Reverie

Chapter 7: Vis-ion The Library

Chapter 7
Vis-ion The Library

Benjamin left her by the door to the library, still trying to process all the new information. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she looked around to see where she was. The doors to the library looked normal enough, just like any other entrance in this place, but as she pushed them open, her jaw dropped. This is why they say not to judge a book by its cover, she thought.

The room was shaped like a circle - which she marveled at - and the library was designed like a spiral, with an outer circle of shelves, stacked to the brim with books, towering towards the ceiling. Then there was another circle, and another, and another, until they arrived at the middle where there was a seating area. A path snaked straight through all the circles, allowing people to reach the inner section. The room was massive, and she doubted she could count all the books even if she spent a year at it. Jasmine approached the first shelf and ran her finger across the spines of the books, reading the titles, before she realized that she had no idea what she was looking for. She headed for the seating area, hoping to find a way to navigate the shelves. Even if this wasn't an ordinary library, it had to have some sort of catalog. As Jasmine approached the center, she realized it wasn't just a seating area. A few cozy armchairs and sofas, tables and chairs were scattered around, sure, but the main attractions were the three desks with the large computer monitors seated on top. They was a wooden stool in front of each one, and a pair of headphones attached to the monitor sat on the desks. She neared the first desk and pushed the stool aside, leaning forward to find a button to turn the monitor on. Strangely enough, she couldn't find anything. She ran her finger around the edges and felt nothing but a small dip in the material, like a groove. Frowning, she picked up the headphones. They had to be there for a reason, right? She put them on, and they covered her ears completely. Then she was shocked. Literally. She jumped with a yelp as she felt an electric current run through her, then stared with wide eyes as the computer monitor switched itself on. It seemed to skim through a hundred different sites at once, then stopped at a specific one. The only thing displayed on the large screen was the front cover of a book, and a string of numbers that she assumed would help her find it. But what book was this? She hadn't typed anything in. She did a doubletake as she realized there was no mouse or keyboard anyway. It was almost as if... it had read her mind. She read the title of the book still screaming at her from the computer screen.

"The Survival of the Survaltans: Escape to Earth", she murmured. It sounded like the name of a videogame, not a history book. Shrugging, she memorized the number, then began her search.

20 minutes later, she had finally located the book. It had taken her a while to figure out the system, but eventually it had come to her and now she was sitting on an overstuffed armchair with the book on her lap (it was fairly large), scared of what she would find. The book was a dark blue, and had the title written across the front in long, looping, white letters. Around the title curved some sort of design, twisting and spiraling around the edges of the cover. There was nothing written on the back or the spine, no indication to whom the author was. She pried the cover open, for it was quite dusty and stiff, and the first page was plain white. She was about to move on, before she caught sight of something in the bottom left corner. It was a date, just 15 years before the current year. She wondered if this was what Benjamin meant; the author of the book must have been one of the original Survaltans, and was no longer alive. That must be how he had the knowledge on the 'Escape to Earth', as he called it.

"My mom was pregnant when they arrived. I'm 16, and he wrote this 15 years ago. He must have written it a year after arriving", she reasoned quietly to herself.