The Power of Five Oblivion

option.
    “Is there somewhere I can go?” he asked.
    “There’s a table downstairs,” the Librarian said.
    The table suited the room. It was large and industrial, with a single plastic chair waiting for him.
    “I won’t be far away,” the Librarian said. “Just call as soon as you’ve finished and I’ll be right back.”
    He walked away.
    Matt placed the book on the table in front of him. The cover was completely plain, covered in grey fabric. There was no author listed, no title, no illustration. If he hadn’t known better, he would have said it was a textbook; maybe a study of something that nobody was very interested in, the sort of book that’s left at the back of the shelf and is never read. He tried to get his head around what was about to happen. The book would describe his life. Presumably, he would come to a chapter where he would find himself here, in the library, reading. And then the book would tell him what he did next.
    He would know. So did that mean that he could do something different? Could he change his own future? Suppose the book told him he was shot by an arrow and killed leaving the library, then why couldn’t he just stay where he was, or go out by another door? But then again, if he changed his future, the book would be wrong … and that wasn’t possible, was it? If it was in the book, it must have happened. Who had written the bloody thing anyway? Matt had asked the Librarian the last time he was here but the Librarian had refused to say.
    It didn’t matter. Matt wasn’t here to change anything. He was here to find out what he was supposed to do. The answer was in front of him. He opened the book and began to read.
    Six hours later, a lifetime later, he called the Librarian.
    The man appeared almost at once. Matt was still sitting at the table. His whole body was rigid and there was no colour in his face. He looked ill. His hands, curled into fists, were stretched out in front of him. The book, closed and with the cover facing down, was on the table between them.
    “You read it,” the Librarian said.
    “Yes. I read it.” Matt looked up accusingly. “You knew what was in it.”
    “No.”
    “You never read it?”
    “No.”
    “Why did you let me read it?” Matt asked. His voice was little more than a whisper.
    “I’m afraid it’s not my job to prevent you,” the Librarian said. “I’m sorry. Is it very bad?”
    “I know how I’m going to die!” Matt heard himself speak the words. It was as if they came from someone else. He thought about the last ten pages of what he had just read. The last ten pages. One hundred and forty to one hundred and fifty. There was going to be no page one hundred and fifty-one. Not for him. “I’ve read what I’m meant to do. I’ve read what happens. And it’s horrible.” He pointed at the book. His hand was trembling. “Nobody could be expected to go through that. I mean, nobody would do it if they knew how it was going to be.”
    The Librarian shrugged. “You want to save the world,” he said. “I suppose that always comes at a price.”
    “It’s too much. The price is too high. I won’t do it. I can’t.”
    There was a long silence. Matt sat there, in shock, his chest rising and falling. Eventually he wiped his face with the back of his hand and turned again to the Librarian. His eyes were pierced with anger. “Just because it’s written this way, I don’t have to do it,” he said. “I still have a choice. I can walk away. I don’t have to be part of this. Maybe there’s another way.”
    The Librarian said nothing.
    “I thought you were on my side. I should never have come here.”
    “Leave the book on the table,” the Librarian said. “I’ll return it later. Let’s go back to the entrance hall. Maybe I can get you something else to drink.”
    “I don’t want anything more from you.”
    “Whatever you say, Matt. I understand why you’re angry but I would remind you that this was your idea. I had nothing to do with it.”
    They left together, taking the door back the way they had come. Matt didn’t know how long he had been in the library. Normally it would have taken him several days to read a book.
    Not this book .
    He wondered how long he had been sleeping in the Brazilian jungle while he was here. And yet he wouldn’t have been surprised to wake up and find that only minutes had passed. Different world, different times. None of it made any sense.
    “I want to see the others,” Matt said.