The Library

The Library Challenge

Day One

“Hey dude, you still alive?” The southern tinged voice is accompanied with a hand shaking my shoulder, dislodging me from my dream.

“I think he’s alive.” A different voice says.

“Of course he is, we were all alive when we got here, why wouldn’t he be?” A third voice rebukes, this one a deep baritone, like boulders grating together.

I open my eyes and quickly close them again as the light blasts them. “What’s going on here?” I ask, completely disoriented

“Well, near as we can figure,” The southern guy says, “We’re in a library. A never ending library. I - my name's Philip by the way - was the first to wake up here and walked down these aisles for about half an hour ‘fore I found Kyle here, passed out just like you.” The southern guy pats a giant man on the shoulder, the owner of the deep voice I assume.

“There’s nothing here to be found beside a crap ton of books.” The second voice says. He’s of average height and very skinny, with a shock of blond hair on his head and a days worth of stubble coating his chin.

“That’s Ryan, he has a bit of a temper, but then again who wouldn’t when you're trapped in a big ol library with no apparent way out. So what’s your name? If we’re gonna be stuck in here for who knows how long we oughta know your name.”

“Bill.” I say, accepting Kyle’s offered hand as he hauls me to my feet. I study his wiry, muscle bound frame. His face contains a deep tan, and he’s dressed like a cowboy, including a wide brimmed cowboy hat.

“Take it easy.” Kyle says as I stumble, not entirely stable on my feet.. “Nothings going to change before you get up.”

Staying on my feet successfully this time, I take a look at our surroundings. It’s a lot to take in for sure.

Books are scattered in a seemingly random order, some forming card pyramids in an organized chaos.

Books crammed into shelves, spilling over them like a waterfall of knowledge.

Books shaped like cubes, and spheres, one even taking the appearance of a man, which is very creepy if you see it out of the corner of your eye.

Books floating through the air, forming rivers of words weaving through the air

Books taller than I am lean precariously on shelves, dominating tables, and peering menacingly around corners of the shelves.

Books going on farther than the eye can see. Millions upon millions, never ending.

“Welcome contestants!” A voice blasts through the air, and a small cry escapes from Philip. “The fourteen of you are the first to enter our library, and let me tell you we are oh so excited to have you here!”

“And we are oh so excited to be here.” Kyle says mockingly.

“Now that’s not very nice.” The voice says, “Kyle, Andrew, no need to be like this. The library can be fun, as long as you allow it to be fun.”

Philip and I glance at each other, and Philip mouths, Who’s Andrew?

Announcer man continues, saying “Now, the goal of the library is to solve the riddle, and gain that which will be found in the prize! For the team that wins, you will be removed from the Library and sent back to your normal lives - though considerably richer! Now,” Mr. Announcer pauses dramatically, “The Riddle!”

A pinpoint of light appears, five feet in the air and to fill a two foot by two foot space. With a pop! it obeys gravity and falls to the floor. Kyle picks up the sheaf of aged looking paper and reads it. Shaking his head he hands it over silently to Philip who reads it as well.

“Well that sure doesn’t clear much up.” He then hands it to me. I take the paper and read the tiny, neat script written on it.

The Riddle

In the Library you will find

The book that holds the prize inside

But in order to find this hidden book

You must know the location in which to look

Not in the rainbow is this found

But in a combination, the answer is profound

You might find the answer is in fact

Something the Library may lack

“We’d better hope there aren’t any geniuses here.” Philip says in an aside as I hand it to Ryan, who barely glances at it before discarding it.

“‘Not in the rainbow is this found.’” I say, quoting the poem, “‘In a combination, the answer is profound.’ So maybe we’re looking for a rainbow?”

“Maybe…” Philip says, fidgeting with the poem he’d picked up off the ground.

“But it says ‘not’ emphasis on the not.” Kyle says.

“Yes,” I return, “But it also says ‘in a combination the answer is profound’

“So maybe we just start wandering around til we find something rainbow-like?” I suggest.

“Why not? Might as well take a looky-loo.”

“Yeah, let’s take a, ‘looky-loo’.” Ryan says, putting air-quotes around “looky-loo”.

Our looky-loo doesn’t amount to much. We discover a lot of phenomena. Books flying through the air, flapping their pages like wings, glowing caves of books, and even entire villages made out of books.

Book creatures prow the rows, including a unicorn, which careening around the corner, right at Philip. “Beejebus!” He exclaims, diving behind a spherical book, flipping open the first page. “This place is hazardous to one's health.”

