The Librarian

1

Zane and Ian laughed as they thumbed through the worn-out copy of Stephen King’s Carrie. Granted the novel isn’t known for its laugh-out-loud humor, but in all honesty, neither one of the teenage boys had bothered reading a single word since they’d arrived at the school library. 

It was a warm May afternoon, and the two seventeen-year-olds both had their free period during the end of the school day. The library was one of the few places on the high school campus where hardly any of their more ignorant peers would be caught dead, giving the two young men plenty of time alone with one another. 

“Quiet down!” A hushed voice nearly yelled towards them. Zane and Ian nearly jumped out of their skin, turning to find the furious Miss Beauregard lurking behind them. The boys turned in their seats as they met the old woman’s gaze. Her piercing gray eyes tore their confidence to shreds, judgment was written into every crease in her furrowed brow. She wore her white hair in a bun and stared at them through large glasses that hung on a chain around her neck. 

“Sorry Miss Beauregard,” the young men said in unison, smiling meekly as the woman glared at them. 

“Don’t give me that innocent stare. What are you two heathens up to in here?” The librarian was known to all in the school as being something of a religious fanatic, having fought with the school district of late for her outburst towards children as she spouted Old Testament verses and wore her large wooden cross on a necklace in an act of defiance. Zane and Ian had become her biggest targets, often singling them out for their relationship and how unseemly their public displays of affection were at the school. The boys had often spoken to the Principal, and the old woman was on her last warning at the school.

“Miss Beauregard, Principal Hanes has spoken to you about calling us that. We’re doing nothing wrong by being here,” Zane replied, speaking calmly and trying to give the woman a chance to end her tirade before it could begin. 

“Every moment you two spend together is a slap in the face of our creator,” she spat, hitting the table next to her to emphasize the point. “This is a library young man, not some den of sin for you two to flaunt yourselves before the student body. I don’t care what that delinquent principal says, only the Lord has dominion over me. I’ve been here for forty years, and I won’t let you two dictate me or my mission to educate you, youngsters, in the ways of the lord.”

“Ma’am, we’ve been nothing but respectful to you. The only person “sinning” here is you, for treating two young men with disrespect and hate. I’ll only warn you one more time: leave us alone,” Ian said, standing up and staring the old woman down. Zane grabbed onto his hand, trying to calm him down before things got out of hand. 

“Leviticus 18:22: "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable,” the old woman quoted. 

“That’s it, I’m getting the Principal. I’ve had it with this shit,” Ian muttered, grabbing his bags and leaving the room. Zane shook his head, knowing his boyfriend was right, but he couldn’t help but pity the old woman before him, filled with years of indoctrination and hate that left her a shell of who she could have once been. It saddened him to know she would lose her job here but knew the only way to fight intolerance was to face it head-on and speak up. 

“Leviticus 20:13 ‘If a man practices homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman, both men have committed a detestable act. They must both be put to death, for they are guilty of a capital offense,’” the old woman spat towards Zane, ignoring Ian as he left and focusing her hate at him instead.

“Ma’am, you’ve already made your point. Things are out of both our hands now. Why do you continue to spew this hate? You have to know you’ve made a mistake by now, don’t you?”

“Young man, you have no idea what’s coming for you. Though my body may fall, I shall be in the presence of my lord in the kingdom of heaven, and the Nephilim shall come to pass judgment on you and your heathen boyfriend. The lord has worked through me, and now I give my life in his name!”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Zane looked at her with confusion written all over his face, backing away from the old woman slowly as hesitation and fear crept into his heart. 

“Burn in hell,” the woman whispered, smiling as she gripped her chest and fell to the floor. 

“Help!” Zane called out, running over to the hateful old woman and checking for a pulse. Thankful his mom had encouraged him to learn CPR the previous year, Zane went about trying to breathe life back into the librarian.

“Oh my god,” Ian gasped, having walked back into the room with Principal Hanes. The middle-aged man ran towards Zane and Miss Beauregard, his face perspiring with sweat in the warm spring afternoon. He yelled into his walkie-talkie to call 911, but as Zane desperately tried to save the woman’s life, they all knew they were too late. They stared down at the old woman, her face frozen in a silent laugh that chilled them to the core.

2

A week went by, and Zane and Ian had enjoyed a whole new level of attention at the school. The teens who made it their life’s mission to torment the young couple began scrawling the words murderer on their lockers and chanting the word over and over whenever they walked by. However, to the rest of the school's more opened-minded students, they were regarded with either sympathy or reverence. Some of the children who had been hounded by the old librarian praised them as heroes for finally taking down the librarian, while the group of friends the boys had surrounded them with love and empathy for the shocking turn of events.

