Matilda ran as fast as her legs could carry her, her emotions in turmoil. She was fearful of reprimand if she didn't get round to reading Frankenstein, and yet she was also curious. She had read so many great reviews on Shelley's work and wondered why many found it so good a book. And, as it was a book, Matilda was incredibly excited to read it.

When she finally reached her destination, after racing across campus, jumping benches and passed out students, Matilda was left gasping for air. She was a lover of books, not a track runner. So she leaned against the entrance to the large building, hoping to get her breath back. And as she did, she looked around and found that the entire area around her was quiet. But for her, it was abandoned, no one in sight. Yes it was dark, but Matilda was special.

'Probably still unpacking, or out partying already,' she mused and smiled. It was gonna be so easy to get first in her classes. Easy? She frowned at the very thought. 'I thrive when I'm challenged.'

Mother had tried to tell her, so very many times, that college wasn't just all about studying. She'd said that college would be the best years of her life if Matilda would only open herself up to it, step out of the library for once. Mother had told her that she would make lifelong friends, and have such fun. She had even joked about Matilda finding a man. At least Matilda hoped she'd been joking. She didn't want or need a man; at least not one of flesh and blood.

Matilda knew that her mother had always wanted the best for her, had wanted her to get out a little more, wanted her to have a life outside of novels. But Matilda just found it so hard to trust new people, even most people unless they were fictional.

When Matilda dragged herself from her reverie she smiled at the building.

'Sorry mother. I'm going in,' she said and pushed at the door. It wouldn't budge. 'Locked! You can't be locked. No, no, no, no! Don't do this to me now. This is college! Libraries don't close in college.' Matilda was slow to become aware that she had gradually become louder and louder until she was screaming at the building. So she quieted and thought about her predicament for a moment. She was clever she could think of something...

Her eyes opened wide when she realised that the answer had been staring her in the face. Her.

'Oh no, no way. I am not doing that again, not on my first day of college. What if someone sees me?' She was beginning to panic but she had to realise that there was no other choice. She needed that book. 'Fine!'

Matilda directed her eyes to the electronic locking system she could see on the wall just inside the library. It was a tricky alarm system by the looks of it and she was happy that the college cared about their books so much, but still. She glared at the alarm until she could see right through it and into the wiring system. She knew what she had to do when all the numbers began to flood her head. There was a sequence, one sequence of numbers that would...

'Click! She shoots she scores!' Matilda cried and shut her mouth quickly as she looked around, paranoid that someone would be watching her. 'Okay, just in and out, no one will ever know,' she told herself as she silently slipped through the now open doorway.

And gasped at the beauty of the library. It looked like some kind of hunting cabin, with wooden columns and beams supporting every part of the building. The stairs that lead to the second floor, and then the third and so on were made of solid glass. The bookshelves were organised not in A-Z like the libraries back home but by subject and genre. The space for computers and laptops was beautiful, the sofas and armchairs looked good enough to sleep in and Matilda thought she just might be in love with the place.

'Who needs a man when you exist?' She asked the room, knowing it could not answer back. She continued to stare for only a moment before she remembered her reason for being there. 'Shit! Frankenstein!' At her very words she summoned the book. It slid off its shelf from one of the top floors and slowly, gradually came to a stop on a small table next to a chair she was heading to.

'Oh, I did it again didn't I?' Matilda asked herself as she reached her chosen seat and took the book beside her. As if in answer it flipped its own pages to the very beginning page, skipping all of the reviews and short interpretations that most classics had these days.

Matilda made herself comfy on her seat, so comfy she couldn't get off again. Looked like she was in for the night. Well she did have the library to herself...

She took the book and as she read, her mind devouring the words, the pages quicker and quicker she found herself soon looking at a book whose pages were flipping too fast for any normal person to understand.

'What an amazing book!' Matilda exclaimed when she was finally finished reading it. Everything about it had been a roller coaster of emotions, from Frankenstein's struggle with his science, to the creation of Adam and then his pursuit of the creature after it had killed so many people in need of its master's attention. 'Oh poor Adam!' She sighed. 'You and I are so alike. If anyone knew what I could do...' she shuddered to think exactly what people would do.

Finished with her book, the contents memorised Matilda got up from her seat and headed to the fourth floor of the library to return the book and see if there was anything else on her reading list near it.

Only when Matilda finally got to her destined floor she began to feel she was not alone. The very thought frightened her. Was it the night watchman? Was it a security guard? Or was it someone like her? Someone who could break in and then lock a place she entered. She didn't know, didn't want to wait around to find out.

In her fear she dropped Frankenstein and made her way back down the glass steps to the bottom floor. She would not let them see her, she would not be caught. To many questions would be asked. Questions she could never answer.

'Hey! Wait up!' A voice called behind her and she slipped on the next step and went flying on her back to the very bottom.

Dazed and afraid, unable to move she soon found out that the person who'd been following her hadn't been anyone she thought. He was not someone she should be afraid of, because she knew him and he would never harm her.

'Nikolai?' She asked as she looked up into the crystal blue eyes set into his alabaster face. When he crouched down to attend to her wounds his long silvery blonde hair stroked over her face and she sighed. Oh it was him alright. She was very well acquainted with those peony pink lips of his.

'My friends call me Nick,' he told her as he put his hands on her legs, checking for any broken bones. 'Not sure how you know my full name, but you're dazed you probably think I'm someone else.' No, she didn't. She knew it was him. She just wasn't sure how he was real. Wait, was this a hallucination because of her fall? She had to ask one question.

'What are you doing here?' She wondered if he was masquerading as a student. If he would grow shifty she would would know it was him. But how? He belonged in the pages of her favourite paranormal romance: In the arms of the Fey. He was a healer in the book. A very sexy, very sensually passionate healer. His reaction to her fall made her almost certain it was him.

'I'm studying to become a doctor. My father was a doctor, and his father and so on. You get the idea.' Nick hated the idea of it just like Nikolai in her novel. But how was he here? Was it like the book? Had her mind begun to control her? Was she using her powers subconsciously? Oh good heavens! Had she dragged him out of the book and into the real world?