The doors of the Shin'yume Public Library groaned like coffins on rusted hinges when we pushed them open.

Inside, the air felt heavy, stagnant, and smelled thick with dust and sickly, sweet mildew.

The sunlight outside didn't seem to reach past the threshold; even though it was still morning.

It was perpetually late evening inside, once the doors shut.

Shelves towered over us in crooked rows, their spines cracked and yellowed.

Some leaned as though they'd collapse if anyone so much as breathed on them wrong.

The windows were tall but cloudy, panes streaked with grime, turning the sunlight into a pale, sickly glow.

The sound of our footsteps echoed across the warped wooden floor, every creak magnified by the imposing silence.

Azuki was the first to speak.

"Wow," she whispered to herself, bouncing on her toes.

"This place smells like old people's socks."

Inego grimaced.

"Oi, don't say that, Azuki. It makes it sound like you sniff old people's socks or something."

She chuckled, then she bumped him playfully with her hip.

"Aw, look at you, defending me."

He sighed.

"But you're right about the smell. It's like… wet dog."

Shion snorted.

"Yeah, if that dog went and rolled on a dead fish or something."

Yuki looked around, amazed.

"It's sad here, but, kind of beautiful too, isn't it? Maybe the books are sleeping, waiting for someone to come and wake them up."

She looked wistfully around, her hands folded in front of her, but her eyes taking in every detail the dim light would allow.

Shion flipped some of her black hair over her shoulder.

"Sleeping?" she asked. "More like rotting. I wouldn't be surprised if this place had an original copy of the Necronomicon tucked away in a cursed little corner."

I hadn't said anything because, as soon as we walked in, I felt strange, eerie vibrations scuttling across the library's floor, like a thousand tiny footsteps.

The last time I'd felt it had been near the bus tunnel in the forest behind Crescent Moon Academy, and the footsteps had been dozens of Hina Suiren's spider-creatures walking beneath the forest's floor.

I felt it here too, and I wondered if Hina kept tabs on the library for some reason.

Suddenly, Shion's bony fingers wrapped around my own, and she pulled me along as our group walked towards one of the library's long, wooden tables.

"What do you think, Blondie? Of course, the ghost-girl likes this place, but I'm not sold."

I shrugged my shoulders.

"It's definitely got atmosphere," I said.

Shion leapt up, sitting on the edge of one of the tables.

She was about to cross her legs, when she realizes she'd accidentally snagged a cobweb on the corner of her black skirt.

"Oh really? Is that all? Just a comment on the atmosphere? Lame! You're just afraid of hurting Yuki's feelings to say how you really feel about the place."

She briefly stuck her tongue out at me.

Yuki, though, grinned and found a chair beside mine.

"Maybe he's just got more class than you, and he's sophisticated enough to appreciate this place's subtle charm."

I pulled a chair out for me and Yuki, since Shion had decided to sit on the table.

There was something about this place that made me shiver, and it wasn't the mildew or the drafts.

Something about the way those footsteps felt, like a sore spot forming on the back of my throat; it was wrong.

It felt unnatural, like each step was a mockery of reality, and I hated knowing that the damn things were not only right below us, but there were hundreds, possibly thousands.

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Best to try to ignore it because there wasn't anything I could do about it.

I cleared my throat, breaking the silence that had settled over the table.

"You know," I started, "I actually ran the idea of a night school for ghosts and other undead by Hina Suiren. The provost, I mean."

Four sets of eyes turned toward me.

Even Yuki tilted her head, curious.

"I remember that," she said. "Her office was a nightmare, Ryu. Full of spiderwebs and, spiders I guess. If those things count, that is."

Inego made a face. Azuki too.

They knew what we were talking about.

"She wasn't against it," I went on. "But… it'd be hard to convince anyone else. People think ghosts are supposed to have moved on, not—" I gestured around the table, awkwardly, "—hanging out in libraries and classrooms."

Azuki sighed through her nose and kicked her feet under the chair where she beside Inego.

"Well… she's not wrong. Generally, ghosts who stick around too long turn into evil spirits. That's the rule, isn't it?"

Inego nodded in agreement.

"Oi, I've never heard of one who does after so bloody long."

He flicked a bit of dust from his sleeve.

Yuki frowned, her lips pressed together tightly.

She didn't say anything right away, and Shion didn't look at her.

Instead, Shion crossed her arms, leaned forward on the table, and fixed her green eyes on me.

"That's why most people ignore ghosts, Blondie," she said.

Her voice wasn't cruel, like it had been when she'd been talking about Yuki when we were beside the konbini, but it was still sharp enough to cut.

"It's easier to treat them like a passing shadow than to risk becoming attached. At least, that's the way my parents put it when they told me about it two decades ago."

I felt Yuki wilt beside me.

