The plan changes in an instant.

Rather than toss the book currently in hand, you run. Shelves rush past you as you slalom between rows, the sound of the monster’s sharp feet biting into the ground echoing behind you. You slide yourself across the floor at the same time as it collides against the shelf where you were previously standing.

Despite your lungs burning, you hold your breath, causing your heartbeat to pulse rhythmically in your ears. You can’t see it, but the sound of cracking wood and collapsing books told you all you needed to know. It was too close. By being on the floor, you are hopefully out of sight, but being blind to it isn’t helping your nerves, either.

While the sound of the creature rifling through the pile of books continued, you let the lungful of air out of your nose slowly. You don’t have the space to stand and throw something to distract it now. If it wandered back, further away, then you may have some breathing room. If it got closer, well, you try to keep that thought out of your mind.

Just how far back will the library stretch? Moving further from the door isn’t a great option if it means an infinite maze.

You glance at the book in your hands. It was titled Eldritch Entities and You. That seems either completely coincidental, or you really are in a bad place. Instead of throwing the book, keeping onto it might be a good idea just in case it has any information on weird doors.

Before you have a chance to consider your next move, you wince as the creature stomps and thrashes through several bookcases. Clearly angry that you have evaded it once more, it is taking its pent up frustration out on the wood and books. Given that it is shredding through them as if they are paper, you didn’t fancy your chances against it.

Time was running out.

Wearing several layers has you overheating and sweaty, but you try to keep cool and think about what you knew about the library. Front door was now red door. The office was where the monster had emerged from, so probably isn’t an ideal place to go. Any rear entrance was far out of sight with how the building has extended beyond its normal bounds. What else is there?

Bathrooms. Although locked most of the time after some delinquents sprayed graffiti on the stalls. Chloe had left it open earlier because you were the only one there and were trusted, but did she lock it up before heading home? There are a couple of windows that could open enough for you to squeeze through. Out into the storm wasn’t great, but it beat whatever this nightmare was.

With your muscles tensing up as another bookshelf tilted over slowly, clattering to the carpet, you wondered if it really mattered. Things aren’t normal. Things aren't how you left them.

You are also reasonably sure there is a cellar. A couple of times you have heard in passing the mention of a storage area for old furniture and the like. Where the door for it was located was another thing entirely. It might even be outside.

At the risk of getting lost forever, scouting out the back door sounded like the best idea. The red door hasn’t exactly been a friend, so aiming to get to it might be a fool’s errand from the outset. You run your tongue across your dry lips and try to plan your next move.

The monster is annoyed with the newly toppled shelf, and it sounds like it has rotated to turn that into splinters. It’s making quite the racket, so you take another held breath and push yourself up into a crouch. You take measured, cautious steps. Always remaining behind the taller shelves, giving the books enough of a wide berth not to jostle anything.

Your legs burn from the tense exercise in this awkward half-squat movement. Time stretches out as your adrenaline-fueled mind picks up every microsecond as if your life depends on it. It might. You pause, now almost four more rows away from the creature as it becomes silent.

Slowly, you lower one knee down to the carpet to keep yourself stable. Your ears work overtime to pick out footsteps or the next wail or stomp of the creature. Nothing comes.

Not even the flip of a page or grunt of disappointment. It is deathly silent in the library.

It can’t have gone. You won’t let yourself believe it can just vanish. Sure, plenty of things had been disappearing and reappearing today, but this is different. A candle or picture frame is one thing, a whole living being with intent and purpose is another.

Despite part of your brain telling you to run for it - pick an exit and move, you hold steady. You close your eyes to help focus your hearing even further. At first there is only the constant dull grumble of the storm still raging outside. But then—almost making you gasp in realization—you hear the slightest amount of movement.

A scratch, almost like someone running a pencil lightly across the carpet.

The monster was doing exactly the same thing as you. Waiting, acting silently so that it could listen intently. You are facing away from it, angled toward the prospect of being deeper into the building. With how silent it was being, you couldn’t estimate how close it was to you.

A fresher wave of panic washed through you, as your brain unhelpfully filled in the gaps of information with what-ifs. What if it knew where you are and is stalking you? What if it is already close enough to see you? What if this is all futile?

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

You blink away the dire thoughts. Delusion or not, you aren’t going to give up. You’d much rather be at home with the weirdness than hunted in the library.

No looking back. You gradually rise into a squatting position again. Throwing the book was always the plan if you accidentally made noise, but being barefoot was perhaps a boon in this instance. Your toes hit the worn carpet first, slowly easing into the rest of your foot, barely audible to even you, right above them.

The monster isn’t getting any louder. Even if they are heading your direction, you have a few rows lead on them. Assuming you can keep out of sight, then you may be able to lose them entirely over time.

You pause again to lean on your hand and catch some controlled breaths. The process of moving is uncomfortable and slow. Taking a brief second to glance around, you spot something that makes you frown.

