Pandora Knows

1

Amisit portrays the part of a troubled teen perfectly, staring at her ceiling with her headphones on in a very glum manor. She had been complaining, at least once every five seconds, about the lack of things to do in the orphanage.

Her feet tap against one another impatiently, ignoring the woman standing by the end of her bed, glaring over her glasses.

"Amy, you have no reason to be laying here like a lost soul!" the older woman's shrill voice cuts through the music, thoroughly annoying Amisit.

"My name is not Amy," is her only response as she flicks the volume up until the woman stalks from the room, leaving only the echoing encore of the slamming door behind her.

Amisit lets out a sigh of relief, turning her gaze to the small window with longing.

"Not yet," she whispers to herself, closing her eyes and biding her time.

After a moment her impatience becomes unbearable, flicking through the empty messages on her phone hopefully.

With a growl of frustration she pushes herself up out of bed, yanking her jacket on and opening the stubborn window. For a moment she hesitates, then she lifts herself up to sit on the window sill, looking down to the ground two stories below.

She pulls the hood up on her jacket, grateful for the music urging her on through the headphones, then swings her legs out into the cool night air. She twists, catches herself on the ragged bricks of the building, her heart instantly pounding the racing blood through her veins as she clings to the outer wall.

The wind rushes around her suddenly, the thrill of hanging two stories up from the sheer strength of her muscles exhilarating.

A wide grin stretches across her face, suddenly daring as she reaches her arm out for one of the large trees that line the building. Her grip closes around a thick branch, satisfaction and accomplishment flowing through her at the feeling of the rough bark.

She clings to it desperately, taking a breath before pushing off of the building.

A laugh threatens to bubble out of her as she grasps the tree, swinging herself into the trunk and barely getting her feet on a lower branch. Loving the taste of rushing danger, she climbs down the tree at a surprisingly fast pace.

Careful only of getting herself tangled in the branches, she soon reaches the bottom with a suddenly content sigh.

Then she is sprinting, following the sudden urge to run across the yard at an amazing pace that would send most people tumbling. She flies through the orphanage gates, quickly leaving the large building behind. Her pace slows noticeably when the place she was forced to call home is out of sight, weaving through the streets of the familiar city.

Few people pass her, most already in their homes as the sky darkens, leaving her alone in her personal adventure.

Amisit pauses at an intersection, debating whether to explore the unknown road or to loop back around towards her 'home'.

Still filled with the craving for adventure, she turns down the unknown street, her curious gaze trying to memorize every new sight she comes across.

She notices a set of stairs between two buildings, abruptly cutting into the alley behind it, with no known direction other than the wooden sign that reads 'Bibliotheca Curiosa' in flowing, inky letters.

 Caught between curiosity and a nagging suspicion, Amisit stands on the sidewalk, mentally debating whether another round of exploration is in order.

The song playing through her headphones changes, and with it she turns and walks back towards the orphanage, her electric excitement replaced with an eerie wonder.

She whispers to herself, "What does bibliotheca curiosa even mean..."