#spookyboy | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

noodyl-blasstal · 18 days ago

Text

Can't Talk, Library's Haunted - Chapter 3

Taako gets his book, Kravitz gets attached, and they both learn some more about their spook book.

Read below or on Ao3. Missed this so far? Read chapter 1 and 2.

“It’s in the book repair cupboard.” Kravitz points lazily at what looks more like an ornate wardrobe than anything else, stupid smug look on his stupid handsome face.

“Are you going to crack it open, my dude?”

“I figure you’ll work it out. There’s no way I’m opening it if I’m going to be at risk from a terrifying spectre and, as you say, it’s your book and therefore your problem.” Kravitz smiles pleasantly and moves back to lean, arms folded, against the wall. “Go ahead.”

Taako pulls at one of the doors, it doesn’t move. He tugs again, nothing.

Kravitz snorts out a small laugh. “My mistake, I forgot to mention that it was locked. How silly of me.” The smile he gives Taako is painfully smug and Taako wants to kiss it right off. Kravitz was the worst. He points at a small key hanging on the wall next to the wardrobe. “You’ll need that.”

Taako rolls his eyes, grabs the key, and jumps back as the wardrobe gives a violent lurch. “Ah, you recognise ol’ Taako’s voice, do you?” He says cheerfully, kicking the base of the door. “How sweet!”

“What was that? What did you do?” Kravitz doesn’t sound afraid exactly, pissed off might be more accurate.

“Not me, my guy, told you you didn’t want this book.”

“Right, fine, the book’s haunted. Why the fuck is it angry at you. What did you do?”

“Kravitz! I thought we were friends, I’m offended.” Taako’s in his element now, spooky business means it’s performance time, and Taako knows how to perform! “I haven’t done anything to it yet, largely because I had to do some more research on how. But look, you’ve had the pleasure of my company for like ten whole minutes now, so you know I’m a delight.” Kravitz looks like he’s unsure about the validity of that statement, but Taako ploughs on regardless. “The thing is, with spookybois like this, they know. They get a vibe for when it’s time and they get extra spooky about it.” Taako fiddles with the key and the cupboard gives another violent shake. “You should duck.” He says to Kravitz and turns the key firmly.

He pulls the door open and steps behind it, using it to shield himself from the books that immediately fly out. Book spooks were nothing if not predictable and Taako wishes he hadn’t dealt with enough of them to know that. Judging from the loud ‘oof’ Kravitz clearly wasn’t willing to listen to his wisdom, but hey, Taako tried. “I told you so.” He says from behind the door, because Kravitz has been a bit of an asshole and therefore Taako’s allowed to be one right back. It’s only fair. He waits for the wardrobe to stop shuddering and grabs his chance to dart round the door. “Cut it out.” He snaps at the book as he grabs it from the shelf and pinches the pages shut. “You’re being rude right now, and you owe him an apology.” Taako points at Kravitz who’s looking particularly sorry for himself and picking up a variety of children’s books. Of course it was once again Mookie who armed the book beast, Taako isn’t sure why he expects anything else at this point.

“That hurt.” Kravitz says sulkily.

“Well you probably should have listened then, shouldn’t you? Taako doesn’t give orders for fun… well, not unless you ask nicely.” Kravitz drops the pile of books he’s been collecting and Taako tries not to feel too smug about it. He fails. Miserably. “C’mon kemosabe, you’ll need to open the boot tray for me when we get to the car, then you can go sit in it.” Taako throws his keys to Kravitz and they thud into his chest and to the ground.

“Taako, what the fuck is going on?”

“Spook book, we’ve been through this.” Taako starts walking. The book’s already starting to twist a little in his hand, testing his boundaries. Kravitz is a distraction, Taako knows it, the book knows it, but why shouldn’t he have an audience? Yeet a Ghost with Taako? Solve a Ghost? Sizzle a Spook? He could figure out the details later, go professional, make himself a household name and not just one that people in very specific conference circles know… Although it’s rare even there that anyone at the conferences realises he wrote the articles they’re referencing until he gives his keynote.

