Dark Academia

Part Two: The Library

One evening not too long after my exchange with Alice I find myself roaming the halls of the building, the halls flickering and dancing with the light of lamps keeping the early winter darkness at bay. I pass varying groups of girls, most focused on their studies, a few engaged in quiet conversation. My mind wanders as I mill about campus. My parents had sent me here to become more worldly, more womanly. My goal had been to lose the callow shackles of adolescence, to become a learned academic. Make no mistake, now, I have been exposed to ways of thinking I never thought possible. But I have yet to experience any form of enlightenment. At least, none that I have been made aware of. Though I was originally excited by the thought of being surrounded by like-minded academics, I have found that I've a distinct lack of friendship. Save Alice, I suppose, though she is more a roommate than a real friend. The year is still young, though, and I might yet find some interesting companionship.
    I come back to my senses finding myself crossing a hallway I seem to never have crossed before. Large arching windows illuminate the hall with the full moonlight, creating a dappled effect of light and dark. I slow my pace, now keenly aware of how alone I am. I glance out one, and find myself at the highest point of the university. The night had only just begun to crest, but already an oppressive silence has come over the building. At the end of the hall sits a pair of heavy oaken doors. I try each knob, but neither moves. I push against one, then the other, putting my whole body weight into it.
    "Wait a moment!" A voice half-calls, half-whispers, sending an electric shock of fear through my body. I whirl around, my breath catching in my throat. Alice, her blonde hair streaming behind her, runs down the hall and towards me. I relax, if only a little bit, and feel that burn return to my cheeks.
    "How did you-"
    My voice catches in my throat, for some reason. I just can't manage the words. Panting slightly, she catches up with me, her pale lips screwed into a slight smile.
    "How are you...?"
    My voice catches again. Damn this.
    "You looked... far away." She says, placing her hands on her hips and leaning back as her breathing slows. "I was worried, so I followed you."
    My face burns more harshly, and I quickly shift my eyes to observe the wall adjacent us.
"Where are you going?" She asks, stepping into my field of vision once again.
"I... dunno." I shrug. "Just walking?"
"Just walking?" She repeats, looking me in the face.
"Just walking." I state. 
She watches me for a few more seconds before approaching the doors. She shoves against one, then the other, but neither budge. She motions for me to help, and I do, and we both shove against the doors, back to back. The doors suddenly give way, and we tumble into the darkness.
Immediately the scent of old dust hits me in the face like a gust of wind. The stale air is difficult to breathe, as I assume those doors haven't been opened in quite some time. Quickly standing, I whisper,
"Alice?"
A cold hand clasps on my shoulder, and I gasp, another electric shock of fear passing through my body. A light giggle sounds from the darkness, and I hear the sound of footsteps receding from my position. A lamp bursts alive just next to the doors. I watch as Alice gently feels her way along the walls, turning on each lamp as she finds it. The light exposes shelves upon shelves of aincinet, dusty volumes. Lighting the final lamp, Alice slowly walks over to me, her gaze wandering from shelf to shelf.
"This is... beautiful." She gasps, and she's right. Soaring bookshelves dominate the room, each one jam packed with novels and stories. I pad gently over the stale carpet, afraid to disturb this ancient energy. My hand gently graces the sides of the volumes as I walk.
"What is this?" She asks, pacing up and down the isles.
"A library." I half-laugh. I hear a gentle sigh from the shelves across me.
"Yes. Yes it is." Her voice grows distant as she speaks. "But why? This is by far the largest library in the building. And yet, I've never seen anyone use it. I'm not sure anyone even knows it's here."
    "No one has been here in a long time." I observe, rounding a corner and suddenly coming face to face with her.
"Hm." She remarks, peering at me over her thick spectacles. "Why do you suppose that is?"
I back up a few paces, awkwardly knocking into a shelf behind me. A dust cloud engulfs me as Alice watches, that serious, intent look never leaving her eyes.
"Strange indeed." She bites the flesh of her thumb, lost in thought. A strange feeling comes over me just then, and I shake my head to clear it, but it just won't leave me. Shivering slightly, I turn to the shelf behind me, picking out a volume and opening it. A light puff of dust releases as I flip through the pages.
"What is it?" She asks, stepping closer. I keep my eyes intently focused on the pages.
"Dickinson, I believe."
Closing the gap between us, she takes the book from my hands, examining it.
"Hm." She remarks again, tapping the page and releasing a tiny cloud of dust.
"Futile, the winds, To a heart in port, done with the compass, done with the chart." She reads, a pensive look overcoming her face. Her face seems to be frequent to pensive looks.
"Wild Nights?" I ask.
She nods, and continues doing so as she flips through the pages. "Take another one." She says, looking up at me, her eyes wide and excited. I quickly retrieve another book, handing it to her. She flips the pages, almost hungrily, and reads,
"The black boat lies: a sailor boy, clambers aboard in careless joy."
"I don't know that one." I mumble.
    "Wilde." She holds her hand out for another book. The night continues like this, and I feel no passage of time as well make our way around the shelves, selecting the most interesting volumes and reading them aloud. Alice, admittedly, is far better at reading aloud than I.
    "Oh!" Alice exclaims, slamming her book shut. "We're going to be late! What's the time?" I glance panickedly around, searching for a clock. Finding none, I rush to the hall. The first beams of sunlight had just begun to stream through the windows. The sky a conglomerate of pinks and oranges.
    "The sun is rising!" I call into the room. I glance in, and see Alice hurriedly extinguishing each lamp.
    "No time to change." She says as she turns the final one off. "Help me close these."
With significant effort, we manage to get the doors mostly shut, though we leave them open just a bit, just in case.
After a night of excited reading and rushing about, I found my sweater dampened with my sweat, and I am keenly aware of the scent of old dust hanging about me. Alice laughs softly, as though she knew what I was thinking.
"Let's go."
We rush down the halls, and I let Alice lead us down the twists and turns I must have taken to get here, though I don't remember them.
"That was fun." I say sheepishly as we make our way around campus.
"Wasn't it?" She replies, glancing back at me. "Tonight, again?"
I nod quickly, my cheeks burning and that feeling returning. I make it to my first class just in time, breathless and ill-equipped. That day my mind wanders, bouncing from that secret library to Alice and back again. My professors snap their fingers at me, or give me confused, exasperated looks that I am too far gone to notice.