Disclaimer: In an alternate universe in a land far, far away…could I ever own Rurouni Kenshin…alas such a world does not exist…

Whispering Corridors – The Library

The cool autumn air whistled through the trees causing the branches to sway back and forth. Kaoru shivered to herself pulling the thick material of her jacket tighter around her shuddering form. She quickened her pace as she made her way down the paved path that lead to her school's library.

Her tennis shoes slapped noiselessly against the pavement as she moved. A sudden gust of wind blew sharply across her face causing her long black hair to dance wildly around her face. The blast of cold air caused her to squeak in protest louder than she would have liked. Taking a step back she clapped her gloved hands over her exposed ears in a vain attempt to protect them.

Once the wind had settled Kaoru carefully pulled her hands away and resumed walking. Around her she could still hear the wind rushing through the trees. The sound it generated was rather haunting, like a low and drawn out moan.

Kaoru frowned wondering why she had come up with such a disturbing simile. The idea unsettled her causing her to resume a far brisker pace than necessary. In a moment Kaoru saw the entrance to the library. She smiled knowing it promised peace, warmth, quiet, warmth and did she say warmth? She quickly pushed the double doors open, welcoming the ready rush of hot air, and stepped into the brightly lit atrium. She looked around her deep blue eyes swept along the rows of benches lining the wall on her right.

Seeing no one she recognized she plodded down the short corridor and made a left stepping over the metal detector and onto the main floor of the library. She scanned the room once more her eyes roving over the buzz of activity. Along the back wall students were gathered in groups around several tables, while others were occupying the various computer terminals. Again she saw no one.

"Yo Jo-Chan!" Called a familiar voice. Kaoru looked up and waved as she spotted a tall guy with spiky brown hair. Sagara Sanosuke picked up his backpack and quickly shut off the computer terminal he was working at and approached her.

"Hey Sano, actually doing work for once?" she grinned wickedly before scrunching her brow in apprehension. "Is it the apocalypse? I thought that was hail earlier today."

Sano smirked. "Ha-ha Oh Kaoru you're so funny. Now save me the trouble of smacking you by walking into my hand."

Kaoru laughed playfully swatting away the hand in front of her face. "Well sorry if I find the idea of you and work to be amusing. So seriously what are you doing then?"

"I was just admiring the beauty of the human body."

"Oh really?" Kaoru quirked an eyebrow, "Your actually doing your biology then?"

"Nope, looking at porn." Sano chuckled then winked at her suggestively. "Isn't that what the internet is for?"

Kaoru rolled her eyes as Sano continued to sing, off pitch, several lines of that ridiculous song. "Whatever Sano."

"Hey I'm a healthy young man with healthy male attitudes. Ask any guy. They're lying if they say they've never sneaked a peek.

"Kenshin doesn't." She stated firmly.

"That's what you think. He might be a good boy but he's still a boy." He chuckled, poking Kaoru in the ribs playfully. "Anyways what are you doing here? I thought this was your short day?"

"Didn't I tell you? I have an exam in a couple days so I was going to stay a bit later. Actually I'm going to meet Misao too she was all flustered this morning when I saw her so I asked if she wanted to study with me."

"Right…forgot about that. But doesn't she usually go meet the Ice man on these days?"

"I don't think Aoshi would appreciate you calling him that." Kaoru scolded. "Hmm…you are right though, I'll call her later to confirm then. I did ask her if she wanted to study before she had coffee today."

"Haha. Alright then Jo-Chan I'm going to head to the gym. Don't study too hard now and by the way Kenshin wants you to call him before you leave."

"Why?"

"Not sure he is after all, your crazy boyfriend not mine, just call him." With that he gave a two-finger salute and turned to exit the library.

Still smiling to herself she walked down to the basement level of the library to study. She quickly found a blue armchair. Dropping her bag against the floor she grabbed the back of the chair and pulled it over to one of the desks near the bookshelves. Grabbing her bag she settled in comfortably pulling out her East Asian history textbook. From her bag she also produced a pen and a pad of paper to take notes with.

She read for about an hour before she made an attempt to call Misao. The girl was not picking up her phone. Well it did not really matter. Not that she had anything against studying with Misao, but Kaoru knew she could get more work done without her.

Slowly Kaoru could feel the weight of the day begin to settle onto her shoulders. She glanced at the time on her cell phone. 6:58 p.m. she sighed slouching further into her seat. Another fifteen minutes went by.

Pushing herself up Kaoru glanced around. In front of her to her right she saw another student standing in front of the bookshelf. The library was newly designed with state of the art equipment. The bookshelves for one moved. All the student had to do was look for the right aisle press a few buttons and the shelves would move either left or right. To prevent people from getting squished the aisles were all equipped with motion detectors. The shelves would not move if they sensed anything. When the library first opened Kaoru had vaguely wondered what would happen if there was a blackout though. Granted the shelves still wouldn't work but the thought had made her giggle.

After finding the right aisle the student pressed the buttons and voila. Beep. Went the sensors as the student stepped in. It beeped again as the student stepped out of the aisle.

A sudden flickering above her head caused her to look up. The fluorescent light sputtered with effort before staying on. That was weird. Kaoru thought to herself. Sighing she turned back to her work and began reading again.