“You want me to come with you, while you deal with… that?” Kravitz asks.

“You set the conditions not Taako, sit in the car something something run away into the sunset together.”

Kravitz made a weird strangled kind of noise. “I didn’t think it was real.”

“Well it is, you in or not? If not, you’ve gotta put the keys back in my pocket.” Taako wiggles his eyebrows and his hips, it’s an impressive combination if he does say so himself, which he does.

Kravitz rolls his eyes, grabs the keys from the floor, and follows. “If I get ghost murdered I’m going to come back and haunt you.”

“Looking forward to it.” Taako sets off down the corridor.

“Do I need to do anything?” Kravitz asks, as he jogs to catch up, then slows and falls in line, matching Taako’s stride.

“Step one, get the car boot open for me. Step two, look handsome - you’re already way ahead of the game on that by the way. A++, top work.”

“Do you hit on all your exorcism assistants?” Kravitz asks.

“We’ve gone over this Krav, Taako doesn’t exercise. He does, however, do ghost whispering, and hitting on hot boys who seem like they’re enjoying it.”

Kravitz laughs and Taako snaps his attention back to the worryingly perceptive book which is busy testing his grip again. “Hey, cut it out!” It does. Taako sighs heavily. “Look, I’m gonna level with you, I came all this way, fought this dude to get you back, and now you’re trying to get away from me? It’s rude, is what it is. I’m here to help you kid, and I know you’re scared, but you gotta work with me. Taako’s out here doing his best.” Taako taps the book lightly on the cover and it seems to settle.

“Er… Taako? Kid? Helping? I thought you were trying to get rid of the ghost?”

“Yeah, from the book.” Taako isn’t entirely sure what Kravitz is struggling with here. “Right, crack the back open for me there, kemosabe? The key hole’s between “honk if you fear the heat death of the universe” and “My kid got kicked off the honour roll for eating all the other students.” Kravitz stares blankly at him.

Fine, Taako can give even more direction and not be impatient. “Underneath “I brake for hot guys” and above “mothman is real and he’s definitely gay.”” Taako adds, because he’s helpful. Kravitz looks like he’s going to ask more questions, Taako isn’t sure if they’re about the bumper stickers or the ghost, but he’d like not to have to answer either. “C’mon my guy, Taako’s time is precious, you don’t want an invoice from cha’boy.”

Kravitz deliberates for a moment longer, then Taako watches him shrug mentally and crack the boot tray out. Great, good, nice to know he takes direction eventually. “You can go sit in the car now, you might have to move some stuff off the passenger seat.”

“Can I watch?” Kravitz asks.

Ha! Taako knew he’d be into this shit, goth boy catnip. “Sure.” He says casually, and definitely doesn’t preen at all, not even a little bit. Kravitz wants to watch him work, Kravitz is interested in what he’s doing, and that’s cool and fine and he’s not going to be weird about it.

Taako keeps a firm hold on the book with one hand and uses the other to retrieve an ornate wooden box. He glances at Kravitz who’s watching, rapt. Good, so he should be. Taako dramatically flips the latch and the lid springs open. He passes a hand across the items because hey, Taako always puts on an excellent show.

Kravitz snorts with laughter.

“Got something to say, kemosabe?” Taako stops what he’s doing. How dare he? This is art, and Kravitz is over here yukking it up?

“Are…” Kravitz chokes slightly on another giggle. “Are those spoons? Are you going to fight a ghost with spoons?”

Taako rolls his eyes. This guy was the worst. Taako wanted to be teased by him forever. “Taako didn’t say anything about fighting the ghost, Kravity, keep up. Would you like me to do my job, or leave him to fling the rest of your stock at you as well?”

Kravitz abruptly stops laughing.

“As I was saying.” Taako says, then repeats the dramatic hand sweep.

“That wasn’t words.”

“You’re not words.”

“That doesn’t make any sens…”

“Sssh. Taako’s doing ghost art.”

