A Book I Found in the Library

A Book I Found In the Library

I entered the campus library with the intent of gathering material for my term paper. The due date for the paper was looming, and a topic still eluded me. I ascended the stairs to the second floor to explore the shelves. I found myself moving deeper into the maze of shelves covered with volumes of books on various subjects.

A loud clap of thunder that seemed to echo through the entire building startled me. A flash of lightning lit up the windows, and the lights inside the library went out.

“Fan-freaking-tastic,” I grumbled to myself as I stood in the dark fumbling for my keys which had a small pen light on the key ring.

I managed to turn on my little pen light, but it didn’t emit enough light to show me more than what was directly in front of me. This is why you should carry a mini-mag light in your purse, my mother’s voice lectured in my head.

“Oh shut it,” I grumbled to myself. Another clap of thunder rent the air, making me shriek. Another flash of lightning illuminated the room revealing a young man standing beside me. His sudden appearance elicited another shriek from me.

“Whoa easy there,” he said in an Irish brogue, clutching my shoulder with one hand. He held a flash light in his other hand. There was a book tucked under the arm that held the flash light. “My name is Finn O’Riley, I work here as a student worker.”

I held my own puny pen light up to his face to get a good look at him. I stared at him speechless. I didn’t frequent the library often so I did not know who any of the student workers were. I’m pretty sure I would’ve remembered this one though. He had blond curls and blue eyes. He smiled at me to try to lighten the mood.

“You’re shaking darling,” he spoke in a soothing tone, “come on to the office, and I’ll make you some tea.”

I allowed him to lead me to a small office area that contained a kitchenette with a one cup coffee machine. He sat me on a couch, and used his flash light to find his way to the one cup coffee maker. I turned off my useless pen light, and tucked my keys back into my purse. Finn returned to me, and proffered a steaming mug of tea. I took it gingerly, and blew the steam off the top.

“I’m gonna go see if there is any one else lost in the dark,” Finn explained. He set the book he had been holding down beside me. “There’s a flash light on the table to your right.”

I groped in the dark with my right hand until my fingers closed around a cylindrical metal object. I slid my hand down it until I found the push button to turn the light on. I lifted the mag light, and set the cup of tea down where it had been. I turned the beam of light so that it shown on Finn as he left the office. He wore a white t-shirt with a stain on it, and a pair of blue jeans that also had dark stains on them. Paint, I told myself. I angled the flash light so that the beam of light shown on the book he had deposited beside me. The title read The Bloody Stacks. The image on the book jacket was that of a book with a bloody knife sticking out of it. I chuckled nervously at the irony. Another clap of thunder startled me as it disrupted the steady torrent of rain that pattered softly against the window and roof. A flash of lightning lit up the office to reveal that I sat in the dark alone.

Horror was not my preferred genre, but I had time to kill and the book was there. I picked it up to read the synopsis on the back. The synopsis described a story of a book nerd who became so obsessed with a fellow student that he stalked her, and killed her on a stormy night in the library. This elicited another nervous chuckle as I flipped the book back over to open it.

Panic swelled in me as I read, discovering that the situation in the book was eerily familiar to my own. I wanted to stop reading, but I just could not bring myself to put the book down. Before I knew it I was nearing the final scene of the horrific novel. A clap of thunder, and a flash of lightning in real life coincided with the description of the very same events heralding the final scene. I was about to continue the final scene when....

“Enjoying the book?” Finn’s deep Irish brogue startled me. I put down the book, and turned the light so that I could see him standing in front of me. His warm blue eyes raked over me taking in what he could see of me with his own flash light.

“Guess you didn’t find anyone else,” I observed. Just like in the book, the little voice in my head gasped.

“No,” Finn answered. He moved toward me with the grace of a predator. He picked up the book and sat beside me shining the light on the pages. “I love this book,” he admitted. “You won’t need that anymore.”

He took the flash light I held, turned it off, and set it off to his left, out of my reach. He rested the book on his lap, and stretched his arm out across the back of the couch behind me. He cought me eying the large dried stains on his clothes.

“Paint,” he assured me. He slid his arm down onto my shoulders, pulling me close as he began to read the final scene allowed. “As Janelle began to read the final scene…” he paused looked up at me, and smiled. “That’s your name isn’t it?”

“Yes,” I answered nervously. “And the male main character in the story is named Finn.”

