I nodded, my head bobbing like one of those stupid dolls. “Huge book lover,” I said through my tight throat. “I feel like I’ve stumbled into my worst nightmare, and the only thing that could make this worse is if a fucking clown car drove in, eighteen tiny clowns piled out of it, and then they pummeled me to death using the broken books.”

Sam cleared her throat. “Oh, good. I was worried I’d be the dramatic one in this friendship.”

“Rest assured…” I choked out. “You have no need to worry on that front.”

She actually laughed, and somehow I felt a tiny bit better.

Walking farther into the room, I found myself growing uncharacteristically angry. “Whoever did this is a fucking murderer,” I rumbled. “How could they?”

Sam wasn’t laughing now. “Yep, a book murderer, and if we find them, I’ll help you bury the damn body.”

She was dead serious, and I was right there with her.

“Do you have any thoughts on where we are exactly?” I asked because it was clear that we were… a little outside our normal existence. “Do you think we’re still on Earth? Or maybe…?”

Sam paused, right beside another pile of broken dreams. “Look, I’m not one to believe in magic, but after today… there’s not a hope in hell we’re still on Earth. I’d bet my left tit on it.”

“My left tit is my favorite,” I told her. “But I’d still bet it because I agree with you.”

She snorted. “Good to know.”

But was it? Because not being on Earth changed the whole narrative here, and I wasn’t sure where we were going to end up once we uncovered the truth of this place.

The farther we walked into the broken library, the larger the wreckage was, until we almost couldn’t make it any deeper into the room.

“How is there no one here?” Sam asked, pushing up on her toes to try to get a better look. “Do you think they all died during this destruction?”

“I don’t know,” I said, frustration and confusion warring within me. I’d been so sure my truth was here, but all I’d found was a broken library. Maybe it was an allegory for my brain because right now I felt like I was one step away from being nothing more than what I saw here.

“Maybe we should try to climb over that largest pile,” Sam said, stepping closer to kick some of the shelving out of the way. “We shouldn’t give up yet—”

She was cut off by a faint sound, a scuffle, near to where we stood. Sam and I exchanged a quick, wide-eyed look, before we both hurried forward. “Hello?” I called, starting to lift books and wooden fragments off the side closest to where I’d heard the sound. “Is anyone there? We’re digging you out.”