The Inhabitants of the Fanfiction Search Engine

The room was dark. I sighed, slumping down against a wall tiredly. It had been quite a day for me- for all of us. The ones that use this website- Fanfiction- had called for stories all day. By the time the constant demand for stories had ceased, all of us searchers were almost asleep with fatigue.

I gazed for what seemed the millionth time at the shelves upon shelves upon shelves of boxes filled with stories in this warehouse-like building. We had searched those wretched shelves for as long as we could remember. Grabbing the boxes, searching the folders for a story that might fit the description of the kind of story the person wanted- and those boxes weren't exactly light- was not fun, to say the least. And, we were expected to work at almost superhuman speeds.

Suddenly, I heard footsteps on the hard concrete floor. I groaned internally. Not another late-night reader! We all scrambled to attention, facing the dreaded noise that was gradually coming closer.

A girl appeared from the darkness. She had brown cat ears and a tail, and a long black dress that one might wear to a masquerade. I smirked slightly. The characters some humans made for themselves were at times ridiculous.

As she arrived in front of us, she looked us over- huddling close together in our small coats, not daring to look at her.

I sighed, stepping forward. "Yes? What would you like, ma'am?"

"I would like to read a story," She said quietly. She listed off all of her criteria, not even bothering with a simple 'please'.

"Now, go." She growled. I nodded, and we all rushed off to find the story.

I started in the A's, moving through the boxes, trying to find a story fitting the description. Around me, I glimpsed my colleagues, searching their boxes as rapidly as I was. I could hear the girl calling, "Come on, guys, I don't have all day! Hurry it up!"

I hurried back, carrying a stack of stories higher than my head. I lay them in front of the girl, and she began to rummage through them, resembling that of a raccoon.

"No… No… Too long… Agh! That one's horribly spelt, I'm not reading that." She recoiled in disgust at the paper she held in her hand, tossing it aside with the other discarded ones. She continued this until she had a stack of stories to read. The others had gathered up the discarded ones to be put away again. The girl walked over to the chair in the corner and began to read. This did not last long, however, as she whipped through all the stories as fast as she had picked them. She demanded more stories afterwards, and after that, the whole archive of one sort. I had to get the entire box of stories off the shelf for her to search through. And, all this time, she was making a terrible mess of the floor, cluttering it up with the discarded stories.

Finally, she declared herself done. She disappeared in a cloud of golden smoke.

I sighed, and flopped onto the ground. My colleagues did the same, some falling right to sleep. My arms ached from carrying the giant boxes. My head stung from where she had hit me for being too slow with a pile of stories. But mostly, my heart ached from the harsh words she had snarled at us as we worked so hard, only for what she had wanted.

The worst part was that she wasn't the worst we'd worked for. Others came throughout the day, wanting the same. Some were more understanding when we were a bit slower than usual. Others… didn't tolerate it- and in worse ways than the dress girl.

When would this painful life of torture end for us?

AN: So, this was my first fanfic. It was based off of a thought I had as I was falling asleep. Ah, me and my overactive imagination.

I'd really like to know what you thought of it- feedback would help a lot.

Thanks again! :D

Kittehz