A Night at the Broken Moon Bookshop
The heavy, creaking door of the Bookshop Under the Broken Moon closed behind Bartek, Monika and Igor with a quiet slam. There was a faint smell of paper, dust and cinnamon in the air, and rows of shelves stretched up to the low ceiling like a mysterious labyrinth.
It was Saturday, late in the evening, when they decided to take a look at the oldest shop in town after Bartek found a sealed envelope on the doorstep of his flat with the words "Search among the words and you will find what you are looking for". The address led right here, to a bookshop that supposedly never closed its doors to those who really needed its help.
The owner of the bookshop, Mrs Lidia, welcomed them with a mysterious smile and gestured for them to calm down, as if time passed differently just here, behind the shelves full of volumes. - Books choose their readers," she said enigmatically and disappeared between the shelves, leaving them alone.
The friends dispersed, fascinated by the wealth of old volumes. Monica reached for a blue leather-bound collection of short stories. As she opened the book to a random page, the letters began to gently glitter and a quiet humming sound came from the pages.
Igor, meanwhile, tried to reach for the thick volume at the very top of the shelf. Suddenly, he felt the book itself slide out towards him, and touching its cover, he felt something like a pulsating heartbeat under his fingers.
Bartek, driven by a strange premonition, walked to the back of the bookshop. There he noticed a small door, hidden behind a heavy purple curtain. It was slightly ajar, and a golden glow emanated from behind it. He called out to his friends and together they stood in front of the entrance, their hearts pounding like mad.
- 'Maybe we shouldn't go in there,' Monika whispered, but Bartek was already pressing the handle. A whisper came from behind the door, unlike anything they knew: - Come in, time is running out....
For a moment they stood as if paralysed, and then, as if on some silent cue, they crossed the threshold of the hidden room. Inside, they were surprised to see a silhouette bent over an old table, surrounded by a mysterious light. On the tabletop lay a book, the pages of which turned by themselves, showing images shifting as if in a film. The images were strangely familiar - showing not only fragments from their lives, but also places they did not know, but which seemed disturbingly real.
At that moment, all the lights flickered. A voice from deep within the book said: - The future depends on your immediate choice....
The book opened wide, and a cloud of silvery dust rose around it. The friends looked at each other, feeling that in a moment everything would change....
Author of this ending:
English
polski
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