Prologue - The Man in Grey

“Good morning!” Shelly said, addressing the peculiar man who had just entered the building. “I suppose you’re a newcomer to the Acorn Library. Is there anything I can help you with?”

The mysterious figure did not so much as give the librarian a glance as he walked past her and into the next room. Although Shelly was used to dealing with rude folk, there was something about this man that made her feel he was a bit more off-putting than the rest. Whether it was his unfitting getup of a grey fedora coupled with a trench coat of the same color, his hunched posture and cumbersome walk, or what seemed to be a dark void where his face should have been, she could not tell. Regardless, Shelly put the incident behind her and continued to go about her business.

“Excuse me?”  Almost a half hour after the puzzling individual had left her presence, a new voice interrupted the quiet of the main lobby. Shelly looked up from her paperwork and scanned the area, but she saw no one. “Down here!” the voice repeated.

“Oh, my apologies!” the librarian said, looking over her desk to see a small Toad staring back. “My hearing simply isn’t what it used to be. Anyways, what do you need?”

“I don’t really have a request. It’s more of a complaint, really,” he said. “I’ve been trying to concentrate on this nifty book that I found, but I can’t focus with the racket some weirdo is going around making. It seems like he’s just going through every aisle and knocking the books off the shelves!”

“Oh boy,” Shelly muttered. “Can you describe this rabble rouser to me?”

“He was wearing this big, goofy jacket. He had a matching hat, too. When I tried asking him to quiet down, he completely ignored me!”

“I should have known. Okay, I’ll go take care of it.”  Shelly stepped out from behind her desk and entered the building’s main chamber. Though it was usually quiet in the library, the lack of any other pedestrians made for complete silence. She usually enjoyed such tranquility, but the librarian found it unnerving at that particular moment. A voice in her head told Shelly to remain calm, but the idea of being all alone with that odd stranger was growing more and more frightening by the second.

Only several dozen feet into the room, the Toad’s claims were already confirmed. The floors of every aisle were littered with books carelessly tossed from their places. By the time she had reached the back of the room, Shelly was greatly frustrated. Her fear overwhelmed her once more, however, when the doors through which she had entered slammed shut from across the chamber.

“Oh, I think I see what’s going on,” she shouted, striving to maintain her composure. “This is all an elaborate prank put together by you and that Toad, isn’t it? Alright, you got me. So why don’t you just reveal yourself, and we can-”  The woman was cut off when a bulky arm wrapped around her neck from behind and pulled back.

“Where is it?” the man growled, his cloaked face inches from her ear. When she gave no response, the assailant began to shout. “WHERE IS IT?”

“I… don’t know… what you’re talking about,” Shelly gasped, struggling to breathe.

“So you’re going to play dumb, huh?”  The man released his grasp on the librarian, and she fell to the floor. Shelly watched in terror as he reached into the pocket of his trench coat and pulled out a lighter. He lit it and held it inches away from a nearby shelf. “Tell me where it is, or you’re going down in flames along with this whole crummy building.”

“Please just explain yourself!” she yelled, tears beginning to stream from her eyes. “If you just tell me what it is that you want, then I’m sure we can work something out!”

“The Encyclopapera, you idiot! What else would I want?” the thug shouted.

Shelly’s blood ran cold. “The Encyclopapera? Don’t tell me you’re trying to-”

“Enough!” he shouted, drawing the flame even closer to the shelf. “I’m not going to share my motives with an insignificant little librarian like you. This is your last chance. Tell me where you’re hiding the book, or your whole town is going to meet a fate much worse than they would otherwise!”

At that moment, something changed within Shelly. She was inundated with a newfound sense of courage that allowed her to stand up and speak out against the lunatic. “Please. I know your type. You’re the kind of guy that throws blind threats out left and right, aren’t you?”  Her assailant said nothing, and so the woman continued. “You know what, though? I’m not perfect, either. For all I know, you could be the exception to the rule. Regardless of what you do, however, I can guarantee that justice will be served. I don’t have the Encyclopapera, but I wouldn’t give it to you even if I did. And if you think they would give such an important item to a regular, small-town librarian, then you’re the real idiot!”

There was a prolonged moment of silence after the woman’s tirade before the man spoke up. “Very well, then.”  In a series of swift movements, he lit the shelf on fire, lunged forward, and tossed Shelly backwards into the flames. He then lit several nearby bookcases as well, before kicking them down on top of her. A sick grin spread across his hidden face as the woman let out cries of agony. “See you in hell.”

Suddenly, the doors burst open, and in flew the Toad whom Shelly had spoken with, holding a lamp as a makeshift battering ram. When the doors had suddenly locked from the inside and he had heard screaming from within, the boy knew that he had to take action. One glance from the murderer, however, and he knew that he had made a huge mistake.

“Did you just kill her?” he whimpered, stepping back as the man marched towards him with great strides. Practically paralyzed by fear, he was unable to retreat fast enough and the killer picked him up by the collar.

“Let me ask the questions, kid,” he grunted. “What’s your name?”

“Axel,” the child muttered, terror in his eyes.

“Well, good news, Axel!” the man whispered. “You and I are about to go on a little adventure.”