Demons ~ Luke Hemmings

2

'When your dreams all fail, And the ones we hail

Are the worst of all, And the blood's run stale'

Strolling through my local library, late in the evening i began scanning the books on the dusty brown shelves. Hundreds of decaying books sat perched up on these wooden surfaces with no hope of ever being taken by someone willing enough to care. Weirdly enough i found myself comparing to the books, left to rot, uncared and unloved.

I eventually came across the book i was looking for, it was a history text book that i needed for my homework about the cold war. Picking it up and dusting it off i headed over to one of the large study desks, located at the far end of this hallowed library. There weren't many people in here at all. An older looking girl sat whisper yelling with another guy who i'm guessing was her boyfriend who looked like he was becoming frustrated as she kept trying to put her hands on him one way or another to which he constantly kept pushing her away.

A few other students were strolling around the isles looking for books to read, though some looked like they were just in here to walk around, perhaps to help clear their minds as the library did always come across to be a peaceful place.

I pulled out the large dark wooden chair and sat down, taking out my notepad from my school bag opening up the textbook. This wasn't what i wanted to do, study history. I wanted to pursue a career in poetry because i enjoyed my english lessons, and loved how words could be dissected to have such greater meanings. It would be my dream to become a famous poet, to create something magical, something that gives hope to people, but of course when your dreams fail there is nothing else you can do.

I was not allowed to continue studying or even reading poetry, instead i had to take history because Crystal and Nicole were taking history and i therefore had to take it alongside them, wether i liked it or not. Father had always had a thing for history, so I'm guessing that's why he convinced his daughters to do it. Thought i know the real reason why they decided to take history was because their boyfriends were in that class.

I was three pages into gathering information from my text book when the girl who had been whisper yelling with her boyfriend, slammed her hand hard on the table startling me a little before gathering her belongings and storming off out of the library.

The boy she had left sighed in relief and i watched as he ran his hands through his blond spiked hair, as if almost taming it. He seemed to chuckle to himself before scanning the contents of the library and the people in it, myself included.

As soon as his eyes made contact with mine i darted my head down back to the book, thought i could still manage to feel his on mine. Soon enough i heard his chair creak and his footsteps depart towards the isles of books behind the table i was sat on, before they suddenly stopped.

"History?." I shuddered at the voice coming from behind me, it was so close i felt myself stiffen. The same unfamiliar boy who i thought had left was now pulling up a chair beside me, perching himself onto it.

I simply nodded in response, keeping my eyes locked on the pages in front of me, not willing to make eye contact.

"Boring." He sang, whilst i simply scoffed in agreement.

"Your Crystals sister, right?" He asked, his accent being a thick Australian, though it sounded like it had a small hint of american.

I nodded again, my eyes refusing to meet his.

"Cool. I'm Luke, Calum and Michaels friend." He greeted, stretching his hand out over the book i was reading in order to tear my gaze away from it. Calum and Michael were Crystals and Nicole's boyfriends, father didn't know of course and neither did mother, they just believed their daughters when they said they were out studying for history when in actual fact they were studying each others bodies.

I turned my head and looked up at him, noticing that i had never seen him around school, perhaps he never went to our school. Either that or it had never occurred to me to notice him. I looked down at his hand and contemplated on wether or not to shake it.

"I don't bite." He laughed, his blue eyes searching mine as if he was looking for some sort of answer.

I shakily placed my hand in mine before quickly retrieving it. "Genna." I whispered.

"Nice to meet you." He smiled, before taking out his phone from his pocket and scanning it for something. Suddenly it seemed as if we hadn't even met. He tapped the screen and suddenly a loud noise stared erupting from the device.

"Stop, what are you doing?" I asked in shock as the few students left had turned their attention to us.

"Playing music, its too quiet in here." He chuckled.

"It's a library its supposed to be quiet." I informed him and looked around nervously in fear the librarian would tell us to get out, before calling our parents, getting me into more trouble.

"But its music, its influential." He smirked, to which i shook my head.

"Music is not influential. If that is then that case then the ones we hail are the worst of all because music does nothing but poison the mind and corrupt the soul." I explained. He looked at me wide eyed before pausing the music, bringing the calm silence back into the library.

I sighed and began to gather my belongings, closing up my note book and picking up the text book preparing it to be put back where it came from. I stood up of the chair and made my way to the history isle, not bothering to look back and see if Luke had followed, frankly he gave me a bad vibe, he was not someone i would get along with, i knew that much.

I made it to the isle and found the exact spot from which i had taken the book from, the small gap creating a slight window into the next isle. I was just about to place it back into its space when the familiar pair of blue eyes looked back at me through the gap, causing me to jump in surprise and almost drop the book.

"Why would you say that?" He asked, furrowing his eyebrows as he suddenly disappeared, then reappeared in the same isle as me.

"Because." I placed the book back in its place. "Music is nothing like it use to be. Nowadays its all about violence, drugs and frolicking around." I explained. "It's just as though the bloods run stale, every body has just lost passion, that's why i prefer poetry. Old and new it always seems to captivate me." I smiled, remembering the days when my mother would read me a poem before she put me to sleep.

"Really?" He asked, eyebrows raised. I nodded, which only made him furrow his eyebrows more.

It then seemed as though we were staring into each others eyes for a few minutes when in actual fact it was a few milliseconds. The familiar gong of the towns bell signified that a new hour had arrived, it was eight o'clock, also my curfew.

Gasping at how quickly time had managed to fly i practically shoved Luke out of the way and began rushing to the exit, hearing his calls for me to wait as i did so, but i couldn't, i couldn't be late.

God only knows what would happen.