There was something to be said for a solid routine, and my new routine was as solid as you could get. I would wake up, go to work, finish for the day, go home, rinse, repeat. That was my life and though it was uneventful I didn’t mind it. It was much better than the chaos of my old life, working every hour to keep us afloat while my ex was just taking care of himself. He made my life miserable and then threw our relationship away like it meant nothing. Yet, there was a part of me that still missed him. No, I couldn’t miss him, that would’ve just been playing into his hands and I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. I made my way home and Jen was working late again. Cue the note on the fridge about left overs and my nightly glass of wine. I mentally kicked myself when I saw that the mantlepiece clock was still frozen. I had forgotten to get a clock battery, perhaps tomorrow. 

I went to my room and read my book, listening to the sounds outside that I had now grown accustomed to. I read a few more pages of my book, marked the page and went to sleep. That was my life and I loved it, it brought me a sense of peace that I had never known before. Yet despite that, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched. I couldn’t explain it, but every time I turned around I was sure I could see something out of the corner of my eye. But by the time I was able to properly look, it was gone. I simply chalked it up to my imagination but now I wasn’t so sure.

The next day I woke up and went to work. I was alone today. It wasn’t a big deal, it happened from time to time and this place wasn’t always busy. I simply carried out my tasks as I normally would. I walked towards an aisle to put some books back and I just about managed to pull back as a book flew passed me just missing my face. My heart pounded in my chest, the one time I’d forgotten to check round corners I ended up with a book being launched at me. It had to be a prank, that was the only logical explanation. I plucked up my courage and walked down the aisle with all the authority I could muster.

“This is a library stop throwing…”

I stopped as I saw to my surprise that the aisle was empty, this confirmed what the woman had said to me on my first day. Maybe the place really was haunted. No, there had to be an explanation. How do you explain a book throwing itself? I went to grab the book and put it back on the shelf and put the other books on the shelf as well before moving to the next shelf. I placed more books away and I had noticed that there was one book that was out of place. I was warned about that too but I always thought it was because of human carelessness. It happened from time to time, it must’ve happened yesterday and was forgotten about. I picked it up and went to put it on its rightful place on the shelf.

The sound of laughter made me freeze, it wasn’t an adult laugh but one that was made by a child. There was a children’s area which parents mainly took their children to but every so often a stray child would be running around believing that the library was a playground. I followed the source of the noise and got ready to scold a child for running around and making noise in a library. As soon as I turned the corner there was silence. I stared at an empty staircase with no child in sight. Maybe they had already run back to their parents. I made my way to the children’s area to lecture some parents about keeping an eye on their children. But it was empty. I looked around at the colourful walls with well known book characters painted on them to the seating area and there was no one. What was going on? 

I jumped at a loud creak that was coming from behind me and I was relieved when I saw that it was just an old rocking chair. I must’ve brushed passed it as I entered the children’s library. I shook my head, it was all in my imagination. I quickly walked out of the children’s area before something else happened. I entered the back and made my way to the break room and made myself a cup of coffee. I sat at the table and breathed deeply as I looked down at my cup. “No need to freak out, these things are expected, you were warned about them. Just don’t think about it.” I whispered to myself over and over, but it didn’t make me feel any better about the situation. The one time when I was alone things started to happen. 

I drank my coffee and washed my cup in the sink. I almost dropped it when I heard a loud sound. “What now?” I asked myself as I put the cup on the draining board and hurried out of the breakroom. There were flashing red lights as well as the sound and it only took me a few seconds to realise that it was the fire alarm. Panicking I ran for the nearest fire exit, after all it wasn’t like I had to evacuate anyone. As I ran passed the bathroom I was hit by a wave of thick smoke, I coughed as I covered my face with my arm. It was coming from the bathroom, so someone was here afterall. I became annoyed again, someone was smoking in the staff bathroom, someone who should’ve known better. I walked over to the door trying not to breathe in too much smoke. I pushed open the door ready to yell at someone for being a potential fire hazard.

But there was no one.

I lowered my arm from my face as I noticed that the smoke had disappeared and the alarm had stopped. Did I just imagine that? The alarm went off. I was certain of it yet there was no sign of a fire or anyone smoking. Unnerved, I backed out of the room and closed the door behind me. What was going on? I made my way back out to the main library and everything seemed to be back to normal. I let out a quiet sigh of relief and resumed my work. For a while at least there didn’t seem to be any more issues. But it was all still in the back of my mind, why now? Why am I seeing these things? Is this place truly haunted? 

I decided to stay at the counter and just catalog some of the books into the computer. The repetitive task helped to keep my mind focused and I wasn’t worrying about any of the strange occurrences. Maybe it was over and I wouldn’t have to deal with any of it for the rest of the day. When I had finished I noticed a strange smell, or was it always there and I just wasn’t thinking about it? I wrinkled my nose in disgust, it smelled like cigarettes. Maybe someone had crept in while I was busy and started smoking somewhere. I listened expectantly for the fire alarm but it didn’t go off this time. 

