Not many people dared venture down to the archives, mainly because no one had any need to, but there was something about the dusty, expansive room with no natural light that seemed to steer people away.

Minseok didn’t mind at all.

The lower floors of the library, in general, weren’t frequented as much as the top floors. Higher up the building was the computer room, fiction books and college books that most people used. Down below the ground floor was one floor of law journals and then the lowest floor contained the archives. Old books that had been pulled from most course reading lists, newspaper articles from the past few decades, and occasionally a book which had been pulled from the print, usually on a topic which had been censored.

The upper floors were a lot more modern, most of the council and college funding went to making the library a more attractive place for students to study. The archives were well neglected, Minseok barely even got cell phone signal because of all the metal nestled between the walls and floors. He’d been promised a working computer months ago but unfortunately, he was still having to do things the old-fashioned way, which was something he was well accustomed to.

His shift started late, his work bag packed with his thermos was heavy on his shoulders. The security guard which took night shift gave him a knowing nod as he passed through the main entrance, even after all these years he still didn’t know the man’s name. He walked briskly to the staircase, dodging some students who were making their way up to silent study, books in tow.

The old paper had a certain scent to it, one which Minseok liked. It wasn’t harsh, it didn’t overwhelm the senses, but it was always noticeable whenever he’d take his first few steps onto the floor. His desk had been left undisturbed, though a sticky note had been placed on the top of his logbook, a message scrawled with messy handwriting, Junmyeon’s own. Something about a missing file, he’d give it more attention later.

Switching on the desk lamp, Minseok made himself comfortable. It seemed that Junmyeon had left him his mug on his desk, cleaned. It was a garish little thing, a bright yellow mug with ‘kiss the librarian’ written across. He was pretty sure Junmyeon got it for him as a joke since he was the only one in the whole place who knew his true nature. Junmyeon was unfazed, he just wanted to make sure someone capable was looking after the archives at night time because that was the time most of the stragglers would come in, drunk students and would be thieves. Minseok made sure nothing that wasn’t supposed to leave this floor made it past the front desk.

After he’d chosen his book for the night, he found a pile of manila files which needed to be put away. He was very meticulous with how the shelves were organised, one of his biggest pet peeves was files put back in the wrong place. Though the shelves were organised in alphabetical order, some people still put things back in the completely wrong place. Sighing, he put back the fifth file in his hand, straightening up the rest of the ones in his grasp. Shortly after, he heard footsteps, then laughter.

Expression neutral, he gently set the files down, making a mental note of the shelf number. The laughter got louder, but Minseok was able to distinguish whereabouts it was coming from, somewhere between the newspaper clippings from pre-1950’s and the census files. There was absolutely no reason for anyone to be around there at this time of night, even the history students with deadlines would come and ask him where specific pieces were before going off into the shelves. Which meant only one thing.

Delinquents.

Minseok despised them.

The way they left their greasy fingerprints on prized books, defiled the history kept within those walls. They thought that the archives were the perfect place the sneak off to, it wasn’t as populated, and the CCTV cameras were either broken or so old that they didn’t have good enough resolution to identify faces. Sometimes drunk students would come in after the clubs close early in the morning, the stragglers would come through hoping to find a quiet place to… touch each other. It made Minseok’s blood boil.

Minseok had been… tame for many years now. He had a strict routine which he followed down to the letter, he avoided trouble and he made sure that he kept the balance between extremely secretive and too open. He had a nice, mutual understanding with other supernaturals, build out of respect. He’d been on this earth a lot longer than most things in this city, and he wasn’t prepared to compromise that for anything. But sometimes, especially when young, dumb students would come into his archives, it pushed him close to his limit.

Their scent was strong, musky and mixed with the scents he was normally accustomed to. He glanced down from one of the darker sides of the archive, to see the two of them cavorting with each other in aisle QH. Next to the economy articles. He moved further back into the darkness.

The girl seemed unsure, hesitating to do anything and constantly pointing out that doing this in the library was bad. Her boy toy kept telling her it was fine, just relax. In his head Minseok was contemplating what to do, he could just eat them? No, no. he needed to set an example for any of the other students who might think it’s cute to go play tonsil tennis in the bottom floor of the library. Next time, he’d eat them.

