The Library

My first and, fingers crossed, last experience with the paranormal occurred when I was just eleven years old and in Primary School. As I was in 'Year 6' the oldest year in first school, myself and a friend, Leigh, were given the great honour of being Library Monitors. This meant that we were entrusted with staying in the library during lunch and break times, keeping out younger children, tidying up etc... We kept our 'jobs' for at least a month with no incidents, until one sunny afternoon, something happened that ensured we would resign from our positions immediately!

Firstly, I think I should briefly describe the layout of the library in order to get the full effect of the story. It is split up into two parts, one being non-fiction, the other fiction. Upon entering the library, you are in the non-fiction section, there are three round tables with chairs at the bottom which sit underneath a large window which stretches right across the wall, allowing a lot of sun into the room. The fiction area is a whole other room, separated from the non- fiction part through an arch way entrance in the wall. The entrance is completely open, with no covering such as a door. However, from the far end of the fiction section, where the bean bags and 'comfy' where the chairs are, all that can be seen of the non-fiction area are the tables and chairs.

It was lunchtime and Leigh and myself were sitting on the bean bags in the fiction section of the library, reading in silence when we clearly heard the library door slam. Now the library door, no matter the time of day, was always kept open, held in place by a wedge of wood as it was heavy and rather old. Needless to say, it created a huge bang, causing Leigh and myself to jump out of our skins. My immediate thought was children from the younger years joking around but this theory was scuppered when I remembered that dinner ladies stand at the entrance to the playground and did not permit any children going down the corridor during lunch. The only person it could be was a teacher or dinner lady as they were the only people with access to this area at this time.

Leigh, by far the braver of the two of us, called out,"Is somebody there?" Predictably, there was no answer. As we were in the fiction section we couldn't see anything except the tables, certainly not as far as the door. It was then that the dragging started. The unmistakable sound of a person shuffling their feet heavily across the carpet. Leigh and myself were frozen with fear, and found ourselves even more terrified when heavy breathing was added to the dragging. The steps and breathing were coming closer to the archway and Leigh and myself braced ourselves for seeing something. However, it stopped right before whatever it was would have come into view. Leigh and I sat motionless and silent for at least two minutes, waiting for some demon to attack us. Mercifully, nothing did and after giving each other 'the nod' leapt to our feet and raced out of the library hand in hand, without looking back.

We didn't stop running until we were outside on the playground, and then slumped on the hard gravel, hearts pumping. During the rest of lunch we discussed our terrifying encounter. We agreed that it couldn't have been anyone playing a prank, as we would have heard them leaving the room after scaring us. Also, as the door was still closed when we bolted, we knew that we would have heard anyone opening it and then closing it behind them, no matter how quiet they were.

To this day, neither of us have any clue what was in the library that day. We considered telling a teacher about our encounter but changed our minds, afraid of sounding mad. We simply handed in our library passes, citing that we missed playing during lunchtime and the position was bestowed on another unsuspecting duo. We didn't tell the 'newbies' of our experience and if anything unusual happened to them, they didn't share either. During the last few months of school, Leigh and I stayed well away from the library as much as possible and I think when I left Primary School, I was glad to see the back of that library more than anything else!