When school was over, I went straight to the library. I had always loved it there. It actually looked more like a palace than a library and, if you added that to the smell of ink and paper, it was pure heaven. We all have that special place where we go when we don't really feel like ourselves. When all we want is to disappear, but we would still like to be found. For me, that place was the library.

You'd say that wasn't possible, because when you are trying to sort things out with yourself, you should be..well..alone, not in a place full of people. Only that it was not a place full of people.
The Local Library "L.V. Thompson" of Moonshore had been officially shut down eleven years before by the first Controller to inspect our district. Of course, we all aspired for the day when time would permanently be irrelevant. But for now, we still enjoyed the old counting of days, suggested by the succession of seasons, even though the normal years were much longer than ours.

It was a beautiful winter night. 20th of December, 3139  to be more specific. I should have been in bed at that hour, but I was too excited to sleep. Only four hours left and the sun would rise, so would my birthday. The next morning, my dad was to take me to the library, where I was to meet my friends. Although a 6 year old kid like me couldn't do much in such a place, I loved walking down the aisles packed with books, imagining myself strolling towards the center of a fairytale labyrinth.

I was about to enter my dad's office when I heard the hushed voices behind the door.
"Yes, Mr Candor, I totally see your point, but there has to be another way," my father said. "You cannot close the library, it's the most precious institution in our town!"
"I am terribly sorry, Alfred. Believe me, I am." He was quiet for a few seconds and then added with a frown, "But I have to. If I don't do what they say, they will eventually send someone to take my place. And by no means can I let that happen."

Mr Candor had been the mayor of Moonshore for as long as I could remember. He was a respected kind man, brave enough to stand up to the Controllers when they came for our town. But for him, we would have lived like the animals in zoos, just like the other "normal" people. When the Controllers first made their inventions public, everyone was so thrilled with the idea of a perfect, much easier life, that they became obsessed with their creations.

They did not realise that they were slowly changing into the Controllers' pets. They willingly let themselves be played like puppets, not even considering there might have been something wrong about it. All they saw was a breakthrough.

So when the Controllers started to make their way to our town, Mr Candor knew that he couldn't stay and watch how his people were blinded by things that took their pain away, thinking they were happy, when that was clearly not the case. He banned all of the Controllers' products, from pills and food to magic pens. To the normals, they only showed the material side of their products, which earned them the title of "geniuses". To us, they also presented the spiritual side and tried to convince us of the good we would do the future generations if we accepted them.

But back then, the Controllers were only at the beginning. In time, they took over the normal market and then the Governments themselves. Their power was so big that no one dared to go against them. Except for Mr Candor.

That is why, when I heard he had to close the library, I knew it was bad. Really bad. Mr Candor had never had to do something. There was something in that library the Controllers didn't want us to know about. Books. Books containing their secrets...and all their dirty work.

"I guess there's nothing we can do now..why do you think they want it closed?" asked my father.
"I have many theories," said the mayor, while standing up. He started walking towards the other side of the room. I moved closer so I could hear him better.
"Many theories, each worse than the other." I did not even see my father coming to close the door.

"Lilly! What are you doing here? What did I tell you about eavesdropping?" he chastised.

Needless to say, I didn't hear what those theories were. Not that it would have mattered to me that much at that time. Back then, all I could think of was that my favourite place was being shut down by some idiots.

For ten years since then, I had walked around the library and into the woods, memorizing every inch and every wave of energy, searching for a way in. By that time, I had already been through some ups and downs; trusted the wrong people, left some behind, had a million crushes, lost a friend and had mental breakdowns. Therefore, I sometimes needed some inspiration for my imaginary world, which was dance. I found my inspiration in those long walks. On my sixteenth birthday, I went there again and this time I brought Weasley and Maya with me. I had meant to show them the place for a really long time. Although Weasley seemed to genuinely understand my interest for the mysterious library with the gothic architecture, Maya was completely lost to me the moment she spotted a fox. She and Weasley went after it and just then, our other companion, an old man who had been taking pictures of the scenery approached me. He seemed to be around 60 years old,  he had short, bleached hair and an equally white beard, in contrast to his fancy, black woolen coat. The moment I saw him, I knew he was about to change my life.

He was the one to tell me about the secret entrance. As the library was basically a former palace, it had hidden tunnels underneath which led to all sides of the town. One of them was right in the middle of a lily field.

Moonshore's major occupation was growing lilies, so whereever you looked you could see a mesmerizing lily field. That would have been a little discouraging. But, lucky for me, my father was in charge of all the soil tests in the city. I knew each and every corner of those fields. So when the misterious man mentioned the lily field, I knew that I was finally getting my payback.

I guess I had never felt complete. As I was growing up, I saw more and more pieces of the wonderful masterpiece that was me, but really..I hadn't known how to use them. I needed a goal and, for those without a purpose, an enormous place filled with millions of life stories would eventually inspire something.

I would have wanted to be a protagonist in a comedy series, but, as I knew my luck, I was more likely to be drama hero.
Uhh...there you go...hero. In books, the heroes are already settled, we know who they are by the second chapter. The whole action focuses on them, they are the ones who laugh, smile, cry and learn. They are the ones who overcome great challenges. And they are the ones who get their happily ever after. But they are special. Even though they may seem ordinary, the author chose them to be heroes.

Thus, in order to become my own hero, I needed to live a couple of ink lives before I could start living mine.

Later on, after a better understanding of the way things evolved in our community, I knew what kind of hero I was.