@noctuis || Demon!AU RitIzu
Nails dragged over leather spines, rolling over faded golden lettering. There were times when the sun was just right -warm and gentle beam sneaking their way through the top vents and making everything, even the dust, sparkle magically. Today, was not one of those days. Dark clouds covering up the sky and crystal windows tarnished, it might be impossible for him to check the many volumes if it wasn’t for the reliable oil lamp he held on his hand.
He came here almost every day -at least every day he could- lurking through tomes of ancient texts and old forgotten letters. This was what held him to that bothersome job of assistant librarian, in which he was more often interacting with people than with books.
But it was fine... as long as he could be here... The smell of burnt oil mixing with that of dust and old, the lurking shadows made the small room seem longer, like a wolf’s open mouth.
In the darkness, a certain tome he had never quite seen before seemed to stand out. Letters in red rather than golden, and a long thread of crimson coming from in between pages -surely a mark from the last person to held it in his hands.
Lips parted and he held his breath, inching closer to the source through the unusually creaky floor. Silver hair looking gold under these light, Izumi crouched by the book stand and reached for the tome -way too heavy for it’s small size, slowly pulling it out.
Why had he never seen this before?
Called by it, Izumi gently opened it, letting the first few pages -tattered and yellow, the words that might have been there already impossible to read- drop one after the other.
“Ah-!″ just as the fourth page fell down, its edge let a small cut in Izumi’s index. One single drop of blood falling in the yellow pages before horrified blue eyes, yet before he could cry in regret for tainting such a precious volume, the whole room seemed to shake, the light in his lamp turning off as the storm outside grew in power.