“Stop being a ninny.” Kyle says, stroking the unicorn's head, which reads, Sequitur. “This thing wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

“Could if it wanted to.” Philip mutters, stroking his bruised shoulder as he scans the pages of the book he’d flipped open.

I glance around, trying to find anything rainbow like, but find nothing. The rows of shelves practically explode with color, but nothing in the sequence of a rainbow.

“Do you think they have a kid’s section?” Ryan suddenly asks, reading a book he’d grabbed off the shelf.

“What?” Kyle says, looking up from the unicorn, who pranced off back the way he came.

“A kid’s section. Usually libraries will decorate the children’s book area with paintings of birds, unicorns, rainbows, and stuff like that.”

“That would make sense.” I say, excited at the prospect of something to actually search for. “It also doesn’t necessarily have to be a kid’s section, it could be a kid’s room in one of these village things we’ve passed.”

“Should we go back and look in the villages we’ve passed so far?” Kyle says, joining our group.

“No, they were smaller, one room houses, probably wouldn’t have anything on the walls.” Ryan says, still perusing the book he’d picked up.

“Unless that’s what they want us to think. People who can make a library like this are fully capable of some sideways thinking.”

“Yeah, but would they think that way?” Philip says from above us. The three of whip around, craning our heads upward where Philip is, inexplicably, floating ten feet above our heads with a stupid grin on his face.

“What - how…” Ryan says, staggering back several steps.

Philip laughs like a kid on christmas, all giddiness and energy. “The books!” He exclaims, zipping around through the air. “I read the lines, ‘And though you be crippled by fear, you shall fly above it all,” and now I can fly!”

Philip whoops and zips away, being surprisingly nimble considering he’d just learned to fly a few minutes ago.

Kyle, Ryan, and I run over to the book, and Ryan gets there first and reads aloud, “And though you be crippled by fear, you shall fly above it all.” And he starts floating. “This is sick.” He says, a grin equal to Philip’s fills his features.

“Let’s go check out some more books.” Kyle says, lightly smacking my shoulder. We race off into the shelves as Philip and Ryan pirouette through the air. A title grabs my attention.

“‘The Life of Hercules.’” I grin broadly, and flip open the pages until I find a line that suits me. “‘And Hercules was granted great strength, enough to rival the gods.’” Snapping the book shut with one hand, the spine shatters, sending pages scattering everywhere. “Oh yes.”

I flex my bicep, and although there’s no physical change, I can feel power coursing through my veins. I feel a sudden gust of wind fly by me and Kyle suddenly appears in front of me.

“‘The Need for Speed.’” He says, holding up a book. “This is pretty sweet.”

“Heck yeah it is.” Philip says, once again hovering above us. “Now finding this rainbow is gonna be a cinch.”

“What’re we waiting for?” Ryan says, zooming around a corner and nearly plowing into me and Kyle. “Let’s get going. Others are bound to find out about these power books eventually.”

Day Two

“As cool as they are, super powers aren’t very helpful right now.” Ryan is floating two feet in the air, his hands behind his head and just staring up at the ceiling, which is currently painted like the Sistine Chapel.

After spending the entire remainder of the day, (or whatever passed for a day in the Library), searching for a rainbow, we’d finally called it a night, setting up camp in an open space meant for studying. After about an hour of complaining about the lack of water and food, we’d finally drifted off to sleep

After about 8 hours of sleep we’d woken up and complained some more. It didn’t fill our bellies, but it made us feel better, if only a little.

“Apparently they don’t expect kids in this library.” Kyle says, pacing back and forth, but at super speed so he was a vague blur with a voice.

“Something’s bothering me about this library.” Ryan says, under his breath but loud enough for us to hear.

“Yeah, it’s an endless library with living book animals and flying flocks of books, it is a little bit freaky.” Kyle says sarcastically.

“You know what I mean.” Ryan says, even quieter this time.

“We still have to keep moving y’all.” Philip’s the only one who doesn’t seem discouraged by the previous day's failure. Looking over my shoulder, a broad grin splits his face. “Besides, can’t be too bad if there’s a unicorn, right?”

I turn around and nearly impale myself on the horns of the unicorn. “Well hello there!” I say, stroking it’s gleaming white horn, which feels like old leather. “I’m going to call you Sequitur.”

“What’d you say?” Ryan says, rolling over in the air so that he’s upright, suddenly very alert and engaged.

“I was just calling the unicorn Sequitur, cause that’s what’s written on its forehead, see?” I step out of his way so he can see the word engraved on the unicorn’s brow.

