Chapter One

    “And don’t go in there,” said the old man to Jade. “Never go in there.” Jade looked, skeptically, through the doorway of the room in question.
    “It’s just a library,” she affirmed, indifferently. “What’s the big deal?” Jade put her hand on the doorframe and peered further in. At this, the old man pulled her out of the way, shut the door firmly, and locked it with a key that he had retrieved from his pocket. Jade stared, intrigued, as he held the key in his old, withered hand. The old man noticed Jade’s interest and nervously shoved the key into a pocket on the inside of his tattered blazer. Jade was perturbed.
    “Don’t go in there! It’s very… dangerous…” He trailed off, obviously lost in thought. Jade had to wonder what he meant by this. What happened in there? How can a library be dangerous?
   
    The old man was Dr. Gregory Szcheindler (pronounced “Schindler”), an old college mentor of Jade’s father. Her parents had decided they needed a vacation from their unruly daughter and had taken off to Florida, leaving Jade in the care of this crazy old man. He lived in a big boring old house with lots of rooms and great architecture, but not much for a seventeen-year-old girl to do. It was summer, so she didn’t have school and she was miles away from her friends and anything interesting. Jade was bored out of her mind.

    It wasn’t that Jade was rebellious. It wasn’t that she was insubordinate, seditious, or defiant. She just got fed up with the blasé routine of everyday life. In reality, it wasn’t that she considered most people boring by nature, but, she believed, that they chose to be dull and wearisome, which she considered an unpardonable offense.  Humans were supposed to be the most intelligent creatures on earth, so why in the name of all things good did they have to be so tiresome? It wasn’t that Jade went looking for trouble. She just always seemed to find it.

    “What do you like to do for fun?” asked Dr. Szcheindler, as he and Jade were ingesting a rather dreary dinner.
    “Stuff…” She didn’t really care to enjoy his company, but rather was intent on behaving sullenly for the entirety of her stay.
    “Surely a young girl like you has hobbies,” assumed Dr. Szcheindler. Jade sighed, stared at him blankly, and then continued to poke with her fork at the lifeless chicken on her plate.
    “You’ve hardly touched your food,” provoked Dr. Szcheindler.
    “I’m a vegetarian,” she replied, with a shrewd glare.
    “That’s very interesting. Would you care to explain your philosophy behind it?”
    Jade rolled her eyes. Adults. “No.”
    The two of them sat there, in silence, for what felt like an hour. (In reality it was about 40 seconds.) Finally, Jade decided that Dr. Szcheindler was maybe a worthy associate for some conversation.
    “So, Doctor… what is the deal with that library? Why so hush-hush? You got some dead guy hiding in there?” asked Jade, sarcastically. Dr. Szcheindler stared at her, furrowed his eyebrows, bit his lip, and sighed, as if deciding whether to tell her the clandestine truth. She was a little more than suspicious now.
    “You’re not… hiding a dead body in there… are you?”
    “No,” he laughed, as if reflecting on some inside joke. “There’s no dead body in the library…. What do you like to study in school?”
    Maybe Dr. Szcheindler wanted to change the subject, but Jade would not hear of it! “What is in there?” She had to know! “What don’t you want me to see?”
    Dr. Szcheindler sighed again, wearily. “Jade,” he began. “It’s just not anything you need to know about. Really, I have your best interests in mind.” Jade slouched in her chair and folded her arms across her chest.
    “You just don’t want me to have any fun.”
    “Jade, that isn’t true! I just want to protect you!”
    Protect me from what? 

    Dr. Gregory Szcheindler was really not the geriatric doomsayer Jade assumed him to be.  He really was a very kind and interesting man, but years of facing war, genocide, depression, and heartbreak had left him rough and somewhat tactless at times. He had once been lively and exciting – he could tell a good story too. What an imagination and what heart! Greg was a much younger man then, with fewer cares and worries than he had now. Nowadays he was different. It wasn’t that he was a stubborn old stick in the mud – really. He was just concerned. Right now he was concerned about Jade – concerned that she would get herself into the same kinds of troubles he had gotten himself into years earlier. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he let that happen to her. She was so young – and so innocent, though her parents may not have thought so. He didn’t want all the potential he could see in her to die a tragic death the way it had in him. She might not be so lucky as to recover and rediscover her missing soul the way he had. She, herself, might die if things got out of hand. She just couldn’t go in there. She couldn’t go in that library!

