"Wow....there are so many choices." Shonte thought to himself as his hand swept through the books on the bookshelves.
As he kept walking he noticed a book he hadn't seen in the library.
The cover was completely black with no title written across it. Only a strange silver symbol sat in the center, faintly reflecting the sunlight.
A small tag stuck out from the inside.
Property of the student council.
His confusion deepened.
Why would the student council leave something like this in the library?
Shonte glanced around quietly before walking toward one of the empty chairs near the back corner of the library. He sat down carefully and placed the book on the table in front of him.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then he opened it.
Blank pages stared back at him.
"What?."
He flipped to the next page.
Still blank.
But the second his fingers touched the paper, black ink slowly began spreading across the page like something alive. Words twisted into existence right in front of his eyes.
Shonte froze.
The letters moved unnaturally, forming sentences in a language he somehow understood despite never seeing it before.
His chest tightened.
He should've closed the book.
He knew that.
But something about it pulled at him. Like the book wanted him to keep reading.
The longer he stared at the pages, the heavier his body felt. A strange ringing filled his ears, drowning out every other sound around him. The words almost seemed to move beneath his gaze, shifting and curling like they were breathing.
His vision blurred slightly and the air around him suddenly felt too warm.
Shonte pressed a hand against the table, trying to steady himself but the strange pulling sensation only got worse. It felt like something invisible was dragging him forward, deeper into the pages.
His heartbeat pounded violently in his chest.
Right then, the loud ringing of the school bell echoed through the building.
The sound snapped him back to reality.
Then pain shot through his nose. He gasped softly and quickly pulled back, warm liquid dripping onto the page beneath him.
Blood.
A nosebleed.
Shonte immediately shut the book and pressed his sleeve against his nose, breathing shakily.
What the hell was wrong with this thing?
Students outside the library immediately began moving through the hallways again, conversations filling the silence that had settled around him.
Shonte stared down at the book for a second before quickly wiping the blood from his nose.
Maybe he was just tired.
Yeah that was probably why that happened.
Shonte quickly grabbed the book and returned it back to it's shelf and left for class.