“Strange,” I thought as I stood up and followed the smell to its source. I groaned as I saw that it was the public bathroom. I paused for a moment, I knew that it was probably whatever malicious being or my own mind playing tricks on me but I had to investigate. I pushed the bathroom door open and I saw that no one was in, not a big surprise. But what surprised me was that the room was filled with smoke. I coughed as I backed out of the room and quickly closed the door behind me. “Where did all that smoke come from?” I didn’t see it before. I quickly made my way to the employee area and grabbed my phone from my bag. I found the number for my boss, she had said to call her should I ever run into any trouble. I rang the number and pressed my phone to my ear and waited for her to answer.

“The number you have dialled couldn’t be reached, please try again later.”

Curse that generic voice, I swore under my breath as I tried the number again but I received the same message. I hung up and found Jenny’s number. I knew there was nothing she could do but hearing her voice would provide some comfort. I quickly called the number and waited, silently praying that Jen would pick up.

“Hi this is Jen, I’m not able to take your call right now but just leave your name, number and message and I’ll get back to you.”

“...beep…”

“Jen it’s Ruby, something really strange is happening here and I don’t know what to do. I know you’ve been working late recently but hearing your voice would be a real comfort right now. Call me back.” 

I hung up the phone, hopefully Jen will have received my message and got back to me. I stayed in the back a little longer to gather my nerves before going back outside. I made my way back to the bathroom and went inside. Sure enough the smoke was gone, maybe I imagined the whole thing and now Jen would be worried. I had a tendency to overreact to every little thing, or so I was told. My ex certainly liked calling me a drama queen. Fortunately it was the end of the day and I could go home and not think about it.

Jen never did get back to me which was unusual, she always answered her messages when she was able to. Did it even go through? Was Jen just unreachable now? That thought filled me with dread, but I had to carry on as normal even when everything around me had gone crazy. Still no sign of my boss or my colleagues, I’m alone again and the incidents would occur much more frequently. I was better prepared for those now and didn’t bat an eye when books would fly at me, or rearrange themselves randomly or when there was phantom smoke all over the place. I didn’t bother checking those instances, I knew that as soon as I got to the source that no one would be there.

As I was putting some of the books away I was sure I could smell something burning. Panicking, I ran to get the fire extinguisher and followed the source of the smell. I looked down one of the aisles and saw to my horror that the books were on fire. I used the fire extinguisher on the flames and it seemed to work on them. But I couldn’t rest for long as more fires started appearing in different areas of the library and I ran around frantically trying to put them out. But, there was no heat coming from the flames and the fire alarm didn’t go off, but there they were clear as day. My mind was playing tricks on me and I fell for it. I quietly placed the fire extinguisher back and sighed. The isolation was getting to me, I looked around and for the first time the place felt empty and abandoned. It filled me with dread, did I imagine this job and the people that were there?

I shook my head, no, Jen recommended the job to me. Why would she give me details for a fake job? Then again, I haven’t seen her since I first started this job. I froze in place, the fear and loneliness began to over take me. I needed to get out, I needed to go home, see Jen or any human for that matter. I just wanted a fresh start but it was all too much for me. 

I went to the back and grabbed my things. I wrote a letter of resignation and left it on my boss’ desk. With a heavy heart I left the office and made my way back to the main library. It was filled with thick smoke. I pulled my shirt up to cover my nose and mouth and entered the smoke hoping that it would eventually go away. But it didn’t, it remained and grew thicker, so thick I could barely see. But I pushed through and tried my best to memorise the way. Then I heard it,

Breathing.

Slow, steady breathing.

I stopped and looked around, surely breathing meant another human. Was I saved? My heart skipped a beat when I heard footsteps, I wanted to call out to them but I could barely breath through the smoke. I almost screamed in horror at what I saw. A tall being dressed all in black and wearing a strange looking mask. I ran as fast as I could away from it, but it followed me. I turned the corner and spotted another one, so I ran the other way. I turned so fast that I didn’t see where I was going. I just needed to get away from those things. 

They were gaining on me, I could hear their breathing and their footsteps just behind me. I lost my footing and I slipped, falling to the ground. They were right on top of me and I didn’t have a chance to get up before they approached. I curled up waiting for them to take me, but they just walked passed me. I was confused, weren’t they chasing me? I stood up and saw three of them gathered around something. I crept closer and I could see that they were all wearing the same uniform.

“Is this her?”

My eyes widened as I heard that, I crept closer and I realised that these creatures weren't creatures at all. They were humans, firemen. Why were firemen here? Who did they find?

“Yeah,” another fireman answered solemnly as I made my way over to them.

“What’s going on here?” I asked them, “why are you here? Who did you find?”

They ignored me, just continued with what they were doing. I pushed passed them and gasped in horror as I saw charred remains. How did this happen? How did I miss this?

“It’s a tragedy,” one of the firemen remarked as he looked through the charred person’s bag and found a charred driving license. I leaned in to get a closer look. It was a picture of a woman and I cried when I saw it. It was me.

“Such a pretty girl.”

“At least now we can give her back to her loved ones.”

They picked up the remains and carried them away. As I watched them leave everything around me began to melt away. The books turned to dust and the beautiful wooden structures of the library were burned out and rotten. I laughed to myself, it finally all made sense.

There was a fire here and I didn’t survive. I was simply reliving the same day over and over until I could finally remember what happened.

Well, I definitely remember now.