Kravitz is opening his mouth to say something else, Taako’s not even looking at him he can just feel it in his bones, but then the book slips out of Taako’s hand and the pages flip open and Kravitz gasps instead. Taako manages to stick the landing and pretend that he definitely meant to do that. Kravitz doesn’t need to know he’s shocked too. The book hovers above the box and slowly, like a frog bobbing up from a lake, a shape emerges. At first it isn’t anything, just an intangible blob of barely there opacity, Taako can see straight through the blob to the pages below, but then the world wobbles slightly and there’s a newsboy hat, and it wobbles again and there’s big bug eyed windsor glasses on the face of a little boy who is peering out of the book. He tries not to grimace at the confirmation that he was right. Taako had known that there had been some kind of change of programming because the book sure hadn’t felt evil as fuck, just nervous, but he didn’t want to be correct about who was in there instead. This was definitely not the dude that was supposed to be in there.

“Hullo Sirs, are those my Grandfather’s spoons?” Says the ghost cheerfully, as if he wasn’t beaning Krav in the face with a book five minutes ago. Then adds more urgently. “May I have them please?”

“And where exactly are you planning to put them?” Asks Taako, guy who knows that ghosts don’t have pockets.

“I can just grab them and be on my way.” Says the ghost and a hand materialises as he lunges out of the book and straight through the spoon box.

“Uh huh.”

“Oh.” Ghostboy droops back into the book. “I didn’t consider this eventuality.” His voice is small and distinctly watery and Taako definitely didn’t get any training on how to cheer up a dead kid? Living ones were hard enough, Taako couldn’t make ghost cookies.

Kravitz looks about as useless as Taako feels, so he figures he’s on his own on this one. “Hey bubbleh, why don’t you tell Taako what’s going on and he’ll see if he can figure this out for you?”

“I’d assume you already know, Sir. On account of you having the spoons and all.”

He made a compelling point, but one that didn’t factor in the great book misplacement and resultant panic. Of course Taako did the research, and he definitely knew the spoons were probably a thing that could work if six other maybes were correct, but he might possibly not quite have gotten to the point where he knew what to do about it yet. Maybe. Not that anyone else needed to know that.

“Of course Taako knows what’s going on, but what if you don’t? Explaining it might bias you, so if you could just tell us the full story.”

The ghost’s eyes narrow and Taako can almost feel the little spook hands rifling through his soul and tugging at all of the tightly woven lies. “I’m not entirely sure that’s true, Sir.”

Oh, so he was going to show Taako up in front of Kravitz was he? Maybe Taako can just lob the book in the bin out back, collection should be tomorrow and he could just sell the spoons. “Do you want my help or not, kid?”

“My name is Angus McDonald and I’m the world’s greatest detective…” Angus starts, immediately cut off by a snort from Kravitz which swiftly turns into a cough when Taako gives him the death glare.

“Sorry… allergies.” Kravitz manages lamely.

“Oh no, that’s a terrible shame, Sir. Did you see Scheppegrell’s paper? It might be wise to use a handkerchief to cover your nose on the trolley car and maybe cut down any weeds near your house.”

Okay, interesting, definitely misplaced in time, which is standard really, but he definitely didn’t croak in the last few years. “Great advice, Ango, but back to the whole… you know…”

“Dying, Sir?”

“There’s no need to be so indelicate, Agnes. But yes, that. Also, I’m not Sir, I’m Taako.”

“Okay Sir.” Says Angus, and Taako could swear he sees him smile. Kravitz laughs again.

“Allergies still acting up there, Krav?” Taako glares as hard as he can muster, Kravitz smiles back big and wide and fates he’s hot, but Taako doesn’t have time to appreciate it right now. “So… world’s greatest detective?”

“Yes Mr Taako, Sir. My Grandfather lets me take cases as long as I keep up with my schooling, which I do. I solved everything too, people recommended me and the police even asked me to help…” Angus nods convincingly.

“Uh huh, uh huh. That’s cool and all, but can you tell Taako some more? Give cha’boy all the hot hot goss?” Angus looks perplexed, so Taako relents. “Can you tell Taako what happened? I need to know to help.”

