Mikkel Birkegaard - The Library of Shadows

Jon stopped reading.

Incapable of taking in anything around him, he closed his eyes and his head fell forward towards his chest. Only a few seconds passed before he began taking in impressions from the basement again.

It was his sense of hearing that returned first, very slowly, as if someone were turning up the volume. He could sense commotion around him, the sound of footsteps and furniture being moved. Nervous voices conversed, though he couldn't hear what they were saying, and a crackling sound sliced through the air above his head. Then he smelled smoke; the sharp odour of burning wool and plastic found its way into his nose, tearing at his nostrils. Then Jon opened his eyes.

The sight he encountered was so unreal that his first thought was that it had to be a dream, or that he was still immersed in the story. The room was almost completely filled with smoke, several of the candles had toppled over, the chair on his left had fallen backwards, and sparks and electrical discharges were flying out of the light fixtures. Iversen and Pau were running around putting out the flames that had taken hold on the carpet and furniture. Pau was using his sweater while Iversen was armed with a rug.

Katherina was sitting to Jon's right, staring at him with a blank expression in her eyes. Two thin streams of blood were coming out of her nose, collecting at her lips, and running down her chin. Her hands were clutching the armrests of her chair so hard that her knuckles were white.

Jon's next thought was that the bookshop had been attacked again.

'Who was it?' he managed to stammer, noticing how dry his throat was.

Pau cast a glance at Jon on his way over to a switch near the door where a burst of flame had just ignited the door frame.

'Hey, he's back,' shouted Pau to Iversen, flinging his sweater with his left hand at the flames coming from the electrical outlet. 'She did it.'

Jon noticed that Pau's right arm hung limply at his side.

'Jon?' Iversen came over to him. 'Jon, close the book. Do you hear me?'

Jon turned his head towards Iversen, who came closer with the rug slung over one arm. Jon was about to look down at the book when Iversen began shouting at him.

'Jon, look at me! Just close the book, Jon. Look at me, and close the book!' There was fear in Iversen's voice.

Jon kept eye contact with Iversen as he slowly closed the book. An obvious expression of relief spread over Iversen's face.

'Who was it?' Jon asked again.

'It was you, Jon,' said Iversen. At the same instant he caught sight of new flames leaping up behind Jon's chair. He immediately went over to slam the rug at the fire until the flames died out. In the meantime, Pau had put out the fire at the electrical outlet and was now standing at alert, keeping an eye on the room in case any new fire should break out. The sweater he was holding ready in his hand was smoking faintly.

Katherina had bowed her head so her chin rested on her chest. Her hands were clasped in her lap, as if in prayer. They were trembling ever so slightly.

Jon tried to stand up, but was immediately seized with dizziness and dropped back into his chair. He felt Iversen's hand gripping his shoulder.

'Just stay where you are, Jon. It'll be over soon.'

He wanted to turn round to face Iversen to ask for an explanation, but before he managed to turn his head, he blacked out.

'That was crazy!'

Katherina heard Pau's excited voice as if it were a radio that had suddenly been switched on, much too close. It sounded as if she were in the bookshop. Judging by the leather underneath her, she must be sitting in the armchair behind the counter, with her head tilted to one side.

Why was she sitting here? She felt so exhausted that she couldn't even open her eyes. What had happened?

She heard Iversen answer Pau in a somewhat more subdued tone, his voice extremely grave.

'Things could have gone terribly wrong,' he pointed out. 'And we still don't know how they're feeling. What about you? How's your arm?'

'It's okay,' replied Pau casually. 'It just tingles a bit, like it's asleep. But holy shit, it sure hurt when he zapped me. How'd he do that?'

'I don't know, Pau,' said Iversen wearily.

'If that's what activations are like, we should have more of them,' said Pau firmly.

'That was absolutely not normal,' Iversen emphasized. 'I've… I've never seen anything like it.'

Katherina could hear a trace of nervousness in Iversen's voice. He was scared. Why? She tried to think back. They'd been downstairs in the basement. Jon had been there too. The activation.

She gave a start when she remembered.

'Is she awake?'

Katherina felt someone bending over her.

'No,' said Iversen very close. 'It was just a spasm.'

She wanted to shut them out for a little while longer. First she had to work out what had happened.

All four of them had been in the basement for Jon's activation. She herself had made all the preparations, with candles and everything. It was supposed to be pleasant, like adopting a new family member, but something had gone wrong.

At first everything proceeded according to plan. Iversen started reading, and Jon quickly fell into the rhythm, helped along by Katherina's efforts to focus his attention on the text. Pau had just sat there, gawking, with a silly smile on his face, as if he were waiting for a chance to tease the new boy in class.

After a couple of pages Iversen had glanced at her and nodded. She closed her eyes and concentrated on Jon's reading as she shut out everything else. Slowly she reinforced his attempts to accentuate the text he was reading, and she made sure his attention continued to be directed at the book. The images he created became more and more rich and detailed, until she held him back a bit. She sensed him trying to override this sudden obstacle, like a mass of water that had been dammed up.

Then Katherina opened her eyes. Iversen had stopped reading, and again he nodded to her. She closed her eyes again and removed the barrier to Jon's progress, as if she were uncorking a bottle. At the same time she enhanced what he was accentuating so the result was an explosive leap forward, filled with colours and a rapid flow of pictures. The activation was achieved, and she was surprised at the richness of detail and depth in Jon's interpretation of the text. The images he had created as an ordinary reader seemed like blurry black-and-white pictures in comparison to these, which were saturated with colour, clarity and nuance. It was like the difference between watching a film on TV and on a cinema screen.

Gradually she reduced her own influence. Jon now had no trouble maintaining his concentration, and she even sensed how he was experimenting with his new instrument. When she opened her eyes, Iversen was sitting there with a big grin on his face, while Pau was so immersed in the story that he paid no attention to anything else around him.

'What did I tell you?' whispered Iversen, giving Katherina a wink. She smiled back.

It was hard not to get caught up in Jon's gripping storytelling technique. The images and associations he created kept enticing the listeners to go along on a fantastic journey. Katherina, who had heardDon Quixote many times, didn't remember ever being so tempted to immerse herself in the story as she was now. The hair on her arms stood on end, and she felt a slight tickling in her stomach.

Katherina again turned her attention to Jon's discovery of his powers. She directed his focus to the various means at his disposal, and each time he surprised her by going further than she thought possible.

It was during these breakthroughs that physical phenomena began to manifest themselves. The candles were blown out. The lamps pulsed with shifting voltage, the furniture began to shake.