The Book Waitress (Book 1, The Book Waitress Series) (8 page)

The
expansive
room flooded with light. They stood for a moment perfectly still and quiet. Camille didn’t know exactly what she expected, but the floor was piled high with boxes and old, broken pieces of furniture. A maze of pipes and wires, attached to the low ceiling, created dizzying designs. G
urgles and pings reminded her o
f her old house
on the mainland
.

“Rather anti-climactic, isn’t it?” Derek quipped.

“
So where do we start to look for evidence of satanic worship?”

“There are symbols and objects that are frequently used. I
would look to the floor first for a
ny faint drawings of pentagrams
, inverted crosses,
and odd
line drawings or scrawls
. See if there are any candlewax remnants they may have missed scraping up. I have a black light. That’ll show me if blood, old or new, is present.”

“Okay, do you want to split up then? You with your black light and me with my eyeballs?”

“That sounds good. We’ll cover more ground that way. If you’re unsure about something, just call me over.
I’ll go this way.
”
He pointed left.

“All righty. See you in the middle, then.”

She smiled and began her trolling.
Nothing unusual struck her as she scrutinized
the cement floor and carpet tiles that lay strewn abo
ut.
Splotches of color were simply dried paint drippings around a few rusty cans.
Sheets covered a few
small
tables.
S
he
held her breath, a
s a
wicked imagination
got
the better
of her.
S
lowly
, she
peeled
each one
away to peek underneath.
Expecting to see
a sacrificial altar with
animal
bones
or something just as
freakish
, she
let out a relieved sigh and
laughed out loud
when all she saw were metal book ends.

“Hey, Camille! I found something!” Derek’s voice seemed so far away.

“Where are you?”
She looked around the room and a
hand popped up
,
waving
from the
other
end of the room. “Coming.” She jogged over to see what he’d discovered. He’d crouched down in front of a
high,
red leather
ben
ch one might find
at a bar
and held his black light. “Hey, nothi
ng unusual so far on my end. So, w
ha
t did you find?
”

He waved the wand over the seat.

“Oh, oh
,
my God.”
Her feet had a mind of their own as they stepped backward, away from the blaring evidence,
and
she
bumped into a huge box of toilet paper
, sending it toppling
over,
spilling its contents. But she didn’t care. On the settee wasn’
t just
a little drop
of blo
od.
A small droplet or two she figured she could handle. Instead, it appeared as though
the entire seat
had been bathed in
the gore
.

Derek jumped up and raced over to her. “Whoa, are you okay?” He grabbed her gently by her shoulders. His strong hands steadied her
as
she
tried to regroup
.

“
Not sure. S
tartled
a bit
.
I really hadn’t expected to find anything like that down here.
I’ve never seen anything quite like th
is in my life. What the hell happened and to whom I don’t even want to fathom.” She
shook her head and
breathed in deeply, but it did nothing to erase what she’d seen. “You know what, Derek, I thought I could use a little
excitement in my life, but this
, this
is so not what I had in mind. I think I’m gonna leave this to the professional here, you, and go upstairs. I have plenty of work left to do, so take your time.”

She ran back to the stairs and took them two at a time.
Back to the safety of her
stacks and
books.
With trembling hands, she shelved books
that earlier had been entered into the system and barcoded. She walked away from the cart for a moment to put a book away, and on her return, all the books fell from the cart to the floor.

“Are you kidding me?” She stomped her foot. “John
Stalworthy
, stop it this instant! I’ve had all I can handle today, so go bugger off!
”

She picked up the books and
replaced them
, trying to gather some semblance of normalcy.
Ghosts on their own were enough to handle. Now, satanic worshippers had been discovered doing unspeakable things in the library’s basement.
She
hadn’t
bargain
ed
for this.
Derek would connect all the dots and find those who needed to be
brought
to justice.
He didn’t need her for that.
And she would get off this evil island if it was the last thing she did.
Schemes and plans took form then reconfigured into others. Over and over again, though, each plan led to her leaving this job and this town.

“Camille.” A soft,
tender
voice
broke through the tumultuous playground of her mind.

“
What, Derek?
”
She didn’t stop what she was doing, and she didn’t look at him. She couldn’t face him
after her
cowardly
display
downstairs. This budding friendship had just taken a turn for the failure zone.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry about everything. I feel horrible.”