“Do you know what that means!” Ryan says, bouncing up and down, which makes it look like he’s on an invisible trampoline.

“Apparently not since I’m not as excited as you are.”

“That means follow in latin! This could be a clue!”

“You speak latin?” Kyle asks, suddenly appearing next to us, studying Sequitur.

“Yes,” Ryan says, looking proud for a second, “But that’s not important right now. I really think we should follow Sequitur.”

“Well, by gosh it’s the best lead we have, so we might as well. Can’t hurt can it?” Philip gestures for Ryan to continue.

Ryan’s brow furrows for a second, then he says, “Ducere in.”

Apparently whatever he said works, and the stallion rears back on its hind legs and whinnies, which sounds like a normal whisper, but with the sound of pages in the wind mixed in. The creature turns and disappears around the corner of a shelving unit.

We glance at each other and, after a moment of hesitation, hurry after it, not wanting to lose it in the endless array of aisles. We follow it for hours, which is a struggle without any food or water, even with our newly gained abilities.

A heavy roar starts to fill the air, growing louder as the unicorn escorts us deeper into the library. The roar becomes deafening, and a physical rumble we can feel in vibrating through the floor. Rounding one final corner, we discover a waterfall cascading into a pool of water, creating a fine haze through the air.

Ryan blasts forward, dodging around the unicorn before plunging his head into the water and taking deep drafts of the tantalizing liquid next to Kyle, who’s already there.

“Don’t drink too much,” I yell to Philip over the sound of the waterfall. “You’ll make yourself sick.” Then I follow Ryan’s lead and dart forward, struggling to follow my own advice.

Out of the corner of my eye I see Ryan and Kyle stagger off to the side and empty their stomachs. “At least they left the pool before hurling.” Philip says next to me, but the two return quickly and drink, though much slower than before.

After we’d all drunk our fill, we sit down, enjoying the feeling of hydration.

“So now what?” Kyle asks, laying back with his hands behind his head, mimicking Ryan’s position from earlier that day.

“Where’s Sequitur?” Philip says, jumping to his feet and soaring into the air, scanning the area around us. “She’s gone.” We all jump to our feet, and Ryan joins Philip in the air while Kyle zooms off to search on the ground. I stay in the area, not able to really help in the search.

Exploring around the reservoir, I don’t find Sequitur, or anything of use, just a strange oasis, and some surprisingly waterproof books. The searchers eventually return, with no luck in finding Sequitur.

“Well now what?” I say, having to yell over the sound of the waterfall.

“Look for a rainbow.” Kyle says. Simple enough. We fan out around the lake and search, opening the books randomly scattered around in hopes of finding a rainbow.

Having no luck, I glance around at the other three and see Ryan dive through the waterfall. Should’ve looked there. I think, and leap over the water hole with assistance from my super strength, and straight through the water cascade.

“Woah.” I say, my voice echoing around the cave.

“Agreed.” Ryan says, standing dripping wet a few steps into the cave

The sound of the waterfall cuts out as soon as I leap through it, and the sudden silence is deafening in it’s own way, and the light is blinding. A rainbow made of solid light, shaping the gentle lines of books, book upon book made of solid light. Translucent but defined in every shade of red, every hue of yellow, blending together in a hypnotizing way, but well defined. Filling the small space with pure beauty, snatching your gaze no matter where you looked.

“It’s beautiful.” I murmur, wanting to reach out and touch it, but Ryan beats me to it. Passing his hand through the band of red, a note rings through the space, impressing the color red into my brain, but it doesn’t end there. Ryan then touches the blue, and the sound of purple rings, clear as a bell.

“Woah.” Kyle says, emerging from the waterfall with Philip close behind him.

Ryan steps back, withdrawing his hand, and a buzzer blazes through the air, and a translucent X appears in the air.

“Try number one, gone!”

“Mr. Announcers back.” I mutter. Mr. Announcer’s voice carries the same giddy, overexcited tone, except ten times as annoying now, after hearing the pure note of purple.

“Indeed I am! And just to let you know, you are the last group to make it here, so there’s no rush to finish, all the others failed and are now back in their comfy homes with no memory of this place.

“Now, your only limit is you have three tries, and you’ve burned one already, so best of luck, and of course, remember the Riddle!”

A bright glow appears to our right and the Poem appears engraved on the wall in a strangely hollow white.

“Well we have the rainbow,” Philip says, studying the poem, “Now what?”

“‘Not in the rainbow is this found. But in a combination the answer is profound.’ Maybe something to do with when Ryan touched red and blue, it made purple.” I pitch the idea, and everyone nods, agreeing with me.

