Confessions of a Demonically Possessed Librarian

Part 12 - Best Laid Plans

Thought I was seeing the soul of a canine detective leaving its hand-puppet body. Turns out it was just a really long sigh after my trying to make his serious warning into a dog pun. He coughed and composed his material self.

"We've got nee time for ye prattlin' ghoost!"

"So, you're not dying then?"

"Not strictly, puppets canny die! But if ye keep up with the puns it might be ye who...well yer already dee'd, but ye get me drift!"

"If you can't die then why do you look so ruff?"

The stone-cold googly eyes locked onto my phantasmal perceivers and gave me a look that sent me stiff. And not in the good way. Or the general dead way.

"I'm gonna try to look past it be'in the second time tonight ye've made that joke. We need to get to the hoouse now!"

"The Briggs' Place? Nah man, I can't go near that place. Besides, I'm free now, I can go anywhere I want away from this town."

"But ye sister?!"

"Man, she's been dogging me all my life...Okay, seriously, I didn't even mean to do it this time!"

"These things are bigger than you and me laddie! There might'ne be anywhere for ye ta goo when this is all said and done! That level of evil will wipe everything oot! If ye donn'e care aboot yer sis, at least consider the whole wurld!"

"That's a lot for me to take in man. You're asking me to walk into a blackhole. And what can I even do if I managed not to get sucked in? I don't know if you noticed but I'm noncorporeal."

"But I'm not laddie!" He beckoned me in closer. "If ye tether yer'self to me, I can protect you from the pull of that place. I can even be yer physical presence on this plane."

"You can do that?"

"Aye."

It's not an easy decision for me. Abandoning Daisy is one thing. I wouldn't completely want to, but she kind of already cast me aside, didn't even seem to care I was dead. Used me and then spoke some bullshit about avenging me. Like it wasn't all just a part of her plan.

Then again, I've always ran away from my problems. Turned my back until they crept up behind me and bashed my head in. From the sounds of it, if I leave now then that's all that'll end up happening again. Do I really want a canine detective puppet for a hand?

I mean, that last part sounds kinda cool!

"Alright, I'll do it."

"That's the spirit laddie!" The felt form nearly leapt up and snapped my hand off. "Now, focus ye spirit and imagine slipping me onto ye hand like a glove."

I picture closing my eyes and slipping a phantasmal palm into his hole. Super weird mental image. There's a tingly sensation through my fingertips, passing all the way to the base of my wrist...which now suddenly feels a lot more substantial.

"Right, it's done. Now we must away to the house and stop these vile doings before they occur and doom us all!"

"So, your voice is in my head now too, great! Also, why don't you sound like you do normally?"

"That's a side-effect of the transformation. I can only speak in an exaggerated puppet way, whereas this is more a projection due to our psychic link. Did you really think I'd speak in that ridiculous cartoonish way as a person?"

"Ohhh, so you were a man before you were a puppet, not a dog."

"Yes, by god!"

"But still a detective?"