Horror logo

The Library at the End of His Shift

An endless library

By PossumPublished 2 years ago 9 min read
1

Jacob was a simple man. He worked at the local convenience store, he didn’t have a partner, and he spent his evenings reading or playing videogames. He was content with the life he lived.

There was a customer that came into his store one evening when Jacob was covering someone’s shift. The co-worker just didn’t show up for his shift. No phone call or anything, so Jacob got a call to come in and cover. She was dressed in some odd attire for the area: a long, flowing, floral print blouse and a pair of plain black slacks. When he tried to make eye contact, it seemed as if they were blurred, like a photograph that was out of focus. He rubbed at his eyes and blamed staying up too long playing videogames.

The customer mentioned a building that she’d never noticed before, while checking out. She said it wasn’t very large and the doors were bolted shut, but he looked into a window and all he saw was bookshelves that seemed to stretch on forever.

Jacob thought the woman was just tired and her eyes were playing tricks on her. She gave him the address to the building anyway, and insisted Jacob go check it out when he got off work. Jacob said he’d consider it, finished checking the woman out and started cleaning for the end of shift routine.

Jacob was walking down the street he normally did when he went home, when he noticed: the building’s address was on this street. He saw the building coming up and it was on the corner where he normally took a right turn to his apartment complex. It occurred to Jacob that this was an odd occurrence, since he took this route every day for almost three months now and never noticed the building there.

Jacob went to take his turn when he heard a woman’s voice. When he glanced to the building again, the doors were open and there was a woman standing, beckoning him over. He had a split thought to ignore the woman and go home, but there was an odd sense of necessity to wander over to her. He gave in to the feeling of curiosity and went to speak with her.

The closer he got to the building, the blurrier his vision got. He felt faint. Something, however, kept pushing him. Like an invisible hand at his back, urging him forward. He could feel a pressure on his temples as he tried to force himself to turn around and flee the sight of this building and its resident. He could feel the blood in his veins burn as it flowed faster, he could feel his heart beating at the inside of his rib cage. He felt these things as his vision slowly just faded. He thought he saw, just for a moment, through the blur, the woman smile rows of jagged teeth, just as his vision faded to black and his mind went blank.

When Jacob woke and surveyed his surroundings, he was slightly astonished. He was surrounded by books, bookshelves and tables. When he stood up, he was a little dizzy, but managed to keep his feet. Jacob chose a direction and started walking. He thought he heard the falling of feet behind him as he walked, but when he turned around, there was nothing there.

As Jacob walked, he scanned the shelves, and every now and then, he’d hear what seemed like murmuring from the shelves and scuffling on the floor behind him. He chalked it all up to paranoia and tried to ignore it. He came across tables of varying shapes and sizes with stacks upon stacks of books on them. He sat down at one of them and started to feel like he was being watched, so he stood back up and continued his search for the exit.

He walked for what seemed like hours, until he finally stopped. Jacob began to doubt this library had an end to it. The man that stopped by the convenience store said he looked through a window, though. So there has to be walls, right?

He found a table and went to sit down, until he remembered he was in a library. Might as well check out the selection. Jacob walked over to one of the shelves and started to look. The longer he looked, though… The books didn’t look right. Some were kind of translucent with a fleshy feel. Some had veins. Some had what felt like heartbeats and all were slightly warm to the touch.

Jacob began to feel his stomach protest keeping his dinner down. He tried to suppress a scream, but his brain failed to process his instinctual reaction in time and he heard the foot falls again, this time they sounded booted. He turned and found what looked to be the body of a man in fatigues with the head of a book with several rows of pointed teeth. The man-book creature threw back its “head” and let loose a blood curdling scream; Jacob turned around and booked it with one of the strange books under his arm.

As Jacob ran, he heard other screams all around him and he began to duck and weave between tables and behind shelves as he avoided, sometimes narrowly, the clutches of what he began to call “the librarians”. It seemed like ages before the screaming stopped and everything began to slow back down. He started to hear what sounded like whispering. “Hey, are they gone?”

