During the last 8 months could Kira had sworn she was being stalked, it was slightly unnerving but she had the feeling that someone was watching everything she was doing.
Kiras days hadn't changed much, since the whole pandemic hit, it was a genuine sad sight but at this point she just accepted that people's behaviour was unrecognisable, taking a single step back could most of the kids at her work likely have predicted the events by playing the 10 guesses game with minimal information provided, then again she worked at a library so the kids there were already in the unique position of actually having the patience to read.
Sadly by today's standard have reading or even thinking become something people rather avoid, nobody have time for that when we can run out drink ourselves 5 feet under the floor and watch paradise Hotel, having a blast seeing people act for the camera like they have even less active brain cells than the rest of the population.
sighing deeply while looking out of the library window could she only hope that maybe one day would more people be willing to ask just a few more questions for themselves instead of following the heard, her vaccine shot was luckily procured early on especially as she is interacting with kids on a daily basis, the kids however wasn't who she worried about the library had 3 gangs of kids or well young teens to be accurate.
The dungeons and dragons with varied board games club, who came here because nearly nobody else in social society accepted them anymore so the library functioned as their 4 walls and room of freedom to not get ostracised for their hobbies.
the kids there because they needed a place to get help with homework, as their parents either wasn't there to help them or was unable to do so
either due to lack of care for the child or strained work schedule, even the few where the kids was afraid to bring homework assignments to their parents because anything below A+ would get them verbally ripped apart and the mere idea of needing to ask for something they didn't know horrified them so they found the library environment safer, and finally the kids who seek either knowledge or refugee.
Kira couldn't really fault them, as thinking back to her own childhood can the library for a lot of people function as a safe haven, the hours she spent watching anime on with the cheap library headphones on their public pcs or getting lost in a the next world of fantasy and dreams.
Days spent in the library wasn't bad she made a decent income, enough to afford her rent, feed herself and her cat and gave her a bit of daily interaction.
Society really saw Kira as an introvert, but it wasn't really the case in truth was she quite the social butterfly in nature, the only problem is that her view of the world rarely aligned with everyone else so whenever she would bring up subjects or points would most people around her start to generate animosity, people's ego and pride are quite fragile even if the subject technically have nothing to do with the person in question.
The library kids however was her outlet it was small unmarred nuggets for the most part not yet completely corrupted by society, still sadly many too immature to truly understand the world around them but she did her best to be around as a sort of mentor figure for them.
Did I forget the adults you ask, not really it was a small local library and the adults often just ordered books drove by and vanished back into the ether, a few older gentlemen however did enjoy sitting at the entrance hall of the library with the magazines enjoying a cop of coffee or tea with the daily news paper.
It was a thing kira came up with and the locals loved it, they would often bring the news paper and etc with them to the library bought at a local kiosk, and enjoy each others company during the morning and then leave their magazines behind for others to enjoy, this meant it didn't the library funds if they got damaged by liquid and it gave the residents a few news papers to choose between and the kids a few comics to enjoy as well, it has been rather dead since the pandemic started though.
The elderly were in the more vulnerable class so most had been advised to stay at home until they child get their vaccines.
Kira starred at the empty table for a bit shrugged and moved on, it was closing time and she was preparing to send the last kids home, the glint of uncomfortableness and unwillingness in some of the last remaining kids eyes cut a piece into her heart but unfortunately was there nothing she could do, they weren't abused in the eyes of the law but it was no secret their home environment was strained, she had on a few occasions given the parents a mouthful at the risk of her job but it was worth it.
Locking the door scanning the last books into the system and putting them on the shelves was her day officially over and she could get home.
The final fantasy fan festival was still ongoing and she has promised a few of her online guild members to join them in farming the hair styles before the event ended, not like they couldn't do it without her but she mostly enjoyed the company, gaming was simple charged topics rarely came up and the focus was on the game giving some leeway to relax.
as she walked trough the exit door of the library after having enabled the alarms she heard or rather felt a massive explosion, the bang was reverberating trough her entire being and everything had gone dark.