Balloons (Wattys2017)

Chapter 6

"S-Sparrow, you're i-in great d-danger." Nomed warned.

"What do you mean?" Sparrow asked, worried.

"Y-you told t-the Daemon n-no. T-that's like t-telling D-Death you're n-not going t-to die." Nomed whimpered.

"So you're saying I should've said yes?" Sparrow asked. Nomed shook his head violently.

"N-no, I-I just...I-I mean..." Nomed couldn't figure out what to say. Sparrow calmed him down by placing a hand on his shoulder reassuringly.

"It's ok, is there anything I can do to stop this? To stop the Daemon?" Sparrow asked. Nomed shrugged his shoulders nervously.

"I-I'm not s-sure." Suddenly, an idea came to Nomed. "t-the library."

"What about it?" Sparrow asked confused.

"T-there are b-books about t-the Daemon i-in the library!" Nomed exclaimed. Sparrow's eyes widened. She remembered all the books and newspaper clippings she saw in the school's library.

"Nomed, you're a genius! I can figure out the Daemon's origin and maybe find if there's a way to stop it!" Sparrow exclaimed shooting up to her feet. Nomed looked up at her and smiled warmly, glad he was being useful to someone.

Sparrow hugged Nomed tightly, catching him off guard. He slowly hugged back and smiled. Sparrow let go of him and looked at him.

"Will you be ok by yourself?" Sparrow asked. Nomed nodded his head.

"Y-yeah...i-if you find a-anything or n-need help, I-I'm always available." Nomed said, flashing a warm smile to her. Sparrow returned the smile, hugging him one last time before going inside the school.

Closing the door, Sparrow turned around to see Ms. Megan with a very angry expression.

"And where were you, Swan?!" Ms. Megan yelled Sparrow looked at Ms. Megan with a deadpan look.

"Laundry." Sparrow stated bluntly

"That doesn't answer my que-" Sparrow interrupted Ms. Megan immediately without hesitation or second thought.

"Yes it does. I went to the town to do laundry. Now move out of the way please." Sparrow said, going from an attitude to a polite tone. Ms. Megan's face turned as red as a tomato by Sparrow's rudeness, not even realizing Sparrow had already gone.

She walked into the dusty library, coughing slightly. The shelves were broken or crumbling and filled with cobwebs. Several pieces of paper were sprawled all amongst the floor, some stained, others just covered in dirt. Each shelf was labeled with different topics. It wasn't until 30 minutes later, she discovered a section full of nothing but mythology, fables, folklores, demons, spirits, and the history of Nehalem, Virginia.

She stacked each book in her arms and carried them to a dusty table, dropping them onto it to cause a large puff of dust to get pushed to her face. She coughed once more and began to take book by book, searching for even the smallest clue of the Daemon.

Two weeks have passed and Sparrow has kept in touch with Nomed via visiting him every week at least twice. Both found very little about the Daemon, but it was more than what they had to work with before.

"So, the creature that took the girl and made her into the Daemon is called Vaira. A demonic bodiless spirit that lured people into the forest to get lost, but for some reason, it made the girl a creature like itself." Sparrow explained, showing Nomed a book she found titled: Folklore and Fables of Witchcraft. Sure enough the Daemon was mentioned, but nothing more was said. The rest of the page was torn out.