Page 247 - The Midnight Library

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‘Why can’t you stop this?’

‘It’s a chain reaction now. ose sparks aren’t random. e books are
going to be destroyed. And then, just as inevitably, the whole place is going
to collapse.’
‘Why? I don’t understand. I was there. I had found the life for me. e

only life for me. e best one in here . . .’
‘But that’s the problem,’ said Mrs Elm, ner vously looking out from
beneath the wooden legs of the table as more shelves caught on fire and as
debris fell all around them. ‘It still wasn’t enough. Look!’

‘At what?’
‘At your watch. Any moment now.’
So Nora looked, and at first saw nothing untoward – but then it was
happening. e watch was suddenly acting like a watch. e display was

starting to move.
00:00:00
00:00:01
00:00:02

‘What’s happening?’ Nora asked, realising that whatever it was probably
wasn’t good.
‘ Time. at’s what’s happening.’
‘How are we going to leave this place? ’

00:00:09
00:00:10
‘We’re not,’ said Mrs Elm. ‘ ere’s no we. I can’t leave the librar y. When the
librar y disappears, so do I. But there is a chance that you can get out, though

you don’t have long. No more than a minute . . .’
Nora had just lost one Mrs Elm, she didn’t want to lose this one too. Mrs
Elm could see her distress.
‘Listen. I am part of the librar y. But this whole librar y is part of you. Do

you understand? You don’t exist because of the librar y ; this librar y exists
because of you. Remember what Hugo said? He told you that this is the
simplest way your brain translates the strange and multifarious reality of the
universe. So, this is just your brain translating something. Somet hing

significant and dangerous.’
‘I gathered that.’
‘But one thing is clear : you didn’t want that life.’