The Death of a Newborn [OPEN]

[Min Jae Hyung]

The library was motionless and quiet. It was as peaceful and relaxing as Min had hoped.

Gathering strength, he lifted himself up and grabbed a book.

"The grapes of wrath", he read. He wondered what kind of knowledge it could give him.

Sitting down, Min patted the floor around him and plopped. Slowly pressing his finger on the title page, Min turned, imagining what possibilities this book could offer to him.

---

A few minutes later, he sighed. The book was not as good as he hoped. Sure, it had a lot of ideas, expressions and not to mention the outstanding detail of a family living during the American depression, but it lacked something.

Either way, he did not want to see this book again. Once again, pushing himself off the ground carefully, he placed the book back into the shelf, and dropped to his corner again. Turning around, he looked at his shadow and carefully traced the shape of it's hand. With a questioning look, Min's shadow looked up. Giving Min an encouraging pat, his shadow gave him a lift back to his feet. It pointed towards the book shelves, clearly emphasizing the fact it wanted Min to continue searching for a good book.

Nodding at the shadow, he tried again. Pulling a few books out of random shelves, he sat back in his usual corner, and began to flip through pages and pages of either colorless, colorful, wordless, picture-less books.

[Madison Andrews]

Maddy was looking for a book. A special book. A nice book. Perhaps a Terry Pratchett or Douglas Addams kind of book... or maybe not. She wasn't that picky, but books that made her laugh and think at the same time were better than book that just made a person think or just made a person laugh. The dog days of summer were well in hand and while everyone else was out enjoying the sunshine and heat, Maddy was inside enjoying the silence of the library. She always loved the library when it was deserted and it felt like the only thing in the world was Maddie and her books.

She goggled at all the options to choose from. All the worlds to explore. She selected a few by a new author for her, Practical Demon-Keeping by Christopher Moore and went in search of her favorite corner to sit in and read. Unfortunately, a terribly tall, terribly good-looking Asian boy she'd seen around school was sitting in her favorite corner. She could either pout about it or use it as a time to make a new friend. If she tried to make a new friend, well that could be nice. If she ignored him, he'd probably appreciate it more since she wanted to be alone in the library too. Well, if she didn't get what she wanted, then he wouldn't get what he wanted.

Maddy flounced over to the boy and put on her most winningest of winning smiles. Then in a voice only slightly less audible than it would be in a place that wasn't a library, she said, "Hi! I'm Maddy! Find anything enjoyable to read?"

[Min Jae Hyung]

Min turned towards the sound. It seemed to have been calling him.

Quickly glancing up, he noticed a girl. She was smiling. Bright smile.

'Well, okay', he thought.

Min quickly stood upright, closed his currently picked-out novel, and nodded.

'Nice to meet you, Maddy. I'm just looking around, for now', he replied.

As he talked, he began to move away from the spot.

'She must have come here for the seat', he thought. He looked towards his shadow, gave it a look to signal his following, and bowed in proper manner. His shadow immediately responded, and appeared right behind him, stuck onto the wall.

'Your seat, no?', he asked. He began to point at the corner, awkwardly.

[Madison Andrews]

A smile bloomed on Maddy's face as he moved out of the way to allow her to take her seat. She was really excited to be able to read in her spot, but she was never above meeting a new friend. Besides, the boy was kind of cute. Like most of the boys she'd met, he was older than her. That made for some awkwardness, but Maddy took such things in stride.

As she moved to her seat she asked in a low tone, "What are you reading? Not about gremlins I hope?"

Always mention fantasy creatures in conversation. It makes life interesting. That was Maddy's philosophy at least.

[Min Jae Hyung]

Min's mind wavered towards his shadow. The smile initially told him that he had done good.

Nodding to it, he turned, however was met by a strange question:
"What are you reading? Not about gremlins, I hope?".

Confused by this new word, he looked back and asked,
"....what's a gremlin?"

He stared at her genuinely confused. It was the first time he had ever heard of such a strange word.