“‘In something the Library may lack.’ What does the library lack?” Kyle asks.

“Food.” Philip answers immediately, and his stomach growls to drive his point home

“Yes but what else, it would have to be a color right?”

“Or the color of something it lacks, so food might work.” I say. “What color is food?”

“Maybe we have to feel it more than think it.” Ryan says, posing like the thinker statue in mid-air. “These colors are primal, and beautiful, so what is food, what color would you say food is.”

“Orangish-red.” Philip answers immediately, “Like a well-done steak and potatoes, or a burger and fries.” We all look at him oddly, “OK it sounds weird when I say it but y’all know what I mean. Artificial and real combined, juicy steak, and over processed fries. Meat and potatoes, basic as you can get with food.”

“No I agree with you,” I say, “I just usually don’t think of steak as orange, that’s usually a bad sign.” I turn and face everyone. “So who wants to put in the color. I think red, orange, and yellow are the best combination.”

“I’ll do it.” Philip says. “This is my idea, might as well drive it home.” Stepping forward, Philip takes a deep breath, then drags his hand through the colors, and the sound of steak and potatoes fills my mind.

That’s weird. I think, shaking my head to get rid of the foreign sensation.

“Close but no cigar!” Mr. Announcer says. “One more try, use it wisely.”

“Come on guys.” I say, pacing back and forth. “We can do this, we just gotta really think. We have to study the poem, really study it and decide what the answer is. The worst that happens is we go home and-”

“A black book.” Ryan says, cutting off my subpar motivational speech.

“What?” I ask.

“A black book.” He repeats, “I figured out what was bothering me, there has been no black in this entire library, everything has some sort of other color, besides black, and the poem says the prize is found in a book, so a black book. The rainbow seems affected by thoughts, since we all heard meat and potatoes when Philip created the sound, so we have to think of a black book, with the prize inside.”

We’re all silent for a second, then Mr. Announcer comes on and says, “Is that your final answer?”

That drives it home for me. We weren’t given a choice for our previous answers, and I can’t think of any other possible answer.

“Let’s do it.” I say, “Ryan, do you want the honors?” I gesture for him to step forward, but after a moment's hesitation, he shakes his head and steps back.

“I messed up the first time, someone else better take this.” I glance at Kyle, but he shakes his head as well, turning my head towards Philip, I can already sense his answer.

“I did my time, someone else should take this one.” The threesome turn towards me, and I sigh.

“Fine, I’ll do it. Black is a combination of every color, so let’s do this.” I step forward and embed the image of a black book with $20,000 in it. Reaching out my hand, I run my hand through the entire rainbow, and a thrill of energy spikes through my arm, filling my entire body and invading my brain, wrapping around the image and making it it’s own, writing a pure melodic sound out of the image.

Nothing happens for a second as the black book sound rings through the space, then the note grows, encompassing us in a feeling of energy and creation. Just as the note reaches its apex, it cuts off, and four pure white books appear in the middle of the cavern, swallowing the rainbow until the colors blend in a whirlpool of hues and tones until they become black, sitting innocently in the middle of the room.

“Congratulations!” Mr. Announcer exclaims, though slightly less enthusiastically than before. “You have beat the Library challenge, please take your book and prepare for translation home! Thank you for your participation!”

I’m in shock. Just like that it’s over. In a swirl of sound and color, we’ve won our prize.

“I think Mr. Announcer is gonna miss us.” Kyle says, stepping forward to claim his book.

“Well I won’t miss this place, that’s for darn sure.” Ryan says, scooping his book from the floor.

“I’ll miss y’all.” Ryan says, looking forlornly at us, “Even though it was only for a couple days, it was fun, and profitable.” He brandishes his book.

I step forward and grab the last book, feeling a warm thrill go through my fingers. “I’ll miss you guys too. But hey, who knows, we might run into each other in the real world, and then we’ll laugh about the good times we had here.”

“For sure.” Kyle says.

“Prepare for translation.” A new voice says, and a light fills the room, this one raw power, not nearly as elegant as the rainbow.

“So ends the Library.” Mr. Announcer says, sounding somber and serious, in stark contrast to his previous tone. “Thank you all for participating. We’ll be seeing you again.”

“Wait, what does that mean?” Ryan yells, but before anyone can answer, my ears pop and suddenly I’m back in my own house, in my own, ridiculously comfortable bed, staring up at the popcorned ceiling with it’s water stain coming starting to bleed through.

Laying in my bed I wonder if it had all been a dream, then I feel the constant pressure of the black book, and know it wasn’t.