From her position on the roof of the graveyard mansion, Robyn watched as its various inhabitants moved about their daily lives. There was Boo floating about the fierce looking gargoyles. Not to far away was Mereru, who was slinking off to some unknown calling in the swamp. Even some of the solitary phantoms were out and about this evening!

Robyn absentmindedly stroked Darcy (a rather runtish white rat she had named after a character from one of her favourite books) while she watched as the sun slowly sank low over the distant mountains.

Darcy’s leg gave a sudden twitch as he began to doze off, no doubt dreaming of some farfetched adventure. Robyn silently waited a few more minutes for him to drift off into a deep sleep, and when she was sure that he wouldn’t wake, she gently lifted him up off of his position on the cold roof tiles of the graveyard mansion.

She drifted down to the ground, and manoeuvred the maze of mausoleums until she came to one with a rat’s face etched into the stone. Carefully Robyn entered and placed Darcy into one of the unoccupied nooks in the far wall, this rock structure had been the residing place of the graveyard’s rodents since Mereru destroyed their previous home in a fit of frustration. So far it had kept the rats safe from the weather and out of Mereru’s dangerous, if not rather short, reach.

Robyn watched on as the menagerie of rats slumbered, she missed the regular sleep of the living. As she was a ghost and possessed no corporeal form she only needed to rest once in a blue moon, simply rejuvenating her spirit and soul as apposed to the extra aspect of an easily exhaustible body.

It was full dark now, the stars shining through the blackness. Robyn silently left the rat’s nest and began making her way towards the Ghost Clock Tower, which was where she kept her hidden stash of books, allowing her to keep them mould-free and undamaged. As she glided past the Graveyard mansion she heard a rather loud crash, accompanied by a terrifying yell. Not wanting any trouble, Robyn hurried along and soon she reached the vine-covered base of the imposing clock tower. The large Obelisk was made of dark mud brick, with moss and lichen growing in the cracks between bricks, and the clock itself had been broken more than twenty years before; in the late 80’s, the tower was hit during a freak lightning storm, melting all of the inner workings of the clock. From being immobile for so long, many woodland creatures had made their homes in the now rather grimy clock face, and though they spoke about it, no one ever actually got around to replacing the clockwork.

Robyn phased through the perpetually locked door leading to the innards of the tower, but if she’d looked carefully she may have noticed that the lock had three long scratch marks on it. As she looked towards the cupboard in the corner, Robyn shrieked! All of her books had been ripped to shreds! “MERERUUUUU! I’M GOING TO KILL THAT BLOODY CAT!” she screamed, ever since she had taken the rats under her wing Mereru had been out to get her. She rushed over to the tattered pile of pages to see if anything could be salvaged, but Mereru had done his job too well. Every single page had been ripped beyond repair, and even Robyn’s stash of super-secret-special books that she kept behind the cupboard had been found and destroyed. Robyn fell down to her knees began to sniffle, gathering up what remained of her beloved books and hugging them to her chest.

After crying herself out, Robyn scrunched her fists up into balls and stormed out of the tower, marching towards the mansion, hoping to ask Miro where Mereru might be found. When she reached the imposing front doors of the castle, she raised up her fist and slammed it against the wood three times, steam practically pouring from her ears. “MIIIIROOO! WHERE IS THAT BLASTED CAT!”

After a short pause, a rather worried looking Miro opened the door. “Robyn? What’s wrong?” she asked nervously, eying Robyn’s clenched jaw and balled fists. She hadn’t been this upset since Caster had turned all of the rats in the graveyard invisible and releasing them into the forest of the trees as tall as titans back in the 50’s.

“Oh I’ll tell you what’s wrong! That demon you call a cat has destroyed ALL of books, you hear! ALL OF THEM!” Robyn shrieked, spittle flying from her mouth. She pushed past Miro and entered the mansion’s foyer, having spotted the little demon sitting in the corner. As Robyn stomped over he casually licked his paw and looked up at her, “May I help you, Rat Lover?” he purred maliciously.

Robyn fumed at his coolness, “No you CANNOT help me! What did you do to my books, you son of a witch!?” she screamed and pointed an accusing finger at Mereru.

“My, what a temper you have!” Mereru laughed casually, “And I thought you were supposed to be the quiet one.” he continued in a voice like poison.
“And about your books, I have absolutely no idea what happened to them, maybe those rats got in and chewed them up!” he purred with mock sympathy, smirking up at Robyn’s tense figure.

“And of course that would explain the cat hairs I found?” Robyn growled, holding up a short black hair that had become lodged onto the front of her dress. “I demand that you replace my damaged property!”

Mereru narrowed his eyes, “And why, pray tell, would I do that?”

Five minutes later…
“Fine, I’ll do whatever you want!’ Spat Mereru as he floated along the river. Robyn had shoved him in a basket and thrown it into the middle of the rushing waters, and she was now hovering above him, ready to accept a ‘yes’.

“Aw, now that wasn’t too hard was it?” she said in a mocking voice as she flew the basket back over to the riverbank. As she set it down, Mereru hissed and glared at her, Robyn just smiled.

A couple of hours later…
Robyn watched on as Mereru returned to the clocktower, placing another stolen book at her feet. He glared at the spray bottle in her hand but said nothing; the deal was that if he stayed silent and replaced every single copy of Robyn’s books she wouldn’t need to use drastic measures. So far he had only managed to find five of the hundreds of books; it would take days to find the rest!

Robyn smiled; this was going to be fun!