Angus hesitates, then continues. “Things started to go missing from the house. It was a big house, Sirs, and my Grandfather was old, but I knew that neither of us were doing it and Mrs Mullins helped Grandfather since before I was born so it couldn’t be her.” He pauses. “Well, that’s what Grandfather said, but I did check anyway and she wasn’t responsible. It was little things at first, some food, some coal. Then it was Grandfather’s tie pin and a gravy boat, and more and more and more. I was nearly there, I was about to work it out, I just needed some more evidence…” Angus peters out and starts to sink back into the book.

“You good there, pumpkin?”

“...yes.” Says Angus in the nopest voice Taako has ever heard.

“Can you tell us what happened then, bubbleh?”

“I put coal dust by the doors, so I’d know which way they were coming in.” There’s a long pause. “They shouldn’t have been able to get into the basement without coming in one of the other doors. The windows were barred, you see.” A single pearlescent tear runs down Angus’ cheek, plops into the book, and disappears.

“Are you okay, Angus?” Kravitz steps closer, hands half out in the offer of a hug which he definitely can’t give.

Angus looks confused for a moment, then seems to shake himself out of it. “Oh certainly, Sir. I’m fine. Could I just please take my spoons and go?”

“That’s a nopearooni, little man.” They were back to ghost pockets.

Kravitz elbows Taako in the ribs at the same time Taako realises that Angus has started to cry in earnest. “What Taako means to say, Angus, is that we need to work out how to make sure you can take the spoons.” Kravitz says, soft and kind and reassuring. Who knew he had in him? Clearly gothboy had depths Taako needed to plumb.

Angus sniffles. “I don’t think he did, Sir.”

Kravitz sighs. “You’re right Angus, I don’t think he did either, but I’m saying that. We’ll make sure of it.” Kravitz turns to glare at him. “...won’t we Taako?”

Oh, oh, so Kravitz was going to make promises on his behalf and boss him about was he? He won’t be so smug when Taako drives away, this is Kravitz’s problem now, Taako can find another hot goth librarian to sulk at him no problem. “Whatever you say, handsome.” His stupid traitor mouth says.

“That’s right.” Says Kravitz, and fucking winks at Angus who has the audacity to giggle about it. Taako was going to bite Kravitz, and not in the fun way. “Now, Angus, I know this is hard for you, but if you tell us what you can remember then I really think it will help. After all, as a detective you know how important it is to have all of the evidence, don’t you?” Kravitz smiles an encouraging smile and Angus bobs slightly higher from the pages.

“I suppose that is true, Sir. Maybe I can solve it if you help me write everything down in my clue notebook?” Angus’ voice wobbles a bit, but Taako can hear a little hope sneaking through.

“Of course I will, Angus. We can use my notebook for now.” Kravitz pulls a moleskein from his pocket and Taako barely resists rolling his eyes when he uncaps a fountain pen too. There’s no way he didn’t emboss the ravens on the notebook himself. Bird nerd.

“And what’s Taako, a hot shelf? Idiot wizard who can’t do anything but hold a spook book?”

“Well, you might consider putting the book down, Taako. There’s a whole car right there.” Kravitz gestures politely and says it so mildly that it’s hard for Taako to know exactly how peeved he needs to be right now. He settles for mildly huffy.

“Oh, okay, Kravitz, you just want me to abandon the baby on the car boot do you? All alone, no one to support him.” Taako perches himself on the boot, open book cradled in his lap. “I don’t think so.” Angus giggles and Taako’s definitely winning this competition actually. Maybe Kravitz can get him dinner about it. “So, Agnes…”

“It’s Angus, Sir.” Says Angus, sounding a lot less watery and a lot more peeved. Perfect.

“That’s what I said, Ango, so now it’s working out what happened time. You keep talking and my gorgeous assistant Kravitz here, will keep track. Taako’s just going to rest his eyes.” Taako makes some fake snoring noises and Angus giggles. Nailed it.