Her head dipped, her pale hair spilling over her shoulders as she stared down at her folded hands.

"I don't want to be a problem for anyone," she said softly.

Her voice trembled, but she forced a little laugh.

"I just… I just want to make the most of the time I've got. Same as anyone."

My chest tightened.

"You're not a problem," I said, louder than I meant to.

My voice echoed across the empty library, and even the dust seemed to pause midair.

I half-expected the librarian to walk over and shush me, but I hadn't seen her move since she we came in.

I wondered if she were asleep behind the counter.

Yuki's eyes flicked toward me, bright and wet.

Shion rolled her eyes, muttering under her breath. "Gods, you're hopeless."

But she didn't let go of my hand.

Suddenly, a loud wrrring began to vibrate across the table.

I felt every single tiny shake in the base of my spine, and it made me clench my teeth together.

Shion's shoulders tensed.

"Oh no," she said, fishing her cellphone from her purse.

Inego chuckled to himself

"Someone nick your bicycle?" he asked.

Shion shot him a glance.

"Oh, very funny, British love boy."

Azuki squealed and leaned against Inego playfully, making him blush.

I watched Shion's expression as she looked at her screen, and I could tell she was concerned about something.

"Guys, I've got to go," she said, hopping up from the table.

I stood up with her.

"What's going on?" I asked.

She shut her eyes and drew a breath.

"It's… something's going on with Arclose and his friends. They need my help. They went back into the damn Nightlands looking for me when I didn't go back to their place last night. Obie says he's getting worried."

Shoin hardly ever looked concerned about anything, so I knew this was serious.

"I'm coming with you," I said.

She arched an eyebrow.

"Like hell you are. Let me handle this. Unlike you, I've been to the Nightlands with my physical body, and unlike you, if something happens to me, I'll survive."

Yuki coughed.

"You survived just like I did," she muttered.

Shion stood, brushing dust from her skirt, and slipped her phone back into her purse.

"Is that supposed to be funny?" she asked Yuki.

The air around the table suddenly grew tense.

"Hey," Azuki said, suddenly. "We're still going to Dick's tonight, right?"

I looked around the table at everyone.

"Yeah, that's the plan," Inego said.

I looked at my girlfriend, who was shifting from one foot to the other.

She didn't meet my eyes.

"Stay here. All of you," Shion said.

Then, she stepped forward, into my personal space, and gave me a quick kiss on my cheek.

"Blondie, I promise, I'll be back before seven this evening, okay?"

Her tone was sharp enough to bite, but the grip she gave my shoulder was warmer than she wanted it to be.

I gave her a quick nod.

"I'll handle this. Don't follow me."

Before I could argue, she was already striding toward the library doors, her hair swaying like a curtain of black glass.

Azuki tried to call after her, something about being careful, but Shion just waved one pale hand without turning back.

Then the doors groaned open, sunlight spilled in for the briefest moment, and she was gone.

The silence she left behind weighed heavier than the mildew in the air.

Yuki leaned against me, her expression caught between worry and that hopeful brightness she always wore like a shield.

Inego rubbed his jaw, muttering something about "bloody reckless vampires," and Azuki crossed her arms like she was trying to hold in the nervous energy buzzing through her.

It was only then I noticed the librarian again.

She picked her head up, only something wasn't right, because part of her head remained on the book she'd been resting on.

Her entire jaw clattered to the desk with a wet thunk, and I watched in silent horror as she scooped it up, crammed it back onto the rest of her face, and casually punched a few staples into it with the desk stapler.

Then she turned toward our table, teeth unevenly stapled in place, and gave us a cheerful little wave like we'd just walked into homeroom.

I frowned, knowing exactly who it was, and that it would only be a matter of time before the smell of hot, wet garbage would come our way.

"Skuzz," Inego muttered, voice flat with disbelief.

The zombie grinned, or whatever passed for a grin with half its lips missing, and slowly pushed itself upright, vertebrae cracking like firewood as it rose.

I swallowed hard.

So much for atmosphere.

"Guys," he said, lurching our way.

Every single step sounded like raw sewage trying to pass through clogged pipes, and as Skuzz got closer, he smelled twice as nasty.

"Man, I can't tell you how much it warms my cold, dead heart that you actually came! Wow, and I thought I'd just wasted my idea."

He reached into the pocket of his gross, rotting school uniform (at least I think it was a school uniform once upon a time) and pulled out what looked like the remains of one of Hina's spider-creatures.

"Hey, sorry, but I came here as soon as I woke up and I didn't have time for breakfast. You guys care if I eat while we talk?"

Yuki gagged.

"Skuzz, what's wrong with you? What do you mean when you woke up?"

He took a bite out of the spider and grinned, half the poor creature's guts hung out of his rotting teeth.

"Breakfast of champions, know what I mean?" he asked.

I didn't have a clue.

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