Lizzie and the Lunatic's Library: Chapter 2 – Mind Over Matter

Chapter 2 – Mind Over Matter

Even though the shelves of the library are neatly organized, Lizzie has a hard time finding the correct books that she’s looking for because the covers are in strange shapes such as one shaped in the form of an eye. Along with this the title and the back of the covers have cryptic summaries and descriptions of what’s inside of the book. There are even a couple books that Lizzie thinks are the ones she’s looking for only for her to open them and find them pointing in the direction of a different book.

“Who makes a book solely to tell you to read another book?” Lizzie says aloud.

With a bit of patience, Lizzie finally finds what she’s looking for. The books told her to put several together that happen to already be together on the shelf. She connects them and opens them at the same time to enter it. Once she enters into the book, her body disintegrates.

A voice from within the book says, “In the quest for deeper knowledge, you must learn to use your mind more than your body. Information is metaphysical after all, so you must make yourself the same.”

Lizzie tries to move but feels unable to. She struggles with it until she remembers that she’s supposed to make her mind do it. Her mind begins to think of a body as Lizzie forms an image of herself that she can move around in. She looks around to see that she’s back in the library with her body lying against a bookshelf.

“Yes, this is really you,” a voice within the book says, “You didn’t think you would learn how to transcend within a book, did you? You need practice in the real world. So far, you’ve gotten farther than a few other people who picked up this book only to die because they were unable to create a body for themselves. Go ahead. Take a walk around. You’ll find that there’s more to your surroundings than there might seem.”

As Lizzie’s eyes open the entire room becomes colored white with a few grays to outline figures and objects. She doesn’t know it, but the color of her eyes have changed from black to white with a white circle in it. With her new eyes, she sees angels and demons along with souls of people floating up to Heaven or sinking down into Hell.

“Are you my guardian angel?” Lizzie asks a nearby angel that floats near her body.

The angel doesn’t respond and doesn’t seem to notice her presence, so she reaches out to him only to be stopped by a long arm that reaches out from the book.

“Don’t wander too far from your body and don’t touch anything you don’t yet understand. Demons can appear to be angels or act like other mannequins. What you see around you knows more than you do, so be careful. Now, as we reach the end of the book, I’d like to tell you one simple question that will allow you to be more knowledgeable than most others. What do demons lack that angels have?”

Once the book closes, Lizzie finds herself back in her body. This new and exciting ability has Lizzie fired up to learn more, so she goes to Ms. Ebrietas to learn more.

After telling her what she learned, Ms. Ebrietas says, “Learning how to walk outside your body is an impressive feat in such a short amount of time and is proof of your conviction to find deeper knowledge. The answer to the question you were given is this. Demons lack humility. Their pride weighed them down to Hell. Your search for knowledge is a sign of humility because you are saying you don’t know everything and need to know more.”

“That’s good to know, but what should I do next?” Lizzie asks.

“Use your ability. Do you think that the eleventh floor is the only hidden collection?”

“Ah, I see. Can you tell me where the hidden rooms are?”

“No, I won’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because it takes away from the thrill of adventuring, but since you seem so much like me when I first discovered this place, I’ll give you a hint. Search in the place where you think hidden information will be.”

“That’s not much of a hint.”

“It’s all I’ll give you. Besides, it’s a good hint. The library is organized and that means topics of similar natures are close together.”

“Okay, I get it. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Ms. Ebrietas watches Lizzie as she walks away with a smile on her face while noting in her mind to keep an eye on her. Lizzie goes up to the floor on theology and checks the walls to see if she can go through them but can’t find a place in the wall to go through. She then finds a safe place to hide as she goes outside of her body. Her ethereal body can go through bookcases; however, she isn’t able to go through certain walls. She does eventually find a wall she can go through and finds herself in a similarly colored room to the eleventh floor with a completely white room with objects outlined in grey. There are other mannequins in the room though they seem completely captivated by the books they’re ready because of how still they’re standing. Angels and demons are in this room as well. They fight for the souls of those in the room while being unaware of Lizzie.

Lizzie tries to avoid touching people and higher beings as she browses the bookshelves. Many of the books are on how to control yourself out of your body though few of them are on deeper knowledge. While looking for books, she finds that her fingers can go through the white shelves. Wondering if there are secret books where she can’t see, she travels beyond the white shelves to find black ones with a black sludge-like substance on the floor with slight bumps in it here and there.

