peter's prattling about getting his body in the ground.

The precocious phantasm simply starts singing along.

Wincing as my mind explodes, keeping myself together while he wails loudly in my backseat. Shouting out the words to 'New York Groove' with abandon. Confident no one can see or hear him but me.

Would that I could do something to make him stop. His ethereal nature makes the man untouchable. Truthfully the only way to get rid of him from my life is to do what he asks. Bury his troublesome corpse in sanctified ground and call it quits.

I hope he enjoys this new sense of spiritual freedom, because he won't be around for very long!

Pull up and park. Struggle to wind the windows closed. No one would dare touch my pride and joy, yet it did not pay to be reckless about her.

Daisy's bicycle is still stationed outside from where she rode here looking for her nuisance of a brother, now deceased. The same applies here. I told her it would be safe, but wheel it inside just to be sure. Being gripped by bodily pain is not an excuse to be sloppy.

Whispers of "I'm back. Back in the New York Groove!" echo around me, passing through the door I slammed shut behind me.

"Crank up the tunes man, let's keep this party going!"

"No!" I spit in his general direction before breathing a sigh of relief at the pain subsiding having crossed through the threshold of the library.

This respite from torment does little to ease my overall mood. Everything happening at once served to sabotage my time with Daisy. Now I could no doubt expect an icy reception upon our next meeting. I must persevere though. The course of love rarely runs smooth.

"You are a real killjoy my dude. Or should I say straight killer!"

"When are you going to let that go?" I ask, already knowing the answer.

"When. You. Bury me!" He floats over.

"Well, you'll have to wait until tomorrow now won't you. But then I promise I will deliver on putting you in the dirt. Nothing would give me greater pleasure in fact."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Tomorrow? Why can't we do it later tonight?!"

"Are you mad as well as stupid?!" I splutter, placing Daisy's bicycle delicately against one of the set of shelves behind my ample desk. "I'm not going out there again until the morning when it's safe! You said you were aware of my certain limitations when it comes to leaving this place!"

"I am." Peter said plainly. "You can't be outside for more than an hour a day, right?"

"Right." I confirm exhausted.

"I mean it's about eleven right now yeah?"

Glancing at the monumental grandfather clock that adorns the upper balcony I nod with little reverence.

"Well then..."

"Well then what?"

"You mean you don't know that it resets after midnight?"

"What?!"

"What do you mean 'what?' It's your curse. Have you not even experimented with it a little?"

"All I know is that being outside becomes unbearable after an hour of being away from here. I'm sorry if I haven't gone into the minute details of exactly what time of the day that stops becoming a burden!"