Ghoul Trouble by John Passarella

Author:John Passarella
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse

CHAPTER 9

“Okay, Giles,” Buffy said beside Giles’s hospital bed. “Here are the Watchers’ journals and the other musty books you requested.” She placed the old, leather-bound tomes on the movable hospital tray, where they were bound to unsettle the nurses.

“Thank you, Buffy.”

“Looks like the Watchers Council bestsellers list or something.”

“Certain volumes—the Pergamum Codex, the Black Chronicles, the Writings of Dramius, to name a few—have, over time, proven invaluable, yes,” Giles said.

“And somehow not an Oprah pick in the bunch.”

“You were able to complete the uninvite ritual successfully?” Giles asked.

Buffy gave a brisk nod. “Dotted my T’s and crossed my I’s. Took over right where you left off when you were so rudely interrupted,” she said. “Or was that the other way around?” The smile on her face faded as if it had been an illusion all along. She pulled up a chair and sat close to her Watcher. “Okay, Giles, spill. My mom said you called to tell me you were in the hospital but okay.” Her gaze swept across the cast on his arm, the bandage on his forehead. “You don’t look ‘okay.’ ”

“Nothing too serious,” Giles said. “Concussion, fractured wrist, skull lacerations. Humbling, but hardly life-threatening. Now tell me. Have you been able to locate Willow?”

Buffy pushed herself out of the hospital chair and walked to the window, staring down between the gaps in the vertical blinds at the orderly rows of parked cars. I should be doing something—anything—if I only knew where to start. Willow was her best friend and all Buffy could say was, “No.”

“Still nothing to indicate she disappeared from the Bronze? Or Troy?”

“We think Troy may have run into the flesh-eaters, the ghouls or whatever they are,” Buffy said. “After he left the Bronze. Cordelia identified a piece of clothing and there was some blood. But we can’t be sure if Willow was there or—”

“I know,” Giles said. “If nothing else, the lack of physical evidence gives us reason for hope that she’s okay.”

Buffy nodded, returning to his bedside. “Xander and Oz promised to catch a few hours sleep. But they’re probably out searching again by now.”

“You’ll be missed at school. Your mother?”

“Called in to cover for me. But that probably won’t stop Principal Snyder from taking his evil little chart to my commando counselor to show her what a horribly undedicated student I am.”

“Buffy, you mustn’t neglect your studies,” Giles said. “Or your sleep. You need to prepare yourself for the challenges ahead. Otherwise you will be of no use to Willow or yourself. With our resources spread thin, we must approach this intelligently and efficiently.” Giles flipped through one of the larger tomes, frowned, closed it and selected another. He jabbed at a page with his good index finger. “There is mention of flesh-eating ghouls here,” he said. “As I said before, creatures out of Arabic folklore.” He skimmed the passage, culling the salient facts. “Ghouls were female desert demons who lured travelers—we can assume men—into their clutches and devoured them.”

“No deserts in Sunnydale,” Buffy said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.