The Haunting

Emily stared down at the book she was holding with her hands. It didn't seem to have any obvious genre stickers anywhere on its cover and therefore, she had no idea at all where she was supposed to shelf it. She thought about asking on of the other librarians - all of whom were currently downstairs - about what she should do but she didn't want to bother them. They had jobs too, after all. Plus, Emily figured they were probably busy tending to patrons and doing other librarian duties. Then, after a long time of some careful consideration and pondering, Emily finally went downstairs to find her boss, Penny. She eventually found Penny on the work computer in what was now the computer room.

"Penny, what do you want me to do with the books that still don't have any genre stickers on them?" Emily wondered.

"Bring them to the front desk and we'll put the stickers on their spines." Penny replied.

Emily nodded and, after thanking Penny for the help, she headed back upstairs to do the rest of her weekly tasks. When her shift was finally over, Emily went back to the lobby - expecting to find the other librarians packing up for the day - and found that the library was now closed. All the lights were off, and the door was locked from the outside. Panicked, Emily ran to the back doors - only to find that they, too had been locked.

Emily sighed. She ran as fast as she could over to the pay phones, hoping to call somebody for help. When she picked up the receiver for one of the phones though, instead of the usual operator tone, Emily heard nothing but a deafening silence. The phones, unfortunately, were deader than a door nail.

She ran back upstairs and to the large reading room where there was a couch that she could sleep on if she so desired. First though, she would have to figure out how to get there. The library was basically like a maze right now. It was too confusing. Even for the librarians who had been working there for years. Emily seemed to be constantly discovering new places she could visit for a moment or two of silence and solitude.

"But where the hell am I?" Emily wondered aloud, not expecting to hear an answer.

"Why you are in the library's lobby, of course, my dear." A disembodied voice answered her.

Emily shook her head. She was sure that she was hearing voices and imagining things now. Why, if she didn't know better, she would even say that the library had answered her rhetorical question. Perhaps she had just worked a little too hard today.

That didn't actually matter, though. She knew that she was inevitably trapped here in the library. At least until they opened again. And that wasn't going to happen until January 3rd of next year.

Emily would be dead by then. Would her family even care? They had only adopted her and her sister, Katherine because their younger brother, Brian had refused to leave the group home unless they went with him to a new family. But now, unfortunately, Brian was dying. He had been dying for months. On July 11, just a mere week before his eighth birthday, Brian had been diagnosed with lung cancer.

"I wish I could just go home right now. I want to see Brian." Emily started crying. She wiped her tears and quietly laughed at herself. It was ridiculous for her, a mature seventeen year old girl to feel homesick when she practically had no home at all.

"You will be home with God before this is even over. We will make sure of that." The voice Emily had heard earlier announced. A bright, orange, mysterious looking, glowing light started dangerously flying at Emily. It was as if the library were alive and didn't want her here. That was ridiculous though. It was a place. It couldn't have any feelings.

"We? Who the hell is we?" Emily asked the spirit. The spirit cackled evilly. The walls seemed to be collapsing in around here. Also, as if an earthquake had suddenly taken place, the floor and the books in the stacks and shelves started to shake.

Emily trembled with fear. This was definitely not real! Or was it? Emily was sure that these things only took place in supernatural and mysterious novels.

The library had always seemed a bit frightening with its dark hallways and hidden staircases. But now, it was even more terrifying than usual. The night outside the building was as black as death. Strange noises filled the night. Emily knew this was it! She would end up dying before the night had even turned into morning. That had already been foreseen by Emily when she was a little girl.

She just hoped her death wouldn't happen too soon - not a mere month before Emily would have her eighteenth birthday and be a legal adult. She wanted to age out of the system before her foreseeable death happened. That way, she would know that her brother was cared for by a loving, happy family who wouldn't dare abandon such a sick kid. Still, with everything that had happened to her in the last year, how could that even wait?! Surely it was practically inevitable by now.