[from Worried: A Librarian's Diary]
Anyway, she came into my room and sat on my bed for a long time, and we talked. She said she couldn't sleep because she isn't used to the nighttime forest. I guess the sounds scare her. I don't get it though, because I wasn't hearing anything last night. Not even the frogs. I guess something upset them. I ALWAYS hear frogs. The only time I ever hear them stop is when guards walk by, or when I walk by.
She said how it seems like things will change right outside your window, and I explained how a forest will often do that, because it's alive. She said it seemed at times like someone was walking by, because of the change in atmosphere and what you hear, and that feeling like something's approaching because the steady growing of your imagination amplifies your awareness of it.
She listened, and laughed, reminding me childishly of a poem from an old story that goes,
Tossing and turning
because something's in the air,
If your pals can't sleep
the Desmod is there."
I don't think the poem did me much good. That old campfire story about the Desmod takes place right HERE, out in the forest. It bothers me mostly, I guess, because people are saying they've seen it now. The story goes that it came from the caves deep beneath the prison, and now stalks the forest at night, slowly, using it's freaky eyes to stare at campers through the bushes, keeping them awake for hours without them knowing it's there.
I only have a little ink left, so I'll finish here. Last night we wanted to go sleep on those couches on the library's third floor, where we feel more secure, but those miners from the city were spending the night up there because they're too afraid to sleep in their mine at night on the 13th. The wierder among them told me it's because something has been scaring them. I guess they're scared because the reports of "something's outside my window" are back, and because they sleep in a... well, cave. Right now I'm on the third floor writing on one of the couches. Sister's across the rug, asleep on the other couch. There's a large, beautiful orange moon outside flooding through the big windows onto the floor, and some low clouds passing by.
And if there is a Desmod, it's somewhere in those trees watching me, right now. Because the night's almost over, and I haven't gotten a wink of sleep. |