Spoiler! :
“Sir, are you alright?” said the boy from the top of the stairs looking down on me, a man of great age. I have lived through many times, seen terrible thing, done what I thought I’d never do, and he asks if I am alright?
“Yes,” I said in mu dusty voice. My voice was just as dusty as all the other things in this massive library. “Now, what book were you looking for?”
The boy looks hesitant as if he wants to insist that I not try climbing the stairs, yet I can see the desire in his eyes for the wanted and coveted old book that he seeks.
“I’m looking for a book named Bethaessale. You said you knew where it was?” for some reason he said the last sentence as a question, as if he wasn’t quite sure I did know where it was. I had lived here for more than ninety years, more than he will probably ever live to see, especially if he’s asking for Bethaessale. I’ve known many who pass by this way wanting to get a glimpse of that page with such valuable information that anyone who laid eyes on it soon ended up dead. Of course, that is why I continue to live.
“This way.” I breathe out in a cross between a whisper and a wheeze. The boy follows me at a good pace behind, though not too far behind as to lose the little light there was from the lantern I carried. He still looked hesitant, which I wouldn’t blame him for. He was entering a dangerous game.
We come upon the right shelf, far from the place we started at the grand entrance. I slowly tug at the massive tomb and pull it down onto the little table put there for just such occasions like this one. I watched as the boys eyes lit up with excitement as I slowly turned the pages to one he sought. I come upon the page.
“Now,” I wheezed, this time a definite wheeze for being out of breath, “I must warn you before you go on, if you read what I am about to show you, you most certainly will die.”
The boy bravely looked me in the face and nodded understanding. His eyes showed that he did not, that he was just a boy who thought nothing bad could happen to him. But complete understanding was not in my contract, only acceptance. I move out of the way so the boy can look at the page in all its glory. Overwhelmed with what he saw he began breathing hard and I noticed a sweat break out on his brow. Light illuminated from the page enveloping the boy. His head was thrown back and he let out a ferocious scream like never I heard before. His eyes rolled back and he collapsed on the floor, dead. Just like all the others.
Slowly I close the book and put it back on the shelf. Turning away from the boy-no-more I make my way downstairs to wait. Though hundreds pass by each year, always dying, I keep waiting. I wait for the hero that will deliver us from our plague of darkness. I wait for a hero to beat this game; The Game of Books.
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