The Reference Librarian and the Ghost Who Stalks Her [ONC 2024]

The First Night Cont... [Round One - ONC 2024]

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Daphne waddled uncomfortably to the circulation desk by the entrance of the library with a hand to her bloated stomach. These peculiar hours were not foreign to her, but she had hoped to grow past these lonely night shifts and live an ordinary life in daylight. She'd only just gotten the colour back in her olive-tone skin and looked less like some scraggly vampire with dark hammocks for eye bags.

'Tsk.' They only hired me because of my experience as a night shift guard. Am I just a less expensive loss-prevention tool? 

She had little tidying up to do, most of the stock had been shelved after she did a round across all levels. All she had to do was lock up the little gallery on the second floor. Hook one end of a silk rope to the opposite wall with a sign dictating the opening hours. The only features that were open were the free wi-fi, the ground-level computers, and the adult fiction section.

In all seriousness, why bother having a library open twenty-four-seven?

Daphne leaned back into her chair ignoring the cold chill sweeping up under her cardigan, she was too consumed by the devasting blow she was taking from the pizza she'd eaten. She suspected it wasn't gluten-free. Her watch ticked to nine o'clock marking the real start of her shift. A long twelve hours lay ahead of her, and she had little to keep herself busy now. 

At least, she wasn't alone. She wasn't out in some old factory in the middle of nowhere keeping the homeless, and snarky teenagers out. All the anxious university students had congregated in different parts of the study areas on the ground floor. The clickety-clacking of their keyboards was a clear sign that they were trying to reach a word count before midnight. It was like listening to the erratic pitter-patter of rain.

'Better them than me, ha!' she mumbled to herself and patted her textbook worth studying for the evening--a novel about attractive dragon riders riddled with sexual tension. She was delighted to finally have access to a copy after her local bookshops were sold out for months. Her ear captured the strangled gasp from one of the students and Daphne shot out of her seat ready for trouble--unable to escape that instinct.

The young girl who had gasped smacked her hands against the table. 'It's nine pm, guys!'

Everyone quickly packed their laptops and notebooks as if their lives depended on it. As if something dangerous was about to happen. They bustled out in a clump of Kathmandu jackets and reusable Starbucks cups the height of their forearms barely acknowledging me. I can smell their fear.

'Maybe it's time to read the notes he left me,' she murmured to herself. Her head snapped up when she heard a fairy-like giggle. One of the students had fallen out with the others.

Daphne noticed that the woman was a purple-haired bombshell with striking eyes of blue fire. Daphne smiled and the woman shrugged just as confused before they both settled back into their books