Another Saturday where my mom drops me off at the library. I don’t want to go, but at the same time, there’s nothing to do at home. My name is Aron, and I’m a high school student. I don’t know if you can tell, but I don’t have a good relationship with my school or my teachers. Usually, I just read comics or use the computer at the library, but this time, I wanted to try something different.
In our library, books are organized into sections, and this time I decided to try fantasy. I could read some non-fiction books, but I get bored very easily with those. I walked to the fantasy section, which is in the far corner of the library. I started browsing through the shelves, row by row, but nothing caught my interest—until I stumbled upon the Harry Potter series.
I grabbed the first book, turned it over, and read a bit. It seemed alright, but just not my thing, I guess. Just as I was about to put the book back on the shelf, I noticed another row of books hidden behind the Harry Potter series. Intrigued, I reached for one. It was a story about a huge white gorilla. That seemed exactly like what I was looking for.
I sat down, and the second I opened the book, a cloud of dust hit my face. Disgusting. It seemed like the book had been sitting there untouched for a long time. Then it hit me: why was there an extra row of books in a single shelf?
I went up to the librarian, an old lady who is just so sweet, and asked her about it. The moment I did, she froze for a good 30 seconds. I started to worry we’d lost her, but then she spoke in a shaky voice.
“Y-you didn’t t-touch it, did you?”
“Uh, well, it seemed interesting, so I picked it up,” I replied.
The old lady looked very worried. “What was the story about?”
“About a big white gorilla. Why?”
She sat me down at her desk and started to explain:
“About 150 years ago, an 80-year-old wizard wrote this line of fantasy books, each explaining the story of a mythical creature. When he finished the series, he cast an ancient Egyptian spell called ‘Quod non est verum, nunc est realis.’ This spell is highly prohibited. It means, ‘What is unreal is now real.’”
I had so many questions. Was she kidding, or was she serious? I asked her what this meant.
She replied, “The book you opened is called Album Muta. When this book is opened, the pages will turn blank after a while. Then, the blank pages will begin to flip rapidly by themselves, and the words will reform to create the Muta—the gorilla. This gorilla hunts humans to survive.”
Now I was starting to believe her, but I still couldn’t be entirely sure.
She said, “Go check the book. Are the pages blank?”
I ran to the far corner of the library, where I had left the book on a chair. When I opened it, I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were no words! I ran back to the old lady and told her.
“Go grab the book,” she said.
When I brought it to her, she instructed me to open it to the middle and place it on the table. I did as she said.
“We’ll wait,” she said. “When all the phenomena come true, we’ll face the Muta.”
“How?” I asked.
She replied, “When the Muta forms, to trap it back in the book, we must direct the book at it, wait three seconds while it’s looking at us, and cast the spell ‘Omnes un-re evanescet.’ This will suck the Muta back into the book, and everything will return to normal. But it’s not that easy. The Muta will try to hunt us down. It has hearing as sharp as a dog’s, so we need to stay silent until we’re in position.”
Now I understood the seriousness of the situation. We set everything up. We placed the book ten feet away and hid under a table, waiting for the second phenomenon. Not two minutes later, the book’s pages began to turn wildly. The old lady and I exchanged worried glances. Soon, the words reappeared on the pages, forming the Muta.
And then—boom! The creature was released. It was massive, nearly ten feet tall, and it started to roam around the library. It knew it had been summoned, so it began searching for us.
We stayed hidden for five minutes. It didn’t come near the book, but we needed to get the book back to trap it. I decided to make a run for it. As I grabbed the book, the Muta heard me and charged. The creature couldn’t see below two feet without looking down, so we stayed silent, hoping it wouldn’t notice us.
But we had to act. I yelled to draw its attention. The Muta looked furious and charged toward us. Grandma held the book up and counted:
“One… two… three… Omnes un-re evanescet!”
Suddenly, the Muta began to deform. The words filled the blank pages, and just like that, it was sealed back in the book.
Both Grandma and I let out a sigh of relief.
And then—I opened my eyes. My mom was shouting at me to get ready to go to the library. It was all just a dream! But it had felt so real.
I got dressed, and my mom dropped me off. When I walked in, I greeted the librarian. My friend Mark was there too.
“Yo, bro, check out this book,” he said, holding one up.
At that moment, I froze. It had the exact same cover as The Muta, but the title was different. It read The Pupa.
“Where did you get this?” I asked.
“Ah, just at the far corner of the library, you know, the fantasy section,” Mark replied casually.
I swallowed hard. “Yeah… I know it.”