Chapter 9

Tuesday - Evening April 21st

"Shoot." I frowned as I walked around the stacks of books. There were thousands of them! I didn't know exactly what I was looking for, and even if I did, I wouldn't know where to find it.

Well, I'd already decided to find out about that Walpurgis Night thing. Saeki and her friends had mentioned it the previous day. It had something to do with the ceremony from twelve years before. That meant it had something to do with the book. So far as starting places were concerned, that seemed as good as any.

"The spirits of the Night of Walpurgis?" I muttered. Is that what she'd said? It had sounded familiar at the time, but I couldn't place it. I'd heard of Walpurgis before, and recently, but where?

I looked in a Japanese dictionary, but couldn't find the word listed. I tried a different one, still with no luck. Maybe it's not a real word, I told myself. How was I supposed to find out about something that didn't exist? I furrowed my brow, trying to spell the word in English without the help of paper and pen. If I could try looking it up in English, I thought, I might stand a chance.

"Oh. Hello," someone whispered. "Minase, right?"

I turned my head to see the startling vision of Rika Shiraki. She still wore her school uniform and looked as beautiful as ever. I shouldn't have been surprised to find her in the library. The girl got straight A's in school, after all, but seeing her anywhere was like getting kicked in the balls by an angel. It hurt a lot, in the good way.

"We meet again," she said with a smile.

"What a coincidence," I managed to reply. "You look really great."

"I do?" Her smile changed to a look of bewilderment. "In my school uniform?"

"I mean, you always look great." I frowned. "Sorry."

"It's okay," Shiraki decided, and her smile returned. "It's nice to be complimented anyway. Thank you."

"Your welcome," I said, feeling like a complete moron. The girl probably knew exactly how gorgeous she looked, but at least she wasn't stuck up about it. That's one of the reasons everyone liked her so much.

"Are you here doing research?" she wondered.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Actually, maybe you could help me with it. Have you ever heard of something called Walpurgis Night?"

"Yes, I've heard of that," she said, making it sound as if it was no big deal at all.

I knew Shiraki was smart, but all the same, her quick reply surprised me.

"They mentioned it the other day at the Music Appreciation concert," she explained. "You were there, weren't you?"

"The concert? Yeah," I said. "Of course. The whole school was there."

"Well, that's where I remember it from. One of the movements from the Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique was called Walpurgis Night's Dream."

"Really?" I blinked at the girl. "You must be really smart if you can remember something like that!"

"I love music," Shiraki replied, obviously enjoying the fact that someone appreciated her mind, instead of just her awesome body. "I think there's a scene in Faust with the same title."

"Faust?"

"By Goethe?" she said. "It's pretty good. You should read it. Oh! Wait a second. I think I still have the program from the concert."

I waited while she opened her book bag, digging through it and finally retrieving a pamphlet.

"Found it!" she said, thumbing through it. "See? I was right. The Fifth Movement of Symphonie Fantastique No .14 by Berlioz ... Walpurgis Night's Dream."

She held the pamphlet out for me, but someone else took it from Shiraki's fingers.

"What are you two looking at?" Saeki wondered. "Walpurgis Night?"

She made a face at me while Shiraki glanced at her watch. "It's getting late. I'd better get going."

"So soon?" Saeki asked, but not in a warm way. Evidently, she was one of the few people at our school who didn't like Shiraki.

"Yeah, I'm afraid so," she said. "You can keep that if you want, Minase. I don't really need it for anything."

"Thanks, uh ... Rika."

"Bye!" She waved at me, ignoring Saeki completely. I wasn't sure what she might have thought of me using her first name, but I guess it didn't bother her.

We watched her walk away, or at least I did. Saeki was more interested in staring at me.

"Rika?" she asked, not masking her curiosity at all.

"What?" I shrugged. "She's President of the School Council. Everybody knows her."

"Whatever," she sighed, looking back down at the pamphlet.

At first I thought Saeki might be jealous, but she didn't seem to care at all. That seemed kind of strange, but only because I'd gotten so used to Imari smacking my head or calling me a pervert if I even looked at a girl ... Including her, sometimes. It was kind of nice not having to defend myself for a change, except that only meant that Saeki really didn't think of me as a boyfriend. So it sucked too.

"Why would Shiraki give you this?" she asked, and then decided to be more specific. "I mean, why do you care about Walpurgis Night?"

"I don't know," I said. "I heard you mention it yesterday, and we were talking about the concert, so..."

"You want to know the story?" Saeki asked. "It supposedly true."

"There's a story?"

"Isn't there always?" she teased me. "A young man, a musician, fell in love with a girl who resisted his affections. After suffering from despair, he has a strange vision in which he kills the woman. He's arrested and taken to the guillotine, where they chop off his head."

