The Librarians

We're playing X and Y... and I picked out Librarians and Heroes. And they come in all shapes, forms and types and styles, right? Well, they do! 

enjoy.

It wasn’t fair.

Well, not for me it wasn’t.

And not for her.

All she was doing was research for us to track down a demon to make sure we killed it properly; when it broke into our headquarters, found her sitting there in the beautifully kitted-out library, and it...

I wiped the mud and sweat from my forehead onto my sleeve as tears blurred my vision. My strength wasn’t supposed to be used for this – to bury the quiet heroes in our world, the ones who were the backbone to the whole good-guys machine.

Missy was just that. She was a huge font of knowledge about everything and anything to do with the demon world – in fact, she was part-demon, and that’s how she knew so much about that part of our world. But she didn’t want to hurt the Humans in our world, she wanted to help me and my kind.

Despite her pinkish skin and cute little horns – and yeah the tail she kept well-hidden – she was the kindest, sweetest little thing I’d ever come across. But man, I only saw her pissed off once or twice; and promised myself to never confront her like that personally.

And trust me, I haven’t.

I saw her rip apart another demon in three swift moves, I couldn’t do in for the life of me on my own in two weeks, and she didn’t break a sweat.

Lewis, our other street-wise guy, made a cross with her name carved into it out of two pieces of wood and shoved it into the head of her graved. As the mallet last struck the cross into the ground, he looked up at me. He had been crying, “We’re royally fucked, you know that, right?”

“Let’s get back.” I turned and walked back to the car, “This is where she wanted to be buried.”

Three days passed and we were still cleaning up the mess left behind by that demon and doing research on how to kill it – seeing it was still out there, and we had no idea which one it was or where it had disappeared to. This left us without a source to start on, what it looked like or anything.

So Lewis became the research guy for a while. He hit the books – and in between reading, eating and sleeping, he hit the streets and the home gym we had set up downstairs. I didn’t want him to become lazy just because he was taking over from Missy.

One night, just before dawn, Lewis and I came in from hunting on another case (don’t get us wrong, looking for Missy’s killer was on our list, but we had to make a living), when we found somebody sitting at the table reading in the Library.

Pulling a sword from above the mantle, I readied myself for a fight, but her voice chimed up, “Oh put that away, you idiot.” She turned and there was Missy covered in dirt and mud. Her skin was no longer pink, it was purple and her horns were a bright green. She smiled as she looked at my shocked face, “I’m so glad you guys have been looking for my killer, but there’s no need. It died weeks ago. I gave as good as I got just before it killed me.”

Lewis walked to her side, looking at her incredulously, “How?”

Her tail swished around from under the table, “Well, there’s a reason I hide the tail. It’s got a poisonous spike inside the feathery ends.” She took it up, separated the ends and showed us the spike dripping with venom. Then, she smoothed it over and the spike vanished and she hid the tail again.

I didn’t know what to do as I turned and hung the sword back up with its partner above the mantle, the warmth of the fire burning behind the fire guard, “How did you get out of your grave?”

“I clawed my way out.” She rose from the chair, “You see, my species doesn’t really die. We just hibernate for a few weeks when we’re badly injured; it looks like we’re dead. When we wake up again, we change – age a little – and then we get a little more mojo-ish and age a bit, then we get on with our lives.”

I turned and looked at her, “Well, any other colours I should know about with you?”

Laughing, she shook her head, “Just bright green, and that’s it. I’m not that old. But I know the demon hasn’t been found because I poisoned it. It would have died within a day or so in immense pain.”

“Went out with a bang and not a whimper, eh?” Lewis said.

“Yep.” She turned looking at him, then blinked slowly, “I’m so sorry you have had to take over my duties... and your family it has turned on you.”

He held up his hands towards her, “Stop that.”

“I can’t help it, you don’t have to sing for me to see this. Your aura is drenched in how angry you are right now.” She shook her head, “But we have bigger fish to fry.”

He frowned, “Like?”

“Well, there’s a good reason why I didn’t just go out and leave you guys alone. Somebody is coming... and you’re not gonna like them.”

“The Apocalypse.” I muttered sitting down in one of the chairs around the Library.

“Yes. But you’re late to the party.” She said, “Why do you think I’m here?”

Lewis and I exchanged quizzical glances, and he looked at her, “Well, it hasn’t started yet.”

“It’s been going for a while – since I was killed actually. Or didn’t you feel the world change just that little bit after you buried me?” she looked from me to Lewis and back, “You guys have no idea.”

“About?”

She walked to me, “This is the end game, the last big kahoona, the last wave... everything is coming to a point and then falling apart on its own; and whoever – or whatever – is left over is going to rule this rotting planet.”

“What about God?” Lewis asked.

“Ha! He left the building a long time ago... so did the Angels and anyone else who gave a flying fuck about this place. Apollo is empty, so is Heaven. Only place that isn’t is Hell and maybe Purgatory, but who knows with that place – nobody knows what goes on with it.” Missy shrugged, “We have to go and jump right into the deep end feet first of this fiery pit of crap and fight the good fight to the best of our abilities. And I hope and pray we can come through the other side alive – well, mostly.”

“How do you know we can do this?”

She smiled, “Because I’m the Librarian, you’re the super heroes and guess what? The Devil and his disciples are out there following everything he has been doing, supporting every move he makes and you guys are the only positive ray of sunshine around.” She looked me up and down, “And if you don’t get your ass out there, you won’t be able to save your planet.”

I looked over at Lewis, “Well, I think our demon is right... it’s time to go to the mattresses but on our terms; and if needs be, we’ll die.”

She smiled that cheeky smile I’ve missed for so long, “I’ll look up what you need to get through tomorrow – and the next day – but you guys seriously need a witch to do some serious spell-work.”

“Well, it appears I’ve come here just in time.” A voice said from the door of the Library. We all turned to find a young, redheaded woman standing there with her bag of tricks and a suitcase, “I was sent here by the Powers to help you Missy. I wasn’t sure why... but now I am. So, where do I start?”

We had only the four of us to work on saving the world. And so we could keep ourselves in complete contact with each other, we worked from the Library and used it as our core centre of operations.

The Librarian.

The Witch.

And the two Super Heroes.

We’re saving the world against the Devil and his son. How we’re doing that, we’re not quite sure. But stick around, we might just need you to help us out if you’re not scared of hard work, getting dirty or dying tomorrow if needs be.