Ian and Zane had spent hours talking with police officers and paramedics, recalling the final moments of the woman’s life. Thankfully security cameras in the library made it clear the boys were telling the truth, and the woman’s death was ruled as natural causes. Zane was convinced for a few days that he had somehow caused her to have a heart attack of some sort, but the police were quick to dismiss this theory, as a preliminary autopsy revealed she simply passed away. No signs of a heart attack, stroke, or aneurism were evident.

Now the young couple roamed the neighborhood near the school, with evening creeping into the sky like a thief sneaking in the night. Zane and Ian walked hand-in-hand, Zane laying his head on Ian’s broad shoulders and seeking the comfort only he could provide. In the past two years, they’d been together, they had become one another’s constant source of peace in an ever chaotic world. 

“Only one more week left hon, and then we’re out of this school forever. Our year-long trip exploring the world will begin, and we’ll leave behind the nightmares this place has brought us over the years.” Zane smiled, taking Ian's words in and feeling their weight lifting the stress from his chest. 

“I can’t wait to roam the Scottish Highlands with you,” Zane whispered, squeezing Ian’s hand tighter. Ian smiled, kissing Zane on the top of his head. 

“Soon babe. As long as this trip doesn’t become like An American Werewolf in London or something, then I’m in.”

“They were attacked on the Moors of Yorkshire, not Scotland.”

“What, and Scotland doesn’t have any werewolves lurking on the highlands?” Ian began to growl playfully, causing Zane to laugh and push him away. The couple ran in bliss, lost in their own world as the stress and pain of the past week melted away. That was until Zane saw her.

Running down the street and past the school, a bright flicker of light caught Zane’s attention. Drawn out of his happiness, the color drained from his face as Zane saw the last person he would have ever expected. The sadistic grin he had last seen her wearing seemed to radiate through the pane glass windows of the school library, and the paper-thin skin around her eyes seemed to ruffle as her eyes glared at him.

“Miss Beauregard?” Zane couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Compelled by something outside of himself, Zane took off running down the familiar path of the school grounds. He could hear the distant shouts of Ian from behind him, confusion layered in his voice, and yet Zane was powerless to stop himself. The dead librarian melted back into the shadows of the shut-down library, and Zane propelled himself forward, not even bothering to ask himself why the library doors leading outside were unlocked. Zane ran inside and soon found himself enveloped in darkness.

3

The door clicked shut behind Zane, and the desperate shouting from Ian on the other side told Zane all he needed to know. The doors were locked, and he was trapped inside. Pulling out his phone, he turned on the device’s flashlight and looked around. The library had become a sanctuary of sorts for Zane during his high school years, despite the haunting presence of Miss Beauregard. 

Yet as he walked slowly through the abandoned school library, the room felt suddenly alien to him, as if a presence had invaded his sacred space. The books and shelves around him vibrated as if he were walking through the chambers of a massive beating heart.

“THE RAGING FIRES OF HELL ARE UPON US!” Zane felt his heart jump into his throat, his eyes darting around the room as he searched for the source of the booming voice. As he stepped into the heart of the library, the rows of desks with computer screens suddenly lit up, and he looked on in horror as the pointed face of the dead librarian rose up.

“SIN RISES LIKE A FLOOD IN THE STREETS OF OUR WORLD, THREATENING TO CORRUPT OUR CHILDREN AND STEAL THEIR SOULS FOR THAT MOST HATEFUL OF CREATURES, SATAN. WE MUST BE VIGILANT MY CHILDREN! WE MUST RISE UP AND FACE THIS MADNESS HEAD ON. WHO DO WE SERVE?”

“THE LORD ALMIGHTY,” a chorus of booming voices answered the woman. Zane looked on in horror as the screens highlighted this hellish sermon from a dead woman. Soon a bright light lit up in front of him, and he looked up in time to see what was happening on screen was now happening live and in person. The library’s East Wing had suddenly become a church, with pews filled with hulking people looking ahead at the preaching woman who had been his librarian. 

“YOU, MY CHILDREN, WILL BECOME THE LORD’S ARMY. YOU WILL RISE UP AND SLAY THE CHILD-EATING SATANISTS WHO RUN OUR GOVERNMENT AND THE WORLD NOW. YOU WILL BE THE FACE OF OUR RESISTANCE AGAINST EVIL, STARTING HERE IN OUR OWN BACKYARD. THE SIN OF HOMOSEXUALITY HAS EVEN INVADED MY ONCE PRECIOUS SCHOOL, AND IT WALKS AMONGST US NOW. WHERE DO SINNERS GO MY CHILDREN?”

“HELL!”

“THEN LET US SEND THE SINNER BACK TO THE FIRES HE BELONGS. LET US TURN TO THE FIRST OF MY CHILDREN, WHO SHALL BRING DESTRUCTION TO THE ENEMY. LET US TURN…TO MY NEPHILIM!”

