A Librarian’s Idea of Heaven. (standard:Ghost stories, 1927 words)
Author: Oscar A Rat	Added: Jul 26 2020	Views/Reads: 1166/835	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Even while dead, Ethel refused to leave her job.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

letters had fallen off in the past.  It read "The World Possessed With 
Deuvilles."  There was no wording for the author.  The first page, 
however had the following information: ------------ I haue intituled 
this Booke (The World Possessed With Deuvilles) for twoo causes. The 
one, because I showe there how the Deuvill ruleth the worlde.  He 
guideth & governeth worldly and carnall men as if thei were possessed 
with Deuvills, and passed ouer by Gods iust iudgemet: the other, 
because that in Holie Scripture, the worlde is many tymes taken by 
suche as are not lead by the Spirit of God, but serue the deuvill as 
their prince and God, in stead of their true God, and acknowledge him 
for their Creator, Father and Sauiour. 

Read this tome at thy own considruble risk.  It doth oft quote the
Deuvill himself. 

Imprinted at London for Ihon Perin, and are to be sold in Paules
Churchyard at the Signe of the Angell.  1083. ------------ 

The forward went on to explain that the book was reprinted from even
older versions cadged from monasteries --  the original sources even 
then lost in antiquity.  There were further warnings on even reading, 
much less trying out any spells from the devil, himself. 

The volume was even harder to read in old English, with s's written in
longhand as f's and old-time spelling. 

It enthralled Ethel so much that she didn't even notice the librarian
coming in, until the light switch came on. 

By then it was too late to cross the room with the book, and the case
was still wide open.  Not knowing what else to do, Ethel barely found 
time to slip the volume under the cushion of her chair. 

While the librarian worked at her coffee maker, Ethel hurried to the
open case and closed it.  Uh-Oh!  she thought, hearing the click of the 
lock.  It would pick that time to work. 

If a ghost can be afraid of a human, that was Ethel as she waited on the
edge of her chair for the library to close again.  At one point, a 
small child sat in her lap, literally, and even played around the edge 
of the cushion.  Ethel managed to use her small strength to hold the 
matting down.  She spent the day worrying about someone seeing the 
book, or the librarian finding it missing. 

Ethel did have time to take the volume out and read it that night.  Most
of the book was filled with devilish spells and their antidotes.  One 
was what she was looking for.  A spell to disengage locks. 

Simple, she thought, returning the book and locking the cabinet again. 
No more of that, she promised herself, finding a romance novel to read 
for the twentieth time. 

A few days later, though, a huge cloud of gnats entered the library
through an open window.  She could hear car horns honking and screams 
coming through walls as the little buggers became thicker and thicker.  
Ethel could hardly see.  Stepping over to a window, she could see 
people running and swatting as the pests got into everything. 

Ethel remembered a spell to create gnats, and one to remove them.  It
was in the old tome.  She hurried to the case while she could still see 
to read.  Getting the book out, she found the page and uttered the 
un-gnat spell in her weak voice.  The gnats disappeared.  That was good 
luck, she figured, her happening to recall where to find that spell.  
She then forgot the event. 

That is, she forgot until the same thing happened with mice.  They were
everywhere, running around and eating everything, even threatening her 
chair.  But the right spell got rid of them again. 

Next, the city was hit by a plague of locusts, again getting into
everything, even making the roads too slick to drive on. 

Again, Ethel easily found the antidote spell. 

By that time Ethel had figured out something.  That those recent spells
must have been created by the person that had originally asked for that 
same volume.  Otherwise, why would the right spell to create and stop 
them be in the book?   And each and every time? 

Over the next week or so, other emergencies occurred.  Such as huge
spiders tromping through the downtown area, knocking buildings askew 
and breaking windows.  Ethel soon got rid of them -- with another 
spell.  One day the heat became so bad that it was melting asphalt on 
roads and making automobiles stick to street surfaces. 

Each time, Ethel used the appropriate spell to reverse the problem.  By
that time she had tried to memorize the entire volume, to be ready for 
every occasion.  It was a horrible book, with tales of the devil's work 
on every page, along with the many incantations. 

Being a devout Christian, Ethel was glad to find an index at the back of
the book.  One that gave a Godly spell to get rid of the devil. 

Ethel hadn't noticed, or bothered to remember, what the person looked
like that had been to the case in the first place.  For one thing, the 
bookcase was way in the back of the room and couldn't be seen from her 
chair.  For another, her sight and hearing had been failing for many 
years. 

But one guy that came in the day after the heat spell did seem strange,
dressed all in black with a furtive look on his face as he hurried to 
the back of the room.  That was suspicious enough for Ethel, now an 
expert in the devil's spells, to follow behind him. 

Looking around cautiously, the man waved his hand over the lock with the
same motions Ethel had used to unlock it.  The door of the cabinet came 
open and the man reached for the devil's tome. 

She didn't know why.  Maybe he wanted to learn more spells, or had
forgotten some.  In any case, she couldn't let him succeed. 

He screamed in pain as the book heated to a bright yellow flame in his
hand.  He screamed, bringing two librarians to investigate. 

Before they could get there, Ethel used a spell to freeze time.  She
cured the man's burns and, after letting the book burn to cinders, 
faced him.  His eyes were blazing fire as she began the cleansing 
incantation. 

After the first few words, the devil inside him must have recognized the
spell, since it seemed to flow from his ears as an orange mist.  Sounds 
of wicked laughter filled the room as the foul precipitation made a 
ninety-degree turn and flowed through the marble floor, leaving slight 
scorch marks in the stone.  She then closed the cabinet and locked it. 

The man looked confused as she let time return.  He stood, silently
looking at reddened and smoking hands.  Hands with no pain.  The 
librarians arrived to see him standing there, seemingly confused. 

They debated on calling the police, but couldn't agree on what to tell
them if they did.  Although the air was filled with smoke and smelled 
of brimstone with a few hot ashes dotting the stone floor, there wasn't 
any overt criminal act to report. 

Finally, they decided to permanently ban the man from the library and
made him leave, which he was more that glad to do. 

That particular tome is gone but, in case of trouble, there is still
Ethel sitting quietly in her chair.


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