Chapter 1

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Edited by Meliza

I opened the underground door, not knowing what awaited me. I didn't even want to be here. I would rather have been at home, in bed. But after what had happened I wasn't sure I still had a bed to go back to.

The door opened into a long and dark corridor. Dim purple lights lined the walls. I had no clue as to where the hall lead. All I knew was what the old shriveled man had said that I had to enter the door of gold and then everything would make sense. He had then disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving no trace and giving me no choice but to enter the golden door. Besides, I was kinda curious. 

As I walked down the corridor my mind wandered through today's happenings, I told myself it had to be a dream. Little did I know how wrong I was...

+++ 

I had been laying in my bed when all of a sudden someone urgently whispered in my ear: "Get up! Get up, If you wish to live." I had rolled over ignoring the voice, thinking I was still dreaming. The next thing I knew I was being picked up and shoved towards my closet. My heart raced as I wondered how this old man had gotten into the apartment when the door was locked and why he was here. My hands shook as I stood there still half asleep, thinking I was dreaming.

"Get up! Get up! Get dressed, hurry!" I had just stood there staring at the midget sized old man with my mouth open as he spryly climbed into my closet, throwing clothes everywhere muttering "unacceptable!" under his breath. Finally he climbed out of my closet shaking his head and shoved a blue t-shirt and a pair of torn jeans at me. 

"Go on! get dressed!" He then turned around and started whispering about no one having style anymore and something about bell-bottoms. 

I hurriedly got dressed, hoping he would go away. Right after I was all dressed he grabbed my wrist and dragged me through the hall, past my parents' bedroom, through the kitchen and out the front door of our apartment .The whole time saying, "Hurry hurry they're coming. We must make haste!" 

It was then that my mind cleared, I became aware of what was happening and dug my heels into the floor. "You're not taking me anywhere," I told the old man.  

"Yes" he simply responded "let's hurry the black things are coming! We must make haste!" 

+++ 

Shaking myself out of my thoughts I turned my attention to the path ahead looking for a light in the never ending darkness. Finally, at the end of the dim corridor I saw a bright golden light. My spirits lifted and I ran wanting to escape the creepy hall. I made it to the door huffing and puffing. 

I stood right outside the door catching my breath. After a minute or two I straightened up and reached for the door knob. But I hesitated as my hand was just a few inches away from the knob. I wondered what was behind the door and I was desperately hoping it wasn't some monster. But it didn't seem like I had much of a choice. It wasn't like I was going to walk all the way back up that hallway. 

So, I turned the knob. The heavy door pushed in easily on its well oiled hinges. When I saw what was inside, my breath caught and my mind was stuck in a haze of wonderment. 

Inside, was row after row of never ending bookshelves. Some books were huge with big leather bindings, the titles in fancy ink on their sides. Others were more modern with colorful spines, golden titles and plastic casings. The further I went into the library, the older the books got until the only things left were scrolls. There were hundreds of them, kept in special-made circular shelves with plastic casings to keep them from decay. 

The ceiling was big and domed with golden swirls that flowed like waves and would randomly take the form of mystical creatures. I drifted through the rows of bookshelves as if it was all a dream, like any true nerd would if stuck in a seemingly infinite library. I wandered through the place reading spines, occasionally recognizing one or two. After a while of walking around I came to a large circular space in what I assumed was the middle of the library. Smack-dab in the center of the clearing was a woman standing on the bottom of a spiral staircase that went up through a large cylindrical opening in the ceiling, with books lining its edges. The woman was tall and lean with ageless ghostly pale skin, brown floor-length hair, and deep crystal blue eyes that looked to be a thousand years old. She wore a flowing white robe that shimmered like oil in the light. She lifted her hands slowly in an upward gesture and the scrolls around me started to glow dimly. 

She waved her hand at me and mouthed, "Come" as she walked up the stairs. I followed her, not really seeing any other choice. We walked up the huge metal staircase until we got to the opening in the domed roof where she stopped. I turned around but I could not comprehend what I was seeing. In all directions glowing orbs in every color of the rainbow were slowly emerging from the books. They started floating around aimlessly, like multicolored lightning bugs twinkling at night. 

A green colored orb floated past me and as I glanced inside I could see an army of walking trees marching towards a single black tower, to their doom. I could hear their war cry and reached out to the orb wanting so badly to help them and join their world.But before I could touch it the orb moved out of my reach. From what I could see each orb had a world inside of it, I saw an orange orb with a weird assortment of wacky cabins inside, in another there was a huge castle-like school. I reached out to them as they drifted past but they always moved away when I reached out to them. There were some that I didn't recognize, like a blue one that passed me which was filled with water and giant squids with wings. It shied away from me before I could get a closer look. 

The Lady in White whom I had almost forgotten, raised her hands as if trying to encompass the huge space and called out in a melodious voice, "This is the library of worlds and I am its keeper." 


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