The library is bustling today. Laila Brown, a librarian, is helping a little girl called Sam find The Runaway Train. They search everywhere in the library, but it just isn’t there! “I’m sorry, Sam,” Laila says, “but someone else must have the book. I’ll check when it’s due back and tell you next time you visit. Goodbye!” Sam walks away sadly. I have to find that book, Laila thinks.
She stays behind when the library closes that evening and checks the database for who has borrowed the book. Laila is surprised to find that no one has borrowed it! She begins to search the library again. While she’s searching, Laila spots a blue glow behind a shelf. She pokes a finger into it and plummets downwards!
As she falls, Laila notices streaks of white and red on the walls of the hole. Eventually, she reaches the bottom with a surprisingly soft landing. The ground tingles below her. There are piles of books everywhere, and the walls and floor are glowing bright blue! Laila looks through the piles of books. There is Susie and the Bouncy Wall, Gordon the Grumpy Iguana and the Pilot Pete series, but no The Runaway Train. She searches every pile but doesn’t find the book Sam wants.
Laila spots a glowing red door, with a red stained glass window full of flames, on one of the glowing blue walls. She opens it and finds a monster with red spines along its back and burning auburn hair covering the very top of the creature’s head! Laila spots The Runaway Train on the monster’s forehead! She grabs a tuft of auburn hair on the monster’s belly and heaves herself up onto it, causing utter pandemonium. The monster screeches and throws itself at the walls, desperate to get Laila off its body. Despite this, Laila manages to grab on to one of the spines on its back, reach the monster’s shoulder, and knock The Runaway Train onto the floor. She is thrown off almost immediately, landing on the floor, which, unlike the previous room, is as hard as a boulder.
Laila swiftly picks up the book and sprints through the door. She quickly notices a ladder at the end of the tunnel and climbs carefully to the top. What a disappointment it would have been if I had the book, then fell back to where I began, thinks Laila, poking her head through a gap in the bookshelves and finding herself back in the library.
The next morning, Sam comes into the library. “Hello, Sam!” says Laila, “I’ve found your book!” Sam runs over and the pair walk into the children’s section and pick out The Runaway Train. “Thanks, Laila!” grins Sam. “You’re welcome,” Laila smiles back.
On her way out of the library, Sam notices a blue glow from behind some books. I wonder what that is? thinks Sam. Once she has passed, a red claw snatches two books away into the glow…
By Max
