The rain was drumming against the windows of the old townhouses as Victoria left her last classes at the university. It made the streets of Krakow seem even darker and more mysterious. On the way, she was about to hook up with a library - the only one open 24 hours a day. They referred to it as the "Shadow Library", although officially it was called something else entirely. Cuba was already waiting for her, dressed in his worn-out woollen coat and with a smile that, as always, seemed to emerge from the twilight. The two had been friends for years, but it was only recently that they had allowed themselves to talk about things that were truly strange - things that others would have dismissed with a laugh. Crossing the threshold of the library, they felt the characteristic chill and smell of old books. At this hour, there was no one here but them and Mrs Malvina, the night librarian, who, as rumour had it, knew the answer to every question in the world. The library seemed different - the bookcases seemed to have moved closer, the lights dimmed and the shadow around the corner of the corridor moved like the ocean during a storm. - 'There's something going on here today,' whispered Kuba, clutching in his hand a strange old key he had found in an old book on magic a few days ago. He showed it to Victoria, and she immediately felt a shudder. There was a symbol engraved on the key: two intertwined snakes. The library's collection was vast, but Cuba led her towards the stairs, which he claimed to have seen once and then seemed to disappear. They circled between the bookcases, passing spines of books that seemed to whisper their names. The deeper they went, the harder the shadows tangled on the walls. Suddenly, something squeaked. In front of them, just behind a bookcase of tales from around the world, a narrow stone door opened - a door that had never been here before. - 'I think we should go back,' whispered Victoria, but Cuba, holding the key, was already moving closer, with eyes sparkling with excitement. Beyond the door there was even more darkness, interspersed with a soft, dark blue light, and somewhere in the distance came quiet laughter and the rustling of pages being turned. Someone or something was waiting inside for those who dared to enter. Should they cross the threshold? Does the magic of the Library of Shadows really exist, or is it just a game of the imagination? One thing was certain: this night they would never forget.