The Story Warrior

Chapter 3

I stayed in my bed till about 7:30. That's about the earliest I ever get up during the summer.

I pull myself out of bed and instantly feel this huge weight on my body signaling how tired I am. I wish I could just surround myself with the covers and sleep without waking up in a panic. I rub the sleep out of my eyes and trudge into my bathroom. I have bags under my eyes and I look horrible.

After doing my normal routine, I decide to put some cover up under my eyes to make me look less tired. When I was satisfied I headed downstairs trying to look as awake as possible.

I'm greeted by a surprised look on my families face. "um... Well... Good morning to you too..." my mother shook her head to wake herself up from her little daze "sorry Hun... It's just, it's not even 8." "well I just didn't sleep that great, okay?!" I say in a defensive tone. My parents look taken back. I guess the lack of sleep is really starting to get to me. "okay.. Well have you started summer reading yet?" I did a mental face palm. I completely forgot about summer reading, "Sorry dad. I completely forgot. I'll head down to the library today."

The rest of the morning was pretty boring. I ate breakfast and went back up to my room. I get up to my room and grab my bathrobe then I head across the hall to the bathroom and jump in the shower.

The shower is heaven. Nice and warm. If it was up to me I would never get out. Plus it helped me wake up.

After I finished my shower, I got dressed, said goodbye to my parents and jumped on my bike.

I always enjoyed the bike rides to the library. The scenery is so pretty.

As I ride through I breathe in all the fresh air. Unlike most kids my age, I like the library. I know I'm not gonna like the book I have to read, 'The Odysee' but when I go to the library to read a book of my choice it's heaven. The way I look at it is, if you find the right book it's like this amazingly detailed movie. It's absolutely extraordinary.

I park my bike outside and skip up the long concrete stairs. As I step inside the smell of the musty old books fill my nostrils. I walk up to the front desk and greet Mrs. Alibi, the librarian, and ask her where I might find my summer reading. She points me in the direction and off I go.

I have been reading this stupid book for 20 minutes and I want to die. It's horrible. They use words like thou. I like reading as much as the next strange teen but this is ridiculous. I decide to just check out the book and head home.

I walk up to the front desk and ask Mrs. Alibi if I can check out this book. "of course!" she says in her overly cheerful voice. I reach into my pocket and pull out my library card. She scans it and I turn to walk out but I'm stopped by the shrill and tiny voice that belongs to Mrs. Alibi, "oh wait! I could use your help!" I turn and smile at the sweet, plump, little old lady, "sure, what can I do?" "can you bring this cart of books to one of the storage rooms?" she asks pointing towards a wooden cart filled with dusty books falling apart. I nod my head with a smile. She gives me directions on how to get the hall filled with storage rooms, I'm supposed to go the last door at the end labeled "Classics" she lets out a sigh, "I always hate putting books in there." "why?" I asked genuinely curious. "well that room is filled with all the fairytales. Kids don't like reading that much anymore and those fairytales seem to be the first ones they loose interest in. After a while we are forced to put them in storage."

I pushed the heavy cart down the long hallways thinking about what Mrs. Alibi said. It's very sad. Some of my fondest memories are because of fairytales. I finally reach the long hall with a door at the end that is labeled "Classics" I start pushing the cart down the extremely long hall. As Im walking a book on the cart catches my eye, 'Peter Pan." it has green binding and the classic title that brings back so many memories is written in a smooth gold lettering. I smile at the memories of listening to my mothers sweet melodic voice reading the very words of the story to me while I was snug in my bed.

I continue walking down the long hall when the lights start to flicker and just like that they are off. I suddenly get a very strange sense of deja vu. I start pushing the cart faster. The lights may be off but I can still see, it's not completely pitch black. That's when I notice it. The green walls, the old floor, the door at the end of the hall.

My dream. My dream is coming true. My heart starts racing. I'm frozen in my spot, to scared to move. Thats when the most eery feeling washes over me. I slowly turn my body and look back. My eyes widen at the sight. I can feel myself trembling. It's here! I turn on my heels and start running, still pushing the cart. Don't ask me why because I couldn't tell you. It's like my hands are glued to it. I keep running and suddenly the familiar feeling of the never ending hallway comes back to me. Tears start forming in my eyes, all of my muscles are burning. I start screaming at myself to wake up. But I'm not listening because I'm still here. I get closer to the door. I can feel hope flooding through my veins. As I get closer I reach my hand out. I can feel it gaining on me. I touch the door knob and fling it open only to feel a cold hand wrap around my ankle and start pulling me. I have a hard time fighting since my hand is still glued to this cart and it has wheels. I kick back blindly and feel the sudden release of my ankle. I sprint through the door and slam it shut. It's dark and cold in this room. Its banging on the door making horrible howling sounds.

Then it feels as if I have no control over my own body. My hand begins to reach for the book I was just reminiscing about, 'Peter Pan'. I try to pull away, to control my own body but I'm powerless against the force controlling me. My hand grabs the binding and I feel a shock of heat course through my body. I suddenly feel very dizzy. I drop to the ground still Holding onto the book. But then my hand starts turning to dust and begins blowing away. I start screaming, a million scary thought running through my head. But one is really sticking out to me, "Am I going to die?" more and more of my body begins to form into a dust, slowly disappearing before my eyes. As more and more leaves the more and more weakened I get. Then it's too much to take and everything goes black.