Ghost X Reader

Library of -what?

TW: Implies drug use

Morning again. It's so strange, isn't it? Humans have done this process more times than they can count yet we never seem to get used to waking up.

Nevertheless, you had finished classes for the day and felt refreshed after a much-needed nap. Walking towards your bathroom you gave your face a quick rinse to really wake you up before you heard a small ping from your phone on the sink counter.

Reminder! Visit Library
(location attached)

"Huh," you spoke to yourself while drying your face "I almost forgot about that.." Looking at the reminder notification, you were reminded of why you wanted to visit the library in the first place. The strange whisper of a presence that kept bothering you. All you wanted was a bit of closure about his existence and you were determined to do so. You began walking around your room and preparing to leave the house, phone in hand you also checked the location that you'd be heading to. It would be about 30 minutes away not including the time you'd probably have to wait for the subway and bus. Maybe if you were lucky you could be on your way before it was too dark and you needed to sleep for school the next day.

Throwing on a light coat you began your journey to check out the supposedly old as-time library.

[Time skip]

Turning the corner you were faced with a ghost town-looking street. There was muck and litter all over the ground and if you looked a second longer you could notice the local hobos had their arms out and tied. Walking past graffitied buildings, it didn't take you long to come in front of a large and fairly ugly building. The sign that was faded by wind and rain read 'Infinity Archives.' Strange name for a library.
Everything about it screamed 'sketchy' but you were desperate. Walking in, the door creaked with rust and age. You were met with a small hallway and a small paper sign on the right that said 'Library in the basement! ☺ ' Again, everything screamed sketchy but it wasn't too bad so far right? Just a little quiet.. and cold...

Forcing yourself to walk down the hallway you couldn't help but feel like someone was behind you. You swiftly turned your head back and were met with... nothing. Just your imagination. This place is really getting to you is all. Walking a little faster to the end of the echoey hall you reached the elevator. To match everything else and make your fears even greater, it was one of the older ones with the collapsing chain doors. Fuck. Now a little scared you slide into the elevator and pressed the lowest level button. Anxiously, you stared through the chain door and stared down the empty hallway before you began going down.

Bing!

Bing!

Bing!

Drowning out the constant reminder that you were nearing your fears, you tried to calm your nerves and convince yourself that everything would be fine and it was just any old library. Maybe the owner had a tight budget and this was all they could afford? You have to be considerate right. Bing! Letting out a breath you were now a little calmer but still unsure of what to expect. Bing!
You had arrived at the basement and was met with another hallway this time it was much shorter and the walls were made from bare concrete. At the end was a single wooden door. Once again you had to force your feet to start walking towards the ominous-looking door. Turning the handle, you braced yourself for whatever creepy and probably illegal scene you might have walked upon.

Opening the door, your eyes were met with warm lighting and unlike the previous hallways, a warm atmosphere. The ceilings were so high that there were about 3 floors to the library, all wall to wall filled with books. Everything was neat and clean and you noticed signs that organized the different areas of the library. Overall, not only did the interior looking nothing like the exterior (and probably wasn't even possible), it had a beautiful old European library look while catering to the dark academia aesthetic. It was breathtakingly beautiful. Before you could drink in any more details of the surprising find you were abruptly snapped out of your thoughts by an unfamiliar voice. "Will you be standing there all day? We close at 12 you know." Looking up, you failed to notice the large desk that was right by the door. It matched the dark wood of the rest of the library and had a gold plate that read "Infinity Archives." Under it in smaller print labeled it "front desk" but you also noticed the dates engraved in the gold. Wow, that's a long ass time. "What are you, deaf? Will you be checking in or not" the voice spoke impatiently. "Oh, I'm so sorry I was just uh, really surprised by your library here miss. It's really impressive y'know." You sheepishly smiled at the lady behind the desk and proceeded to step closer to sign your name in. "Feels a little strange to be checking in to a library right?" You chuckled a little trying to sweet things over for being a nuisance earlier. Your small talk however was met with a cold shoulder by the older woman and had left your face feeling hot in embarrassment.  Once you finished writing your name, date, and time the woman handed you a small pamphlet. "The map of this library." The lady spoke. "There will be a price to pay for anything damaged, stolen, or forgotten. Don't be a nuisance to others. We close at 12, On. The, dot." She continued straight and firm "and of course, please enjoy your stay. Welcome to the library." She gave a warm and unsettling smile before turning her head down and busying herself with papers.

Shaking off the shivers, you opened the pamphlet to see that the library was in fact too large to match the exterior but you didn't question it too much. Something told you it was better not to. You were quite curious of this place now and couldn't help but ask yourself questions as you walked around. It looks pretty good for how old it is. I wonder what secrets this place hides. You came across the workspace of the library and noticed a couple of people working away at the tables provided. Hm, it's so quiet you honestly thought you were the only one here. Continuing your tour, you glazed over the details of old photos and lost titles on the shelves. How does it have access to books that are unheard of anyways? What a strange place..

Finishing your personal given tour, you headed back down to the first floor of the library to start your research. Although everything here was more vintage-themed, you noticed that the ground floor had 3 interactive screens that displayed the library's map and catalog. You figured the only way you could find anything here was with the help of modern technology! You stood in front of one of the screens and thought for a moment before entering a category of books that you wanted to find. Of course, you yourself weren't entirely sure of what you were looking for so the best you could come up with was "Animal Hybrids." Yea, I know. Luckily for you, the screen displayed a bunch of titles and works that were related to what you had searched. Scrolling through and reading the summary of each books, most of them were about inter-species hybrids and all that stuff so you figured this was just another dead end. But.. something inside of you didn't believe that. Your gut was telling you to keep searching. Hesitantly, you clicked on the search bar again and entered in a new search. God, I hope they can't see the search histories.

Only a handful of results came this time from "Human-Animal Hybrids" but on the bright side, it meant your search not only worked but was narrowed down. It's a miracle there were any results for such a weird topic at all. Reading through the summaries again, some of them weren't what you were looking for but a couple of them seemed promising enough for your brain to instantly decide "sign them out." Checking for where they were located, you went around the floors and grabbed a total of 5 books off the shelves to sign out. Not thinking twice about your choices, you carefully carried them back to the front desk to check them out. You noticed there were 2 others already there and stood in line for your turn behind the tall figure wearing a large dark coat and a big hat that covered most of his face. Hm, maybe he's just cold. Or maybe he's a private person.

Finally, it was your turn and you gently dropped the books on the desk. The desk lady looked down at you with her icy, piercing eyes. Feeling a little nervous under her glare and now conscious of what you were signing out, your brain began racking for excuses to explain the strange books you had chosen. Just in case. "I'd like to sign these out please." You looked meekly up at her tall person. Oh god, why does she keep looking at me like that. Is there a limit? Am I signing out more books than I'm allowed? Oh please just hurry up and get this over with.

She slid a check-sized paper at you and put an ink beside it. Probably noticing the strange look you gave these items she spoke up and explained bluntly to you that "this is how we sign out books here." Nodding your head at her you filled out your name, date, book amount, and titles before putting your thumbprint on the paper. What a strange place. Taking back the slip of paper, she nodded gently at you and went back to her papers. Taking it as a signal you could leave now you grabbed your small stack of books and headed out the door.

Finally stepping out of the old, dusty building, the wind bit at your skin and brought you back to reality. The crushing realization that you'd have to carry those books all the way back home because you didn't bring a bag, that you'd have to go home under the dark night sky and that you'd have to do all that in the cold wind hit you hard enough to make you let out a loud groan.

Oh well, at least it was mission accomplished?