Prologue:
The Girl in the Photos
PART OF MY daily routine included dropping by this one library after school, but not because of any particular fondness for reading. Given the choice, I preferred to run free in the great outdoors. In an age where I could read manga on my smart phone with the click of a button, pretty much the only physical books in my life were the textbooks necessary for my senior high school classes.
I never saw much appeal in physical books. My eyes grew tired simply from running across the rows of text. As such, the reason why I frequented this library lay elsewhere.
“Fascinating!” squealed █████-senpai, standing right in front of a poster with the words “NO TALKING!” written on it in large, bold font. A third-year student (and so a year ahead of me), she was the Vice-President of the Student Council at my high school.
Thanks to some ancestors from Canada or the U.S.A., the color of her hair resembled honey in the sunlight. Her eyes were such a vivid ultramarine that it was hard to believe the color was natural. Although her well-defined facial features matched the image of a Western beauty, her wild imagination kept the other students at bay.
“Let’s get right down to it, ███-kun,” █████-senpai said, twirling her finger around as she looked down at me excitedly. I was average height for a senior high boy, but she was abnormally tall. To top it off, she made sure to tower over me whenever she spoke, which really laid the pressure on. It was intimidating. I shrank back a bit.
My back rammed against the bookcase fixed to the floor. While I nimbly caught a few books that fell from the shelves, █████-senpai rattled on. “There are some really strange rumors surrounding this library. People rate it one of the Seven Wonders of the School—and, ah, I’m not sure if you’re aware, but apparently this library was originally part of a university that got shut down. It’s uncertain whether it was deemed too much of a hassle to demolish after the university was gone or if some kind of intrigue was in play, but it’s all that remains standing.”
She was a bit hard to follow, that girl. She never really bothered to stop and gather her thoughts; she let her words spill out however they came to mind. But I felt like I needed to at least give the pretense of listening, so I bobbed my head like an idiot.
Indifferent to my lukewarm response, █████-senpai continued prattling on, completely unfazed. “That’s what makes it one of our school’s Seven Wonders. Apparently, the strange rumors surrounding the place date all the way back to when the university was still standing. I’m nuts about paranormal stuff, so I’ve been looking into it.”
Like I didn’t know that. That was precisely why I decided to talk to her in the first place: I was currently caught up in some supernatural mumbo-jumbo of my own. I had no idea who else to turn to—certainly not my parents, teachers, or friends—let alone the police. I had no doubt they would just laugh it off, saying something like, “Where did you come up with that crazy idea?”
Grasping at straws, I turned to this upperclassman, a girl who’d been ostracized for never once backing down from her declaration of “I love the supernatural!”
That love was on full display. “This library is incredible! It’s a treasure trove of mysteries and creepy rumors! The occult on parade!”
She drew so close that I swore it was bad for my poor adolescent heart—and then she broke into a big grin. Throwing both arms wide open, she looked lovingly around her, taking in several deep breaths. It was nerve-wracking, the way her breath touched my forehead when she exhaled.
The two of us were surrounded by countless aisles of library stacks. Even though it was an early summer’s afternoon, the lighting was dim and gloomy. Blame that on the black curtains lowered over the windows to prevent the books from yellowing. Apparently, the fluorescent lights arrayed along the ceiling were burnt out. They failed to offer any light at all.
Put bluntly, it was one creepy library. Going by the stains and cracks along the walls, it was a rather old building. Mold and cobwebs completely overran places where damp had settled in. The place was practically in ruins. It was hard to believe the building was currently in use.
I guess nobody wanted to set foot in that creepy facility, because I didn’t see any librarians, let alone other patrons browsing the aisles. Senpai and I were the only ones there. Her voice carried so well, it actually hurt my ears.
