The Library

When we came out of that portal thing, we were in a massive, dark library. Familiar place. I’d been there before, trying to grab books out of it. But it looked… different this time. Somehow. Like there was something missing from it….

Didn’t get much chance to think, though, before the Red Cap was distracting me with its shouting.

“Wooooo! That was badass! The way we just swooped in like some big damn heroes and rescued you….” It leaned toward me. “Speaking of that rescue, any chance your savior might be rewarded with a kiss?”

I pushed it away from me. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Well, I was trying to get a kiss after saving your life….”

“Not that. Why did you… things save me?”

“I couldn’t simply stand to the side while there was a damsel in distress-”

“No. Seriously. Why? Last I checked, most of you were my enemies.”

“We’re the enemies of Slender Man’s Fears. While you were working with them, you were our enemy. Now that you’re against them, things have changed. Plus with Grendel dead, you’re basically the new Nyarlathotep. Congratulations!”

“I’m not Nyarlathotep.”

“Whatever you say, mistress.”

“And besides, what about the Convocation? They were against you during Grendel’s revolution.”

“What, the birds? Not really sure what’s up with them. Far as I can tell, they’ve just thrown their lot in with you on account of you being the least omnicidal out of everyone fighting for the multiverse.”

I looked at some of the birds that had settled on the shelves around us. Now that they weren’t acting like an enormous storm cloud of death, you could almost see them as a regular flock of birds. An extremely diverse regular flock of birds. An extremely diverse regular flock of birds which intently watched your every motion. Alright, they were still freaky, but at least none of them were shooting lightning.

The Brute and the Bride didn’t seem to be around us at the moment, or at least weren’t manifesting physically near us. I could hear the crackle of fire and smell smoke around the library, but there was no signs of their bodies nearby.

“Now I’m sure you have a lot of questions….” The Red Cap started to say, but I wasn’t in the mood for talking.

“Not really. I was just wondering when you could return me to Earth so I could get back to being killed.”

It lost its friendly grin when I said that. “Why would you want that?”

“Because EAT was right. This is all my fault. If by giving myself up I can reverse it….”

The Red Cap’s lips pulled back into a snarl, and it looked like it was starting to shift back into the wolf like form I’d seen on Earth. A voice came out of the shifting blood, deep and angry. “When did you become such a whiny bitch? I’m not going to let myself be killed because you suddenly forgot to fight! Man the fuck up, or I’ll… I’ll….” The transformation changed partway through, and instead it became a young girl with a red hood. It smiled again, and said, “Alright. Fine. I’ll let you think on things for a while. We’ll talk again when you’re more willing to see reason.” The Red Cap dissolved into a pool of blood, which flowed under the bookshelves. I glanced at the Convocation, but they quickly flew away, leaving me alone in the library.