Queen City Public Library

I had gotten a job at the local library, working at the front desk. The first floor was a nice open space for when they do children's theatre, and by the front door was the front desk, and directly across from there were the computers, maybe three or four, damn I can't remember. The basement lobby was well lit, filled with twelve computers at least.
Then, near the end, there were two wooden doors. Behind them was a long hallway of book cases. I'm talking maybe... sixty rows, three book cases a row, stretching down this creepy stretch... Only lit by light bulbs from the 80's, you know, those dim ones that don't light shit. They had a closet full of them to the left of the wooden doors.
To the point, I worked the late shift, stamping books with the library emblem. It was the town's emblem, actually, a wave of green with the words in fancy modern letters: "king". I passed the time playing Roblox on the computer. It's a game where you build places for people to play in, similar to Minecraft, except this building game is more complex. Beside my desk was a pillar separating me from the front door, then across from it was the basement staircase and a map of the library. I could live a job like this, $11.50 an hour. I made enough to take friends for a night on the town for once.
I was in the middle of having a heated discussion on the Roblox forums when the library map fell off the wall. Startled as fuck and frustrated I had to leave my desk and the forums to pick the damn thing up, I walked around the desk and picked the map up. I studied it, looking at the detailed diagram. Just then, over the railing overlooking the basement stairwell, I heard a noise.
It was weird and cut off quickly, and it sounded like a moan. No, not sexual, God, you freak... It was distorted and it sounded computer-generated... Wait a second, I remembered, did I lock the door downstairs? There is a fire exit downstairs. Yes, we are not going to risk liabilities. I climbed the staircase to the landing, turned on the lights...well, I tried turning on the lights. Why won't they turn on? Weird, the usual horror story setting. Thankfully, I eventually got them on when I realized I was switching on the vents instead of the lights. Gaah I'm such an idiot.
I continued to the computer room. As I entered, I noticed the two big doors at the end of the room were wide open. Stopping in my tracks, a terrifying thought hit me. Was there a ghost in the library? Psssh, I'm not afraid of ghosts, I thought, so I walked in. But...it wasn't right. It didn't feel right. But that didn't stop me from seeing what I saw through the books.
Eyes, normal eyes, but they seemed tired, like they had been watching too much television. I didn't have the chance to see any more facial features because once I saw them, I ran the fuck out back into the lobby, about to run up the stairs. I felt as though someone was behind me, following me. For real. I ran upstairs, looking behind me, but then... -SMACK- ...
Startled, I backed up slowly, cupping my nose. Since when was there a brick wall in front of the staircase? It made no sense... Sharply, I turned around. Suddenly, the lights at the bottom of the stairs flickered, then turned off. The only thing that kept the stairwell lit was the moonlight coming through a giant sky window. That's my only escape... I thought. But how could I reach it?
I steadied myself onto the railing, shimmied up a nearby pillar and scaled the brick wall. Eventually I reached the window, clasping onto the slippery pane. I pushed with all my might, but was quite startled when it pushed so easily. Almost like it felt like... paper?!
I ripped right through into the corridor with the bookcases, back where I saw the eyes. I looked behind me. There was basically a fake image of a window. How was this possible? I ran out of the corridor, past the two big wooden doors and up the staircase. Sure enough, there was a large hole where the fake window was. It was like I was trapped in some kind of weird world! Shaking, I walked back down into the corridor, past the basement lobby, and studied the hole. As I pointed my flashlight around it, I felt someone pat my back.
Shocked, I ever so slowly turned my head and saw him, the guy with the tired looking eyes. "Yeah, weird stuff isn't it," he said with a snarled look. "Name's Buck. I know it sounds strange now, but I've been stuck here for about maybe... twenty years or so? I'm so glad we have a newcomer!" He chuckled, patting my shoulder with his rough, hairy hand. Newcomer!? I was so confused.
He took my wrist and led me down the hallway, past the fiftieth bookcase... Wait, fiftieth? I thought there was only fifty bookcases here, so why am I now on bookcase sixty-seven? We kept going, past bookcases with signs that weren't even written in English anymore. All books were all white, like, painted white. When we reached the end of the hallway, a musky smell hit my face hard. He told me to stay there, then he disappeared behind the last bookcase. He never came back.
Its been two days, my watch has passed 12pm two times now, so that must mean either I've actually been here two days, waiting for some dude, or I'm dreaming.
It's Friday now, so that means about two days ago they would have noticed I'm missing, and come looking for me. I decided to get up, I'm really hungry. I've been walking now, passing the gibberish signs on the sides of the bookcases, counting back the rows, but it seems to go on forever. I've gotten to the point where I'm so sleep deprived, I've fallen to the floor. Darkness overcomes me.
I wake up, it's Friday, exactly a month after my ordeal, and I'm in the hospital. They found me in a coma, under one of the computer tables. Apparently, there was a carbon dioxide leak in the building, and the alarm was broken, so it didn't buzz. I guess it was all a dream, but since it was only a month, I got my job back, figuring it was all funny business my head put me through.
I never took the night shift again, but as I came in to start my shift, everyone welcoming me back from the hospital, I pass the library map, and I chuckle. I make my way down the stairwell to the lobby and see the big two wooden doors, wide open. Now that I mention it to myself, I don't remember there being a bookcase corridor with wooden doors on the library map.
Category:Places
Category:Dreams/Sleep
Category:Reality