“You noticed some things were going missing?” Kravitz prompts gently, rewinding the story to a more comfortable point, pen poised above his notebook. Angus nods. “And you used a really clever idea to work out how whatever was taking things was getting in?” He nods again, quicker. “And you realised that it was the basement?” Angus’ eyes are screwed shut as he nods again. Kravitz takes a moment to write in his notebook and Taako hears a soft whooshing noise of the kid trying to take deep, calming breaths.

“There was a few of them. Or… A lot of feet…” Angus stops abruptly for a moment, then starts again without finishing the thought. “I only left coal dust there because I spilled some and thought I’d clean it in the morning when I did the rest, but then, well, I got the prints.”

Kravitz waits for Angus to start talking again, but the pause grows too long. “That was a really clever technique, Angus.” Says Kravitz, eyes crinkling fondly. “I’m not sure I could have thought of it.”

“You can’t flatter me out of being afraid, Sir.”

Okay, so maybe it’s funny when the baby is mean as long as it’s not to him.

“Are you sure about that?” Kravitz asks.

There’s a long pause.

“It really was smart, I’d like to hear what else you thought of.” Kravitz adds.

Angus takes a moment to think about it and, not that Taako ever worries, but if he did he might think Krav had just blown it…

“Once I knew they were coming from the basement I needed to work out how many of them there were and if they had a way out. I inspected the outside of the house straight away, I assumed they wouldn’t dare move in daylight hours, and I was right. They couldn’t… er… didn’t. There wasn’t any other entrance I could find to the basement. The window bars were intact.”

“Did you go into the basement, pumpkin?” Taako’s trying his best not to wriggle or jump ahead, but if the baby is telling them what he thinks the baby is telling him, this is a twofer. The OG book bound could be easily summoned to where it switcheroo’d the kid and Taako needs Angus to get to the end of the story right now immediately actually thank you.

Angus freezes for a moment, his shape rippling slightly. Taako sees Kravitz surge forward as if to put a hand on his shoulder before realising he can’t and Taako’s stupid traitor feelings get fonder and less horny than they had been. That’s something he can ignore forever and ever actually. He feels bad that Angus is finding this hard, Taako isn’t trying to upset the kid with his questions but right now he needs to know exactly what they’re going to be walking into.

Angus nods.

Taako says nothing, just waits. Thankfully Kravitz seems to pick up on the vibe too.

“I waited until Grandfather went to bed.” Angus begins, hesitantly. Taako crosses his legs so he can settle the book into his lap more securely, it seems to embolden Angus slightly. “... I thought if I hid down there I could see what they were doing and how they were getting in, and I was right… I was right, Sirs.” Kravitz nods encouragingly. “I hid under a table, there was a cloth over it and a gap I could see through. They, well, there was a crackly noise and the air went funny and then he was there. He had a robe and a hood so I didn’t see his face. He went straight to the rug and pulled it up and he’d drawn some kind of sigil below it. Then he put the book on it, this one.” Angus gestures at the book beneath him. “... and scuttled off up the stairs. I, well, I thought I’d have time Sirs.”

“Time?” Asks Kravitz.

“Time to investigate, Mr Kravitz.” Angus replies, as if the only logical option in that scenario was to go and prod a book left on a sigil by a spooky dude with what sounded like too many legs who broke into your house and stole stuff; not staying rooted under the table or running for his life. “The sigil was definitely for summoning. Orroth, it turned out, but I didn’t know that until later.” Angus swallows, seems to deliberate on whether to say more, but Kravitz keeps up the gentle encouraging nods routine and that seems to push things in their favour. “I was looking at the book when he came back. I didn’t hear him, he just grabbed me, said it was perfect. He had the spoon box, ‘for after’ and he said something in a language I didn’t understand and threw me down on top of the book. It was really bright and there was a huge shape and… and then I was like this. The hooded man, he said Orroth’s name and a welcome, but then there was shouting, something about it being early and bindings, and there was a crunch and blood, I think? Or, it smelled like blood. And then… and, well… nothing. Then I was in the house, they kept looking for me, and I was right there, but they couldn’t hear me… They didn’t see me… Orroth was there too, I could feel him, I didn’t see him much, a few times he tried to get up the basement stairs but he couldn’t pass the middle. He was really angry about it so I just stayed quiet. Then they cleared the house out. I don’t remember all of it. I think it’s been a few weeks.” Kravitz gets all frowny and Taako can feel Angus tensing up. “Days?”

