Page 80 of Deal with the Devil

Amelia snorted, nodding. “I can confirm it’s quite comfy and ready for sleeping. Sure, let’s get you to Penny’s. I can’t think of a nicer place to be for you to be in order to come down from all that’s happened.”

“Really?” Gael nearly vibrated out of her skin.

“Really.” Amelia smiled, climbing slowly to her feet. “Besides I think Brayden might cry if he didn’t get to continue to impress you with video game lore.”

Gael giggled as Aravis motioned for her to lead toward the door. He glanced back to Amelia as she hugged the book to her chest again.

“Where are you going now, Ms. Armstrong?”

“Unfortunately?” She glanced down at the book before up at him, “The Nightmare Realm, I think? Someone’s got to put the book back.”

And as a Book Guardian, it was now her responsibility.

She just needed to figure out…how…to do that…exactly.

“Good luck, Ms. Armstrong.” Aravis bowed his head, “It goes without saying, but this will be the last time I aid you or Mr. Zrazduel, and any shenanigans that happen going forward are none of my concern unless it’s a crime. I will bring Gael home but after that…if you break a law…”

Amelia snorted, rolling her eyes. “Don’t worry, Lord Commander, I have no intention of getting caught.”

He scowled as he slipped out the door. Amelia hugged the book, slowly turning to look toward the house. Time to put the book back…

Chapter Thirty-three:

Amelia

TW: Minor Emesis

Put the book back,okay cool…how do I do that?

Of course, her first thought was to stand in front of a mirror. Knox’s mirror. She called Persephone’s name to no answer. She even tried his downstairs office, putting the book on the shelf and stepping back. It felt close but not close enough. She needed a connection to the Nightmare Realm, a way to get back to it.You’re thinking like a human…

You’re not human anymore.

Amelia kept applying human tactics to an eldritch problem. Instead, she climbed the steps and headed for the upstairs office. Opening the door, she was drenched in darkness and a thick stench. Lighting a candle she found in the hall—thanks to breaking the lights last time she was in here—she found the horrors of their fight. Declan was nothing but discarded, rottenparts strewn around the room. Rick, headless and flattened against the floor, sat near the far end.

Glancing down at the book, she followed the thrumming toward the center of the room. The flame danced as she stood at the center. She looked for Persephone before sighing and rolling her eyes.Of course, the witch would leave her with more riddles than answers.Amelia eyed the book for answers but found none. It was just her and a room full of rotting bodies…and a fucking candle. She hung her head back in exhaustion.

It's gotta be a simple thing…just…just put it back.

Amelia pursed her lips, lifting her head and eyeballing one of the bookshelves. All of them were empty, the discarded books having attacked Rick in the chaos. Stomping up to the shelf, she tapped her fingers with irritation against the fleshy cover of the tome. Then, she shoved the book into place on the shelf. Her candle was snuffed, and she was engulfed in darkness. Amelia kept her eyes closed for a long time, trying to keep her fear at bay.

When she opened her eyes, fingers still wrapped around the spine of the book, she was in a red library. Swirling balls of angry fire danced over her head. Books slithered out of their shelf to peak at her with eyes embedded in their covers. When she snapped her attention to them, they shoved themselves back into the shelf.

“Ah,” she slipped back from the shelf. “Library of Madness.”

Amelia wasn’t sure how she knew, or why it came to her head, but she wasn’t going to ask many questions. She didn’t know much about her new existence as a horror, but she imagined this was par for the course for one. Amelia followed the aisle of the library, letting her fingers trace the spines. Some had actual bones, some were leather bound, some were…less gross than a flesh bound book, some were worse.

She stepped out of the aisle into the middle of a massive circular library. The shelves went on endlessly, standing up into a cloudy ceiling of a room. When Amelia glanced down, she wasn’t in her pajamas. Instead, she was dressed in red robes cinched with black cords. Her bare feet slid across obsidian stones toward the center of the library to soak it all in. Arms out to her side, she spun in a slow circle. It smelled just like the Mumfords bookstore. Paper and thick dusty jackets with a hint of coffee. It brought a weird smile to her lips.

“Amelia?”

She stopped her spin, staring wide eyed into the shelves. Knox’s voice haunted her as she searched for him. In the dizzying shelves of endless, unknowable knowledge, she couldn’t find him. But she heard him call her name again. When she turned around again, there was a single book on a desk that hadn’t been there before.Typical.Amelia pulled out the chair at the desk and sat before the book. The flask provided by the crone was on the desk next to the tome as it flipped open. Fluttering pages nearly scraped her nose as she leaned into it. The book stopped on a page and settled.

Drink the flask.

Amelia took up the silver container and twisted off the skull top. It didn’t smell of anything. It didn’t taste of anything. It didn’t feel of anything. Amelia tossed her head back and let the nothingness pour down her throat. Yet, she felt something splash in her stomach. It cramped immediately upon impact. Churning and swirling until she bent over in pain. Amelia’s forehead pressed into the crinkling pages of the tome as she clutched her belly. Worse than anything, it was like someone put a hand mixer in her organs and flipped it on high. Her toes curled hard enough to pinch. Amelia’s eyes slammed shut and fireworks went off behind her eyelids. Her body wavered, flopping left then right in attempt to make it comfortable again.

Then she fell out of the chair. The vomit happened first. It spewed out of her and left her whirling in her own body. Amelia slapped her sweaty palms against the floor, weakly dragging herself away from the desk.

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