“Don’t be
. I went down there willingly. I made my own choices. I just didn’t
anticipate
my
spineless
reaction.
” She slid a book into place on a shelf.
“
Didn’t realize
I would
wither so easily
at the sight of invisible blood
.
Did you know blood makes up ten percent of our bodies? It’s also twice as thick as water.
” She paused and took a breath.
Damn these u
seless
facts worm
ing
their way into
my
mind
at times like this!
“
Are you finished
down there already
?”

“No, but I was worried about you. I wanted to make sure you were all right. Are you? All right, I mean.
And you’re not a
chicken
. I didn’t expect to see that either, quite frankly. It’s rather gruesome, but I’ve seen much
worse
in my reporting
over the years
that I’ve become numb to
it and forget others
have not
.
”

She still refused to make eye contact
, choosing to shelve another book instead
.
“Well, I can tell you that I’m totally
freaked out
righ
t now. That blood could belong to children, Derek. Someone’s sons or daughters could have been slaughtered right on that
makeshift altar
.” She couldn’t speak further for the lump in her throat, and a sob escaped her mouth.
Still holding
a book
, she leaned her forehead against the shelf in front of her
and
closed her eyes,
let
ting
the tears fall freely
.
“Damn it.”

A gentle yet
solid
hand cupped her shoulder and forced her to turn around. He dre
w her to him
and held her in a firm embrace
,
crushing the book between them
.
“It’s
all right
. I’m gonna
find
out who’s behind this,
find
the kid, and
find
out what happened to all the others. Camille, I will bring these people down. I promise.”

“
Ow
,” she
mumbled with
her nose and mouth smashed
against his chest
.

“
Oh, geez,
” he sa
id
. A blush
crept up
his neck and cheeks
as he released her
with the
book still clamped in her hands.

“Derek, do what you have to do.” She put the book down
, rubbed her nose,
and straightened her blouse. “Get the bad guys. But I’m not gonna be around.
I’ve decided
to leave this place as soon as possible.
Too many bizarre happenings for my liking.
I like my lif
e organized and quiet, with an occasional bit of excitement. This kind of thrill is
n’t
what I had in mind.
I simply miscalculated.
”

“I get it. I really do.
And I don’t blame you one bit.
Thanks for all your help so far. If you still have work to do, I’d like to stay
until you’re done
and head back downstairs.”

“I do. I have about another half hour to go before I’m finished. Have at it.” She smiled weakly and returned to her books, dismissing him.

Without another word, he turned and left her.
The first guy to actually be interested in her and she just gave him the shove-off. She sighed and went back to work.
Socially awkward didn’t
even begin to describe her. Socially inept with the members of the opposite sex would be more like it.

Oh, those
poor
children!
Her mind kept returning to the scene downstairs. Who on this island could be running a satanic cult? She wouldn’t be surprised
if it
was Nancy, evil woman.
It’d be easy enough to get information on the internet about the cult that shut down years ago.
G
reat at
making connections and
linking facts together
, for a moment, she contemplated doing the research
. “No!
I am
not
getting involved
.
This is
too much for me
.
Dealing with mean bosses and ghosts is about all I can handle.
Who am I, anyway? I’m just a
book waitress
.
I need a bathroom break. Carry on without me.”

As she headed to the lady’s room, she half expected to
hear
the books flying from the cart to the shelves
or the floor
, but they didn’t. When she returned, however, there was a new book on one of the tables. She walked over and found it to be one of the volumes of the Devil’s Handbook.
Now what?

It had been laid open to a particular page describing a ritual sacrifice. Curiosity getting the better of her, she sat down and began reading the passage. It described the ritualized sacrifice to Satan on specific days of the year and specific years in the millennia. Some were to be of animals, others were to be only blood.
“On every sixth year of our Master’s sovereignty, a human boy child shall be sacrificed
to honor H
is reign
.
It
shall be
six years of age and bear the M
ark o
f the D
amned.
Its
blood shall be drained from
its
body
using Satan’s S
aber
and collected in the Demon’s Chalice.
The
Overlord
or
High Prie
s
tess s
hall
use the blood to
draw Satan’s symbol on the arms of the
sacrifice
. They will drink from the chalice
and pour the remaining blood into the sanctified pyre
…
.
”

She hissed and slammed the book shut. It didn’t escape her notice that the b
ook referred to the boy as “it,”
and she wondered what kind of mark could be construed as the Mark of the Damned. Reluctantly, she followed the subtle nudging
need to know
and reopened the book to where she’d stopped. At the bottom of the page was a chart of symbols and objects to help identify the sacrificial child and carry out the ritual.