Professor Gargoyle

FIVE





All he’d done was step through the narrow doorway from one section of the library into another. But Robert felt like he’d somehow switched speeds—as if he’d stepped from a moving escalator onto steady ground. He nearly stumbled over his own feet.

In front of him was a long, rickety staircase. As he climbed it, the wooden boards creaked and groaned beneath his feet; the handrails were covered with a fine layer of dust. At the top of the stairs was a patchwork curtain made from dozens of fabric scraps. Robert stepped around it and found himself in what appeared to be a large, dusty attic.

Quilts and blankets were tied to the rafters to keep out the drafts, but they weren’t helping much; the room was extremely cold. Here and there were a dozen mismatched bookshelves, seemingly placed at random. The books themselves had leather bindings and yellowed pages. Everything was covered in dark wood and steeped in long shadows.

Even stranger, the room had no windows, no fire exits, and none of the digital gadgetry found throughout Lovecraft Middle School. The attic was straight out of the nineteenth century.

Robert approached a round wooden table in the center of the room. On its surface was an open book, facedown. Robert shuddered. The book’s spine appeared to be an actual spine—the bright white vertebrae of what might be a snake or lizard.

There was no title on the cover. Inside were words Robert had never seen before. One chapter was called Gnopf-Keh. Another was called Gyaa-Yothn. The pages were filled with outlandish black-and-white illustrations of strange beasts, flaming skulls, and volcanic landscapes.

“Freaky,” he whispered, unzipping his backpack and placing the book inside it.

“If you’re looking for normal,” a voice said, “you’ve come to the wrong place.”

Robert whirled around and there was Karina Ortiz, dressed in a white T-shirt and blue jeans.

“What is this place?”

“It’s an attic,” she shrugged. “Pretty cool hangout, don’t you think?”

Robert studied the floor plan he’d received from Ms. Lavinia. There were sections of the library labeled NONFICTION and MEDIA ROOM but he didn’t see anything indicating an attic.

“The map’s useless, Robert.”

“That’s why I called to you for help. I’m lost.”

She smiled, flashing her braces. “You were lost. Now you’re with me. I know exactly where we are.” She patted the space on the floor beside her. “Why don’t you hang out for a little bit?”

“I’m in the middle of English class,” he reminded her. “I’m supposed to be looking for books.”

“Is that kid Glenn still bothering you?”

Robert felt another flush of shame. “You know, I’m sorry I snapped at you the other day. But I really don’t like to talk about Glenn.”

“You need to stand up to him. I know you’re scared of him. But the best way to deal with your fears is to face them head-on.”

This sounded like terrible advice to Robert. He knew that if he faced Glenn head-on, he’d end up with his head shoved into a toilet.

“Tell me something,” he said. “What are you afraid of?”

“Spiders.”

“No, I mean your worst fear. What’s the thing you dread more than anything else?”

“Seriously, it’s spiders,” Karina said. “I hate everything about them. The hairy legs, the twitchy bodies, the silk squirting out of their butts. They’re disgusting.”

Robert looked around the room. “Then maybe you should find a different place to hang out. This attic looks like it’s full of them.”

Karina shook her head. “Nobody bothers me here. It’s pretty hard to find. You’re welcome to stay as long as you want. I’ve got all kinds of cool stuff.”

The attic was full of things that a person might not expect to find in a school library: a dressmaker’s dummy, a half-strung cello, a battered aluminum rowboat. But the strangest of these was a large wooden door at the far end of the room. It was barricaded with three thick wooden planks. They were arranged haphazardly, as if they’d been nailed in a hurry.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“Emergency exit.”

It didn’t look like any emergency exit that Robert had seen before. “Why is it nailed shut?”

“You’re only supposed to open it in an emergency.”

Robert wasn’t sure he believed her, but he didn’t have time to ask a lot of questions.

“I better go,” he said. “Can you draw me a map or something?”

Karina smiled. “You won’t have any trouble getting back, Robert. I promise. Just walk down the stairs and you’ll find your way.”



Robert didn’t believe her, but he wasn’t going to stick around and argue. Something about the attic felt weird; it seemed like a forbidden place, and he worried they’d get in trouble if a teacher caught them messing around in it.

He zipped his backpack closed and slung it over his shoulders. It was much heavier now with the old book inside.

“And Robert?” Karina called.

He stopped. “Yeah?”

“I don’t know a lot of people here. So if you ever want to hang out, just come back to this room, all right?”

Robert stepped around the curtain. He descended the rickety wooden staircase and squeezed through the narrow doorway. Once again he felt the same tingling sensation—and, this time, the floor seemed to speed up beneath him, yanking him forward.