The Back of the Library

“I still don’t understand why you’re so set on doing homework here instead of at home,” Jamie said, picking at the pages of a book he had taken from the shelf randomly. 

“You don’t live there, JJ. I do.” Sarah kept her focus on the words she scratched onto her paper. For the few moments she lost focus, her eyes would sneak a peak of Jamie, sitting across from her, flipping back and forth between random pages as they slightly ripped before shutting the book and pushing it to the side of him.

“JJ,” Her innocent voice was sweet music to Jamie’s ears. The first time Sarah called him JJ was when she found him crying behind school during their lunch break. Her voice now had the same tone it had back then. “I’m almost done with homework, I promise. Then we can go home, ok?”

Her voice softened his heart more than anyone ever has. He grinned and nodded his head, “Whatever you say. You’re the boss.”

She smiled to herself, “I wish that was true.”

Five minutes, ten minutes, then fifteen minutes had passed. The sky had darkened into an abyss, with the only hope of light being the crescent moon, half covered by camouflaged clouds. Both heads popped up at the sound of a slammed door and click, indicating it was locked. They met each other’s gaze before rushing to the double doors of the public library, but to no avail, the door stayed locked.

“There’s gotta be a spare key behind her desk, or...or something?” Jamie exaggerated, pacing back and forth frantically.

“Of course there is! Here I’ll take a look,” Sarah reasoned, basing her statement purely off of her own hope. 

“It was that lady who took Mrs. Wallis’s shift who locked us in here. She shouldn’t be a librarian, she’s too deaf!” Jamie trotted up and down one of the empty rows filled with books labeled under three different categories: Mystery, Fantasy, and Sci-fi.

“Where is it...where is it?” Sarah fiddled through the multitude of drawers. They seemed to mock the anxious journey she was on, but she knew better than to let that get to her. No key; no key in sight. Sarah plopped into the black office chair as tears swelled her eyes, but she blocked them as if her eyes were dams. “She must’ve taken the extra pair of keys. I can’t find them anywhere.”

“How old even is that lady? Like, a hundred?” Jamie walked up to the desk and leaned against it, gazing at Sarah.

“My dad is gonna kill me, JJ. What am I gonna do?” She locked eyes with him, her vision blurry from the tears that stung her eyes.

“I...” He started. Jamie always knew the best excuses to get out of trouble; that’s how he and Sarah had become so close, but in this moment, not even he could think of anything close to a suitable answer. 

Thump, both their heads turned in quick instinct. Danger was the word that filled their minds, the word that creeped into their thoughts. 

“What was that?” Though speaking to Jamie, her eyes were glued to the direction of the sound.

“I’m not sure.”

Hearts pounding, they both stood up straight; Sarah scurried to Jamie’s side. They both started down the aisle; Jamie’s hand intertwined with Sarah’s. It was as if he could feel Sarah’s fear through how hard she squeezed his hand. 

In front of them lay a single book that had been pushed off the shelf. Sarah knelt down, letting go of Jamie’s hand, and picked up the book. She turned the book so that the spine of it faced upwards; the genre: Historical fiction. Her hands started to shake, causing her to almost drop the book.

“How did this get all the way over here?”

“What do you mean?” Jamie, being many inches taller than Sarah, peered over her shoulder to get a better look at the book. 

“This is a historical fiction book. The historical genre is on the other side of the hallway.”

The two of them locked eyes for a split moment before Jamie broke the gaze by looking down the rest of the aisle. 

“I’m sure someone picked this up, then when they got here, found a different book and was just too lazy to put it back in its regular spot. If you’re really that spooked, I’ll go put it back to show you that nothing is wrong and that we’re perfectly fine.” He grinned and gently pulled the book away from her. 

“Just, hurry up, ok? I’ll keep looking for a spare key or something.” She leaned against the shelves as she watched Jamie speed walk into the darkness that claimed the name, Back of the Library. 

It was an ongoing joke she and Jamie had started the first time they came here. They had stayed late to finish homework and Mrs. Wallis left them the spare key and told them to lock up after they had finished. After she was gone they decided to light some candles and turn the lights off so they wouldn’t forget later on. Sarah had glanced up from her homework and into the dark abyss behind Jamie. From that moment on she called it, The Darkness, but Jamie always argued that The Darkness tended to claim the name, Back of the Library. And so they kept that as an inside joke and planned on keeping it till their senior year.

The clock’s ticking started to drive Sarah crazy. She kept glancing down the aisle. It had been five minutes since Jamie left to put the book away, but he hadn’t returned yet. 

“Ok Jamie! This isn’t funny, c’mon!” The dim light of the few candles on the Librarian’s desk started to flicker out. “Jamie!” Her heart began to race even more. What is he doing? She thought to herself, trying her best to keep the worst from corrupting her mind. 

Sarah had had enough of this. She walked around the long desk and rummaged through the drawers for the second time, but this time she found what she was looking for: a flashlight. With a click, it turned on, blindingly bright at that. Her breath, shaky, she ambled down the aisle.

After a few minutes of turning into different aisles and scanning the labels on the shelves to find where historical fiction would be, the flashlight started to dim. Not now, this is the worst time possible for you to stop working. She smacked the top of it a few times which seemed to get it to stay on, but only for a few minutes before it started to dim out again. 

Once more she hit the flashlight, turning into another aisle. It flashed off.

Once again, still turning, then switching off for the third time. 

She stopped paying attention as to where she was going and started banging on the flashlight. It felt as though she could feel the darkness creeping onto her skin. 

But when she thought she had gotten it to work for the final time, she tripped over something, landing with a thud on the hard, badly carpeted floor. The flashlight flickered on again, much to her likeness, but that hope soon faded; for when she turned to face what she had tripped over, the room echoed with a bloodcurdling scream. 

There Jamie was, lying dead on the ground. His throat slit and the book still clutched in his grasp. 

Tears flooded her eyes and streamed down her face as her voice carried screams of terror and horror. She scrambled to her feet, not caring where they led her, and started to run. She had never been fast or skilled in sports, but that didn’t matter at the moment. What mattered was getting out of this retched place. The place where her best friend had been murdered. 

5 Months Later,

Most started to believe Sarah had gone mad. They called her a liar, a crazed lunatic, etc. Not even her own father believed her. 

The night Jamie died never left her mind, but she was the only one who believed he was dead. No one believed her because of one sole reason. 

Jamie was alive and walking freely.

She had been called crazy when the police arrived at the library he day after Jamie’s death. They found Sarah in a corner with a single candle for light, crying. She pointed down the aisles with the two words that leaked through her innocent voice, “He’s dead.” 

But no body was ever found. That was because (everyone believed, except Sarah) Jamie wasn’t with her that night and was alive and walking. But Sarah had seen him, the fake Jamie; she had seen him in the dark. He seemed fond of the dark, but the thing that gave it away were his eyes. They glowed red in the darkness.

whatever killed Jamie that night, was now haunting Sarah, scowling making her lose her mind. The worst part, he was using her dead best friend to do it.