"Ouch!"

"At his funeral, demons and monsters gather around his grave for a diabolical celebration," Saeki continued. "The woman he loved and killed appears, but she too is a demon. She's delirious with joy and joins the others in a wild orgy lasting throughout the night."

"I see, um ... An orgy, huh? Cool." I nodded. "So what does that have to do with the ceremony twelve years ago?"

"Are you really curious?" Saeki asked. "Or are you just joking around?"

She had a suspicious look in her eyes and I didn't blame her. We'd argued several times already about magic, but that had been before I'd found the book. I couldn't tell her everything, of course, but if anyone could help me find the information I needed...

"I really want to know," I said. "Look, I don't know what to believe. You predicted that Ito would be embarrassed, right? Maybe there's something to all that magic stuff."

"So now you think magic is real?"

"I didn't say that!" I protested, not wanting to make her too curious. "But if it is real, this is your chance to prove it. Teach me about magic."

"Heh!" Saeki laughed, which seemed completely out of place in the silent library. Perhaps I'd laid it on a little too thick for her.

"What's so funny?"

"I'm not sure I believe you," she said. "Is that your only reason?"

"Yeah ... No," I sighed. "I want to know you better too. If you're into this stuff, then..."

"Now that I can believe," she decided, pursing her lips and looking pleased.

I guess all girls like to be complimented and I'd already figured out that Saeki could be somewhat vain at times. She tried to hide it, I thought, but she had an air of superiority that couldn't be missed. I hadn't lied to her anyway. I really did want to know her a lot better, so if she could help me learn about magic, it would be like killing two birds with one stone.

"Okay," she said. "Follow me. If you want to learn about magic, there are some books over here."

"Is that how you learned?" I wondered, watching her ass move beneath her skirt.

I blinked when I realized her inner thighs were still wet. Thin, milky juices were trying to soak into her stockings and my semen contrasted sharply with the black nylon.

Saeki turned her head to answer, but caught me staring instead. "See something you like?" she asked. "I took my panties off in the bathroom."

"You did?" I swallowed hard, and she only giggled. Whatever she thought of me as boyfriend material, Saeki definitely enjoyed her teasing.

"All of the books here were specially requested by me," she explained, sweeping her hand along a shelf labeled Occult. "Most of them are very expensive, so I have to use the library as much as possible."

"You don't have any books of your own?" I asked, thinking I'd gotten seriously lucky when I'd found the black book in the basement. The ones on the shelf looked new and hardly used.

"I do," Saeki said. "I have a good collection, but it grows slowly. So, what exactly are you looking for?"

"Exactly?" I shrugged. "If I knew that, I'd have to find some other excuse to hang out with you."

"Right!" She rolled her eyes. "I think I invited you. Remember?"

"But I'm too nice."

"You won't be for long if you're serious about magic," Saeki said. "It isn't for weaklings."

I frowned at that, wondering if she'd just insulted me. Probably not, but it definitely sounded like a warning.

"There's different kinds of magic though. Right?" I asked. "Like black magic is bad and white magic..."

"Is good?" She shook her head. "I think it's all just magic. Like any other kind of power, it can be good or bad depending on how you use it."

"That makes sense," I decided, but I had to wonder where the power was coming from. Didn't that have something to do with it as well?

I wasn't sure and I had enough on my mind anyway with Saeki standing so close to me. She'd pulled a book off the shelf, holding it open as we stood shoulder to shoulder. I could smell her pussy still drooling our intermingled juices. She filled my nose with a rich, sexual odor that kept my cock aching in my trousers. Added to that heady musk, Saeki's skin smelled of sweat, a slightly sour aroma that I found almost unbearably attractive. I wanted to lick her body from head to toe, front and back.

"I've tried a couple of these spells," she told me. "I couldn't get any of them to work though."

"That's too bad," I said, and she gave me a sharp look as if I might be teasing her. The weird thing was, I didn't know if I meant it or not, but I tried to look like I did.

Saeki smiled when she saw I was serious. "Yeah," she agreed. "I was disappointed, but I'm not going to give up that easily."

"Is there a book about magic symbols?"

"Um..." She looked over the shelf, replacing the book she held and selecting another. "This one is pretty good. It's sort of an encyclopedia of magic."

"I didn't know it was such a big subject," I half-joked, taking the thick book out of her hands. "A heavy one too, I guess."

"That's one of the books I wish I could afford," she sighed. "It's probably the most expensive one."

"Useful too, I bet."

"Very useful," she agreed. "But it's a reference book, so it can't be checked out."