Around five rows off to your right, against the side wall of the library, there’s a light. Not one of the normal wall-mounted ones that usually dotted the place. It wasn’t a green exit sign either, as nice as that will have been. Instead, there is a sign for a bathroom, slightly illuminated in dim white light.

You narrowed your eyes at it, and lean closer to the bookshelf to get a look at it through the gaps in the various books. It didn’t look like the library bathroom door. If it wasn’t for the sign, it would look like it belonged on a bunker. Metal. Heavy duty. It was cracked slightly ajar, so you can tell it wasn’t locked.

After a couple of seconds staring at it, you decide to make that your goal. Too good to be true? Perhaps, but you were fast running out of options that didn’t involve getting your guts ripped out by some monstrosity. You still can’t see the back wall of the library, and the creature is getting smarter about-

Your leg suddenly cramps up after being forced into this odd angle for too long. You manage to hold in a gasp of pain, but you lean into the bookshelf too hard with your shoulder. A handful of books shift under your weight, pushing through to the other side.

As two books hit the floor on the other side of the shelf, your blood runs cold.

From less than a dozen rows away, the creature screeches. The shrill wail pierces straight through your ears and into your skull, drilling home one simple instruction.

Run.

Now flooded with adrenaline again, your limbs comply. There’s no use trying to distract the bastard monster anymore. Even as you pop up and move away from the furniture you are using as cover, you can hear your pursuer barrel through several shelves as if they were matchsticks. It isn’t going to slow down trying to maneuver through all the furnishings, but just make a beeline straight toward you.

You don’t have that luxury, and you almost clip your hip on the next bookshelf you have to circle around. There’s no time for any thought. You won’t look behind. It was getting closer, you could tell. Your bare feet slap across the carpet as you round the next, and then another row.

The door is clearer to you now, with only two large shelving units and five waist-high ones to get past. There isn’t much light coming from with the crack, but it is do or die now.

Behind you, the monster sounds like an earthquake. The rhythmic stomps of its sharp feet vibrate through your bones, as books and wooden boards are trampled and shredded in droves.

You almost trip by trying to turn too sharply, but you maintain footing. Swerving past the last of the shelves, you make it to the door, feet splashing on a shallow puddle of water at the base. Your fingers dig into the crack and you pull with all of your waning energy.

It opens slowly. The heavy metal doorway is sluggish to respond to your request.

“Come on, come on,” you plead with it, your eyes finally darting back to see where the creature is.

And you wish you hadn’t immediately, as it almost drains the strength straight out of you. You have seen it at a distance, mostly obscured by the furnishings of the library. Now, seeing it out in the open, furiously charging at you with malice in its eyes… you almost freeze in fear, soiling yourself. Almost.

Your survival instinct kicks in and you get one last burst of effort to move the door. It swings open another few inches as the creature smashes through eight rows away. The door groans as it struggles to open more. Five rows away. An errant book slams into the wall beside you, flung as the thing hunting you slashes at the third row from you.

And then you slip through, barely squeezing in the meager gap you were able to open. You stumble away from the door but manage to grab onto the interior handle along the way. It shudders and changes direction to close, slightly faster than opening.

With a loud bang, the monster slams into the door, forcing it closed as the sharp leg squeals down the side of the metal on the outside. It only just missed getting the long claw into the gap.

You fall back from the force, landing in inch-deep water on the floor. Trousers immediately soaking through, you just stare at the metal door in shock.

Two sharp strums ring out, filling the room you’re in, as the monster tries to break through. It looks like the door will hold.

You groan and sigh, leaning your face forward to press against your knees. As if covering your eye-sockets will make this torment end. You give your heart a few moments to stop trying to escape your chest. Given that you hadn’t been torn apart by something else, you have accepted that this room must be reasonably safe. The monster has stopped making a racket on the door, hopefully to leave for good.

With a shiver, you finally find the amount of water soaking you unpleasant, and you stand up to your feet. Your tired eyes look around at your new surroundings. It is a bathroom, to some degree. The actual library had something quite small and modest. A stall, a urinal, basin, and a trash can.

The fact that this place had ten stalls in a row meant that you aren’t… well, you don’t know where the fuck you are anymore.

Each of the faded green stalls are closed, but a quick glance at the lock symbols of those closest said that they aren’t occupied. The puddle that soaks half of the room originates from the fourth stall along, it seems.

To your left, there are five washbasins in front of a long mirror. Dirtied and not especially reflective. Above this is the dim light source. A wide bulb of white that looks as though it needed replacing a decade ago. You frown in realizing that there are no windows once more. Staying here long term isn’t an option, so it looks like you’ll have to explore.

With a sigh, you clasp the book tight. Foot extended and dripping water, you gently kick open the door of the first stall. It swings slowly, to reveal a shadowed toilet. No paper, you note. You take a sidestep to the left, ready to repeat the process with the second stall.

As you lift your foot back, you pause.

From two stalls down, a deep and irregular gurgling sound echoed through the tiled room.