Some more time passed and Kaoru was finding it harder to stay focused. Earlier she had tried to call Kenshin, twice, the first time she only received a weird static response, and the second had attempt had resulted in odd gasping noises. Checking the time again she saw it was already 9:45 p.m. clearing her desk a bit Kaoru decided to take a quick nap to rest her eyes. She set the alarm on her cell phone and settled back onto her chair propping her foot up against the desk.

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

Kaoru jerked her head up at the vibration of her cell phone knocking the text book she had in her lap onto the ground. The heavy spine thudded against the carpeted floor. Several other heads in the library looked up and glared at her.

Smiling apologetically, she got up from her arm chair and bent down to pick up her book. Plopping back down, she ran a hand through her mussed hair and carefully rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Turning her neck from side-to-side she carefully worked the kinks out if it and stopped when she heard it crack. Picking up her phone she noted the time to be 10:25 p.m.

Damn. I want to go home already, stupid tests. School how I loathe thee. She shook her fist at no one in particular and settled deeper into her seat flipping her book open once again. She slowly twirled her pen in her hand and would now and again use it to make a note.

Time passed and Kaoru could feel the weight of sleep begin to take its effect on her again. Slowly her hand fell to her side, the words on the page began to blur and re-shape themselves in the form of happy sheep running across a lush green field filled with soft comfortable beds. Her chin drooped towards her chest and her eyes gradually began to close.

I'll just close my eyes for a bit. I'll open them in a second…in one second…one sec…

Through the haze of her mind she could sense the movement of the other students in the basement level of her schools library. The soft hum of noise leisurely faded away into the background adding to the lullaby of her mind.

The pen she was holding suddenly fell from her grip. Her dark blue eyes quickly popped open. She quickly pushed herself forward to find it only to stop mid-way. She straightened up and slowly turned her head to survey…a very empty library. She strained her ears trying to pick up even the minutest bit of sound. She looked down at her cell for the time. 1:36 a.m.

"Oh crap! Why didn't the staff come by to kick me out?" She quickly stood and began shoving her books and papers into her bag. She swung it over her shoulder and took a step forward to leave but stopped. "Oh yeah my pen!"

She spun around towards the chair she had been occupying and bent down to retrieve it. Her brow furrowed in confusion. Wasn't it just by the chair leg? She thought to herself. She moved her eyes forward and saw it by one of the moving shelves. Oh must have rolled farther than I thought.

She circled around the desks toward the shelves and stopped again.

"Um…"

Her pen was gone again. Stepping forward she slowly made her way into an aisle. The beep of the sensor startled her as she passed over the threshold. Placing a hand over her heart she turned around again her eyes on the floor.

"There it is geez." Sighing in exasperation she stalked over and knelt down to pick it up. Just as her outstretched hand came into contact with her pen, she jerked to her right. Through the spaces above the books lined on the shelf she saw a shadow walk by. But I didn't hear the sensor go off.

She scrambled up and entered the aisle beside her.

Beep.

Beep.

Nothing.

Kaoru took a careful step backward feeling the tread of the shelf beneath her shoe.

Beep.

Without looking she could sense the movement of something moving past her from behind. Like a slight wind. The kind a person can generate when they walk past you quickly. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She swallowed thickly and slowly turned her head. At the very end of the moving shelves to her left she saw a person standing partially hidden. They appeared to be wearing a vest. She sighed in relief.

"Sorry I kind of fell asleep on an arm chair. I'll be going now Sir, Miss?" Her voice was a little shaky as she spoke to the person she assumed was part of campus police. As she spoke she began to slowly walk towards them. However as she took three steps the individual suddenly walked out of view.

Her blue eyes narrowed in confusion. She began to carefully walk down the hall anyways to see where they went. Once she got to the end of the hall she looked left and right but could not see the person. Kaoru frowned and looked at herself in the window, taking in her slightly disheveled appearance. Her long dark hair was a bit messy and even due to the dark landscape outside she could tell her eyes had dark circles under them. She shook her head and just decided to head home when suddenly she saw something standing behind her. In the reflection in the window she spotted the person she saw before all the way at the other end of the shelves standing in front of the study rooms. She spun around to face them.

But there was nothing. Slowly her eyes widened as one by one the lights began to flicker and go out all together; one at a time slowly approaching her. About halfway they stopped. Silence filled the floor. Then very softly Kaoru picked up a sound. They were the sounds of beeping. The kind of beeping the shelves make when someone passes though an aisle.

Slowly the sound approached the spot she was standing on.

Beep.

Beep.

It was getting louder.

Beep.

Beep.

It was at the shelf just a few steps away from her.

Beep.

She waited, one minute. Two minutes. Five.

Nothing.

And then she felt it; the subtle feeling of wind. The kind a person can make if they walk by you quickly. Before she could turn around the lights went out and that was it.

After a few minutes they returned. But Kaoru was no longer there. The only indication of her presence was a pen lying on the floor.

TBC…

AN: My library has moving shelves…it took the longest time to figure out because the aisles were always 'occupied' i.e. there was no one actually in them.

This story is loosely based off the Korean Horror movie series called Whispering Corridors. However the only thing it has in common with them is that everything will happen at school. Other than that, there are no other glaring similarities.