I was peacefully sleeping, lost in a dream where everything was just right—my friends listened to me, and everything was calm. The kind of dream where the world seemed perfect. I was relaxed, floating in the quiet of my imagination. That was until...
Pounce!
"Wake up!" my brother, Rohith, yelled as he jumped on my bed. "I’m hungry!"
“Ugh, not now,” I groaned, trying to hide under my blanket. I pulled it over my head, wishing I could just fall back into the peaceful dream.
“But I don’t know how to cook anything!” he whined, his voice sounding desperate. I sighed, rolling over, my irritation growing.
“You can do it yourself,” I muttered, half asleep.
“But I can’t!” he cried out.
“Fine! I’ll do it,” I said, reluctantly sitting up and rubbing my eyes. Why did I always have to be the responsible one? I glanced around the room, realizing my parents weren’t around to help. My mom had work to do, and my dad had already left for his job.
With a deep sigh, I shuffled downstairs. Rohith followed behind me, still complaining about how hungry he was. I opened the fridge, hoping to find something simple. My eyes landed on an egg, and I handed it to him. "Here, figure it out," I said, not really caring what he did with it.
He stared at the egg, completely confused. “What am I supposed to do with this?”
"Just crack it," I said, already starting to peel a banana for myself. I wasn’t really paying attention when I grabbed the fruit. Instead of peeling the banana, I tossed the whole thing into the trash can without realizing it.
“Oops!” I said, glancing at the trash.
Suddenly, the air around me seemed to shift. A strange pull, like gravity had suddenly changed, tugged at me. Before I could even register what was happening, a light flashed, and I found myself falling, tumbling through space, until I landed softly on the ground.
I blinked and looked around. I wasn’t in the kitchen anymore.
Where was I?
It was dark at first, but as my eyes adjusted, I saw towering shelves all around me, filled with books—so many books, they seemed endless. Some were old and dusty, others looked brand new. There was a strange energy in the air, and the shelves stretched high into the dark void above me.
“This is… not the kitchen,” I whispered to myself.
As I stood up, brushing myself off, I noticed a book resting on a pedestal in the middle of the room. A shiver ran down my spine. The book was strange, with a skull carved on its cover. A cold, ominous feeling washed over me as I approached it. It seemed like the book was calling to me, beckoning me to open it.
I reached out, almost as if something was pulling my hand. As soon as I touched the cover, I heard a soft whoosh, and before I could react, a flash of light exploded from the pages.
And then, out of nowhere...
Jump!
Something—or rather, someone—popped out of the book and landed with a soft thud on the ground. I jumped back, startled.
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
It was Nethra—my best friend.
“What? How?” I gasped, my heart racing.
Nethra stood up, brushing herself off. “I honestly don’t know,” she said, looking as confused as I felt. “I woke up, and I was surrounded by this exact library. The book was just lying there, so I bent down to pick it up, and suddenly... I was sucked into it!” she finished, sounding just as baffled as I was.
“Well, that answers my question,” I muttered. “But now we need to figure out how to get out of this place. I mean, look at this—this library is never-ending!”
Nethra nodded. “Agreed. We should start looking for a way out.”
The two of us wandered through the endless rows of shelves, trying to find anything that might help us. It was eerie—the air felt thick, and the silence was overwhelming. It almost felt like we were being watched. The library seemed alive in a way that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Every time I reached for a book, it felt like the shelves were shifting, rearranging themselves to keep their secrets hidden.
Time seemed to lose its meaning as we walked, and we didn’t speak much. We were both too absorbed in trying to understand where we were and how we got here. The longer we spent in this mysterious place, the more it felt like the library was closing in around us, trapping us in its labyrinth of endless shelves.
After what felt like hours, I spotted something in the distance—a dark room, tucked away at the far end of the library. A strange, almost magnetic pull drew me toward it. I motioned for Nethra to follow me.
“Come on, there’s something over here,” I said.
She nodded, looking curious but cautious as we approached the doorway. When we stepped into the room, the air felt different—thicker somehow. It was almost like we were stepping into a different world. The room was dimly lit by a faint, eerie glow that seemed to emanate from the walls themselves.
“This feels... off,” Nethra whispered, her voice barely audible.
I agreed, but my curiosity was too strong. I stepped forward, scanning the room. There were more books—thousands of them, but something about this room felt... wrong. The books were ancient, their pages yellowed with age, and their spines cracked from years of neglect. They almost looked like they had been waiting for us.
“Do you think one of these books can help us get out?” I asked, my voice shaking slightly.
“I don’t know, but we have to try,” Nethra replied. “Let’s see what we can find.”
We spent the next few minutes searching through the shelves, but every book we pulled from the shelf seemed to contain more riddles and mysteries than answers. It was like the books themselves were playing tricks on us, leading us deeper into the labyrinth of the library. Nothing made sense.
And then, just as I was about to give up, I heard a faint sound—a soft whisper coming from the back of the room.
“Did you hear that?” I whispered, my eyes wide.
Nethra nodded, her face pale. “What was that?”
Without thinking, I moved toward the source of the sound. The closer we got, the stronger the feeling that something—or someone—was waiting for us.
At the back of the room, hidden behind a stack of ancient books, I found a door. It was old, made of heavy wood with intricate carvings. But what caught my attention were the words etched into the door in a language I didn’t recognize.
“I don’t know what this means, but it feels important,” I said, running my fingers over the words.
Nethra knelt beside me, studying the carvings. “I think it’s a code. We need to figure it out to open the door.”
Suddenly, a memory popped into my head—something Nethra and I had made up back in school when we needed a secret word. We’d agreed that “అరటిపండు,” the word for “banana” in Telugu, would be our code word in case we ever needed to signal each other.
“Wait! I know the code,” I exclaimed. “It’s ‘అరటిపండు’! Banana!”
I shouted the word out loud, and the moment I did, the door creaked open, revealing a glowing staircase leading down into the unknown.
“Let’s go,” I said, taking a deep breath.
Nethra and I exchanged a look, and then we stepped forward, entering the staircase. The air was cooler now, and the steps beneath our feet seemed to pulse with a strange energy. As we descended deeper, the glow around us grew brighter, guiding our way.
At the bottom, we found ourselves standing in a large chamber. In the center was a stone pedestal, and on it rested a single book—unlike any of the others in the library. This book radiated an intense light, almost blinding in its brilliance. We both stared at it, mesmerized.
Without thinking, I walked toward it and opened the cover. The moment I did, everything around us started to shake. The ground rumbled, and the bookshelves trembled. I could feel the library itself coming alive, as though it were reacting to our presence.
“Is this... it?” Nethra asked, her voice filled with awe.
Before I could answer, the world around us dissolved, and in an instant, we were back in the kitchen—safe, sound, and a little shaken.
I looked at Nethra, who was still standing next to me, wide-eyed. “I guess... we made it out?”
“I guess so,” she said, still trying to process everything.
And then, to my surprise, I found Rohith standing in front of us, staring at the uncooked egg still in his hand.
“So... you two went on an adventure, huh?” he said, raising an eyebrow.
I couldn’t help but laugh. Maybe the day wasn’t so bad after all.
This story was based of a dream of mine
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