It's just something about libraries, I'm not sure what exactly, just something that gets me.
Maybe it's the silence. There's always silence (or at least quiet) in libraries. It makes it feel like the world's been put on mute, or that there isn't actually anyone there: they're all just ghosts.
There aren't normally many people in libraries anyway. Well, not in the rubbish public ones: they've never got any good books, and the computers are ancient.
I had a go at being a librarian once – some of the workers were off sick and they needed someone to fill in. I didn't really like it, and the silence still creeped me out, but I managed. Until closing time.
When the public left, we spent half an hour sorting books before locking up. I was ready to leave and was waiting by the door. In my usual clumsy manner, I leant on the light switch and everything went pitch black.
"Shit!" screamed one librarian. "Who turned out the lights?"
I froze, petrified by the darkness, and couldn't move for a full minute. When I could, I switched the lights back on.
I quit the job the next day. I don't know what it was that made me do it: empty rooms I can handle, even dark rooms sometimes, but dark empty libraries scare the life out of me. All those shadows – anyone could be hiding in them.
Mum says I'm being silly and that I should just face my fear and get on with it. Grandpa doesn't thought – he gives me a sort of sad look, and then tells me it's alright. It's like he understands more than I do.
Dark libraries are probably my biggest (and definitely most irrational) fear. I mean, I'm scared of height, and wasps, but not in the same way that I'm scared of dark, silent libraries.