When Josh woke up, he felt that today would be different somehow. He could feel something in the air. Maybe an electricity? Definitely a change of something. He knew it was corny, but he kept thinking his “spidey sense” was tingling all day.

The last time he felt like this was when he was ten years old. He woke up at 3:11AM with his entire body tingling and a sense of dread deep in his chest. He didn’t know it in that moment, but the next day he found out his best friend had passed away at that exact time. He learned then to always trust his intuition. This felt similar but different. Less dread and more intrigue.

As he started his day, he wondered what would be different. He made his coffee like always. Looked at his social media feed while eating his oatmeal, nothing exciting. Headed to work while watching out for any stray animals or drunk drivers. Everything was as mundane as always.

When he finally arrived at the national library, he doubted his intuition for the first time since he was ten years old. Maybe it had ran out? Or maybe his friend’s death was a coincidentally at the same time as a restless night’s sleep for a young preteen boy.

He shrugged it off feeling like a foolish child. He grabbed the cart of books to reshelf and headed for the antiquities collection. While he was searching for the right call numbers to place the books back, something momentarily blinded him. It felt like a mirror reflecting the sun into his eyes. He looked in the direction of the light, but couldn’t find anything unusual. Maybe it was part of the shelving? Maybe it was part of a book? A very shiny book. Nothing.

He shrugged it off again and kept working on reshelving. As he stepped towards the Homer collection, it happened again. This time he decided to get close to books. In the spine of an old looking book he found a modern looking lens peering up at him. He ruffled his brow and tilted his head to the left, and then to the right.

This doesn’t belong here, he thought to himself. As he got closer, the camera moved. Almost like it was adjusting. Getting more intrigued, Josh leaned forward and reached his hand out to lift the book up, but before he could two men came and grabbed both of his arms. They practically lifted him up from his arms and brought him to a room he had never seen before. As they locked the doors, he knew this was no ordinary day.