Oblivious to me squinting in pain, she continued her excited rant. “Actually, there are so many weird rumors, I can’t even remember them all! For instance, they say there’s a demon that will pop out of a book here and grant any one wish in exchange for your soul. And if you crack open this one other unlabeled book, your fate will appear on the blank pages for you to read! If you stick your hand in the crack between the stacks, you can get drawn to another world! There are a whole bunch of awesome rumors. Oh, there’s even one about a girl ghost who reads all by her lonesome self for all eternity in the girls’ restroom—and that room’s sealed shut! …Uh, actually, mind if I go to the little girl’s room?” Seeming to think nothing of asking that awkward question, she spun right around.
She was on cloud nine. Seemed pretty safe to assume that her love of ghost stories was the real deal. Personally, I didn’t care for that sort of thing. As far as I was concerned, an upperclassman going gaga over scary stories and creepy rumors just looked nuts. I hadn’t come here for cheap thrills or ghost stories. Honestly, I was more than ready to leave.
“Now about the strange phenomenon you experienced…the, uh…why don’t we dub it ‘The Girl in the Photos?’ I’ve never heard of anything like it. You might have something completely new on your hands! Too cool!” she squealed, squirming in delight and pushing her face even closer to mine. I thought I might lose my mind. She was so dang close that her legs and chest brushed up against me.
“Okay,” she said. “Okay. I’d like to take a sec to review what you told me, so be sure to correct me if I’m wrong about anything. The other day, you came to this library to do some of your summer homework, correct?” Senpai must have noticed she was getting a little short on personal space, because she slid back a few steps before continuing, “You had to write a personal reflection on a reading assignment, right? What a stupid piece of homework! But since you’re a relatively diligent student, you decided to take it seriously and went to the nearest library. That just so happened to be here, right? And that’s where you encountered the paranormal!”
Senpai picked up one of the books that had fallen earlier and began callously flipping through its pages. “Wasn’t there supposed to be a photo stuck inside every single book you picked up in the library?”
That was right. If it was as simple as that, it would be nothing to freak out about. I could dismiss it with the perfectly rational theory that someone who borrowed books from this library used photos instead of bookmarks and forgot to remove them before returning the books. But if that was the extent of the situation, it wouldn’t have me so upset. I wouldn’t turn to this weirdo for help, either.
“No matter what book you grabbed and flipped open, there was the photo! The result was the same, regardless of which stacks or books you tried! Do you still have one, by any chance?”
No way. They were so creepy, I stuffed them back into the books I found them in. I didn’t see any good coming out of holding onto one, and honestly, just making off with them didn’t seem right.
“Aw, too bad! If you still had them, I coulda used one to dig up a whole bunch of stuff. Oh, just so you know, it’s not like I don’t believe you or anything, okay? It’s rare to find physical evidence in the world of the occult!” Senpai cackled, before a stern expression suddenly crossed her face. “All of this, well, could be explained logically. Someone could have contrived a highly elaborate prank. It just requires stuffing a photo in every book in this library. It’s possible for me—or anyone else, for that matter—to pull off with a bit of effort. But that’s where things get really weird.”
Exactly. This was where the story took a turn for the truly paranormal.
“Even after you left…you found a picture of her stuck in every book you cracked open. It didn’t matter if it was a school textbook, a book for sale at the convenience store, a manga magazine that you borrowed from a friend, or part of the ancient masterpiece collection your parents have on display in the bookcase at home. These photos appear in any and all books you open, anywhere, without exception, right?”
Right. There was obviously something weird going on here. No logical explanation could cover this. It was truly a supernatural phenomenon.
Was someone going ahead of me and stuffing photos in every book I might possibly open? I couldn’t see what anyone had to gain from that, and it was far too unrealistic for anyone to pull off. I found it hard to imagine there was a person—or organization—that would benefit from me finding pictures stuck inside books.
Whenever I found them, it only served to startle me. It wasn’t as if the rate of my pulse and the speed of Earth’s rotation were linked, so there wasn’t anything to gain from spooking a guy like me.
The possibility that someone hated me to death and was doing this to torment me didn’t seem likely, either. The life I led shouldn’t incur such spite—I was like any other mundane high school boy out there. Besides, if someone was going to bully me, a better plan would be to stick in something gross, or at least use a more disturbing photo. But each time I found a photo stuck in a book, it was of the same cute girl.