“Eck. What is this stuff?” Lizzie asks herself as she carefully walks through it.

In the center of the sludge are three bookshelves back to back filled with books. Curious to see if there are more secrets, she checks in the small space behind the bookshelves to find a small bookshelf crammed in the back with only a singular book. The book itself is called Accessing Deeper Truths and it doesn’t have a summary or a clue as to what it’s about. Even more curious than before, she opens the book to find an eye opening that pierces a light through the center of her forehead.

“Do you seek deeper knowledge? Deeper truths?” a voice rings in her ears.

“Y-yes. I do,” she responds.

“Then you must ascend beyond the limits of your mortal state. By that I mean you must be like the angels. To ascend into deeper knowledge, you must make some changes to your being that takes off the restrictions God placed on them. I have discovered that you can do this with more eyes. Just as the thrones in Heaven have many eyes, so must you.”

The light that pierced through Lizzie’s head begins transmitting a feeling to the rest of her body. A feeling that feels that makes it feel like something is opening up all over her. The feeling is similar to that of an eye struggling to open itself because that’s exactly what’s happening. Hundreds of eyes appear on her and struggle to open themselves as Lizzie resists it.

“Do not resist. This is what you wanted, isn’t it/? There isn’t any other way to ascend into deeper knowledge than this. I would know. I’ve dedicated my life to doing so. Now, I am sharing with you the results of my life’s work.”

After realizing that it’s a fruitless effort to try to prevent the eyes from opening up on her, she closes the book, which makes the eyes on her disappear. She throws away the book and takes a breath.

“That can’t be right. It just can’t be,” Lizzie says as she backs away from the center bookcases.

Lizzie quickly exits the secret area and in her rush to get out, she accidentally touches one of the mannequins. This makes the mannequins move and begin to crack. Black sludge begins to pour out of them that starts to fill the room. Once the sludge hits the ground, eyes start opening in it. Lizzie makes her way out of the room as it floods with sludge and eyes and back into the normal library. She searches for her body only to find that’s gone.

“Who took my body?” Lizzie asks herself.

Before she can think about where to search for her body, Lizzie hears someone walking to where she is. Thinking this person might have to do something with her body’s disappearance, she hides in the bookshelves. While in the bookshelves, she can hear someone walking around the area her body was in. There’s silence as the person stands still. Unsure and afraid if the person will she Lizzie’s ethereal body, Lizzie goes further away from where she is before she peeks her head out to see who’s out there. Ms. Ebrietas is the person she heard walking around.

“Poor thing must be scared and confused,” Ms. Ebrietas says aloud, “I remember being the same.”

Lizzie asks herself if Ms. Ebrietas is the reason this is happening. She then notices cracks in Ms. Ebrietas’ body that reveal eyes within them. An eye focuses on Lizzie and Ms. Ebrietas turns her head in response. Lizzie hides in the bookshelf unsure if she was seen. Just to be safe, she goes to the other side of the shelves and listens to the footsteps of Ms. Ebrietas as she walks around. That is until she’s surprised to see Ms. Ebrietas walk through the bookshelves despite her body not appearing to be in an ethereal form.

“I already knew where you were. My eyes can see both the mortal and the ethereal,” Ms. Ebrietas says.

“What happened to my body? Where is it?” Lizzie asks.

“It’s undergoing the same changes mine did. To know deeper knowledge, your body must ascend. The creator of this library told you something similar, didn’t he? Our mortal minds cannot comprehend truths beyond us. What is in this library is minuscule compared to all the real knowledge that is being kept from us. If you really want to know more, then you must become like me.”

“I don’t want to. It’s so unnatural. Maybe there’s another way.”

“What you’re doing already is unnatural. There is no other way.”

“What happened to those other people I saw? They couldn’t move and their bodies were filled with black sludge and eyes.”

“They’re in a state of limbo overwhelmed by knowledge. They tried the way you’re thinking about and failed. You must become like me and ascend into a higher state of being to know more.”

“No. I refuse. Just give me back my body so I can leave.”

“I can give you back your body. Your soul and your body are connected to one another after all.”

Ms. Ebrietas lifts her six arms in the air and Lizzie is pulled back to her body that she sees is getting sucked into a book. The book closes and locks itself.

“Let’s see if you can get out of here,” Ms. Ebrietas says as she flies to where the book is and takes it away to a secure location.