“Mitch, it’s after hours. You know I can’t let you in here,” Amy sighed as she pulled out her set of keys to lock the library door.

“Amy, I need to know. You know I need to know.”

“This isn’t healthy, Mitch,” she said, looking me over in that strange way she did, eyeing me up, judging me like she could see every thought I ever had. It always made me uncomfortable. I shifted from foot to foot. Looked down at my green canvas shoes.

“I need to know.” It came out wrong, too powerfully, too forcefully. Too persuasively. A part of me wanted her to say no. To lock the door. To walk away from all this madness.

Her eyes narrowed.

The key to the Publich Library was a beautiful skeleton one, crafted in such a way as to make you think it unlocked the secret of life. The lock clicked and Amy walked away, heels clicking loudly on the deserted concrete sidewalk.

I breathed in that still library smell and quickly located the book. The leather cracked as I opened up to the page that dictated my life.