In the end, the boy got his way. Both of them were passionately kissing, hands on hips or pulling on hair, obscene wet noises and all. Like most people when they kissed, their eyes closed. So, naturally, Minseok took his opportunity to sneak up on his prey.

When they parted to breathe, as humans do, they looked into each other’s eyes. While to anyone else this would appear to be a gentle gesture between lovers, Minseok knew. A look like that was one of curiosity, silently begging for them to carry on, to push it further. It was time for him to intervene.

He certainly had some choice words for them, but he elected to not say anything. Instead, he cleared his throat, not too loud but enough to get their attention. When the girl looked across to see him she immediately went sheepish, head down. The boy practically jumped away from her, putting a good metre between them. Moments like this reminded him that, yes, this type of delinquent is dumb and they’re usually annoying, but at least they’re not stealing anything important. Just small fragments of Minseok’s sanity.

“This type of behaviour is not acceptable in my archives. Come back again and you will not get off so lightly. Do I make myself clear?” he said, voice steady.

Both of them nodded, he could hear the girl crying gently.

“Good, now get out before I change my mind.”

Dashing off with their metaphorical tails between their legs, Minseok made his way back to his desk. Resisting his temptations was never an easy task, he soon found himself feeling peckish. It was no problem, though. The thermos in his bag was always well stocked. Leaning back in his squeaky chair, he scanned over the request forms which had been left for him to complete, document in one hand and his full “kiss the librarian” mug in the other.

The night went smoothly, the security guard coming to check on him periodically as he gathered files to send up to the pickup desk. Students who had some sense about them to go in and request pieces in advance so they could get their work done to a high enough standard. He didn’t mind doing requests, in fact, he often liked looking through the newspaper clippings himself. Certain smells and headlines could take him back to a different time, ones he enjoyed but for all the wrong reasons.

It had been hard, adjusting to this modern era. Their country was growing so much economically, especially in the last decade, that development was struggling to keep up. Every time Minseok the TV late at night the 24-hour news channel always featured new pieces about different investments, major construction plans, overseas exports. It was novel to think he used to live in a hanok in the middle of the wilderness. These days hanoks were tourist attractions for foreigners. Oh, how times have changed.

He was currently at the back of the archives, a student had requested a particularly challenging file, and despite having one of the most organized sections of the library, he was admittedly struggling to find it. In his haste to find it, he’d accumulated a whole stack of papers. He knew it must be on this shelf, it hadn’t been requested yet and it was definitely in the archive. It was driving him crazy, it must be between ZP.C36.5 and ZP.C36.8 there was no other possible place for it to be.

Muttering to himself he decided to completely reorganise the whole shelf. Junmyeon wouldn’t have let this happen, it must have happened whilst another librarian was on duty, and honestly, Minseok would not stand for it. Starting right from the beginning, he checked through every file to find the damn article, but still, nothing. He could feel himself getting angry, what kind of incompetent fool-

Across the room, approximately 8 aisles over, he heard footsteps.

No one has come in since the security guard came to check on him, he was supposed to be alone. 8 aisles over was a section which was supposed to be restricted, censored books and ones that had been hidden away for a reason. Only one type of delinquent would bother going to that section. He placed the files in his grasp down neatly in the space he’d made, before moving out into the unlit area.

It was a man, well, a boy. Short and scruffy looking. From the looks of things, he was actively trying to walk as quiet as possible, glancing around to see if anyone was nearby to him. Of course, he couldn’t see anyone, Minseok was the only person who worked on this floor. The fact he was being so cautious meant he was there to do bad things. Who else would be sneaking around in the restricted section of an archive?

Fumbling about, he pulled a scrunched up note from his pocket. After refreshing his memory he started his search, going onto his tiptoes to look at the shelves higher up. It didn’t take him much time to find what he wanted, after all, there weren’t many pieces in the restricted section. After another quick look, he pulled it from the shelf, wiping away the dust which had accumulated on the top.

