One Hundred Horrors

ahahaa, story of my life. I guess I can give it a go. Kinda like the red shoes...but not...

It started with the Sudoku.

One day my Grampa was busting a gut laughing over his morning coffee because the morning paper had accidentally printed the solution inside the Sudoku puzzle. He grumbled though, when the next day the crossword was all filled in as well. Even called a pal of his from the legion on the phone to complain about it, thick fingers shaking in the rotary holes.

The next day, he called his friend’s phone number a lot faster when he saw his name in the obits. Nearly fell out of his chair in relief when the man answered. It was morning before I left for school when he picked up the phone, and when  I got home fro he was just sitting at the kitchen table, staring at the phone and smoking cigarettes.

“They had my name in the obits too,” he said. “A date three years from today.”

“It’s just a misprint,” I replied and went to drag open all the windows.

Weirder stuff started happening though

There was an ad for the new movies arriving on Friday night that warned everyone not to go. I thought it was just obnoxious, but I stayed home with Gramps and my physics textbook anyways. At school on Monday, first thing in homeroom Stacey starts telling me that the fire alarm went off right in the middle of Jaws and I started to wonder. Why would the paper say that about Jaws? What about the obits, the sudoku?

So Tuesday morning I was really excited to see what was gonna be in the paper.

It's fucking awful how I keep answering work emails even when I'm in bed.

My phone just plugs in right next to my bed, and I keep my work phone there too. So it's not my fault I keep answering the emails.

It's not like I never sleep through the night but sometimes I'll just wake up at two or three AM for no reason. There's nothing jarring the bed, just the knowledge that I've got a work email, and I'm always right.

If I blink awake in the night, there’s always one there. My girlfriend got really mad at me for it though, said she’d go sleep at her own apartment for a night. It was just basically mean of her, but maybe ... nah...

While I don't usually get up for some water or anything, tonight I think I'll have a nice chamomile tea. It gives you some great dreams.

I get up to stagger over to the bathroom first, and I'm so tired from staying up answering my work email I manage to stumble and faceplant right into my own bedroom floor. It would be humiliating if anyone were there to see it.

“It’s ok,” gasps Lance as he cowers behind the glass door of the fraternity house. “They can’t come in unless you invite them.”

The beautiful dark haired woman’s smile disappears, and so do her two sharp fangs.

“That,” she says sternly, “is victim blaming.”

She reaches one elegantly manicured hand through the door as though the glass doesn’t even exist, much less that it is shattering everywhere. As her fangs sink into Lance’s neck she thinks he makes a few rude remarks. No matter.

Racing after the sound of the young girl's screams, Basil soon found her huddled in the basement.

Penny had brought a crucifix with her, to ward away the demon. Judging from the way the cursed creature was looming over her, the crucifix had not been effective. The demon had taken a dramatic form today, all darkness and horns. back. Basil noticed it was starting to smell of sulfur. With a sigh, he spritzed it a few times with holy water from an emptied Windex bottle and watched the demon dissipate - with a frown on his face.

The two stared at each other anxiously across the aisle of the library basement.

Basil sat down next to Penny with a sigh.

"That's the third time since the first Saturday," he sighed. "Now I know the first time the demon attacked was an accident -"

"But I brought a crucifix!" interrupted Penny. "It should have worked!"

"Penny," sighed Basil, "you're not even Catholic. Why would it have worked?"

The older librarian pulled off his glasses and began to clean them with his shirt. His employee glared at him furiously. He glared back.

“It isn’t a good idea to - to feed this demon Penny!”

"Well, why can't you just tell me how to do it then?" she demanded. "Doesn't look that hard when you do it."

Basil leaned his head back against the wall. He pursed his lips, stared into the distance.

"Just come to my office once you're done putting away these books," he sighed. "We'll discuss it then."

Penny watched him leave, pausing to spray the doorways with Holy Water. She felt furious as she began to put away the books. He never seemed interested in the things that happened in the library. That was what made it all the more galling. Penny was desperate to solve the mystery - she was rapidly becoming obsessed. She knew too, what would happen if she went to his office when her work was done.

"Intuition Penny," the man had sighed on the first Saturday, steepling his fingers as he looked at her over the rim of his glasses. "That's my only weapon. There is no magic bullet here. And I don't think any of the answers you'll discover about this 'mystery' will satisfy."

Penny had been livid.

There just had to be a way to solve this! He was trying to hide her from all the excitement.

“I’ll feed the demon if I want,” she grumbled.

With one last push, Penny placed the last of her cart of books in place. She thought about going to speak with Basil, as requested. He was a coward though. It was like he didn't even want to know about what was in the library. Penny squared her shoulders and started marching towards the exit.

Then, she heard an odd sound like the wind. A smell of sulfur.

Frowning, she turned and deliberately waved the crucifix around that Basil had left in her possession.