    “But seriously…,” began Jade at another boring dinner on another boring evening. “What could happen if you tell me what’s in that library?”
    Dr. Szcheindler sighed, ever frustrated with this eternally curious child. “Jade… It’s dangerous in there.” Whatever.
“What could be dangerous in a library?”
“It’s just…,” he tried to explain, without telling too much. “There are things in there… that can… hurt you.”
    “They’re just books.” What on earth could be so terrifying about a bunch of books?
    “Those books,” began Dr. Szcheindler, shuddering in memory. “Those books will change you…”

    Dr. Szcheindler was completely unaware, but that very night Jade would set out to discover for herself the secrets of the library.

    It was about one in the morning and Jade was still awake. She would have to be if she intended to steal that key from Dr. Szcheindler. Quietly, she left her bed, donned her favorite purple and black hoodie, and tiptoed out of her room and down the hall to Dr. Szcheindler’s office. Once inside, she wondered what use he could even have for a library. There were so many books! She scanned the shelves. Weird. He had all kinds of books on magic and science fiction, a few on the occult, and several on enchantment. What is a boring old man like Dr. Szcheindler doing with books like this? As Jade stared in amazement (and, perhaps, amusement), she failed to pay attention to her footing. She stepped on a loose floorboard and nearly fell over as it flipped upwards. Luckily for Jade, she was rather nimble and caught herself and the loose floorboard. What luck! This was where the crazy old man hid the key!
      Jade thought it rather funny that he wouldn’t be cleverer to hide it. He had to have known she’d look for it! (He had, in fact, suspected this and had hidden it in the pocket of his pajamas. Forces much darker and more powerful than he had magically moved it to this easily discoverable spot.) Jade felt invincible now and strode a bit arrogantly down to the library door. This was it! She stood, key in her trembling hand, facing the door to some ominous destination. What was hiding behind this door? Had Dr. Szcheindler been telling the truth when he said it was dangerous? But what could be dangerous about a library? Jade didn’t know. Well, now was the time. She could either face this or turn and run, tail between her legs. But she had to know! It would kill her to be here all summer not knowing what lay behind this door! Slowly, Jade reached out, forced herself to shove the key into the lock, and turned the doorknob.

     It was beautiful in the library! Perhaps Dr. Szcheindler was trying to keep this little piece of Heaven to himself! So selfish! It amazed Jade how big the library seemed, when the house itself couldn’t have been that huge. There were shelves upon shelves of books, old and new, colorful and sepia-toned, ugly and beautiful. This was a wonderful place! Jade could never be bored in here! She could escape in here, reading away her dreadful summer. She walked slowly along the wall of shelves, dragging her hand across the spines of the books. How glorious they felt against her fingers! When she reached the end of the shelves, she saw before her a strange looking statue. It was a woman wearing a knee-length dress that was evidently tattered and torn. She had a smile on her face, but she did not look happy. She had more of a sinister expression. This woman, Jade though, looked almost lifelike. Jade would have thought she was real if not for her stone-gray countenance.
     In the middle of the library was a table with a chair that looked quite inviting. On the table sat a stack of books that should look fairly appealing to a young curious girl like Jade. It was almost as if someone had left them for her to find. Strange. Jade sat in the chair and felt a little too accommodated. It almost felt as if she wouldn’t be able to leave if she wanted to. She tried to stand and, indeed, she couldn’t. What could she do now in the middle of the night? Dr. Szcheindler wouldn’t be awake to hear her yell. Even so, what else could she do? His words echoed in her mind. Don’t go in there… It’s dangerous in there… I just want to protect you… She had to do something!
Jade opened her mouth to call for help, but a mysterious gust of wind slammed the door shut! She sighed in frustration and grabbed the first book in the pile on the table. If she couldn’t get out of here anytime soon, she might as well read. Jade though she could use some change in her dreary life. The book was titled Gendercide: A Thorough History of Gender-based Discrimination and Genocide. It was truly a strange title, but Jade hoped it might be somewhat interesting. She could always get a different book if she didn’t like it. She opened it and began to read, but hadn’t finished two words before everything went dark…