OPEN ME!

‘Something about you is different,’ Cato calmly says, as his silvery eyes glance up at the bright moon laughing at him in the sky. Morrigan could never see his face to tell his proper emotions. She had to observe his stance. He was standing with his back towards her. His gloved fingers were gripping the silk scarlet curtain tightly. Usually, when the sun disappeared to the other side of the world, he would be in a good mood. But tonight, he seemed… agitated.

‘Ummm….’ Morrigan gently places some books on the shelf, and double checks them to ensure that they’re in alphabetical order. ‘Are you talking about the moon?’

Cato shuts the curtains, hastily.

‘You, Morrigan. I can tell you’re hiding a secret from me. Confess now or I will get angry.’

‘I— I have no idea what you’re talking about…’ she hurriedly walks towards the doors of the library, to double check that they are locked.

‘They’re locked, simpleton. Unless you’re trying to run away from me.’

Morrigan doesn’t respond. She turns to make her way to the stairs, but Cato is already behind her.

‘You’re not usually this observant, Cato… what changed?’

‘What changed? What changed?! You’ve been gone the library’s presence nearly three weeks. You’re acting as if there is nothing wrong. I’m worried about you.’

Morrigan bows her head. Despite his incredible weakness of understanding emotions, he always seemed to know when something was off about her. She twiddles her thumbs, and sighs.

‘I… have something to tell you….’

‘What is it?’

Morrigan feels the urge to tell him, but it can’t come out of her mouth. She lifts her head to speak, but only hot air escapes from her mouth. She bites her lip to keep back the hot and burning sensation of tears.

‘Cato— It’s nothing. I’m sorry.’

‘Morrigan!!’

She dashes to the stairs. ‘Let me clean the stockroom. You finish down here.’

‘And when I do, I’ll make my way up there to confront you. You dare hide something from me?’

Morrigan gives Cato a half-smile. She found it funny when he was mad at her, but her mind wasn’t firmly focused as it usually would. She makes her way up the stairs silently, her mind entrapped with difficult thoughts.

She arrives at the stockroom, where Cato kept his unfortunate and unusual books. This was her favourite place in the library— it had nobody there to judge her, it had a comforting atmosphere of silence… It was better than home…. Home, where she had nobody but herself. An environment she’d need to get used to, should she ever tell Cato what her heart was screaming out. She quickly wipes some unwanted tears dripping down her cheeks.

‘You can't hide it, Morrigan.... How are you going to tell him?’

Whilst stuck in her own thoughts again, Morrigan is stepping backwards. It is an awful habit she has developed since childhood. Not having friends left her to her daydreams, and she’d get into them frequently, often forgetting about the world around her.

She knocks into a shelf behind her, and multiple books fall from it. They crash down to the floor and gather a hearty dust cloud about her.

Morrigan opens her eyes to reveal a clutter of rubbish around her.

‘Cato really sucks at cleaning when I’m not here.’

It is not known why he has such an attribute. He owns the place, doesn’t he? How long has he had it for? Suddenly, a peculiar thought comes into Morrigan’s mind.

‘How old is Cato?’

Another, large book falls on her head, disrupting her imagination.

‘OW!’

Whilst rubbing her head, Morrigan’s eye catches something extraordinary.

THE NECRONOMICON.

Written in BIG letters on a HUGE book, lined by a heavy looking black sleeve— obscured, and covered in intricate silver detailing. A large, white skull’s head sat in the middle of the book. It looked like it was ready to jump out at any time, as it discharged a spectral glow.

‘The… Necronomicon?’ Morrigan spells out.

This is the first time she’s been able to pronounce one of Cato’s strange books. She assumes it is since it looks like one.

Picking it up, Morrigan feels enchanted by the daunting cover, and she can now see it properly. Gliding her fingers through the ghastly grooves of the front cover, which seemed to scream out ‘unordinary’, she wonders why Cato never showed her such a grand thing before.

Perhaps because it was too intimidating for her? But that couldn’t be. She had been given books that were shaped unusually, some that had spiky textures that were impossible to hold without gloves, and even some that had a particular and awful smell to them.

However, this book had an… aura… an aura that seemed to defeat the unconceivable power of darkness the other books held before it. Its appearance boasted a burning supremacy to the others, hot enough to burn them into cinders.

Mesmerised by the incredulous thing before her, Morrigan acquires a sudden temptation, a dying urge…. to flip the cover.

Her heart beats thickly. Her forehead slowly forms a film of hot sweat. She bites her lip hard to wake herself up, but it’s futile. Her breathing, which was heavily paced, becomes heavily staggered, like she was being suffocated. Only one thing could end this pain. She must open it.

She must.

As her sweaty fingers glide towards the cover, she can no longer fight the temptation to flip it over…

She clenches her teeth as she clenches the sleeve.

Now she must open it.

She must open it.

OPEN IT.

‘OPEN ME!’ a voice drills in her mind.

‘NO, MORRIGAN!! DROP IT!’

Morrigan’s mind snaps into consciousness. Her head spins around. Cato is at the doorway, his glimmering silver eyes wide open in supreme horror.

‘DROP IT!!’

Morrigan gasps for air. Her sweaty, shaking, pale fingers slide off the cover as she drops the impure tome of darkness. But it lands on the floor, half open.

‘NO!!’ Cato bellows.

Thunder and lightning clap. Red and white smoke permeates the air, suffocating their surroundings. A gust of heavy wind roars and blasts into the stockroom, so strong, Morrigan is tossed into the bookshelves like a bin bag.

‘Morrigan!!’ Cato cries, rushing towards her.

She is knocked out. Her ochre eyes are shut. Cato gently places her down, as a terrifying cackle emits from the book.

‘HAHAHAHAH!!!!!’

‘I must stop him before he gets out!’ he vows, clenching his fangs.

He lunges towards the book, and as he lunges, several demonic shadows of darkness hop out of his body, their pristine white fangs flared open in anger, their silver eyes determined to fight. They enwrap the book, suffocating it with their dark misty bodies, but a strong bright light from the book swallows the atmosphere, penetrating Cato as his body burns up like paper.

‘AAAAAAGHH!!’ he painfully screeches, as the light completely overwhelms him, Morrigan, the entire room— and the library.