The building was almost perfectly rectangular. Three sides were red exposed brick while the street facing wall was painted a solid beige. The front door is small and glass, protected from the rain by a red awning. A glowing "open" sign floating above the heads of customers coming and going. Further down along the wall four tall arches formed the entrance to a small alcove where racks of books on sale had been wheeled outside, hopeful to be sheltered from the elements by the ceiling of the alcove. Behind the building there was an alley. A door stood open into the brick building with a sign above it reading "Book Donations Here".Customers would lug boxes of all sizes full of books, records, movies, video games, board games, and more. Sometimes the alley would be full of cars, their owner rushing like ants in and out of the building carrying cargo they no longer wanted to avoid the pouring rain. Today though, when she walked up through the alley, looping around the side of the building past the parking lot and turning again to duck under the awning into the warm yellow light of the building.
She stood at a short 5 foot 3, petite, draped in a black cardigan with a black tank top underneath. She pulled a chunky black scarf closer around her attempting to cover the small amount of cleavage that showed from her choice in tank top and sweater. Her long floor length black skirt swished above two big black boots as she walked. Her long dirty blonde hair was pulled into a messy side braid and was damp from the rain outside. Dark brown eyes struggled to adjust to the shift of light from outside to inside. She fiddled with the strap of her black fabric shopping tote as she passed through the door.
The space within was overwhelmingly stacked with books, movies, games, magazines, and more from floor to ceiling. Before her stretched a long entrance. She was flanked on her left by the checkout line. Empty save for a lone service person leaning against the counter swiping idly on his phone. The clerk was young, likely in his late teens or early twenties with dark hair and glasses. His face speckled with red and black acne. She nodded in his direction politely and continued on her mission. Passing collections of donated vinyl albums, DVD's, VHS tapes. A tall thin man with a pink denim vest stood in the corner looking through old DVD's facing away from her. She noted his vest had patches all over it, various band names, movie logos, and monster faces peered out from the fabric. It was unsurprising to her when her eyes flicked up to note he was standing under a big sign that said "Horror", a stack of movies in various mediums on the floor next to his boots.
She took a right through a low framed doorway into the stomach of the rest of the building. A huge room greeted her, walls of brick stretching high above her. To the right yawned the windows that looked out to the arches and their alcove. Grey light marched towards the building but seemingly was subdued by the warm yellow light from within. Just to her left was a large staircase leading to the upper floor. The bannister was painted white and swooped low to the left and right a wooden ball topping the end of each. The entire space was filled with bookshelves standing about 7 feet tall and overflowing with books. Filling the open floor space were more shelves bolted to the floor for safety and displaying books ranging in size, color, and subject.The twisting paths between each shelf almost labyrinthine in complexity.
She turned, heading up the staircase with purpose. Once on the upper floor she was greeted by even more floor to ceiling bookshelves along with free standing shorter shelves sporting old magazines and art. The upper level was warmer than the lower one. The smell of old pages and dust pressed closer to her here, making her feel comforted. Sounds muffled in this space, words spoken turning to whispers through the layers and layers of pages.
Her pace slowed as she perused the top floor, meandering towards her eventual goal. She took a left through another brick archway passing just beneath the sign reading "Erotica."
This portion was lofted just above the movies and vinyls with a half wall running down one side looking out over the section the vinyls and movies were.. She stepped forward, shorter bookshelves lining the protective wall keeping them from toppling into the section below. She rested her elbows on the bannister peering over the edge to the store below. Almost no customers that she could see. The service person at the register was still lost in his phone. The man at the horror section had to have moved on as she could no longer see him. :Perhaps he'd left, though she hadn't heard the bell on the door ring. To her right there was another much smaller staircase snaking down the exposed brick of the wall. If followed,it would spit her back out directly next to the horror section. She could have taken it up, but would rather the boy at the counter didn't know where she was in the labyrinthine store. She assumed this wasn't unusual, most folks didn't want everyone to see them walk directly up to the erotica section. She doubted that he cared enough to keep track.
After assuring he was completely engrossed in his screen still, she turned left. Before her was a row of eight bookshelves pressed against the interior brick wall, small hallways between each just big enough for a person to search privately for what they were after.
It made sense for them to hide it at the most inconvenient spot in the store to get to and even this close to the counter the whole store felt muffled. She wondered how much he could even hear if someone was talking up here, let alone doing anything else.
She walked down the hall created by the seventh and eighth book shelf, the very last row. Noting a few recognizable titles before reaching out and grabbing something that looked intriguing.
Flipping the book open and scanning the glossary she found this one had illustrations. Her eyes skimmed over the depiction of an elf girl being pressed into the floor and bred by a minotaur, slick cum dripping from her as it reared it's head and impaled her on his shaft.
She felt excitement twist within her while staring at the image. The small elf girls' look of fear made the pool of heat spread. She flipped a few pages back, realizing that it was a collection of short stories and began to read. The words flowing before her eyes and feeling her face become flushed. She read through the werewolf one, and then flipped onwards in the book finding a story about a wolf man, hunting a woman in a cloak through a forest before setting upon her with his jaws and his paws By the midpoint of that story she knew she wanted to read the rest. She felt her thighs sticky with excitement. Her fairly modest goth outfit hid the fact that she wasn't wearing any underwear or bra. The lack of bra was for comfort, the lack of panties was just for fun. She peered once more over the ledge to check that the clerk at the counter was still absent mindedly swiping on his phone, then checked the ceiling as well for shiny round mirrors or cameras. Finding none, her stomach filled with a mix of nerves and excitement. With one quick movement she opened her tote bag and stuffed the book deep inside, then took off her scarf and shoved it in on top. She smirked, satisfied. She began turning around to leave the way she came and then jumped, startled as she almost ran face first into the man with the pink vest.
He stood taller than her by at least a foot and had short brown tousled hair. He wore glasses, flat along the top and rounded on bottom. A mischievous smirk pulled up one side of his mouth as he looked at her. His hands were in the pockets of a black hoodie underneath a bright pink vest. Black boots beneath his gray jeans.
"Excuse me..." she said, a little curtly. She hadn't heard him come up the stairs and his sudden appearance within her personal space made her uncomfortable. She also didn't know if he'd seen her stash the book in her bag, though that question was quickly answered as she followed his gaze down to where the black bag hung at her side.
"Don't think that belongs to you." He said.
"I don't know what you mean..." she replied, lying through her teeth.
His smirk split into a broad grin, and he stepped forward. She stepped back away from him, defensive.
