And then, something amazing happened. Something amazing and unbelievable.
It lifted itself up just a bit and spit out a wrapper.
A Skittles wrapper.
There was a long moment where neither of us moved. The black creature was waiting for me to do something, and I was waiting to do it. Eventually, I mustered up enough courage to reach forwards and pick up the wrapper.
As soon as I did, it turned itself around, dragging its heavy body back to the corner it had been hiding in.
I sat there for a long moment, staring alternatively at the wrapper, and then at the mess of blood that the beast had left on the floor, splattered with the occasional eyeball or tooth. I stared and I thought.
Eventually, I stood up.
I walked on shaking legs up the stairs until to the young adult’s aisle, plucking Little Women from the shelf. I walked back down to the basement, righting the chair that had been tipped over during my struggle with Chad. I sat down and, in a surprisingly steady voice, I began to read.
It was about two weeks later that my mom was cleared to come back to work.
Well, “cleared” might be a poor term. It’s more that she ordered the doctor to give his consent for her to return to work, otherwise she was going to find him and kill him in his sleep. Something to that effect. Hey, the women in my family are scary, what can I say?
I decided to stick around for a few more weeks, helping my mom out as she got back to her daily routine. She observed me carefully, probably trying to decide if I knew what she thought I knew.
One night as we were closing, she asked me, “Did something happen to Chad? He usually comes in at least once a day and I haven’t seen him at all since I’ve been back.”
I shrugged, thinking of the hour I’d spent cleaning up the basement so there would be no trace of the… incident. “Guess I don’t know, maybe he decided to skip town.”
“It does look that way, doesn’t it?” she said, watching me closely.
After a moment of silence, she said, “Would you like to read tonight, or should I?”
I answered her with a grin that told her everything she needed to know. “I think I’ll do it tonight. I still need to finish Little Women.”
My mom smiled at me, knowing that she’d found a fellow conspirator.
I know I should go back to my writing, but I’m finding it a bit hard to leave the library now.
After all, it’s not every day that you meet a new friend! 
Read Part Two Here.
