Important Information

Casey furrowed her brow in frustration as the desktop screen froze. She angrily shoved herself away from the library desk and busied herself with attempting to find an interesting book. Her forest green irises read one title after another in the fiction section, none of them appealing to her.

She sighed and sat in a comfortable chair, conveniently located an arm's reach away. She watched other people reading books and magazines, wishing there was a book in the entire library that caught her attention. Non-fiction was certainly not her genre, and she had never found a fiction book with an interesting title, or with a decent first chapter.

The perplexed fourteen-year-old girl went over to check the computerized catalogue of all the books in the library. She thought about what to search for, but did not know. Would an interesting book according to a program be attention-grabbing to Casey? She shrugged off the idea of looking for a book, grabbed her backpack, and headed home.

In ten short minutes, she was home and doing homework. Or trying to. Her mom walked into her bedroom and asked, "Did you accomplish the impossible feat today?"
Casey shook her head. "Is it even worth asking me that question anymore?" She looked down and scribbled an answer on her algebra assignment.
Her mother shrugged, then left without another word.

The next day, Casey was back at the library, finding information for an essay. While browsing the boring history books on her state, she tripped over a book on the floor. Her throat produced a disgusted noise as she got up. She bent down, picked up the book, and read the title: "Important Information." She noticed that it was a fiction book, but just set it down on the nearest table.

Her friend, Virginia, called that night around eight o'clock in the evening.
"Hey, Casey! Did you have fun at the library searching for history books?" she asked sarcastically, with a giggle at the end.
She replied plainly, "No."
"Did you find a book that you might actually like?"
"Nope." She paused for a second, then added, "Well, I did see this book that looked like it might qualify."
Virginia was dead silent for a moment. That came as quite a shock to her. Casey had never even thought about reading a book that she wasn't forced to read for school. "NO WAY!" she exclaimed, too loud for Casey's sensitive ears.
"VIRGINIA!" Casey screamed back. "Sensitive ears, hello!"
Her apology came out small, and almost in a whisper.
"It's okay."
"Maybe you should check out that book."
"Maybe..." Casey said, in a daydream-like voice. "Maybe I will."
Even though she could not see it, Virginia smiled at Casey. "Well, I gotta go. I still haven't done any of the giant stack of homework. Talk to you later!"
"Bye," she replied and closed her cell phone. She ran out to tell her mom the good news.
"Mom, mom, mom! I found the book!"
"Her mother was stunned; her jaw dropped.

"Are you sure?" Casey's mother asked, staring her dead in the eye and grasping her shoulders.
She looked down and bit her lip. "I-I-I think so. I don't know for sure, but the title and cover looked promising." Her eyes met her mother's once again.
"Okay. Check it out tomorrow."
And so she did.


Casey sat down with the book that Saturday and read it until her eyes were too tired to read another word. Only four, short chapters remained, but she was definitely not about to finish it that day.
On Sunday, she closed the book with a contented, yet saddened sigh. She was glad that she had found an interesting book, but she did not want it to end. It captured her total attention.


What was the book about, you ask? It was a story involving the paranormal. A very complicated and complex story that I cannot describe to you. The only thing that can be explained is that it was somewhat of a mystery, having to do with a girl investigating a ghost and other paranormal activity in some strange place that the girl did not even know of.

Casey told her mom and Virginia about what she could explain, but none of it made sense, because neither of those people had read the book. The story was constantly on her mind, and it was all she talked about.
When she went to turn the book back in, the librarian looked at her with a bit of confusion. "I've never seen this book before," she said, a little stunned.

Casey, too, was confused. "I thought you knew each and every book in the library," she stated, the confusion entering her voice.
The librarian shrugged. "I guess I know all the books now!" she said with a grin. She scanned the book, scanned it again, then glared at the computer's LCD screen in a slurr of emotions.
"It's not accepting the book. Saying that it doesn't recognize the barcode."
The woman behind the desk sighed and stuck in the book on a pile in the far corner of her desk. "I will make sure you aren't charged a late fee," she said.
"Okay," Casey replied. She made her way back to her house.


Once in her room, she noticed a CD out of place on her shelf. She fixed it without hesitation and without a thought.