Zane watched in horror as the grinning woman waved her hands forward, and a monstrous creature walked out of the shadows next to her on the pew. A giant of a man, standing at eight feet at least and covered in matted red fur. Gnarled hands with sharp black nails gripped the edge of the pew, crushing the wood into dust in its hands. Black eyes shone out from an elongated face, razor-sharp teeth glistening with saliva as he snarled at Zane. It began to walk towards Zane, and his heart raced in his chest. Before it could get too far, the room suddenly was enveloped in darkness. Zane stepped backward, squinting into the darkness to see if what he had just seen was real. 

Suddenly the creature appeared in the light of his phone, charging at full speed and tearing apart the rows of desks and computers caught in its path. Roaring with rage, the monster ran at him, and Zane fled in terror. The creature's hot breath burnt the hairs on the back of his neck, and the smell of rotting meat filled the air as the beast got closer and closer towards him. 

The terrified young man ran through the library, his every nerve on fire as he pushed himself to run faster than he ever had before. He navigated the aisles with expertise, knowing every inch of the library by heart, but the creature never slowed. It exploded through any obstacle in its path, and Zane could feel his end coming. 

As he found the doors leading outside, Zane pounded on the metal handles desperately, hoping enough pressure would snap the lock that had kept him inside. He could hear the phantom cackling of the dead librarian as the creature got closer and closer, and soon he felt the beast’s massive hands gripping his shoulder. He cried out in pain as the beast flung him across the room, landing with a thud into a large shelf nearby. As he slid to the floor and books rained down upon him, he looked through his shut eyes at the approaching monster, its eyes now glowing red with rage and steam flying from its nostrils. He closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable, hoping that one day he would see Ian again.

4

Ian couldn’t believe what he was seeing. One minute he had been laughing and running around with Zane like two idiots in love, the problems of their lives fading for the briefest of moments. Then he was chasing after Zane, who had taken off in a trance towards the last place either of them would willingly go at night. The doors had slammed shut behind Zane after he ran into the school library, and Ian had pounded furiously on the doors, the lock blocking him from his lost boyfriend. 

Instinct had kicked into high gear, and he knew that something terrible had drawn his boyfriend into the building. He didn’t know how he knew this, but he felt something moving through him, telling him Zane needed him. He ran around the building and began checking every door leading into the school until finally, he found a custodian’s door unlocked. Running inside, he made his way through the darkened halls of the school, with only his phone’s light guiding him through the all too familiar landscape. 

Distant shouts of fear alerted Ian that he was drawing near, and he soon found himself bursting through the indoor library doors. As he entered the massive library, he watched in horror as Zane was being chased by a massive creature out of some video game developer’s nightmare. The rows of shelves and books shredded in the creature’s path, and soon he saw the creature catch up to Zane, throwing the love of his life across the room like a rag doll. 

Fear crept into his heart, but somehow he managed to push that fear to the furthest corners of himself. Something took over. Call it instinct or some cosmic entity, but either way, he found himself taking action. Running to the central hub of the library where the dead librarian’s desk stood, he ran up, jumped on the desk, and grabbed the large flat hanging there. The heavy metal rod holding the flag in place felt warm in his hands, and as the flag itself fell on the ground, he turned towards the beast and ran.

Before the monster could register what was happening, Ian drove the sharp end of the flag pole through the monster’s chest, blood splattering Zane’s face and chest as the monster roared with rage and pain. Ian leaped out of the way as the creature desperately tried to remove the weapon, but it was no use. Soon the creature fell forward, and the life drained from its eyes, leaving the traumatized boys alone.

Epilogue

Zane was in and out of consciousness, the drugs the EMTs had given him keeping the pain from his injuries at bay. Ian sat next to him and the EMT treating Zane, holding his boyfriend's hand comfortingly. The police had swarmed the school library, baffled at the creature's appearance. Ian knew their lives would never be the same, and questions would be coming for them soon. He was just glad Zane was alive and safe in his arms. 

“Ian…” Zane called, his voice dopey from the drugs.

“I’m here babe,” Ian replied, squeezing his hand and leaning forward.

“Beauregard…wasn’t…”

“Wasn’t what?”

“Wasn’t…alone. More..more of them,” Zane whispered desperately, fear in his eyes. Ian’s eyes went wide as realization kicked in. The sound of screams coming from the EMT’s radio filled the vehicle, and he turned to see rows of large, hulking shadows standing in the street ahead of them. Ian wanted to curse, to shout in fear, but there was no time left. Before they knew it, the vehicle was hit by something massive, sending the car tumbling across the road before Ian was knocked unconscious, the last sound he could hear being the roar of hundreds of creatures outside. 

THE END?