Hearing them, Adam gathered his courage and turned around, but in a daze he noted that none of the three were in the middle-floor wooden hallways. The two boys snapped out of their daze at the loss of Adam's gaze and stared in amazement at how the atmosphere had changed.

The halls were still there, but their floors seemed to be made of swampy earth. There were puddles and plants everywhere. The bookshelves that made up the aisles seemed to be made of rotten wood and many were broken: All the bookshelves were empty with no books on their shelves. Except for a few that had one or two books on their shelves, every book seemed to be in pretty bad shape and dusty.

There were no torches or lamps in the corridors. But the halls were lit with a soft flickering red light, creating moments of darkness much like the house of booklets. Adam was surprised because he saw the same red flowers, which in the labyrinth, parasitizing some rotten wooden planks from the shelves, there were few of them, so the lighting was even worse than in the labyrinth.

Adam looked at the ground in surprise, when he noticed the anomalies he had put his glasses back on, but he was looking at the puddles and the brown dirt: There wasn't a single footprint on the ground! There were no librarians in this place!

Adam saw the eyeless old man's bookcase, but it didn't seem to be the same, it was just an empty bookcase with all its shelves and planks broken. As he carefully observed his surroundings, he noticed a slight murmur disturbing his ears.

—Can you hear the voices too?—Apollo asked with some fear, standing closer to Adam.

—Yes, my ears are starting to hurt—Hermes answered with fear, while he covered his ears.

Adam saw that the two boys were holding their ears, and it seemed that the noise was really bothering him a lot, for him they were slight murmurs, and it didn't bother him that much. The voices or murmurs seemed to come from the rotten wooden planks of some shelves.

But before Adam could say anything to them, the young man noticed that a head was emerging from a shelf. From the position, it should be the monk, since it was the one next to the old man without eyes. It seemed that it was one of the few shelves that had books, he only had two damaged and dusty books on his shelves, also broken and crooked.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

The head finished forming, and the monk came out to greet them with a few hurried words and a low voice:

—If you don't want to die, you must touch my planks in a few minutes. My house is safe for heroes in distress, but be careful, if you leave my home at the wrong time, the executioner will meet you on the other side.

Hearing the words, Adam quickly said quietly:

—You two, come with me and whatever happens, don't make too much noise. Touch these planks of wood and don't let them go for nothing.

Saying that, Adam hurriedly walked over and took the planks from the monk, the two boys following his lead. After doing so, Adam with fear in his voice asked:

—Where we are? How can everything be different?

—You're in the other world—answered the monk in a low voice, looking at one of the corners of the corridors with suspicion.

—But I didn't do anything to the children—Adam complained, but he tried to stay calm, now only information could help him escape from this strange place. The children seemed increasingly annoyed by the murmuring, they had to get out of here soon.

Adam noticed that the monk did not respond and changed his tone to a more friendly one and commented:

—Why did the children unjustly suffer my same punishment and accompany me to this place?

—Because the judge hates heroes, and he doesn't care about children either—the monk answered in a low voice, looking at the children with great sorrow and then at a corner of the corridor with even more suspicion.

—Am I safe as long as I touch this plank? —Adam asked with some fear and cursing inside, this was the first time that his karma condemned him to a tragedy, for the moment they had only been advantages.

But the monk did not answer, Adam noticed the problem and asked again:

—Are the children safe touching your bookshelf?

—I don't think so, something very evil noticed your presence, hero—the monk replied with concern looking suspiciously at one of the corner of the corridors—These corridors are not safe for your race, go and look for the general, he will tell you how to leave.

Adam was startled and blessed that he had enough general knowledge to understand that the monk was referring to the stairs when he spoke of the general. Taking the hands of the two children, Adam looked carefully at the ground for dangerous footprints and went around the corner opposite the one the monk was eyeing suspiciously before the executioner found him.

Before he could leave, the monk whispered to him:

—Good luck on this adventure, hero, protect the future and don't trust gossip.