The following day, a whole drawer of her clothes seemed to be reorganized. She tilted her head when she saw the drawer. "My mom probably got tired of it being messy," she mumbled to herself.
Yet the next day, the furniture in her room was rearranged. "Okay, this was definitely not my mom," she said as she began moving the furniture back into their proper places.


At seven thirty in the evening, Casey finished all the shifting of her things. She sat on her couch, half asleep, half awake, with the TV on low volume.
Her door opened just a crack, and she thought it was just her mom messing with her. She rolled her eyes and ignored it completely. But suddenly, her door swung wide open, and a strong gust of wind flew into her room.

Her eyes widened to their widest height and width possible.
"Hello, Casey," an ominous voice hissed.
"H-h-how do you know my n-name?" she asked, stuttering.
"I've been with you for a few days now," the voice ominously replied.
"Who are you? WHAT are you? Where are you?" Casey questioned what she could not see.
"I was a girl, just like you." And a pale figure formed in the doorway, silently answering her final question with an action.

The figure stood, as translucent as anything you could imagine. She looked, for a moment, like a regular teenage girl. But in the next second, her face completely changed. Her eyes glowed as red as fire, while her long hair was whipped this way and that by strong winds. She seemed to grow larger as she stepped towards Casey. Her overall appearance became that of a devil.

Casey began to cower at the height of the ghostly girl. Her knees began to shake, then her whole legs were engrossed in tremors. The tremendous winds began to whip all small objects around the room, but Casey and the spirit were not affected by the gusts, as if they were in the eye of a hurricane.
"The book!" the figure yelled. "You read the book and released me!"
Her head unsteadily and almost wearily nodded.
"The book!" the creature yelled, even louder this time. <P>The winds became harsher as the girl's voice grew louder, and more menacing. Still, Casey was not caught up in them.
By this time, the frightened fourteen-year-old was kneeling on the floor, cringing away from the awful presence she had set free.
"Leave me alone!" Casey cried, feeling as though the winds had swallowed her words as soon as they spilled from her mouth.


The corners of the figure's lips pulled up into a malicious grin, obviously signaling nothing good. "I can't leave you until you give me what I need!" Her voice now sounded like thunder raging with anger in the sky, pounding on Casey's sensitive eardrums.
She writhed in pain, covering her ears and falling to the ground, her eyes producing more tears than she thought possible. "What do you want?!" she screamed over the raging torrent of the swift air.


Just then, everything stopped. The wind came to a complete halt, everything falling back to the ground. Casey's shaking ended, too.

She lifted herself off the ground, mumbling, "Just a bad dream; just a bad dream." But when she looked up, she came to the realization that all she was going through was real. Her eyes locked onto the blood red pupils of the spirit. Her form had turned mostly back into the teenage girl she was once, except for those piercing red eyes.
Casey's hand shook a small bit, asking her question again. "What do you want?" She was attempting to seem brave and failed miserably. A tear streaked her right cheek, and falling to the ground.


The drop made the spirit let out a sort of hissing noise, mixed with a low snarl. It opened its mouth, showing nothing but what seemed to be a black hole, and inhaled and exhaled loudly.

"GIVE ME BLOOD!" it yelled out. Its voice turned to a hiss as it said, "Blood is-s-s-s what I need!"


Before she could say anything or move the tiniest fraction of an inch, Casey was pinned on the ground.
The spirit's hand turned into a claw. She let out a scream as the claw ripped across her chest, right above her heart.
The ghostly girl's black hole of a mouth was sucking blood out of the hole it had ripped before a single drop could be wasted.
Casey screamed, louder than she had ever before. Her next yell was smaller, as the total amount of blood in her body decreased. Soon, her cries were no more than a mumble.

The spirit looked down at her work: Casey was but a pile of white flesh lying on the floor. Not one drop of blood remained in her veins; after all, nothing should be squandered.
She stood up and, slowly and dramatically, blinked her eyes. Her eyes returned to their normal hue. Gradually, she became fainter, until she had vanished completely. 


***

The library had closed over thirty minutes ago, all the doors shut and locked. On the corner of the front desk, where "Important Information" had been put down, a gray haze appeared over the book and completely consumed it. However, before it fully faded away, two red eyes formed in the small blur of fog.
Within a couple seconds, the book dissipated into the misty cloud.