Chapter 2 - The Book and the Bookshop

One day, when Theo was rummaging around in one of his grandpa's old trunks, he found a pure gold key with a blue ribbon tied to it, and then he found a book tightly wrapped in a black cloth. When he took the cloth of it revealed a book with gold serpents spiraling all over the front, and one big one in the middle with a blue sphere in his mouth. But there was no place for a key, and it was locked... somehow.
He asked his grandfather many times about it, but all Edgar did was sit in his rocking chair on the porch of their hut and stare out into the road that disappeared into the distance. He said, "Theo... It was a grand sight, that castle... Neville rode his black horse so elegantly."
"Grandfather... Don't you know anything about this book? It was in your red trunk. Come on, tell me!" Theo kept on.
"Theo... Neville once said to me... 'Edgar, have you ever seen a rose, a black rose? Well, if you ever do, don't touch it. It’s so desirable and it will scar you terribly.' I never fully understood what he meant, but I imagined he was speaking of that Mira woman. She was absolutely beautiful-"
"Grandfather Stop! The book! Focus on the book, please help me."
"Theo. I can't help anyone and no one can help me. So don't waste your time."
It crushed Theo and yet it made him want to search more fervently to find out what this book really was.

So he went to the abandoned book shop previously owned by Mira's mother.
It was surrounded by many vines and thorn bushes and spider webs. No one went near it, it was easy to avoid being in the corner edge of the small village.
He kicked opened the door and the sunlight beamed through the windows onto the broken shelves of dusty books, and broken glass on the floor.
It was empty and creepy, yet wonderfully mysterious.
He walked in and.....

The floor caved in even before he put both feet down on the floorboards.
He went plunging down and hit his side hard on the concrete floor.
He looked up and saw a gaping hole in the floor, and around lay glass, books and a key. Another one, silver this time, with a pink ribbon tied to it. More of the floor above came crumbling down so he jumped up and moved against the wall just in time. The whole library floor came crashing down, barely not crushing him. He climbed up the pile of wood and pulled himself up onto the door opening. He sat there with his legs dangling down, and sneezed because of all the dust.
He saw one book on a shelf hanging on the wall opposite him. It was just an ordinary, black book, setting on a pink piece of cloth and it didn't look important- PINK!
He tried crawling on a small piece of floor left but he was too big, so he stood up and staggered back to the door, almost falling into the hole again.
"This really isn't worth it," He whispered, trying to catch his breath.
So he crawled out of the doorway and underneath the bushes with thorns scraping his face.
He stood up and looked at the old library/bookshop.
He shook his head and walked away.

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment