you've fallen in love with your enemy & other short stories

you're studying in a haunted library with ghosts

Your feathered quill graces your piece of parchment. The deep ink colour creating beautiful letters upon the white paper. Swirling up and down, until there, finally, you finish, writing your last word. Sighing in relief, you lean your head back on your chair. 

And then the candle next to you vanquishes. The flame disappearing in a quick spark. You gasp, but before you can feel any fear, the room is filled with such light again. You don't know where that light comes from. Only that it feels so right, so beautiful, so alive. 

And then they walk down, spiralling from the highest shelves of books. From the deepest corners of the library. From the elegant glass windows. Holding hands with their partners. Ballgowns galore, suits in full.

You stand, as they start to dance. And it's so beautiful. The music fills the room, their bodies moving between the shelves, inside the books. Just laughing and dancing and feeling so full of life.

You dance on your own, spinning round and round. You laugh too as you get caught up in it. As you start to feel like their life is yours too. But of course it's not. No matter how much you wish it could be.

As you despairingly stop, your arms falling down, your smile lowering. You see someone else enter the library. A man in a mask. Another ghost.

He takes the mask off, and with a quick smile and a spark in those grey eyes he takes a step towards you, his hand outstretching towards yours.

You hesitate before you hold it, scared you won't be able to feel it. But he nods towards you, reassuring. And you take it. He feels so alive, so real.

And you both dance, feeling so alive when you know he's dead. Trying not to think of the life you haven't yet lived. Of experiences, of love, of feeling alive. Just studying and working endlessly. You want to feel that breath of life again.

And then the music starts to end, you both look forlornly at each other as you realise this is goodbye.

He gently kneels down, kissing your hand gracefully all the while looking up at you. Those dark grey eyes imprinted in your memory.

And then the lights go off again. And the old candles spark up, the dim light a stark difference between the joyous lights before.

But strangely something else is different. You still feel the light touch of lips on your hand. You feel the boy tense up in surprise as he stands up again. A huge smile overtakes his face, and he holds your face in his hands, eyes darting in shock.

"You're alive." You both say at the same time.

And then you laugh, so happily, so carefree. For your boy in the library was never a ghost, he had never died. When he had entered the library and viewed the beautiful ghost show just as you had done, he had believed that you too were a ghost.

"So," He says, a little smirk on his face, "What do you want to do now?"

You look back at your desk, full of pages and pages of paper. Things you've been doing for days. For too long. Studying for things that are important but also for things that aren't at all. You've done it so excessively in order to distract yourself. In order to drown yourself in so you don't think of anything else. Things you will one day go back to but not to that extent, but right now- 

You take his hand again, leading him outside those library doors, a giddy, excited expression on both of your faces. 

"I want to live."

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