The Library

039 entered the new room, baron just as the room before it. Player or Administrator she thought to herself as she walked to the center of the room. A voice came from the roof of the roof, the sound of another voice bringing 039 a glimpse of joy.

“039 you have been performing well, well done. You are being given a special experience, one not many ever live to see. Make sure to thank the top administration if you ever have the chance.”

039 smiled, a gift she thought was nice. Top administration saw how hard she had been working, a grim reminder that someone was always watching her. Would her gift include letting her wash her clothes or herself? Days had gone by and still she hadn’t had time to relax or bathe. Sleep had been limited to increments no more than four hours, nowhere near the amount she truly longed for.

The voice continued, “You will enter a special room, a library. Once inside you are allowed to stay as long as you like, no tricks. Relax, read some books, sleep, anything inside the room is fair game. Once you are tired of the room, when there is no more in that room that can hold your interest, when not a single page of any of the million books inside can hold your attention, you may move on to the next room. Enjoy.”

The floor to her right opened up, stairs forming leading downward into the depths of the rooms. For the first time since she had come to the rooms she was not led through a door but downward, and what goes down must have a way to go up, right? 039 did not hesitate to walk down those stairs, there was nothing down there that could be worse then what was at the top of the stairs. Administers don’t lie, or at least that they haven’t yet. The stairs went down spiraling, crawling into the ground like a worm burying itself in the underground.

039 came to an opening, as promised it was a large library, but “large” did not do it justice. It was massive with bookshelves on every wall, scaling across the walls never ending. She could see spiral stairs continuing farther down into the abyss of that just out of sight, the bookshelves slowly blending together as 039’s eyes lost them. The library was dark with candles acting as the only light for the room. 039 was sure the Library of Babel must have been what inspired it, a library that could have gone on forever, and such a peaceful place. She wandered forward through an archway passing through a bookshelf. Passing through it she found herself inside another room with bookshelves on all walls, covering the walls so as to not let her even see the wall color. She reached her hand out to the shelf, her fingers grazing across the faces of books until she stopped on one and pulled it out. It’s cover read “674,532,679,654,456 E1119”, its back was blank with no description. She opened the book skimming through its contents, pages upon pages of pure numbers. She sighed and closed the book, sliding it back onto the shelf. Finding the books beside it to be more or less the same she ran back through the archway and through another. Not stopping she sped forward through another archway, then another, then another, and more. Twelve archways later she stopped, the library not ending, she made a bed out of books.

Waking up after sleeping for an unknown amount of time she grabbed onto a book which she had spent the night on top of, “039”. The book had her name, a book which must have been made for her she thought, yet opening it she found that to be untrue. The book was not a novel, but a recording of someone’s life, told from the perspective of an observer. The observer recited the life of a man referred to as “039”, his childhood all the way up to when he turned thirty. 039 couldn’t help not putting the book down until she reached its end, questions filling her head. But what filled her mind most was a disappointed feeling of wanting to know what happened next, the book ended when “039” turned thirty, abruptly ending with no conclusion. Had the observer died before finishing the book, if so then why was it published? Hoping for a volume two she grabbed another book off the shelf, its cover also reading “039”. She threw its cover open hoping it picked up where the last left off, yet quite the opposite, it was a new beginning.

At first she thought the book might be a second copy of the first, both starting with the birth of a boy referred to only as “039”, but as she read further it began to split away from the first. At first small like the boy choosing to not act on a desire or to choose another route home on a cold night, but hundreds of pages in the difference was that of black and white, “039” from the first and “039” from the second could never be called the same man they were that different. To her disappointment this book too ended after “039” turned thirty, leaving another story with no answers. Without thinking she reached for the next book off the shelf, again with a cover reading “039”.

It began with the same start, a boy is born referred to as “039”, the book chronicles his life from the perspective of an observer. But something was wrong, “039” at the age of 6 was diagnosed with a rare disease which would kill him in less than a year, this never happened in the last two. Her eyes were glued to the pages more than ever, reading as the author described the sadness “039” felt and the many hours of visitors coming to cry and say goodbye. “039” was dying, it seemed no twist would come to save him. The book went into great detail of the pains he felt, of his slow descent into nothingness as his body slowly betrayed him. His mind was wandering, filled with thinking over what could have been. 039 frowned as she read through this, she knew what could have been, she had read it before.

An awakening thought hit her, she put the book down and looked around. How long had it been since she read the first book? How much time has passed since she came to the library? There was no way to know, she returned to the book to distract herself.

The book continued on, “039” reaching the point of no return. His mother cried as the light in his eyes faded. “039” was dead, and yet the book continued. The others only showed the first thirty years, and yet this one let the reader see their entire life and more, she read on. It continued on to describe his funeral, his burial, his grave. The book didn’t stop after the casket was buried, it just kept describing “039”. No observer could know what was going on inside the casket, this must have been speculation or a form of fiction, yet the book went on. His body decayed, his bones freed from the flesh, and slumped in his coffin. The bones began breaking down as the years went on, and cracked until even they were nothing but dust. Twenty four years after his death the book ended, the last four hundred pages consisting mostly of describing the state of his dust in different ways over the years.

The books cover thirty years, no more, no less. 039 reached for another book, diving into the life of “039” once again.

Book four starts the same as always, “039” is born and the book tells an account of him growing up from the perspective of an observer. 039 lied on her back reading, as she reached the part when the boy learned to walk she grinned, a moment she knew well now, it felt so familiar. “039” lived on into his young teen hood, once there his life began to diverge from the others before him. At the age of 12 he had gone into the woods to play, wandering through the thick woods he became lost. He made his way through the long branches of the trees around him, losing his way even more as he inevitably found himself deeper into the woods then before. He stumbled onto an abandoned cabin just as the sun began going down, so tired from crying he went inside to rest for the night.

