The Book of Death by Anonymous Page B

run. He knew that Ulrika would most
likely catch up with him before he reached the elevator, but he had to make a
break for it.
    He ran down through the rows of
lockers as fast as he could. Unfortunately that wasn’t particularly fast, and
the mop made things particularly awkward. He only made it past three lockers
out of a row of thirty, before he was confronted by Ulrika again. She had
somersaulted over his head and landed in front of him, blocking his only escape
route out of the locker room. Her face looked murderous, and a little shitty.
Her hair was unkempt and her eyes full of spite. This was one riled-up bitch.
Sanchez had no option but to swing his mop again. This time Ulrika was too
quick for him. She grabbed a hold of the mop handle and yanked it out of his
hands. Then she tossed it to the floor and revealed her vampire fangs once
more. She spat out a hiss and then launched herself at him again. Sanchez
cowered down and raised an arm to fend her off, but it was to no avail. Ulrika
pounced on his back and pushed him down to the floor, pinning him there with
her knee pressed into the small of his back. It knocked the wind out of him and
left him powerless to fight back.
    He felt her breath on the side
of his face as she leaned down to speak in his ear. ‘I’ve never liked you,
Sanchez. Now tell me what you’ve done with my Book of Death!’
      ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’
he protested.
    ‘You won’t be able to lie to me
when I rip out your jugular,’ she hissed.
    ‘Rick from the Ole Au Lait has
it.’
    ‘Bullshit.’
    ‘Honest.’
    Ulrika grabbed a clump of his
hair and pulled his head up off the floor, almost breaking his neck. ‘I don’t believe
you,’ she said sniffing his neck for a good spot to bite. ‘I can smell a lie
you know.’
    ‘Are you sure it’s not the shit
from the mop?’
    ‘You think you’re so funny,
don’t you?’ she hissed. ‘Let’s see how funny you taste, shall we?’
    Sanchez closed his eyes and
winced in readiness for whatever pain was about to follow. Ulrika let out
another sickening animalistic hiss right by his ear.
    A gentle thud followed.
    And then a longer hiss. A
really loud hiss . Sanchez suddenly felt like his back was on fire. The
burning feeling lasted little more than two or three seconds as the cowardly
bartender lay eyes closed on the floor waiting for the moment of truth.
    There was another gentle thud as
something landed on his back. Then he heard Flake’s voice speak out from behind
him. ‘Are you okay honey?’
    ‘Huh?’
    Sanchez opened his eyes and
peered back. Flake was stood over him. She lifted a thick brown hardback book
off his back and dusted it off.
    ‘What the hell?’ Sanchez asked
aloud, baffled at the lack of any sign of Ulrika Price. ‘Where’s the psycho
bookworm gone?’
    Flake tucked the brown book
under her left arm and held out her right hand to offer him a lift up from the
floor. Sanchez took a hold of her hand and hauled himself up. Flake was
smiling, looking very happy about something.
    ‘What’s going on?’ Sanchez asked
again.
    ‘I hit that bitch over the head
with this book,’ said Flake holding out the brown hardback book.
    ‘So where’d she go?’
    ‘She burst into flames and then
turned into ash. Look.’ She gestured at a patch of thick black ash, most of
which was settling on the floor, and some of which was no doubt on Sanchez’s
back.
    ‘What the fuck?’ Sanchez was
still confused.
    ‘This book kills vampires, I
guess,’ Flake said with a shrug.
    ‘But how did you know?’
    ‘I didn’t. My horoscope today
said that I should use a book for something other than reading.’
    ‘You do everything your
horoscope tells you?’
    ‘Oh yeah, I live my life by Big
Busty Sally’s horoscope.’
    ‘God bless Sally. Did she tell
you to come down to the locker room too?’
    Flake laughed. ‘No I just
followed Ulrika down here to try and help you. When I got here she was on top
of you. Then