A little put off by the disembodied voice, he whispered back, “Yeah, I think so.”

“Grand,” replied the voice, “can you take me out of wherever you have me? It is absolutely fetid in here.”

Jacob dropped the book and leapt back about 2 feet and almost screamed again, but stopped himself this time. “Ow, goddammit!” the book exclaimed quietly. “Now pick me back up, I can’t move on my own. It’s been years, I reckon, since I’ve had the pleasure of having company.”

Jacob picked the book back up. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t exactly expecting a book to talk, but given what I just experienced, I don’t think I know what to expect anymore.”

“Nah, man it’s cool,” replied the book, “I mean I used to be like you.”

Jacob’s jaw dropped. “Wait, you used to be a person?”

“Oh yeah, I used to own a couple of oilfields down in Texas and New Mexico, but when I went down to check one of them out, it was gone, and in its place was this godforsaken library.” The book proceeded to explain it’s predicament and how it came to be here in the first place, and its story was almost identical to Jacob’s. Minus it being about a hundred years apart.

“How did you become… like this?”

“Oh, I had the exact same response you had when I saw those things. Except instead of running, I stood there, shit myself, they got me and I woke up like this.”

“Are all of the books alive?”

“I believe so, yes.”

“Do any of them know the way out of here?”

“Oh, son, you’re stuck here, I’m sorry to say. Unless you can catch the Librarian, you’re shit out of luck.”

Jacob’s mind immediately went back to the lady who stood at the door of the library and he shuddered. Jacob conversed with the book a little further just to calm his nerves, said his goodbyes, set the book down and began to walk again.

Jacob walked and walked. The walk was endless. He saw neither hide, nor hair of this “Librarian” that the book had mentioned. Giving up started to seem like a viable option, letting one of the monsters get him and turning into one of those books, never again to see the light of the sun or feel the love of his family, until he saw her. She was standing on a ladder and looked to be placing a book on one of the shelves.

He shouted to her, and she turned her head. Jacob began to hear the monsters start up again in response to his shout and he began to shake. The Librarian turned her head, further and shouted in a strange language. The screaming died back down and she fixed her gaze back upon Jacob. Her look was almost predatory as she lifted her hand and beckoned him to come closer to her.

He approached. “Do you know the way to get out ma’am?”

As he got closer, she started to look more familiar. She wore a long, flowing floral-print blouse and plain black slacks. As he tried to look her in the eyes, they were quite blurry, like a photograph that was taken out of focus. Jacob’s heart sank and his stomach dropped.

She glared at him under her glasses and didn’t move from her perch on the ladder. “I built the damn place; I would assume that I know where the exit is.”

“Would…” Jacob’s voice began to quaver, “would you be so kind as to tell me where it is?”

Now she began to descend from her ladder. She turned to face him once more, put her hands on her hips and asked, “Now why would I do that?” Her accent began to shift from Northern American to something he couldn’t quite place. It sounded like it was from everywhere, but nowhere at the same time.

Jacob heard something approaching him from behind and both sides. He didn’t dare turn his head. He felt that invisible force again, this time holding his body in place. “You shouldn’t have disturbed my pets, boy. You made a mistake with that scream.”

Jacob’s vision began to blur again. “You’re going to turn me into a book? Just like all the others?”

The Librarian lifted an eyebrow as if she were surprised he knew about it. “No, boy, you will serve me. Here. For eternity as what I like to call a Libra. My little pets roaming my library.”

Jacob fought the force enough to be able to turn his head just in time for one of those toothed book monsters to open its maw wide enough and exhale its unnaturally hot breath on him. It spoke to him in the voice of the man who’s shift he was covering that night. “Hey, Jacob, fancy seeing you here! You’re going to love it here, so much better than that gas station.” As his vision faded to black one last time, he cursed the man that told him of the library at the end of his shift.

monster
1

About the Creator

Possum

I like to read and write Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy. I've been writing since middle school and hope you all enjoy what I have to give.

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.