Weekly Short: The Clumsy Exterminator

She had a good mind to give him a permanent ban. Of all the things she’d endured while working here, a solid two thirds were brought about by him.

The imp stood there in the middle of the room with a can of bug spray and a swatter. She loved that he was sweet enough to bring her flowers but wished he’d looked for pests first.

Somewhere among the books was a spider. It appeared the same as any other spider, but one bite was enough to create an itch that spread across the whole body and lasted for many days. It had eluded the imp so long the librarian had joined in the hunt.

After much futile searching, the librarian began flipping through the phone directory, looking for magical pest control, when she saw the tiny creature descend on a thin silver thread, right in front of the imp.

He caught sight of it shortly after and having carefully lined him up, swatted as hard as he could. His squeal was barely heard over the librarian’s laughter. He stormed off to get something cold for his nose, unaware of the spider crawling up his back.