The Bookmobile - Prologue

The votes are in, and half of the voters wanted to get “The Bookmobile” about portal books and sexy ghosts running inventory. So here is the prologue. Free for all of you and then continuing in serialization, a chapter a week until the book is complete, in thanks for those who pay to support this newsletter.

May I introduce Dr Lorry….

By Tom Merritt

Prologue

The devil sat playing rummy with the creeping horror and the decapitated bride who had her head on straight for the moment. Two lurking horrors were deep in conversation with the ball-gown ghost on one side of the room. The rest of the workers at Dr. Lory’s Flying Haunted House of Horrors milled about trying not to be too nervous.

They all stopped their murmuring when a teenage boy in flannel and a baseball cap came walking out of the haunted house’s exit into the ship’s reception area. He was followed by Dr. Lory, the witch.

“I hope you enjoyed your time with us,” Dr. Lory said in a melodramatic voice.

“Sure, it was great,” the boy said. “Whoa. They’re all here. Great job.”

He gave a thumbs up and smiled. The crew of the haunted house muttered general expressions of thanks then went back to what they had been doing.

“Disembarkation is this way,” Dr. Lory said, motioning the boy to the open airlock that led to a set of temporary stairs leading back down to the Walmart parking lot. “Thank you again.”

When the boy was gone Dr. Lory closed the airlock door.

“You forgot to pull in the stairs,” one of the lurking horrors pointed out.

“I’ll get it later,” shrugged Dr. Lory. “I want some privacy for our talk.”

The devil laughed. “Privacy doesn’t seem to be a problem. That boy was the only visitor all day. Nobody’s out there.”

“Still. Everybody please pay attention.”

The murmuring receded and eyes, or what passed for them, turned toward Dr. Lory.

“As the king of lies just pointed out, our attendance has been down. And not just this week. I’m sorry to say that I am going to have to suspend the operation of Dr. Lory’s Flying Haunted House of Horrors.”

This caused a stir, but one of resigned annoyance, not surprise or anger.

“I know. But there’s no way around it anymore.”

“What happens to us?” asked an undead farmhand.

“You’ll all be saved with your current experiences. If I have need of you in any new enterprises, you’ll come back fully realized as the characters you are now.”

“Any chance of that?” the devil asked.

Dr. Lory shrugged. “I don’t know. Never say never. But my next move likely won’t be a virtual entertainment like this one, so--”

“So that’s a no,” the devil cracked a smile and shrugged.

“When?” asked the same lurking horror who had pointed out that the stairs had been left outside.

Dr. Lory shrugged again. “Now.”

There was the beginning of a gasp from a couple of the crew and then they all disappeared except for the ballgown ghost.

“Reb?” Dr. Lory said with a raised eyebrow. “Why are you still here?”

“What? Did you forget I’m not virtual?”

“No, but our agreement is when the rest disappear you disappear too. You know, to keep up appearances.”

Reb looked around and then licked her deep red lips and leaned forward a slight bit.

“Nobody’s here to see us,” she husked.

“Oh, stop it,” Dr. Lory said. “If you’re not going to fuck off, at least drop the character.”

“I’m sorry I like being a sexy ghost,” Reb said.

Dr. Lory sat down at the table the creeping horror had been playing rummy at and picked up the cards one by one.

“What’s a witch to do?” Reb said, gliding over behind the chair and pretending to rub Dr. Lory’s shoulders. Her hands just kept passing through shoulder blades with no effect.

“Stop it.” Dr. Lory waved Reb away.

“But seriously, what are you going to do?” Reb sat down in one of the other chairs.

“Books.” Dr. Lory nodded. “I think books.”

Reb furrowed her brow. “That sounds like a bad idea. Those books are dangerous. I should know.”

“No no. Not those books. Regular books. A Bookmobile, I think!”

“Not bad,” Reb smiled. “Where will I fit in?”

Dr. Lory smirked. “You won’t. Not with the customers anyway. But I’ll need your help with inventory.”

“A bookmobile spaceship run by a witch with a sexy ghost in charge of inventory. How could it fail?” Reb laughed.

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