“That’s right,” his smile widened into a wolfish grin, making me nervous. “After the male in the story reads a few sentences of the book he looks at her and says something sweet like; ‘You’re very pretty’”

“Thank you,” I tried to repress the tremor of nerves in my voice.

“Do you know we have a class together?” Finn asked setting the book aside. “psychology 101.”

“I didn’t know you were in the class,” I whispered. The thunder rumbled softly outside. Finns arm tightened around me, bringing me closer to him.

“I sit right next to you,” he asserted. “I love to hear you speak, when you ask questions, or answer the professor’s questions. You’re so smart, and beautiful.”

“I…”

“I’ve been trying to get your attention for the entire semester,” he pressed on, “but you just couldn’t seem to spare a moment for me.”

“Finn, I have a class right after that one,” I try to explain.

“I know,” he leaned in close. “but now we’re together, just you and me.”

Before I could speak his mouth was on mine. His kiss was not gentle, but hard, and aggressive. His tongue invaded my mouth as I gasped in surprise. When I tried to push him away he bit my lower lip so hard it bled. I rammed my fist into his stomach forcing him to release me, and attempted to escape. The room was lit by another flash of lightning, and I used it to find my way out into the stacks. The lightning was gone now, and I had no flash light. I groped my way through the dark trying to listen for a sign of his pursuit over the everlasting torrent of rain. The carpeted floor would muffle his footsteps. I was not able to tell the difference between his heavy breath and pounding heart, and my own. My momentum was stilled by a sharp pain in my abdomen.

The next flash of lightning illuminated Finn standing in front of me. His eyes were filled with lust, and the smile on his face was ecstatic. Before the lightning faded I looked down and saw the handle of a knife sticking out of my stomach.

“You shouldn’t have run,” Finn chided in a paternal tone. He took a step forward easing the knife further into my stomach.

I cried out as the sharp blade ripped through my inner muscles. How long was the knife? I wondered. Would it be sticking out of my back when he had it all of the way inside me? These were the questions that raced through my mind. He leaned in and licked the blood that was trickling from my lip.

“Mmm, sweet, just as I suspected,” he mused. “If you hadn’t run I could have tasted you in other ways.”

“Finn,” I gasped. “Please, we can still…”

“Oh, please,” he cut me off by advancing the knife further into my stomach. “Don’t beg, that really doesn’t do anything for me,” he pulled the knife back out a bit causing some of my blood to spill. He pushed it back in again causing me to cry out. “Now, that does,” he breathed. “Just have to make sure you don’t bleed out before I’m done.”

I felt my knees buckle as he continued to move the knife in and out of the wound in my stomach. He pushed me back up against a book shelf that must be against a wall. He positioned himself so that his hips were against mine. He ground against me as he twisted the knife in my stomach. I could feel my own life slipping away, the lights must have come back on because I could see him clearly now. There was a euphoric look in his eyes, and his face was flushed from a building orgasm. I’m going to die, I realized, and this bastard was getting off on it!

“GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HER!” was the last thing I heard before everything went dark.


I came to in a hospital bed. The steady beep of the heart monitor was music to my ears. I sucked in a breath of relief and grunted as the expansion of my diaphragm agrivated the knife wound in my stomach.

“Hey there you are,” a familiar voice whispered softly. I turned my head to see my boyfriend John sitting beside the bed. His face had a day’s worth of beard on it, and his brown eyes were wary and tired. He leaned over, brushed my bangs off of my forehead, and pressed his lips to it. “I asked you to wait for me,” he choked around the lump of tears in his throat. “I would have taken you to the library after the storm let up.”

“Finn,” I gasped.

“Dead,” John answered. “When I pulled him off of you I sent him back into one of the steal support poles in the library. I thought I had just knocked him out but the EMT that checked him out said he was dead.”

“Oh John,” now it was my turn to choke around a lump of tears. “Are you in trouble?”

“I gave my statement to the police,” John explained. “Told them how I found him hurting you, and that my intent had been to just get him away from you. My arraignment was today. I entered a plea of not guilty by self-defense. I’m out on bail.”

“I’ll testify,” I offered.

“I know you will,” John reached out and took my hand. “I killed a man, I should be punished for that.”

“You were defending me,” I argued.

“And I would do it again for that reason,” he leaned down, and pressed his lips to mine. “I love you, and I can’t imagine my life without you.”

“I love you too.”

Word Count: 1,993