She eyed him. “Do I have to?”
He snorted. “Preferably, yes.”
Winnie sighed. “Sure, Boss, what’s up?”
“Can you run out and check if any of the Trunk-or-Treat people need anything?”
She sighed again, it sounding heavier this time. “Fine, fine.”
“Thank you,” he giggled.
She sarcastically waved behind her before hiking up her robe and jogged down the front stairs.
Done on that floor, Ollie headed up to the next, and quickly checked on everyone there. As he went up to the third floor, Ollie couldn’t help but beam as he stepped off and spotted Noble.
Standing in the small fake graveyard, which sat against the left curved wall in the center of the floor, the man was wearing one of the library-owned grim reaper costumes. This meant he wore a traditional black hooded robe, with the bottom hem, ends of the sleeves, and edges of the hood purposely frayed.
He waved as he neared, stopping short of actually weaving through the small group that Noble was reading to. The man smiled when he noticed, or more likely, heard him, giving him a covert thumbs down to let him know he was low on candy, as he continued to tell his ghost story. “It’s believed that Dr. Jacobs, the third man to have knowingly been murdered in the house, is?—”
Giving his head a shake, causing his bells to ring more, he stopped staring and moved on, after quickly making a check next to Noble’s name. With the Rare Book section closed off, coveringthe third floor went pretty fast, and it wasn’t long before he’d finished.
With his list in hand, Ollie headed to the large third floor storage room, located at the back left corner of that floor, where he happened to have left his candy cart, which was small, yet convenient.
As he quickly unlocked and opened the door, he found himself freezing in the doorway. His orange cart, with black spoked wheels, and a striped orange and black canopy above, was right where he left it, but sitting on it, next to his candy scoop, covering the sliding doors that hid deep tubs of candy, was his open grimoire.
Frowning, his eyes narrowed on the thing as he walked over. Spanning across the two aged pages was a title, in bold gothic lettering, with only a single sentence beneath.
“All Hallows’ Eve: On the night of the year when the veil is thinnest, be forewarned, sometimes believing is enough.” Ollie flinched back when the book disappeared the second he finished reading aloud.
Okay…that was…whatever.
Clearing his throat, he shook his head as he pushed his candy cart out of the room, closing and locking the door behind him. Ollie took one of the elevators back down to the first floor, starting his refilling there. It wasn’t long before he was heading back up.
The second floor was busy enough that he had to wait several times until the crowds had thinned to push his cart through and into various rooms. The crowds were the main reason he didn’t bring his cart around with him to do his checks.
His neck starting to hurt from all the nodding he was doing, Ollie almost sighed in relief when he pushed his cart into a room and found it empty. Even though the tour that went through thatparticular room was on a break, he was a bit surprised to find no one, as it was one of the rooms that held only horror novels.
But then, he supposed, most people were there for the spooky tours and candy, not so much to actually check-out books. Which was why Jahla was the only one on circulation at the moment.
Eyeing the room, he wrinkled his nose as he approached the zombie display, where a table used to be, with his cart. Another graveyard, but this one had hands bursting through the fake ground in front of crumbling headstones, and three actual shambling zombies in front, the middle one reaching out.
With waxy, dead-ish gray skin marred by open, rotting wounds, partly sunken eyeballs, mostly bald heads dotted with patches of hair, and drab, torn, and dirty clothes, they looked so…real. Especially the third one, with its active pose. But more than the pose, it was the middle one’s face and expression, as the features seemed just a bit more realistic, with his mouth open as if he had started to yell or scream on reaching. While the others’ features were different, their expressions were very passive, their mouths closed.
Regardless, looking at them kind of made his skin crawl. He wouldn't have chosen to stand by the creepy things all night, but it was where the tour reader, Randy, a librarian assistant, had wanted to be.
Ollie started to frown as he continued to stare. For some reason, the middle one seemed to get creepier the longer he did. He would almost swear that the shine of its waxy, decaying skin had become duller than the others, making him almost question the fakeness of it. Which was ridiculous, as it was likely just his mind and the overhead lights playing tricks on him.
Shaking his head at the nonsense, he quickly scooped candy out of one of the deep tubs, and dumped it into the orange pumpkin bucket sitting on the floor.
As he filled it to the brim, he looked towards the door at the sound of approaching footsteps, his brow raising when Jahla walked in. As she wasn't on the tours this year, Jahla was dressed as a vampire, wearing a frilly black and purple cupcake dress with long striped sleeves, and knee-length strappy platform boots. She completed the costume with red contacts under her rounded glasses, pointed ears, fake fangs, and small fake wings on her back.
“Looking for me?” he asked as she approached.
“Winnie told me to tell you that they are running out of candy outside.”
“And she couldn’t have called or texted me?”
“I’m thinking your phone died.”
