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The observer was one of the only ones to notice them. He sat on the second floor of the library, in the part characterised by a large auditorium with rows of desks serving people of all walks of life. Around him were many students, several of whom seemed to be studying for the autumnal edition of their final high school exams. There was a particularly pretty blonde girl who was bored out of her mind. She lounged on her uncomfortable chair, twiddling her hair and scrolling through her phone. Her books lay on the desk in front of her, lonely and untouched. There was also another group of eccentric students studying art history. Despite the heat, they were all wearing tweed, dark makeup and had purposefully left their hair unbrushed. Compared to the blonde girl, this avant-garde array of astute youths were at least marginally more interested in what they were doing. The minority of people in the hall were clearly professionals of some kind who had, for some reason or another, come to the library to work. A few were surrounded by manuscripts. The rest of the working people were probably busy tapping numbers into some sort of spreadsheets or writing meaningless but well structured emails.
The observer noticed the man because he stood out from these normal library goers. From his vantage point in the auditorium, the observer saw only a small speckle of motion as the mysterious man stumbled out onto the carpeted floor from the claustrophobic, winding staircase that connected the corner of the open auditorium to the attic. From the perspective of the observer, the darkly dressed gentleman creeping around on the second floor stood out like a sore thumb. In addition to his mundane dark overcoat and Doc Martens, the shuffling suspect was also conspicuously wearing both a fedora and sunglasses. The sly eyes that peered out from between the top rim of the sunglasses and the lower edge of the fedora darted about, obviously trying to catch something. Then, just as suddenly as the first had appeared, a second strange man also plopped out of the same staircase. He was wearing similar attire, and looked as if he had been taken from the set of the same movie production as the first man. By the time the isolated incident of intrigue morphed into two temptingly thought-provoking incidents, the observer had completely abandoned the task as a result of which he had come to the library in the first place, and was fully following the scene unfolding at a 45 degree upwards angle of his line of sight.
The two men on the balcony were evidently self conscious regarding their auspicious appearance; instead of speaking to one another out in the open, they snuck behind one of the multi-layered bookshelves to whisper. As a result, their encounter became partially obscured by the bunches of books that were bundled into burdens on the sturdy shelves. Their discussion was evidently electrifying, as the other of the two men quickly removed his fedora. The observer saw the outline of the removed fedora shining out from between two thick, orange bindings of Tolstoy’s writings.
It seemed to the observer that the partakers of the meeting had been huddled behind the shelves for quite some time. After what seemed like forever, the conference eventually reached a clear resolution. As the two men emerged from their hiding spot, the other of the two nearly identical men had taken the leading role. After all, he was taller, and as it is common in the world of men, the illusion of his greater physical stature had been confused to signify greater authority.
What happened next seemed to the observer to be quite anticlimactic. The man who had adopted a leading role in the mysterious happenings confidently and without flinching opened his overcoat and stuffed into the gaping pocket one of the thickly binded books from the shelf. The stolen book was taken from a shelf behind which the men had been standing. Squinting his eyes a bit, the observer could make out that the label “New Classics” on the side of the shelf from which the book had been taken. Following their defiant gesture, the mysterious men strode quickly and calmly away from the scene of the crime.
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The next day, the observer returned to the library to work in the same spot. It seems to be human nature to unconsciously come back to places where exciting incidents have occurred in the past. Despite hoping to catch a glimpse of the mysterious men once more, today was slightly different than yesterday. Today the observer was aware of the impending deadline, and knew he really needed to complete the task that remained undone.
In the morning it was still possible to concentrate, but as the hot sun rose higher in the sky, the observer’s attention began to wane. It would soon be time for lunch, but it was not wise to go yet as it would be better to get about 45 more minutes of work done. The day would then be split neatly into two nearly equal blocks, so pushing at this point would also help him to overcome the afternoon slump. Just as he was about to rise from his chair and collect his things, the observer noted the appearance of a darkly clad gentleman along the upper region of his eyesight. Upon taking another look, the observer was certain that he had spotted one of the same men from yesterday.
