Chapter 3

"Miryam!"
I winced.Thisvoice was now really the last that I wanted to hear. I quickly crept behind a pile of books and hoped that this plague would finally go away.ActuallyI was quite patient ... butactuallythere weren't such bad people as this creature who was plowing through the library looking for me.

Although I was surprised that Kaede Yomiku just entered a library because her IQ was about 80 or so - named with a beautiful German expression - she was stupid. This also resulted in her widely known aversion to anything that had to do with books or letters. Nature had played badly with her when it came to her appearance, too - misshapen fat billowed around her masses, giving her the shape of an obese sumo wrestler. All this, coupled with an annoying monotony and the constant urge to run after me, made them my mostly avoided fellow human beings.Unfortunately Kaede went to my class and I really don't know what she thought about me, because she was one of the few people where I had to pull myself together not to keep bumping into her.
So in order to avoid the crowd, I ducked even deeper under my books ... One look - phew, she hadn't spotted me and scurrilously rattled off the other rows of books for me. What did she want from me?

Our library supervisor, a small, strict and resolute elderly lady, was rolling her eyes in her very special way, which was a well-known sign to all regular visitors that they were about to expel someone for "loud disturbing the necessary quiet of a sacred place" would.
Kaede didn't seem to mind that. After she had combed the whole library for me, snorting loudly, she left this wing of the school with giant steps.
Miss Naningu, the overseer, glared after her, disappointed that she hadn't called the culprit to account before stamping out.Her face of mischief now rather descended on me and I preferred to crawl quickly behind the books again, putting on a facial expression that looked as innocent as possible.
After all, she just screwed up her nose and I escaped the thunderstorm of looking after her beloved sanctuary - whether I was really guilty or not didn't matter.

Well, two problems solved. Just as I was about to start rummaging through my - very exciting - books, my name resounded through the library, but now from someone whose voice I could not yet decipher - and to be honest, I did not want to. According to Fraulein Naningu's eyes, I was initially no longer wanted for the next few days, until new troublemakers kept her sensitive mind from her calm.
So I packed my things in no time and fled - my name in my ear - out the door at theotherend of the room.Miryam… yes, that's my name. However, I didn't particularly like that name. My parents gave it because I was born in Israel - as I said, my parents were globetrotters. However, I did not know myself where this aversion came from. I thought he just didn't suit me.

After I had fled from the almighty anger of Fraulein Naningu, however, I did not find myself in a small side corridor that led to the schoolyard, as intended, but in a room. It was small, gloomy, quite dusty, and also filled with bookshelves.
I carefully took another step into the room and looked at the shelf next to me. Unsurprisingly, there were books in it, but unlike any I'd ever seen. They were bound in a strange way and when I - secretly looking around to see if I was alone - took one off the shelf and looked inside, I couldn't read the strange letters - and I actually had a lot of experience with it for my age.Still, I was fascinated by these books because I instinctively felt one thing: they were old, very old in fact. Carefully, almost tenderly, I ran my finger over a yellowed, fragile page. A spell assumed ...
With an effort I tore myself away from it, put the book back in its intended place and walked on through the small room, which measured a maximum of 4x5 meters, even if I could hardly see anything in the gloomy light. This place was so wonderful and yet it didn't seem to have been entered for years. At the same time, I wondered why the room wasn't locked if it was forbidden. But why should someone make something so precious disappear?

I was almost blown away. I have been told more or less jokingly that I am crazy and freaked out when it comes to books, or even simply that I am a nerd, but that was an understatement at times.
I just love them.Books have a mostly uncomplicated, earthly magic that was so of our world and that attracted me like bees are attracted to beautiful flowers in summer weather.
And so it is hardly surprising that I was enthusiastic about this small, gloomy room and did not plan to leave it in a long time.
I strolled on through the high rows, lost in the air. There must be thousands of old books on those shelves, each different from the other. My paradise ...

Suddenly I noticed a slight shimmer in the darkest corner of the room. It may have been just my imagination, but I walked up to it and found a book in the corner of a small shelf that was bound in strange, dark red fabric.
As if magically drawn, I moved toward it, regardless of all the other books that were around. Suddenly they had become uninteresting.
I don't know why this little book in particular - because although it seemed thick, it was relatively small, no bigger than a paperback perhaps - did it to me.It was probably this tingling sensation in my body that I had already felt today: This morning, before I unpacked this strange box.
Somewhere deep inside the alarm bells rang, but my curiosity preferred to simply push it aside and I continued to approach this fascinating object until I was close to it. Now the last concerns have been swept aside ... I wish I had to get my hands on this document, had to open it and read its secrets. So I stood up slightly on my tiptoe to get to the shelf and tapped - almost in anticipation of a shock - on the cover.
Nothing happened.
So I finally pulled it all out. A warm, almost tender feeling flooded me, as if I had found something I loved but lost a long time ago. I gently stroked the cover. My booklet looked so small and fragile due to its age that I was afraid of breaking something.When I had made sure that nothing like this was going to happen - it was quite battered, but the materials were of good quality and relatively stable - I slowly turned the cover over and ran my index finger over the first page.
The individual sheets were already very yellowed, the pages a little loose and the writing very faded, but I could immediately see that the book was written in Japanese - old Japanese maybe, but I was able to translate the characters.
This tingling sensation in my body gave way to anticipation that surprised me and also frightened me somewhere, but it kept me far away from all other influences.

Today I am unable to say whether a bit of magic might not be dominating me at this moment.

I started reading in the dim light of the room. Faint showers ran down my back.

"When you read this book, Miko (priestess? It crossed my mind) then I won't be anymore.The magic of this object can only be perceived by selected people.
I am Shira, powerful priestess of the holy Hamayato shrine and protector of ... "

I could no longer read what this woman was protecting, because I heard a noise that made me wince and the book fell from my hands to the floor.
Startled, my hand felt for it, but at the same time I tried very hard not to make a sound.
Instinct told me that if I was discovered here, I would be in a lot of trouble. Sure, the door wasn't locked and I hadn't seen a no entry sign either. Yet -

I pressed myself quietly into the darkest corner of the room, but not without taking my booklet and tucking it under my sweatshirt jacket.
When nothing had happened for a while, I crept cautiously through the room. No, not a second door. I would have to think of something else.So I walked quietly to the exit through which I had already come in and carefully opened the door. Nobody around, all the students hung around on the other side of the huge room and the shelves also hid me.
I quietly closed the door behind me, more or less determined inside myself to return to this place soon.
Apparently I hadn't been spotted, so I strolled as inconspicuously as possible towards the exit I originally wanted to go to.
The dark red book was still under my clothes.

Once I escaped from the library, I took a deep breath and practically sprinted out of school onto the street. Fortunately, the lessons for today were already over, we didn't write any more papers or tests or final exams and soon I would finally have my school year certificate in my pocket.

With my acquisition in my pocket, I made my way home to our little house because I was dying to read the book.I preferred to put aside the thought that I had stolen school property or even cultural property.
Actually, I wasn't the type of person to let things go, but this book intrigued me in a terrifying way.

If only I had known what was to follow this event.