The Vampire in the Bookstore

by Elle M. Drew

The loft, the balcony, the second level above, were all open. The rolling ladders, the stacks going from floor to ceiling, reaching as tall as the manor itself, were all building and flowing around and around. Stacks were sitting in neat rows on the floor, waiting to be organized. Stacks of books on desks. Books open on a table. Books upon books, upon books upon... She felt faint, everything overwhelming as she turned, trying to look at it all. Thousands upon thousands. No, hundreds of thousands. Even that felt too weak a number. The number of books, amount of learning, the possibilities, were all of it endless. There were books with matching leather bindings, a set of collections to be certain. Books purchased within the past year, the spine revealing modern and contemporary titles. She wanted to touch them all, to run among the stacks. She wanted to ride across on the ladders, to climb up each of them. “I am never leaving,” she breathed out as she turned, trying to look at it all, but still finding more books with every turn of her body.