"I don't see what's so great about reading anyway," I groaned, kicking my feet to the top of the desk. "Come on, Ember, you love reading!" my best friend Sabrina tried convincing me. "Sure, I love reading, and writing. But spelling? Come on. Who honestly cares if these tippin' books are in bloody alphabetical order?" I chided. "Hey, don't look at us like it's our fault we have to sort these books. Thank the Greeks," Katie grumbled.

"Can't these dang people just put the books back, so we don't have to um, I don't know…" I tried to think of a word besides—"Work?" Sabrina suggested, as if reading my socially damaged and perpetuated mind. I glared daggers at her. "Gosh, you're so, grumpy. Words must make you weird," Sabrina went on, ignoring my glare. "Just like Katie after too much sugar," I retorted. We started laughing. "Okay, I've gotten better!" Katie said, unconvincingly.

"Aye, ladies, can one of you come over here and put this book back for me?" the librarian asked, in her fabulous British accent. I know, we're in London on vacation, but COME ON! Three weeks in smack dab middle of Old London Town and I still didn't get used to the posh accents. "Yes, ma'am. I'll be there in a moment, right after this," I said, sweetly. Katie coughed, "Kiss up." I did the most mature thing a twelve-year-old girl could do. Katie replied to my tongue that I stuck out with a sneer.

I skipped over to the librarian. She looked about twenty, which I found weird because I thought that librarians were, well, old. She had blonde hair and hazel eyes, which I found weird, because not to be judgmental or anything, but I always thought that blondes had just blue or green eyes. "Hi, sweetie. Can you put this book into DOC?" She handed me a blue phonebook. "Uh, not to be rude, Ms…" "Rose. My first name is Rose," she replied. "Yes, Ms. Rose, err… doesn't this book belong in the reference section… not in fiction?" I replied, gingerly. She looked at me, cocking her head and opening up wide her hazel eyes. "Very observant. Clever. In normal cases, yes, this would belong in the reference, but this one is special," Rose whispered, almost like she was telling a deep dark secret. I shrugged and picked up the book.

I struggled on my way to the D-Section, trying to carry the large and heavy book. It was so heavy for such a light-looking book; it seemed almost as if it was bigger on the inside. I got to the D-Section, and my fingers suddenly had an itch to flip through the pages of the book. I tried to ignore the urge, but its power overwhelmed me, and I gave in, turning the book over and reading the summary. There was none. So instead, I tried to read the book. There was a forward by the author, whose name was not mentioned, and instead used six letters. TAR DOC. I was guessing TAR was his first name initials or something, and DOC was his last. Weird pen name. I read the forward. It's apostrophes for saying a quote or something only had one, not two, like the Brits, so I assumed this person must be British. It was hand-written in a very elegant-looking, proper, almost perfect write; as if it was typed, but in the handwriting font.

To the reader:

Books can take you anywhere. Anywhere and everywhere. But in this case, this is anywhere. And by 'anywhere', well, I mean, well, somewhere, as in not anywhere, but the place of the specific spot that I have chosen for this book to take you. So in this case, it means anywhere, but unlike the mystery and wonderment of wondering where I am taking you, I know exactly where I'm taking you, and… okay, enough of this blogging that I am doing, time to get serious…

This is a dangerous book. As in dangerous, I mean dangerous and add another dollop of lethal spikes on top, shall we? Good. So if you value your life, I recommend you do not go any further than this. Seriously. And Ember, if you are reading this, I am serious. After finishing this book, and when I say 'finish', I mean, you must do EXACTLY what this book says, and oh, don't LOSE THE BOOK!!! So anyway… what was I talking about… oh yes! After finishing this book, read the Afterword, which I recommend you do, because it's really important. Oh, and one more thing. I am sorry. I am so sorry.

With all due respect,

TAR DOC

Whoa. He knew my name? What? Huh. Must be another Ember. On top of that, a phonebook with a forward? So this wasn't a phonebook, maybe it was a book about a phonebook. Not read it if you valued your life? Please. I know Lemony Snicket wrote that stuff, and I value my life, but I read it anyway. Come on. Be serious. I opened the book and began reading. The book too, was hand-written.

Summary of What Is Next

Pyro was Queen of the land of Sidrat, and everyone adored her. Sidrat was a planet in the Asudem Cascade, and it was a planet of a library. That's all the planet was. A huge library of every book written in existence, and it stretched on for miles and miles, and the castle lay smack in the middle of the book empire. The thing was, Pyro hated spelling and books, so she sent her tutor to the dungeon. Her mother and father were very upset with her doing so, so she sent them to the dungeon too.

Pyro kept the library in place, because that's where her pride remained—the books. The library had books written about her, and they were scattered all over the planet so anyone could read about her, anytime. There was one problem though. Pyro hated order. She hated anything with a system, or a catalog, so she ordered the people of Sidrat to check out all the books, and then put them wherever they wanted when they were done. Anyone who put it in the right place was to be doomed to the dungeon with Pyro's mother, father, and tutor.

Many tried to stop her, but only one got close. He was a word wizard, from many places beyond who tried to stop her. He was from a galaxy far far away, and had dealt with many things, and believed he could stop her, so everyone could find books. So he went undercover and worked as a librarian for many years with his assistant, Athram, who was madly in love with him. Pretty soon, the wizard, whose name was Theta, had dinner with the queen in person, and fell in love with her. Pyro fell in love with the young wizard too, and when Pyro figured out that Athram loved him, she sent her to the dungeon.

Theta realized what Pyro had done, and put a powerful spell on her, so her world and the rest of the people were trapped inside the contents of a book. Many had come to the book, and had discovered her world, but few if any came back. The people who had come through their own world were trapped inside, and soon forgot about their lifestyle. They forgot their real name, their family, and all about their real world.

Theta to this day is trapped somewhere inside the contents of the book, as well as his companion, and several other people, such as Teddy Rath from 1789, Elizabeth Kimball from 18,45, Mark Strauss from 1912, Polly Crawford from 1956, and Ahtram Jones from 2007.

I flipped the page, dying to hear more. Wait. Ahtram Jones was from 2007? From two years ago? Right. This was fiction. This was in the fiction section. I tried to get that out of my mind and continued reading, as if flipping the page. As I was turning the tattered and wrinkled page, I heard a "no!" come from behind me. I spun around and the librarian, Rose, grabbed my left shoulder and then, before I knew it, I was lying on the floor in the biggest library I had ever seen with a librarian tied to me with a rope made out of book worms.