CHAPTER 15: THE LAST LIBRARIAN
CHAPTER 15: THE LAST LIBRARIAN
Everything had stopped.
The bullets hung motionless in the air.
Stone fragments floated where they had broken free from the ceiling.
Julian remained frozen in the middle of pulling the trigger.
Marco's expression was locked between anger and fear.
Even the Keeper, wearing my mother's face, stood perfectly still.
Only two people could move.
Me.
And the old man with the leather satchel.
He smiled politely, as though we had met in an ordinary library instead of a collapsing underground prison.
"I apologize."
"This is the only way we can speak without interruption."
I looked around.
"You stopped time?"
He chuckled.
"No."
"I simply stepped outside of it."
That answer somehow felt even stranger.
He extended his hand.
"My friends called me Arthur."
"You can too."
I didn't shake it.
"You knew my mother."
Arthur nodded.
"For a very long time."
"Where is she?"
His smile faded.
"Closer than you think."
"And farther than you can imagine."
I exhaled slowly.
"Everyone speaks in riddles."
Arthur laughed quietly.
"That's because the truth sounds like madness."
He opened the leather satchel.
Instead of books...
It contained hundreds of index cards.
Perfectly organized.
Each card carried a name.
Thousands of names.
Arthur noticed me staring.
"A library doesn't only collect books."
"It collects lives."
He carefully removed one card.
The name written across it made my heart stop.
ELENA MORETTI
Sophie's mother.
The woman whose disappearance had started everything.
I frowned.
"What is this?"
Arthur turned the card over.
Every memory Elena had described.
Every lie she'd uncovered.
Every person she'd met beneath the estate.
Recorded.
Word for word.
Impossible.
He placed Elena's card aside and selected another.
VICTOR VALENTI
Then another.
HELENA.
Then...
My hand trembled as he lifted one more.
ADRIAN.
Mine.
Blank.
Completely blank.
Arthur looked at it with curiosity.
"Hm."
"Interesting."
"What?"
"Your story hasn't been written."
"I've lived thirty years."
"Yes."
"But this chapter..."
He looked directly into my eyes.
"...has never existed before."
The Final Key in my hand began glowing.
Arthur's expression changed.
"It recognizes you."
"So did the Keeper."
"They're very different things."
He carefully traced one of the ancient symbols carved into the key.
"This isn't a key."
I frowned.
"What is it?"
He smiled.
"It's permission."
Above us...
The tremendous impact echoed again.
Even outside frozen time, the vibration reached us.
The Keeper's motionless face seemed almost frightened.
I looked upward.
"What was that?"
Arthur became unusually serious.
"They're here."
"Who?"
He remained silent for several seconds.
Then quietly answered,
"The people who built the prison."
A chill spread through my body.
"I thought the First City was destroyed."
Arthur sighed.
"So did everyone else."
He slowly walked toward the frozen Keeper.
He looked at my mother's face with genuine sadness.
"She fought longer than anyone."
"You can save her."
He looked back at me.
"I can."
Hope surged inside me.
Then he added,
"But not today."
I gritted my teeth.
"Why?"
"Because you still don't know enough."
"I'm tired of secrets."
"I know."
Arthur reached into his satchel one final time.
This time he removed...
A book.
Small.
Black.
No title.
No author.
Only one silver crown embossed on the cover.
He handed it to me.
"The first volume."
"What is it?"
He smiled.
"Your mother's diary."
I stared at the worn leather cover.
"My mother kept a diary?"
"For twenty-two years."
My hands shook as I opened the first page.
The ink was unmistakably hers.
The first sentence read:
If Adrian is reading this, then I failed to protect him.
I swallowed hard.
The next line was even worse.
Never tell him what happened on the night he was born... until he remembers Lily.
Lily.
The little girl.
The forgotten child.
I looked up immediately.
"Who is Lily?"
Arthur's face fell silent.
For the first time...
He didn't answer.
Instead, he asked a question.
"When you saw her..."
"...did she cast a shadow?"
I searched my memory.
The nursery.
The rocking chair.
The rabbit.
I couldn't remember.
Arthur closed his eyes.
"Then we're already too late."
The frozen world suddenly cracked.
A sharp sound echoed through the chamber.
Like glass breaking.
Arthur looked upward.
"Our time is over."
"Wait!"
"I still have hundreds of questions."
"I know."
He smiled gently.
"And you'll find most of the answers."
"Most?"
He nodded.
"Some answers..."
"...should never be found."
Time restarted.
The bullets flew.
The explosions resumed.
The soldiers shouted.
The Keeper screamed,
"Kill him!"
The Final Key blazed with black light.
The diary in my hands opened by itself.
Every page flipped at impossible speed.
Wind roared through the chamber.
Ancient symbols poured from the book like glowing embers.
The mountain shook violently.
Then...
A deafening alarm echoed through every level beneath the estate.
Not mechanical.
Ancient.
Alive.
The same voice that had announced the Trials now thundered across the underground kingdom:
WARNING.
THE ARCHIVE HAS BEEN OPENED.
Silence.
Then one final announcement.
THE LAST VOLUME IS MISSING.
Arthur's face turned pale.
The Keeper stopped fighting.
Even the silver-masked soldiers froze.
No one spoke.
Because everyone understood the meaning...
Except me.
Far below the mountain...
Somewhere deeper than Level Four...
Something awakened.
Not because of the Key.
Not because of the Trials.
But because...
Someone else had already reached the final volume before us.
A slow, unfamiliar laugh echoed through the darkness.
Then a calm male voice whispered:
"You're all reading the wrong story."
May you like
The chamber fell silent.
TO BE CONTINUED...
