I Guess That's The End

• India Stroh-reilly, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2016

Brooklyn and Alessia are best friends. They don’t do anything separately. Their teacher is the best. He always gives out the best assignments, oh, but not today - he gave out the worst assignment ever! He gave out a history assignment about World War II. That’s not even the worst part, they can’t use any electronics at all! Obviously, Brooklyn and Alessia are going to work together on this assignment.

After class the two girls walk over to the library. No one ever goes into the library. The library is a dark, wooden, chipped, cobweb infested, shadowed building, but the girls took a risk. As they open the creaky door, Brooklyn turns on the switch on her left that lights up the whole room. There are a dozen swinging chandeliers, all the books are lined up in alphabetical order - everything is placed so beautifully. “Wow,” said Alessia staring at Brooklyn with her mouth open. “Why does no one ever…”

“What are you doing here?” The girls jump to see a little man sitting on a snake leathered chair with pieces of foam sticking out. He is reading a red stitched book, and then starts walking towards the girls - you can hear his shoes echoing across the room when they touch the wooden floor. As soon as he gets close enough to touch them he says with a bit of a stutter, “My name is Mmmr Linden, and ttthis is mmy library.”

Even though the girls are scared by his creepy appearance, they wander off to a section full of war books. Alessia is intrigued by a book with a gold bow on the front. The girls then go to exit the door when Mr Linden shouts, “Don’t take that book home – it’s dangerous!” But they take it anyway.

Brooklyn goes to stay the night at Alessia’s house so they can read the book together. As soon as they get there, Brooklyn dumps her bags on Alessia’s bed and falls to the floor to open the book. As they are reading, they both crawl into bed. First Brooklyn fell asleep then Alessia.

At midnight, the book opens itself up and vines creep out of the pages. Growing faster and faster, one wraps itself around Alessia’s neck tight.

Brooklyn wakes up to Alessia dead. She tries to stop herself from screaming and jumps out the window, not wanting to face Alessia’s parents. She sprints to the library hoping to find Mr Linden - luckily he is there.

Brooklyn tells him all about the horrible event. He replies sadly “I warned her about the book, but now it’s too late.” Brooklyn quivered, “Can we get her back?” Mr Linden doesn't reply. She walks over to the corner of the wall and slides down, tucking her knees up to her chest. A tear comes running down her face and lands on her hand underneath her chin. “I guess that’s the end,” whispered Brooklyn.