Mr. Linden's Library

The noise of the thunder made the house shake. As the windows shook the small black kitten jumped off onto the floor. The black kitten ran up the stairs to its owners room. Light flashed into the house. It was like a huge camera flash. The kitten crawled along the floor to a bedroom. The bed was occupied by an old man. His room was full of books since he had his own library in his basement. He called it Mr Linden's Library. Mr Linden lay in his bed reading a book he had found. This was his last book out of the whole library. He wanted to read his last book since he would never be able to read any ever again. Why you ask? Well you see Mr Linden is deathly ill, he could die any second... any minute... any hour... even any day. But he knew he was going to die. He had heard rumors about this book... that once you reach the middle of the book you would get sleepy and eventually fall to sleep, leaving the book wide open. Then as you sleep a plant would grow and grow until it's vines strangled you to death. Nobody would ever figure that you had been killed by a plant growing out of book because once it killed its reader it would slowly sink back into the book.

Mr Linden slowly started to reach the middle of the book... He started to feel sleepier and sleepier. Maybe even sicker and sicker but he couldn't tell. There was exactly 200 pages in this big book. He had reached the middle of the book... exactly page 100. He tried to stay awake since he knew that something would kill him. His wife had died a year before from this exact book. Mr Linden leaned over as he saw a green tip come out of the middle of the book. That green tip wasn't small for long, it looked as though it could disguise itself as a house plant. The vines of the plant slowly moved towards Mr Linden. Wrapping itself around his old, wrinkled neck. It slowly began to kill him. As it strangled him he grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil. With some of his last strength he began to write a note. This is what he had wrote:

'Dear Reader, This is your last and final warning... PLEASE DON'T READ THIS BOOK! It contains real deaths. Do not read page 100... If you do YOU WILL DIE! Consider this your final warning.'

Mr Linden began to feel cold... the plant was crushing him. He could barely breathe. Five minutes of torture. After the five minutes was up... all the kitten could hear was the clock tick-toking.

14 Years Later

It was the beginning of July and Martha was bored. She felt as though the summer heat was going to burn her alive. She had just moved into a new house... the old man that died there 14 years ago was Mr Linden. She even had his old Cats, kittens living with her. She hadn't fully explored the house yet.. but she had heard that there was a library down in the basement. Some old books and some new. Mr Linden's library had been painted with pinks and blues and yellows... just so it felt more welcoming. Martha slowly brushed her hand along the shelf of books. Over the back of the spines of books. Then suddenly one book in particular had hit her. She pulled it out of the shelf and blew the dust off. The front cover read...'The Deathly Vines Of Spain'. The title seemed to catch her eye... just because it sounded really interesting. Martha liked books that caught her eye, mostly because they were to do with mysteries and deaths. Not that Martha liked that stuff in real, life just in books. As she opened the book a small note fell out of it. She read the same note that Mr Linden had written before he died. Although this note was warning her not to read this book she ignored it. She just kept reading it to herself thinking, 'What kind of stupid person would put this prank inside a book!'

In the hallway she saw her Mom. Mrs Lara Curtis loved to clean... everyday you would see her with some sort of cleaning supply in her hand. Dusters, Lysol, tissue paper, disinfectant. You name it and she'd be holding it ready to clean up ANY mess.

"Martha Curtis! What do you have there?" Lara turned around with the duster by her side.

"Mother! I have a book. It's called The Deathly Vines Of Spain." Lifting up the book, her Mother got closer.

"That's great darling! You've found something that you would actually enjoy to read." A big smile appeared on her Mothers... young, but forty year old face.

"Yes Mom.... I'm going to go to my room now to read it." Giving her mom a big hug, that she hadn't given her mother in a while. Her Mom turned away and scurried away down the hall singing... "Oh how I love to clean! Clean, clean... till the house sparkles!"

Inside Martha's room was a basket. Six little kittens beautifully sleeping. Three of which were black and white and two were black and the last one was white. Martha opened her window to let in some cool summer air. Then she jumped onto her double bed. The bed sheets were pink and white, they matched her bedroom color perfectly! Slowly Martha fluffed her pillow and then lay up ready to read. Opening the book... she smelt it. Although the book was tattered, dusty and really old... it still had that new book smell. Quickly she flipped to the back of the book. Exactly 200 pages!

After a couple of pages she had reached page 99... she began to feel very sleepy. Remembering that old note she turned the page to 100. The middle of the book. This was where Mr Linden had died. Too sleepy to carry on she turned on her side with the book wide open. Just like fourteen years ago a green tip appeared. About five minutes later it was a full grown plant... ready to kill. The plant moved its vines around till it found Martha. It felt her warm neck and knew it was time to kill. Dark green vines slowly wrapped around her neck. While she slept she also began to die. Slowly being choked by a monstrous killing plant. At least ten minutes later the plant sensed that she was dead and shrivelled itself up back into the book. It would be at least a couple more years before it finds its next victim.

After a couple of months... Martha's mother had a funeral for her daughter. She ordered the best coffin she could find and the best the best tomb stone. Although she knew it would get dirty she would come by every week to clean her daughters tomb stone. The words engraved on it were....

R.I.P

Martha Amanda Curtis

1996-2011

My dear Martha I have enjoyed these years with you. It will always be a mystery to your death. I wish you could still be here.

Back in the book the plant silently awaits for its next victim. The book wasn't in Martha's room anymore, it wasn't even in Mr Linden's library. The small book wait to be investigated by the C.S.I. When they open it that's when the small plant will attack. But when will it attack? Who will it attack? Nobody knows about this mysterious book and its evil ways. Martha's death will always be a mystery.