“I think you know it’s been a little longer than that, Angus.” Kravitz says. If he breaks the baby Taako’s gonna be furious.

“Yes.” Angus’ voice is small. “Probably more like a few months.”

Taako feels the mischief rolling off him, but Kravitz looks visibly sick at the thought of having to explain time to a ghost, so Taako steps in to help. “You’ve got this one, right, Krav?” Okay, so maybe Taako steps in to hinder, but it’s fun to watch, who can blame him?

Angus takes pity on Kravitz after he stumbles over his third attempt at starting a sentence. “It’s okay Mr Kravitz. When I really think about it, I’d estimate it has been at least a hundred years, probably getting towards two hundred... The cars, the buildings, none of this is familiar… It’s just easier not to think about it.”

“Okay bubbleh, in that case we need to hit up a different kind of library, then maybe go fight a demon for a bit, then we can shonk you right out of there. Easy peasy.” Taako grins winningly.

“I’m sorry, fight a what now?”

“Well how else do you suggest we de-book Agatha Raisin if we don’t use the demon to punt him out of there?”

“We could pull?”

Taako isn’t often speechless, and yet.

“What?” Kravitz’s lovely face creases in annoyance. “I’m trying to help.”

“Go on then.” Taako says. “Have at it. I’ll hold the book, you grab Ghosty McGhostBoy.”

Angus puts his arms out and makes grabby hands at Kravitz, unable to hide his giggles. “Won’t you please save me, Sir?”

Kravitz reaches out as if to grab Angus’ hand, then pauses. “Can’t touch ghosts.” He says, half to himself.

“Can’t touch ghosts.” Taako and Angus affirm together.

“But you threw the books at me! You must be able to touch some things.” Taako can’t deny that Kravtiz’s dedication to wrong-ness is impressive.

“That’s different Sir, it’s energy.”

Kravitz looks like he’s going to keep arguing, but Taako has questions now and his brain is itchy about it. “Have you tried to get out before, pumpkin? How far can you go?”

Angus’ hands grip the sides of the book and he pushes himself up to waist height. “I can get to here easily, Sir.” Legs materialise and swing over the edge of the book. “This makes me feel a little dizzy, but it’s mostly okay.” He pushes himself forward, legs pushing into the car, hands still on the book. “This is uncomfortable, but doable, but I can’t get any further. I tried once and the book sucked me back in. I’m not sure how long it took before I felt well enough to pop my head out again, but I’d rather not show you if that is okay?”

“Taako’s not gonna insist you get yourself knocked out about ghost science. Get back to a safe spot, we don’t want you hurt.” Kravitz nods his agreement, great they’ve made it to first base: caring for a ghost baby together. “Now Taako needs to go hit the books. You coming Kraveroo?”

“I have a job Taako.” Kravitz says indignantly, as if he hasn’t been hanging around in the car park for ages.

“Uh huh, and when does the library close?”

Kravitz pulls out an actual pocket watch and Taako hates him, he loves him. He’s awful, he’s wonderful. Duality of a man. “Oh. I shut five minutes ago.”

“Cool, wanna come do more library stuff and fight a scary demon guy then?” Taako bounces his eyebrows and hopes Kravitz doesn’t question what the double entendre is too hard.

“I have to shut down.” Kravitz is indignant again although Taako isn’t entirely sure what they’re supposed to be fighting about right now, but he’ll do his best.

“I have to get in the car.” Apparently they’re just tersely stating stuff they need to do.

“Will you wait for me?”

“How could I resist?”

Kravitz scowls and stalks off towards the library.

“I think he’s quite fond of you, Sir.” Says Angus from the book.

“Who wouldn’t be? I’m Taako.”

#Noodyl Writes #Who wouldn't be? He's Taako!

3 notes · View notes