Summary

Yunny, a university student, being excited to work on her research paper goes to the library in search for any books that might intrigue her. The librarian named Mary, warns her about the bookshelf at the restricted corner as they are portals to other dimensions. Mary tells Yunny that if someone were to be trapped inside a book, the only way to free themselves is to finish the story by playing as a character and create a happy ending. Yunny does not listen to her and accidentally opens a book containing supernatural powers and teleports to another world against her will. She realizes she is in a meadow and encounters a fearsome beast that tries to harm her. A stag comes to her rescue and scares away the predator. Later, she comes to know that the stag is actually a man named Felix who is a shape shifter. The two of them become friends and devise a plan to defeat the beast in order for Yunny to finish the story. After being successful in eradicating the beast, Yunny teleports back to her own world and witnesses her batch mates having no memory of Mary. Yunny hears a familiar voice in her class and when she turns around she sees it is Felix.

Beast

Yunny sat by the windowsill, gazing at the throng of people exiting the academy. The people seemed carefree to her and the longer she stared at them, the bigger the frown on her face got. She ponders that she should be with them, having fun with her batch mates instead of being stuck in class. Professor Samantha was her favorite. She loves hearing Professor Samantha speak about romantic literature. Yunny considers herself a romanticist and adores reading books of romance genre, and is fond of basking in nature. Professor Samantha too, shares similar traits with her which is why she happens to be Yunny’s favorite teacher.

Professor Samantha spoke, “Alright, let’s get started. As I mentioned before, I will be describing your final project in this class”. She stated it a bit harshly, emphasizing that everyone has to do well as it’s very important.

“For this project, all of you have to write a research paper on any literature related topic. Try choosing an uncommon story”.

Yunny was thrilled. She loved working on assignments and studying compared to others in her class and finds joy in learning a variety of things. The class ended after Professor Samantha’s important announcement and Yunny rushes to the library while her friends, Mei and Sadie follow her running after her.

“Yunny, wait up! Why are you in such a hurry?” Sadie exclaims.

“In search for any books that might pique my interest for the research paper”, Yunny declares.

“The project is due in 1 month. Why are you rushing? We have so much time. Now let’s go eat

something at the cafe nearby. I heard they sell raspberry cheesecakes”.

“I’ll pass. You and Mei can go there without me, I’ll join you guys later”, says Yunny.

“Boo. You’re no fun”, states Mei and starts leaving with Sadie.

Yunny enters the massive Library and greets the friendly librarian, Mary, with a smile.

“Hi Yun. How can I help you? What type of books do you need now?” asked Mary.

“Hello Mary. I’m looking for a sort of book that hasn’t been examined much by people”. “Well, that’s a quite difficult request. But I’ll see what I can do”, replies Mary.

Yunny inspects the shelves around her. She appreciated the soft murmur of the written words, the essence of knowledge, and the reassurance of familiarity standing amongst them. At the corner, she notices a shelf containing several dusty books which looked like they haven’t been touched in decades and a chain was bound to the shelf. “What are these books? I haven’t seen them before”, Yunny stated.

Mary replies, “This is the restricted section. You must never open those books as they contain supernatural powers. They are doorways to different realms”.

Yunny thinks Mary is spewing nonsense and doesn’t believe her at all. Yunny is bewildered at her words and asks how it is possible. Mary tells her that in order to escape from being trapped inside a book, one has to live through it by playing as a character and create a happy ending. Still finding Mary’s declaration ridiculous, Yunny lets her intrusive thoughts win. She went to the shelf at the restricted corner and started scrutinizing for any books that might catch her attention. She takes a book titled “Beast” from the shelf. The author must be anonymous, Yunny thinks, as no name is mentioned anywhere on the book.

The library door swung open loudly and Sadie’s voice is heard through the expanse from the entrance. “Yunny, where are you? Are you not done yet?” yells Sadie.

Yunny startled by her friend’s booming voice, accidentally drops the book which opened and fell on the ground. Before she could even pick up the book, she felt a sudden strong pull like a magnet dragging her towards the book. A yell left from her lips as she was pulled by the unknown force that was sending her into the pages, the book falling shut quickly afterwards.

Sadie frowned when she couldn’t find Yunny anywhere in the library despite hearing her voice. She sees a book on the ground and picks it up and places it on the shelf and leaves, unaware of her friend being sent into another world because of that very book.

Yunny felt as if she was falling into a never ending tunnel and squeezed her eyes shut in fear of the unknown precarious predicament she has fallen into. When she opened her eyes, she realizes she is in a meadow. Suddenly she hearsa growl behind her, resembling that of a ferocious Beast’s. Fear pulsed through her veins when she started hearing footsteps of the Beast appearing closer to her. Yunny lets out a shriek when the Beast comes into view. The Beast was similar to a boar but an enormous one, had black fur, protruding teeth, and yellow glowing eyes. She started running quickly but stumbled and fell down.The Beast began chasing after her and before it could lay its sharp fangs on her, a fast bolt of something furry and light brown flashed before her eyes catching both her and the Beast’s attention.

A stag came into view that sank its teeth onto the Beast’s fur to protect Yunny. The Beast roared in pain and started to flee. Yunny was astounded at the thought of a meek animal scaring away a predator. Nevertheless, she got up but felt her head hurting and fainted.

She sees a ceiling above her once waking, and realizes she’s lying on a bed. Blinking several times to clear her sight, she views a handsome young man kneeling beside the bed. He had mesmerizing blonde hair, dark brown eyes, and freckles. His appearance seemed celestial that Yunny found it astonishing. She thought to herself that if they were together, her picture gallery would be a tribute of high quality poetic snapshots of him. She snapped out of her thoughts when the man started speaking, his deep voice sounding like sweet melody to her ears. “I see you’re awake. Does your head hurt still? My name is Felix. What’s yours?” the man asked with a smile.