The mysterious figure seemed to know he was being watched. He acted more weary than yesterday, glancing every so often over either one of his shoulders. This time the interesting individual had turned up alone. It may have been that the less powerful of the two had been sent to complete the mission, as it was clearly the smaller man of the two who had come in today.
“The boss is probably reluctant to do any of the dirty work,” thought the observer.
The book that was this time swallowed into the depths of the overcoat was also taken from the same shelf as last time.
“There must be something special about those books,” thought the observer.
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Towards the evening, more and more people began to leave the library and return to their homes. After 6 pm, most people had already left the premises. However, the observer who had returned for the second day in a row for the sake of his own curiosity stayed beyond the normal leaving hour. Looking twice over his shoulder to ensure that no one was watching him, the observer crept towards the entrance of the staircase that would lead him onto the balcony. Before ascending, the observer took a moment to admire the form of the staircase, as it reminded him of one of the ones he had seen visiting castles in France. Someone had once told him that these staircases were made to be winding for the sake of making it more difficult for knights to invade castles.
Once on the balcony, he had a bit of trouble in identifying the shelf from which the books had been stolen. The layout looked slightly different compared to how he had imagined it to be when judging from below. Having finally identified the particular shelf based on the location of the bindings of the Tolstoy covers, the observer figured out the particular row of books he was looking for by identifying the shelf on which there were exactly two empty spots.
The row of books the observer had located were all similar in appearance. In general they did not appear particularly significant. He picked one of them up and found that despite the thick cover that was dark blue and made the book seem heavy, it was actually relatively light. As he turned the book around to inspect its bindings, the colour he had previously identified definitively as blue morphed increasingly to a blue-green hue. The inscription on the front of the particular book he was investigating was also slightly worn, but the name on the cover still shone out abundantly clearly.
“Guide for Healers of the Divine,” it read.
From the inside of the front cover, the observer learned that this book had been printed in the 1980’s. He flipped through the introduction that explained this book to be the guide for anyone wishing to reach “salvation” by means of “healing their personal divinity”. Each chapter focused on a different main principle: chapter 1 was about cleansing one’s spirit, 2 about tuning into the omens of the universe, and 3 about absorbing the surrounding divinity of the universe. The part that was really notable was the last chapter, which was about attributing all of one’s success to a single supreme leader. There was even a photograph of a man included here. It was in black and white. The man in question was well dressed and had thick rimmed glasses. It was understandable why he had been chosen for this position as he most certainly did look the part.
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A few days later, the observer frequenting the library had slightly lost interest in the mysterious men stealing the books from the balcony, as after discovering the content of the books of interest, the situation had lost some of its mystery. Having spent two days barely doing any work due to the excitement, it was time to finish his tasks in order to avoid the wrath of his boss, who had clearly asked him to complete them by the end of this week. In an attempt to distract himself from the incident, the observer sat in one of the seats facing out of the window instead of his usual one facing up towards the balcony. He could thus enjoy the lovely weather outside without sweating or having to deal with the glare of the sun on his computer screen.
It was on that fourth day after first spying the mysterious men that the observer encountered them once more among the lockers in the basement. It was here that library goers were meant to store their things. The observer had ventured down here in order to retrieve his straw hat; he was quite prone to getting burnt, so he needed to wear the hat to protect his ears from getting sunburnt during his walk home. Upon removing the coin that enabled his locker to lock, the observer noticed a darkly clad figure sneak up from behind him. In an instant, both of the men the observer had so intently watched were standing in front of him.
For a moment he was too stunned to speak. However, as soon as the observer understood that his current predicament was one of a kind, he seized the opportunity:
“I’ve seen you,” he said to them.
The two men looked at each other quickly. The taller one spoke:
“Our leader changed his mind. It was time to get to the root of the problem. We were chosen to collect the books.”
“Changed his mind? How can one change one’s mind so completely?” asked the observer while clutching his straw hat tighter into his chest to steady himself.
“Haven’t you ever changed your mind?” asked the smaller man in return.
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WAST WRTNG 