Mr. Lindens Library

Claire has always been fascinated with books. Different types of books, action, science fiction, romance, horror...etc. Her ideal reading place was in her room with the door shut, so she could have complete silence to fully get into a book. She liked to try and obtain the character, become the character in the stories herself. She finished her books in one day, so every day she would walk to the library that was four blocks away. It was a magical place with thousands and thousands of different stories. Every time she went into the library she'd wave at Mrs. Delinda, sometimes she'd even have a casual conversation with her. She was more than comfortable with Mrs. Delinda, she was one of Claire's best friends, since she didn't have many. One day Claire was walking to the library and she saw a small book store 2 block away from the library and she decided to go inside. She opened the door to the store as the bell chimed, an older tall, skinny man with a white beard that hung down to his belly button came up to the front counter.

 

"Is there anything I can help you with ma'm," the old man coughed.

"Oh, no thank you, I'm just looking," Claire replied amazed at how many books there were in this store. From old paper backs to new hard copies. There was just something so mysterious and magical about this store that made Claire curious.Claire spent a few hours in there just searching through the shelves to find the perfect book to read. There were good stories and books she could have grabbed but nothing had satisfied her taste. She asked the store keeper if he had any suggestions, and he told her to follow him. He lead her to a huge book that looked over a century old. It was magnificent, classic, and it was the only one of its kind. He blew the dust off, and with his hand brushed the rest off. He picked it up and handed it to Claire, "I warn you now, this book has a mind of its own, if you have any problems come to me."

 

That was the most ridiculous thing that she had heard, an object having a mind of its own. How absurd.Claire left the book store in hope of reading my book and returning it the next day. She opened the book, wanting to read the book on my walk home and the book was blank. She flipped through the pages, and there were no words at all. Claire almost turned around to go return the book, but that's when something quite ludicris happened. Words started appearing faintly as she got closer and closer to home. She rushed to the door, flung it open, got inside, slammed the door, and ran upstairs to her room. She shut the door to her room, flopped onto her bed and began to digest the book. Weirdly enough she opened the book and her reflection was look right back at her. The reflection told her to follow along through the pages. Claires reflection was going through a forrest, and she eventually came to a stop in the middle of the forrest with only a sliver of light coming through the trees above. It's like reflection Claire was trying to tell her something, but she couldn't figure it out, so she just kept flipping. She started seeing new people, and different stories but they always ended with the forrest scene. Finally, Claire had gotten to a page full of text, she began reading, the text read, "In The Kingdom of Image..." Claire suddenly was sucked into the book, and she finally realized why the man in the book store had warned her about the book, not realizing the many warnings. She looked for hours for an escape route, but there were none to be found, Claire was forever inside this book of magic and mystery.

The next day, the man that had given Claire the book, Mr. Linden, was wondering if she had gotten the warning and not started the book yet. He waited all day for her to return it, but she was no where to be seen. He went to the shelf that the book had been on, and it was right where it was before he gave it to the young girl. He had warned her about the book. Now it was too late.