“Yunny. You’re no ordinary human are you?”

“Nope. I am a shape shifter. The stag which you saw yesterday was actually me”, Felix replies.

The more Yunny got to know him, she noticed that Felix is very kind and means no harm. It has been four days since the incident with the Beast and Felix.

Yunny helps Felix in house chores and feels a sense of tranquility staying in his cottage. The cottage radiated warmth which made her feel happy. She often notices him vanishing in the meadow and returning with a pile of objects covered in cloth and placing them in a rusty box. She never asked any questions about it, however, curiosity got the best of her. Felix had been gone for hours, and Yunny dying of boredom, decided to open Felix’s box and examine the contents inside it. The box was filled with some shiny gems, and other rusty objects like a broken hand mirror, and a watch. The door creaks open and Felix sees her touching his things without his permission and gets angry and accuses her of being a thief after all the hospitality he showed towards her. He tells her to leave immediately and never come back. Yunny, afraid of his rage, ran away from the cottage and went to the meadow. She lost her way and started weeping. She didn’t comprehend how Felix had been nice to her one minute and the next he accuses her of being a thief. Deep down she knows it was actually her fault for snooping into his things without his consent but was too stubborn to admit it. Despite all that, Yunny didn’t know how to navigate her way back to the cottage to apologize to him.

Felix’s anger vanished when he realized the way he yelled at her and said harsh things. He remembers about the perilous Beast outside and instantly runs to go in search for her. Felix transformed into his stag form so he could run faster and when Yunny finally came into his view, he breathed in relief. However, his relief was short lived as he saw the Beast behind Yunny about to lunge at her vulnerable form.

Without a second thought, Felix threw himself on top of her and the Beast’s sharp claws lacerated his back. The Beast’s claws made contact with Felix’s blood, which caused it to flee again.

Yunny was trembling in fear and was worried about his state as he was having trouble breathing.

“Are you alright?” asked Yunny.

“I am. We have to get home”, replied Felix.

Yunny helped Felix to wrap his shoulder around her arm and rest his weight against her too. Felix guided her the way back to the cottage and the two of them slowly limped there. As they reached the cottage, Felix dropped himself on the bed and fell sound asleep. Yunny being worried about his

wound, looked for any first-aid kits in his home and it took about one hour to finally find it. She treated his wound gently while he was asleep. When Felix woke up, he apologized for his rude remarks from before and Yunny apologized as well stating how she was in the wrong for snooping into his things without his permission. The two of them reconciled and Yunny notices his wound getting better very quickly, probably because he’s a supernatural being she thought to herself.

Felix tells her that he doesn’t want her to leave and that he’s lonely and wishes to be friends with

her. Yunny states they already are friends ever since he saved her from the Beast.

Curious about the Beast’s reaction to Felix’s attacks, Yunny asks him why it flees every time Felix strikes back at it. “I don’t know. I think it has to do something with my blood”, says Felix.

“Everyone left ever since the Beast came. And it’s been just me only”, states Felix.

The two of them had lunch and Felix took her to see a cave filled with various gems. He picks a book from his pocket and shows it to her. Yunny recognizes the book a little too familiar as it is the same book that happened to bring her into this realm. She asks him where he got it and Felix replies he found it in the cave while sauntering. When Yunny opens the book, she is flabbergasted to see the contents of the pages all empty. Nothing is written inside. She then tells him all the details about how a similar looking book brought her here.

Yunny recalls Mary’s warnings about the books in the restricted corner. She remembers Mary saying the only way to finish a book is to live as a character and create a happily ever after. She ponders how the Beast’s appearance terrified other supernatural beings but only left Felix alone. The Beast might be the antagonist of this story and the only way to leave this book is to defeat it, she thinks. The two of them devise a plan to destroy the Beast and carry out their actions at night.

Yunny stands alone as a bait for the Beast to appear while Felix hides behind a tall tree inspecting everything. When the Beast finally appears, Felix stabs it with an axe and it cries in pain and attacks him by biting. Felix’s blood starts gushing and comes in contact with the Beast, and it starts to screech all of a sudden and evaporates. She notices something forming on its surface. Her eyes enlarged when she sees the two words staring back at her--The End.

She thinks whether she reached the supposed end of the story now that the evil has been defeated. She turns to look at Felix and sees him deeply hurt, however while running towards him, she suddenly felt being pulled by a strong magnetic force. And just like back then, she was falling again and closed her eyes shut.

After opening her eyes, she realizes she’s back to her own world and in the library. However, the shelf at the restricted corner was nowhere to be seen. Nor was the librarian, Mary.

It has been a month ever since the whole incident. Yunny finished her research paper a long time ago and even got graded for it. An A plus. However she was not thrilled at all. She chose a different topic to work on her research paper as she tried searching every library and anything associated to the book which changed the trajectory of her life but was unlucky. What’s more shocking to her is that Mary is nowhere to be seen. It’s as if she disappeared along with the supernatural books. She tried asking people around her about Mary but they all seemed to stare at her as if she grew a third head. “Who’s Mary? Never seen nor heard of her”, replied Mei and Sadie in unison. It’s almost like the existence of Mary has been wiped out of everyone’s memory. Yunny wants to believe all of this was a dream. She sighs and puts her head down on her table in class and hears shuffling next to her. A familiar voice started speaking to her. “You look so tired. How have you been?” said the voice.

Yunny jolted from her seat to see who the voice belongs to. Her eyes widened when she saw Felix staring back at her smiling.

------THE END------