Placing the book down on the empty shelf, he opened it up, having a little look through with a curious expression. Minseok could see that it wasn’t a particularly old book, through the pages had yellowed with time. If the lingering smell of sulphur was any indication then Minseok would have to assume it was a book on witchcraft, focussing primarily on the darker arts. Not many archives had books like this, but then again, not many archives had a vampire to guard things of that nature.

The book shut with a loud smack, which made the boy jump. Erring on the cautious side he stayed still and tried to listen for any movement coming towards him. After a moment he let out the breath he’d been holding before reaching out for his phone.  He held the book out into the light and snapped a couple of pictures before typing away. Now Minseok was no detective, but it looked like this boy wasn’t the only one who was going to make use of this book. Witchcraft didn’t bother him, not even the dark arts. The dark arts, in particular, were a dying practice, and it wasn’t one which could affect him personally. But if that kind of book got into the wrong hands, it would cause a few problems for other beings, humans included.

The boy started making a beeline for the exit, walking as fast as he possibly could with the book wrapped close to his chest. As he made his escape, he checked one last time that no one was around, glancing back to the restricted section just in case. He thought he’d made it, starting to smile when he saw nothing around him. Until he walked straight into something so hard it made him fall to the floor.

Instinctively he reached out for the book first, but before he could, Minseok stood on his hand. It was then the boy decided to look up. Perhaps he’d initially thought he’d walked into a bookshelf, something hard and cold, unmoving. By the look on his face, he hadn’t expected it to be a person.

“That’s a restricted item,” he said, not once breaking the eye contact he had with the boy.

He stuttered some, struggling to get out whatever excuse he’d mustered up in the last few seconds. The boy looked so small on the floor, looking up at him like a little mouse about to be eaten by a predator. When he moved his shoe off the boy’s hand, he snatched it back and tried to shuffle away to stand up.

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he managed to get out, brushing the dust off from his pants, backing up even more.

For every step away the boy took, Minseok closed the distance. He gently took off his glasses, folding them with care before hooking them on the collar of his sweater vest. “Don’t play dumb with me, boy. I can smell the lingering magic on you, sweet like liquorice.”

Those few words seemed to trigger a fight or flight reaction in the boy, he quickly looked down at the book, it was way out of his reach now, Minseok could practically see his train of thought as the boy weighed up his options. Some part of him hoped he’d make a run for it just so he could chase him for a moment before he did what he had to. He always loved to play with his food, well, when he wasn’t so domesticated.

His wish was granted, the boy started running as fast as he could back to where he came from, before making a left to where Minseok knew there was a fire exit. He wouldn’t make it there, but maybe he’d let him run long enough to feel like he had a chance.

Two rows before the fire exit, the boy was roughly snatched into one of the aisles, one which was a blind spot for the CCTV cameras. Gearing up to shout and scream, Minseok covered his mouth with a hand. From the low amount of light coming from the fire exit sign, he could see that his nails were already sharpened. He knew what he looked like in his other form, but the little human boy didn’t. His eyes were wet with tears and he screamed as much as he could, despite having his mouth covered. Minseok pushed down so he would stop.

Voice low, Minseok hushed him. “Shhh, screaming isn’t allowed in the library.”

Knee pressed into his chest, Minseok leant over him. He waited for the boy to calm down, his cheek with his free hand. He liked to let them think they could get away, liked to feel the hope drain from them.

With one swift movement, he tilted the boy’s head to the side, exposing the neck. Before he had a chance to scream, Minseok was burying his teeth in deep. It was silent once again.

As the sun was beginning to rise and the sky turned to a lighter shade of grey, Minseok was getting ready to leave. He’d left a courteous note on the file ready for Junmyeon to pre-warn him not to look in the large storage box in the store cupboard, that he would take care of it tomorrow. Junmyeon would understand.

Passing the security bench he looked over to see the guard was fast asleep. When he came face to face with the automatic glass doors, he noticed he’d still not got his glasses on. Pulling them from his collar, he noticed a single drop of clotting blood which had been caught by the lens, with a quick swipe he cleaned them off with his finger before quickly away the excess. He’d give them a proper clean tomorrow, for now, he would focus on getting home before sunrise.

A/N: Happy Halloween/Devil's night! >:)