Mara shelved novels by touch, the library’s silence her only companion. The scent of old paper and ink filled the air, wrapping around her like a soft blanket. She had worked here for years, knowing every corner, every book, every whisper of the past.
But tonight, something was different.
Her fingers brushed against a hidden door at the end of a forgotten aisle. It creaked open, revealing a room she had never seen before. A strange hum filled the space. The shelves inside were packed with books that pulsed like beating hearts. Their covers shivered, their pages blank—until she touched one.
A title appeared in dark, curling ink: The Girl Who Waited.
Mara’s hands trembled as she opened it. Words bled onto the pages, forming a story before her eyes. A young girl stood alone on a train platform, her small hands clutching an old suitcase. The air around her shimmered as if time had folded in on itself.
Then, in the margin, new words appeared—written in a hurried, desperate scrawl.
“Why won’t you let me go home?”
Mara gasped. The ink shifted, forming new sentences before her eyes. The girl in the story—Lila—was rewriting her own tale, trapped in an endless loop.
Mara’s heart pounded. She had been warned never to alter a book’s fate. Changing a story could unravel something unknown, something dangerous.
But Lila’s face... it looked so much like her own daughter’s. The daughter she had lost years ago.
Tears blurred Mara’s vision as she picked up a pen. She hesitated, then pressed it to the page.
Lila stepped off the platform, into her mother’s waiting arms.
The moment the words settled, the book shuddered—and then, it vanished. Only a whisper of dust remained.
The next morning, Mara arrived at the library feeling hollow, uncertain if any of it had been real.
Then, a woman walked in, clutching a folded paper in her hands.
“I found this in my attic,” she said softly, her voice trembling. She unfolded the paper and placed it on the desk.
It was a child’s drawing.
A little girl, standing beside her mother, both smiling under a bright yellow sun.
At the bottom, in faded ink, was a name.
Lila.