I flipped through the pages and Saeki was right. That book, appropriately titled The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology 3rd Edition, had all the information I could have wanted. I looked up Pentagram and found five full pages devoted to the subject, with numerous illustrations and references to other articles. I wondered if Walpurgis Night was in there, and sure enough...

"Walpurgis Night, occurring between sunset April 30th and sunrise May 1st, traditionally midnight, when witches gather for a feast hosted by Lucifer, or other Principle Demon. Popularized by Goethe's depiction of a witches' banquet in Faust. According to legend, on the last night of April all of the witches and sorcerers from around the world gather at the top of Mt. Brocken in the Harz Mountains of Germany.

"The legend is derived from an early 11th - 12th century Catholic feast celebrating St. Walpurgis, which was held on the last day of April. In a flamboyant and largely inaccurate history of Mittlemarch, published in 1512, the influential Frenchman Jean Reynard de Rousseau confused the saint with the pagan goddess of fertility, Waltburg. This resulted in the widespread belief that witches and demons were most active on the night in question.

"Numerous ceremonies have been described over the centuries since Rousseau's history appeared, nearly all of them discredited by reliable sources. The notable exception is a ceremony by which a gate to Hell may be opened at midnight on April 30th allowing mortals and demons to freely pass between the two realms. According to Crowley, this ceremony is detailed in the Bible Black, a 15th century compilation generally credited to Pico Della Mirandola."

"Bible Black?"

"What's that?" Saeki narrowed her eyes.

"Nothing," I said, turning pages quickly. "This is an interesting book."

"Well, you've only got about a half-hour to enjoy it," she said, glancing at the clock. "I'm going to go over there. I need to look something up."

"Huh? Oh. Sure," I agreed. "I'm just going to look at this for awhile."

"Bible Black," I read to myself. "A compilation of spells, ceremonies, and other magical interests attributed to the Italian humanist and philosopher Pico Della Mirandola (1463-1494). The book, most often referred to as Bible Black, is considered a rumor by most authorities of the occult, despite claims of ownership by such personalities as Mezmer and Crowley.

"Several references to the book's existence are found in the unpublished memoirs of Doctor Polidori, noted occultist and close friend of Lord Byron. In his writings, Polidori declares that a Bible Black was used to summon demons by himself, Byron and his half-sister Augusta, and Percy and Mary Shelley while on a sojourn to Lake Geneva in 1822. It was during such a ceremony, Polidori insists, that Byron impregnated his sister, sacrificing her virginity to Lucifer. The two were secretely married shortly after the birth of their child the following January.

"Perhaps the strongest evidence for the existence of the Black Bible appears in the Official History of the Holy Roman Empire in connection with the decision by Pope Clement V to dissolve the Knights Templar in 1312. A book, described as black in color with a silver pentagram and sword inlaid on the cover, was taken as evidence of heresy and witchcraft at the trial of the order's grand master, Jacques de Molay. Under torture, he later confessed to blasphemy and devil worship and was burned as a heretic."

That was my book! I had the Bible Black in my bag and I looked down to make sure it was still where I'd left it. Whoever had written that encyclopedia didn't know everything! The book wasn't a rumor at all. As I remembered how different the pages were, in size and language, I could see why it might be called a compilation. That Italian guy hadn't put the book together, however, not if some French guy had been using it a hundred years earlier.

I looked up Mirandola, but there wasn't much of interest there. It did say he had an extensive library and was into witchcraft and magic. It would make sense to suppose that he'd have the interest and ability to put a serious magic book together, if one needed an explanation. Knowing that Bible Black was real, I thought Mirandola had simply gotten his hands on the book and possibly taken credit for something he didn't do. Or history had given him the credit after he was dead. Either way, it didn't really matter to me. The black book was real. It was even in an encyclopedia of the occult!

"Bible Black," I said aloud, softly just to hear the words. It had a name now, a history, albeit brief and contradictory.

I glanced around and saw Saeki with the librarian, an older woman who seemed eager to help the girl with whatever she needed. Probably ordering more books she couldn't afford to buy, I thought, and as I looked at the book in my hands, I had an idea. Dropping to one knee, I set the encyclopedia on the floor and opened my book bag. Whether my plan would turn out to be brilliant or the biggest mistake of my life, only time would tell ... and luck.

Three minutes later I crossed the library with the Bible Black under my arm. It was nearing closing time, almost five o'clock, and most of the patrons were busy gathering their things, or checking out last minute selections. Everyone seemed to be busy and my only obstacle was an elderly man who must have volunteered to be the library's unofficial greeter. I couldn't imagine anyone getting paid to share his paternal smile and remind people to remain quiet. He doubtless guarded the umbrella stand as well, I thought, returning his curious gaze with a polite bow.

"What's that under your arm?" he asked. "Have you forgotten to check that book out?"