Samantha
            Mr. Linden’s Library

    It was a crisp, cold morning as Mr. Linden started the walk towards his library. Mr. Linden was a nice old man nearing the age of 70 who was full of energy and spirit despite his age. Everyone that stepped foot in his library knew that they were welcome and that was the main reason they all continued to come back. The only thing that could be heard was his tennis sneakers hitting the pavement at a slow and steady pace. He arrived at the old crumbling building that held his most prized possessions a little after seven. He gazed up at the cracked bricks and the vines that covered them, Mr. Linden had always wondered how they had mysteriously grown over night. But the thought was pushed out of his mind as he saw a girl waiting by the side of the library. He knew this girl particularly well considering she came here every day around this time. Her name was Anna and she had pale blonde hair to the center of her back, everything was ordinary about her everything except her eyes. Every time Mr. Linden looked into them he sensed she liked adventure and knew right away that following the rules wasn’t her specialty. But she was kind to him so he didn’t bother with laying down the guidelines for she knew that if she did any harm to anything in the library that she would not be allowed back.
Mr. Linden took out his keys from his right coat pocket, jingled them a few times until finding the old brass key; almost as old as he. There was a silence as he put the key into the lock and then a faint click and the shop was now open. He stepped inside to the cinnamon smelling library and began to open up for customers.
    Anna was always intrigued with how Mr. Linden made his shop so welcoming and warm inside when the outside looked as if it was haunted. She loved it here, so she didn’t mind getting up a few hours early to walk to the shop to avoid the afternoon rush around twelve. Besides she liked being the only one in the library, it made it seem magical somehow as if the books could, in someway bring her to all the places she could only dream of. Anna didn’t feel like reading a book right now so she made up her mind to explore the parts of the library she hadn’t been yet. She slowly walked over to the staircase and decided upon the fifth floor. As she reached the top step of the staircase Anna sneezed from the thick layer of dust that covered the books and shelves. She looked at all the books that lined the shelves and thought that they all must be at least a hundred years old.
    Anna stopped as she reached the back wall and stared at the door that stood in front of her. In big bold letters read RESTRICTED, she stood there a few minutes debating what to do. She definitely knew what the word meant but felt oddly drawn to the room as if something lay hidden behind that door. Anna knew that Mr. Linden thought of her as a rule breaker, and he was right but she felt rather guilty breaking his trust. Anna’s adventurous side eventually took over and she found herself pushing open the door with ease, trying to make as little noise as possible. She was somewhat disappointed to not find something like a Secret Garden hidden in the room but continued to look around anyway. There were only a few books that lay stacked on the wooden shelves. Anna looked at each one with caution because she did not really want to find out the hard way why these books were placed into this room. Anna grabbed the leather bound book to her left with an oddly familiar picture on the front cover, vines that were identical to the ones on the library’s exterior walls. She halted when she heard a creak in the stairs and then the door flew open, Anna had no time to hide or place the book where she found it before Mr. Linden was in the doorway.
    Mr. Linden stormed over to her with a scowl on his face. She knew he wasn’t happy at all. Anna expected him to yell at her but he only spoke to her in a very serious tone, one that she had never heard anyone speak in.
    “I never, ever want you to come in this room again. Do you understand? There are many things in this room that shouldn’t be toyed with especially this book for I do not no many of the consequences may fall upon the reader. This is a book that should be handled with great care and I do NOT want a little girl playing around with such an item.” Mr. Linden said in hoarse voice.
    “But Mr. Linden if you do not want people to read these books what is the use of having them in here?” asked Anna.
    “You have forgotten that I keep many of my own books in this library and this one happens to be mine. Now I want you to get out of this room and I don’t ever want to see you creeping around it again. Understand?”
    “Yes,” replied Anna. But Mr. Linden did not see she had crossed her fingers behind her back, which made it all right to lie to the kind old man.
Anna went down to the fourth floor to wait while Mr. Linden was out of sight and then she slowly crept back up to the restricted door, she could never let her questions go unanswered. And with a slow turn of the knob the door was open and in a flash she grabbed the vine-covered book and placed it into her bag. She dashed out of the room, hurried down the steps and walked out the door as to not make her look suspicious but as she looked out of the corner of her eye she knew that Mr. Linden knew what she did because he looked worried, scared, and hurt at the same time. But Anna pushed the feelings that shown in his eyes away as she started the walk towards her home.
    By the time Anna finished her homework, did her chores, and showered it was nearing 9 o’clock and she was totally exhausted. She reached for her bag, kissed her father goodnight and then went into her room, closing the door behind her. Her father did not know at the time that that would be the last time he would see his only daughter again. Anna opened the book wondering what could be so bad about it. She flipped to the center of the book and tried reading the first line but found she couldn’t because it wasn’t in English it was in something which looked like Latin but did not know for sure. Frustrated that she had stole a book that she couldn’t read she pushed her head back to her pillow and found that sleep had come easy to her tonight.
    Anna did not know that this would be the last book she would ever hold in her hands. While sleeping, the book had sprouted vines identical to the ones on the cover and on the walls of the library and as Anna dreamed of far away places and books of all kinds she was pulled into the thing she had thought was beautiful and mysterious.
    The next morning Mr. Linden started the walk towards his library hoping to see Anna at the side of the building waiting for him to open the shop. He knew she had taken the book but hopefully she was all right. But instead of finding Anna he saw a new book on the welcome mat of his shop, as he looked closer he noticed that it was not a new book at all, but an hold one with vines on the cover. The only thing new about it was the title and as Mr. Linden read it he knew that he would never be seeing her again because printed on the cover in what looked like deep red ink read “Anna and Mr. Linden’s library”. He had warned her about the book. Now it was too late.