DARK QUEST (Sample)

Chapter Twenty Six

"And how much is this book?" A blonde asked dropping a book carelessly on the counter with a saucy look as she rolled the pink bubblegum in her mouth.

Mr Yin glanced down at the book and said. "This is a library, not a bookshop, so it's not for sale."

The girl looked up from rummaging through her purse at him with a displeased look plastered on her face. "Hello, I know that already, but I can't sit around and read it here, so I'd rather pay for it and get the hell outta here, what say you?!" She shifted heavily on one foot, twisted her lips in a rather insolent way and stared at him. "Are you gonna make some cash or what?"

Mr. Yin glanced back at the small spot where few other readers were settled around several desks, reading. "That happens to be the last on the shelf which means that I'm outta stock."

"Yeah...because you're so old fashioned. You need to renovate this place and stop making it look like a haunted store outta some horror movie!" She said in distaste. "You should be however glad that I chose to patronize you. I wanted something real to read. The other bookshops and libraries only has fictional romance shits about vampires to offer and that's not what I want and what I want is the real deal."

Mr. Yin ignored her. He was used to haughty girls like her sort and knew how to handle them even though he couldn't prevent them from patronizing his small library. He picked the book off the counter and examined it. "Vampires?" He cocked an inquiry eyebrow at the girl who rudely burst a pink bubble she had inflated.

"You got a problem with vampires?" She retorted.

He didn't fail to notice that she had a bandana tied around her neck and he could just about guess the purpose of it. "You know..." He began tentatively in his hoarse voice which was mostly the result of his incessant smoking. "I once had a daughter like you..." The girl frowned when he said that but he continued anyway and pointed at the framed picture on the wall behind him. "She was once as pretty and as agile as you are."

The girl gave him a disgusted look. "And how does that connote to the book?"

"Because she's dead." Mr. Yin answered. "Killed by a damn vampire!" He jabbed a finger down at the scribbled vampire letters on the book coloured in purple.

"Your loss!" She said indifferently. "Your daughter is dead and I, old man, is still hale and hearty and have got more decades of years to go still."

"Likely." Mr. Yin said as if muling the thought over for a second as he scrutinized her, then he looked her squarely in the eyes. "Not when you let those bloodsuckers drink from you...your days are surely numbered."

The girl's eyes widened and she flinched and pulled back her shoulders and on impulse, her fingers flew to her neck which was concealed by the red bandana where Mr. Yin was very certain were fang marks which she was hiding.
Then she took offense and suddenly leaned over the counter with a fierce look. "And just what the fuck would you know about Vampires?"

"That they don't give a fuck about we humans and you, my dear, is another body waiting to turn up dead in the streets somewhere and occupy a new body bag."

That was it. That was the last straw on the haystack that broke her. She was practically fuming now, hating his bluntness and the fact that he had guessed her escapades with vampires. "You should do well to keep your nose out of other people's business or you might be the one ending up in that body bag that you just mentioned!" She huffed, turned swiftly and stormed out of the library and Mr. Yin only watched her hail a cab and got in without looking back.

He shook his head wearily, picked the book off the counter and muttered under his breath. "They just never listen, do they?" He slipped from behind the counter and walked to the shelf he knew she had taken it from and placed it back and as he was about turning, he caught a glimpse of two teenage high school students in a corner. "Hey!" He yelled. "No smooching here, take it somewhere else!" He pointed at the front door.