Linh froze, her pulse thundering in her ears. The book felt like it weighed a hundred pounds in her hands, its pages shifting restlessly, as though it were alive.
The darkness in the library was absolute. Even the faintest light from the candles seemed to vanish the moment she turned her back to them. She couldn't see a thing.
A soft shuffle of footsteps reached her ears—barely audible, but unmistakable. Someone, or something, was moving.
Her breath hitched. She turned, but only saw the faintest outlines of shelves against the black. The air felt thick, as though it were pressing against her chest.
"Please… help me, Linh."
The voice was pleading now. Desperate.
It was coming from the book.
Linh felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She stepped backward, her heart racing. Her instinct screamed at her to run, to get out of the library, but her legs refused to move. The book was pulling her forward. She could feel it, urging her to take another step.
Then a sound—soft, like a sigh—drifted from the shadows. Something shifted in the darkness.
Linh swallowed her fear, forcing herself to take one step closer to the shelves. The book in her hands seemed to grow warmer, almost as if it were alive—its pages rippling like the breath of a living thing.
"Where am I supposed to take you?" she whispered into the empty air, her voice breaking the silence.
The whisper came again. "Upstairs… the last shelf."
Linh's heart skipped.
She hadn't noticed a staircase in the corner before, but now it seemed to beckon her, the wooden steps barely visible in the dim light. Without thinking, she moved toward it, each step creaking under her weight. The book felt hotter now, its whispers louder.
The library stretched on endlessly, but the stairs felt as though they were guiding her to some unknown place.
When she reached the top, a door materialized in front of her.
It was old and weathered, much like the rest of the library, but its presence was undeniable. The book in her hands pulsed faster, as if urging her to open it.
Taking a deep breath, she twisted the doorknob and stepped inside.
The room was small, dimly lit by a single candle sitting on a dusty table. And on the table? A small chest.
Linh approached it cautiously. The whispers grew louder, now almost frantic. She placed the book on the table and opened the chest. Inside was an old, worn key.
"It's time," the voice whispered one last time.
With trembling hands, Linh took the key and turned it in the lock of the book.
The moment she did, the room seemed to shift. The shadows stretched and bent. The library groaned around her. The book in her hands began to disintegrate, its pages turning to dust, scattering in the air.
The walls of the room began to collapse inward, the shelves cracking and splintering as though something were trying to escape.
Linh dropped the key. It clattered to the floor as the shadows surged forward, swallowing everything in their path.
The library was no longer just a place of lost books. It was something… more. Something alive.
And it was waking up.