The Library’s Secret

The University’s East Wing Library smelled of mold and forgotten time, its shelves towering like stone monoliths under flickering yellow lights. Lily, a graduate student researching Victorian folklore, had stayed late to examine a rare text—the Chronicle of Hollow Souls—said to hold the stories of those who vanished within these walls.
The book’s pages were brittle, ink fading into strange symbols. As Lily turned to a chapter titled “The Watcher,” the air grew icy, and the lamp beside her sputtered out. In the sudden darkness, she heard a soft thump—as if something had fallen from a nearby shelf. Fumbling for her phone, she saw a child’s diary lying open at her feet, pages stained with what looked like dried blood. The handwriting scrawled, “They take the curious. Don’t let them see your face.”
A low whisper echoed from the stacks, followed by the creak of wooden ladders moving on their own. Lily’s heart raced as shadowy figures began to materialize between the shelves—pale, gaunt figures with hollow eyes, their fingers clawed and twitching. The worst was the girl in the corner, no older than ten, wearing a tattered school uniform, her neck twisted at an impossible angle. “You read the book,” she hissed, voice like rusted metal. “Now they know your name.”
Lily ran, but the shelves had shifted, forming a labyrinth of endless books. The figures closed in, their whispers rising to a roar. She stumbled into a forgotten reading room, where the walls were lined with portraits of scholars—all turned to face her, their painted eyes following her every move. The Chronicle lay open on a desk, its pages now blank except for a new entry: Lily Carter, vanished September 15, 2025. Her soul joins the collection.
The girl’s laughter rang out as the shadows swallowed Lily whole. The library doors slammed shut, and the only sound left was the faint flip of a book’s pages, adding another name to its cursed records.