As the ghostly zephyr swept across the forbidden land, the owls hooted, warning the intruder of his impending missteps. But the books had already written his destiny. Josh Davis was Woodberry’s troublemaker and a staunch skeptic of the supernatural. And so, determined as he could be, Josh thought of debunking his town’s most unexplained mystery – The Night Library.

Rumour whispered that the library only opens at night, and its books are unlike any other – it holds the stories of people’s lives, their personal experiences and their untold secrets. Stories, gossip, an old housewife tale… that is what young Davis thought of the Night Library. Little did he know that his arrogance would come back to bite him and the horror would strike really hard.

He had lived in Woodberry all his life, and no strange library had ever revealed itself to him. Night after night, he'd hear whispers about the library, about books that could change your life, but he was resolute in his disbelief.

Still, curiosity gnawed at him. Why did everyone in town seem so convinced? Why did every story about the library seem so full of mystery? It was a puzzle, a dare, an invitation that Josh could not resist.

One cold night in the spooky season, as he gazed at the eerily silver moon, Josh decided to follow his intrusive thoughts. The leaves rustled beneath his hurried steps, as if protesting his disturbance. The cold breeze taunted Josh, making him clutch his puffer jacket tightly as he obliviously faced the sudden upheaval in the weather. As adrenaline surged through him, a wave of nostalgia soon followed.

Josh Davis was born into Woodberry, a village steeped in tradition, but he was the first to embrace modernity. Growing up in the village was a horrendous nightmare for him, his ears being always in the vicinity of the villagers spouting what were to him supernatural nonsense, especially after his heart-breaking incident a few months back.

 A few months ago, Josh had returned from a long day by the riverside, only to find his world shattered. He discovered his girlfriend, Ava, in bed with his father. But that betrayal was nothing compared to what happened next. As Josh yelled in disbelief, Ava’s eyes changed—something dark, something he’d seen rarely before, when he refused Ava to buy an expensive makeup . A look that reminded him of the moments when she’d fall into her darker moods. Ava in a fit of maniacal rage, murdered his parents and ended her own life. "Ava's eyes, wide and wild, locked onto something unseen, something beyond me. Her breath was shallow, erratic, as though her body was betraying her. For a split second, I saw the girl I loved—the one who laughed at my bad jokes, who kissed me in the rain—before her face twisted into something I couldn’t recognize. ‘Hail Satan,’ she whispered, not in anger or fear, but with a kind of broken surrender. Her voice, a brittle, fragile thing, seemed to belong to someone else entirely—something else had taken over her,’’Josh reminisced. Rumours spread like wildfire that the devil was walking among them, but Josh remained unconvinced as he knew that Ava’s actions was her responsibility, as were those of previous villagers having committed similar acts.

“Was it their way to assimilate these actions? Is the supernatural real to them? Would it be easier to digest the supernatural instead of accepting that they were mentally ill? No, they were right. The devil does exist. No, they are just mad” Josh pondered. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, a part of Josh that night wanted the rumours to be true for once: the Night Library must exist. Despite his resentment and skepticism for the supernatural, he longed to rewrite his destiny. And the Night Library was a means to an end- the end of Josh’s heart ache. Josh could never make sense of Ava’s extreme actions. “Maybe she felt ashamed or guilt or maybe she did not want dad to be with mom anymore. She was a psycho. She was not possessed,” he thought, trying to rationalize it.”

“Bro, I don’t let my kids roam beyond the village square after sunset. You know what they say about the Night Library. It’s the devil spawn. Those who enter that wretched cursed place either don’t come back or come back as a whole different person. If I were you, I would stay in the warmth of my house after dark,’’ Josh distinctly heard in his head. Since that day, Josh’s dreams were infiltrated with libraries. He felt this eerie pull to go to the edge of the village, to debunk the library which only open at night. He would often hear odd whispers, or often unknowingly find himself staring at the closed library during daytime.

His memories blurred out as he stared at the fog surrounding the library. The air was thick with tension, and a chill that crept into his bones seemed to emanate from the building itself. The windows, once shrouded in darkness, now flickered with a faint, unnatural light.

Unmistakably, the library was open -The Night Library.

Josh’s breath caught in his throat. For the first time, his skepticism faltered. There it stood before him, the very thing he had dismissed as superstition. His heart raced as his feet remained rooted to the ground. He had come for answers, to prove his theories, but now that he stood here, doubt gnawed at him.

A whisper, soft but distinct, seemed to call his name from within. The sound was like a haunting melody, sweet but ominous. His hand hovered over the iron door handle. He had never believed in ghosts or curses, but now, as the wind moaned around him, Josh felt the weight of something ancient, something watching him from the shadows of the library.

The door creaked slightly, as if inviting him in.

For a fleeting moment, Josh hesitated, his mind racing back to the warnings he had heard all his life. But the pull was too strong. His body, against his will, moved toward the door.

With a final glance at the misty night that seemed to swirl in whispers around him, Josh Davis stepped forward into the unknown.