Inside he would curl up in a corner and fall asleep after crying for a bit. He was frightened of what might be out there, and the possibility he may never make it back to his parents. He would be awoken suddenly when a new character appeared, a long creature with the above torso of a man, it held its hand out to him. Its eyes were like that of a goat, and everything under its torso was long like a snake, but was still human. “039” would scream and kick at him trying desperately to not be killed, the being would calm him down and tell him it did not want to hurt him. It called itself Piranesi, and said it was an architect. “039” would go on to become friends with Piranesi, with his help he was able to make his way out of the woods and back to his home. When they made it to the edge of the woods Piranesi said he could not go any further, “039” was sad to say goodbye to his new friend. “One day, when you are grown up, come back to the cabin. I then can show you my creation.”, Piranesi told him as he slithered back into the darkness of the woods. “039” would make it home safe, but he wasn’t the same anymore, he was different from the other “039” in the other books.

The book goes on like the others to describe the rest of his life, a life similar to the others with little difference, until near the end a while after he turned 29. In a cold sweat he would awake, fear covered his face, memories long lost to childhood had been sparked. He would get out of bed and sit at a desk thinking over it all, weighing his options and what he had to do. Calling in sick to work for the next day he rushed to his car and drove hours to reach his childhood home. He abandoned his car on the side of the road and rushed into the woods, the woods from his childhood, the woods where he was supposed to meet Piranesi once he was grown up. Pushing through tree branches he found the cabin from his memories, inside he found nothing, it was empty. Trying to recreate everything he had done he lied down in the corner and fell asleep clinging to the idea that Piranesi would appear.

He was awoken by a figure, “039” worried a cop had found him trespassing, but standing in front of him was Piranesi just as he was 17 years ago. He grinned and reached a hand out to him. Piranesi led him by his hand out of the abandoned building and farther into the woods. Neither of them spoke as they walked, it was still dark out which led “039” to believe it still must have been night. As they passed through a particular spot where the trees opened up enough to see the sky “039” noted that he was unable to see a single star, only blackness filled the sky. After a while Piranesi stopped and pointed towards a monolith looking pillar. They walked over to it, Piranesi motioning for him to touch it. “039” did, feeling it until he found a button on it. Pressing it a compartment opened near the bottom of it, a small compartment with a single book inside. “039” reached down for it and pulled it out of the monolith, the book was old looking with a cover that read “A Room With No Blood”.

“039” turned to Piranesi wondering what this book was about. Piranesi stood tall extending his long body to its full height, “This is my creation, I am it’s architect. I want you to experience it.” “039” smiled to his friend and opened the book, the first page was blank, and so was the next.

The book ended there, leaving 039 with unanswered questions much like the ones before. She got up and grabbed another book off the shelf. It began this time with a baby girl referred to as “039” being born, but besides that it carried on the same way the first two had. 039 continued to pull books off the shelf, read them, then grab another. She felt no rush, no tiredness, no real desire to leave. She’d never really been a big fan of books, yet those in the library seemed to hold her attention with ease. Eventually after an unknown amount of time 039 had completed the entire book shelf, and so she walked through an archway into the next room.

Pulling a book off the first shelf in the new room she was pleased to find more books whose cover only read “039”. How many of the at least millions of books inside the library were like these?

She read on, a baby boy referred to as “039” is born, his life is told from the perspective of an observer. He learns to walk, then talk, then begins going to school. He makes friends, gets decent grades, then goes on to the next year. Eventually he graduates High School with dreams of doing something in the science field, and goes on to college. This was all similar to other books she’d read previously : artist, construction, cubicle worker, and so on. The jobs might differ but their lives did not. But this book took a new turn which seemed unique from the ones in the other room, a war had begun and “039” had been drafted into it as a scientist.

He worked hard to develop tools of science which could aid their side of the war, medicines and ways to help their fighters continue the long fights. Then there came the demand for them to start work on a new use for their science, weapons to aid in their side’s victory. But “039” was not on just any bomb team, his team was granted a special job to work on a weapon to end all wars forever. It was top secret and its existence was only known to those at the highest levels of the government. The team all were made to work on separate parts of the weapon, no one of them knowing the full existence of what the others were working on. The war waged on and in time after years of hard work the weapons parts were completed. At last brought together the parts were combined to form the weapon to end all need for weapons, a true end to all needs for war, a tool to grant whoever used it total power. It took the form of a book, its cover only reading, “A Room With No Blood”.

But something went wrong, whatever it was from a technical fault to sabotage the weapon malfunctioned. Or so it appeared as it began working against them, its cover flying open as its pages turned. The science team disappeared along with everyone they had worked so hard to protect. The book ended with a remark from “039”, “So this is the hell we created.”

039 sighed, closing the book and going for another one off the shelf. With each book she read her understanding grew as well. “A Room With No Blood”, the title of a mysterious book object which now had appeared in two separate books. She wanted to know more, yet every book ended much too soon.

039 read the entire room’s contents, then made her way through an archway once again and read that room’s contents. At this point she understood one thing about this library at least, time seemed to not exist here. She had now read over 1,200 books at least, and yet she hadn’t felt the need to eat, sleep, or do anything else. This library was a cage which you could go mad in, your mind for all of eternity just reading the library’s contents. 039 felt she would never even see more than .005% of the library’s contents before going mad, so she knew she’d have to leave eventually. But for now, one more book.