31/10/2025
“They say every book has a soul… but what if one refused to leave? 👻”
TITLE: THE GIRL BY THE WINDOW
No one in Maplewood goes near the old library anymore. Not since the fire.
It used to be the town’s pride — tall oak shelves, stained-glass windows, and the scent of old paper that never seemed to fade. The librarian, Mrs. Jensen, often said her daughter Clara was “raised among stories.” Clara was quiet, the kind of girl who’d rather spend her weekends reading than going to parties.
On a stormy night in October 2015, lightning struck the clock tower above the library. Flames spread faster than anyone expected. By the time help arrived, the roof had collapsed. They never found Clara’s body — only her name engraved on a silver bookmark near the burned shelves of the “Classics” section.
After that, Maplewood changed. The new library was built across town, and the old one was boarded up. But every few months, someone passing by swore they saw a dim light flickering in the top floor window around 2:13 AM — the same time the fire started.
At first, people said it was just leftover wiring. But then came the stories.
A night guard who worked nearby said he saw a silhouette of a girl through the cracked glass. He called out, thinking someone had broken in — but when he went closer, the inside was empty, covered in dust. Only a faint smell of smoke lingered in the air.
A group of teenagers later broke in to film a “haunted challenge” for social media. They laughed their way through the dark hallways until one of them found a half-burned book lying open on a table. The title read: “The Girl by the Window.”
That video never got uploaded. The account went silent that night.
Today, if you drive past Maplewood Library just after midnight, you might see her — a pale figure, standing still, holding a book to her chest. Some say she’s waiting for her mother to come back. Others say she’s still searching for the ending of her story.
But everyone agrees on one thing:
when the clock hits 2:13 AM, the lights in the library flicker —
and if you watch long enough… they’ll flicker in your house, too.
