Demon by Samantha Lee

Author:Samantha Lee
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, horror, demon, fantasy, young adult, point horror, samantha lee
Publisher: Samantha Lee

14

Miguel Coyote was waiting on the front step when Miss Sanders came to open library. She looked at him in surprise. She would have looked at anybody in surprise who was waiting on the step so early on a Monday morning. The citizens of Backwater Ridge weren’t known for their reading capacity. Miss Sanders, a devoted bibliophile and confirmed spinster (not necessarily in that order) normally didn’t have a great deal in the way of custom.

“Can I help you?” she said, unlocking the door and leading the way into the dusty interior.

“I’m looking for something on the Indian Wars,” said Miguel.

Miss Sanders took in the dark hair, the red bandanna, the surprisingly blue eyes. “I think there’s something in the archives,” she said. “I can’t let you take it out, of course. Unless you’re a resident?”

She left the sentence open. She didn’t want to be nosy but she was sure she hadn’t seen this boy before. Miss Sanders, who lived with an aged and invalid mother, didn’t socialise much. But in a town like Backwater Ridge, a boy like this, obviously a native American cross, would have stuck out like a sore thumb.

“That’s fine,” Miguel was non-committal. “Can I take notes?”

“Certainly.”

Miss Sanders let herself into the closed section through a small gate that wouldn’t have kept out a three year old, (just supposing some three year old had wanted to raid the library), and ran a hand along one of the shelves until she came to a sparsely stacked section marked ‘Historical’. Lifting the steel rimmed ‘granny’ glasses that hung round her neck on a chain, she peered through them at the titles, eventually selecting one and bringing it over to Miguel.

“We don’t have much,” she said, placing the heavy tome in front of him. “But this should give you some information.” Her curiosity got the better of her. “May I ask what you want it for?”

“Research,” said Miguel. Might as well keep to the same story he’d told the Sheriff. “For my thesis. UCLA. I need some details on a particular battle.”

Miss Sanders nodded. A college boy. That would explain it. Someone half civilised for a change.

“Do you have a pen?” she asked. And when Miguel said he had, producing a biro and a loose-leaf notebook from the inside pocket of his leather jacket, she added, sharply. “You won’t mark the book will you?”

To Miss Sanders anyone who wrote notes in the margin or, even worse, turned the page down to remind themselves where they were, was no better than a vandal and ought to be hung, drawn and quartered. She’d had to speak to Wayne Maxwell about it more than once and...well...she pursed her lips...look what had just happened to him.

“Of course not,” said Miguel. “I’ll be very careful.”

“Fine.” Miss Sanders indicated a table in the corner with a chair and a reading lamp. “You can sit over there.”

“Thank you.” Miguel took off his jacket and hung it round the chair back. Then he sat down and opened the book.

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