She looked down on me with her cat-like eyes and I saw the distant blue sparks in her pupils. She hung suspended by a spider's web of wires and chords that all found their way to the nape of her neck, back and forearms.
She asked me what my business was in the library. Her voice was a whisper but the sound seemed to radiate from the floor. I told her that my intentions were innocent. I was merely exploring. Her stern expression remained unchanged and her intense gaze seemed to stare into me, scanning my conscience.
"The library is the archive of the Singularity's collection of information. All of accumulated information of the known universe as it was and as it is and the projected information of what the universe will be. Anything you would ever want to know and ever will want to know you might find in here."
I crossed my arms and tilted my head in disbelief. The librarian lowered herself and stood before me. She was young, short and thin. Her long curly black hair was unruly and wild and it partially obscured her haunting stare.
"Are you saying that I can learn about things that have not happened yet?" I asked her and she nodded her head silently. "How is that possible?"
"Chaos theory dictates that every cause has an effect and every effect has a cause. The Singularity has formed an algorithm to predict the possible outcomes to any possible situation and event and through the course of logical deduction, has narrowed down each cause to each effect. Anything that has happened and ever could happen to anybody and anything is cataloged here in this library."
"Why is it then that I could just walk right in? It would seem that this library is very dangerous."
"Go, seek out anything you would like to know, any questions you have can be answered."
I looked over the ledge and into the endless rows and levels of the complex. It appeared bottomless as the staircases descended into the darkness. I made my way down into the dimly lit rows of shelves. The further I went down, the more the building looked less like a library and more like a tomb. A putrid smell rose up from the dark bottomless pit and it grew worse as I descended the staircase.
I saw the skeletal remains of a man lying on his back on the staircase. Only his bones and the silicon and aluminum parts of his former self remained amidst the cobwebs. I stepped over the corpse and stepped further down. The walls of the catacomb were cold and damp and I can smell the mold and rot.
I stepped over another corpse. This one was newer than the last and her mechanical parts still clicked and the unnatural sound of a synthetic voice moaned quietly. The spark in her eyes had not yet faded. "Kill me, please." She whispered as I passed over her.
When I reached the bottom, I could not see the floor: the ground was littered with the corpses of people who had jumped from the higher levels of the library. The smell of blood, decay and burnt electronics was thick and I held my scarf to my face so I could tolerate the rancid smell.
"These people committed suicide?" I shouted up into the dim blue light filtering from above.
"The fruit of knowledge is seldom ripe. It is either too sour or too bitter," The librarian whispered into my ear from behind me. "Everybody who has ventured into the Singularity's library was consumed by their fleshy human greed and they found themselves reading too much. It was too much for them." I turned to face her. She had a sinister smile on her small pale face. She held a small gray book in her hands. "It's for you, everything you have ever wanted to know."
I took the book from her hands and she bit her lower lip in anticipation.
"You want me to read this, but I will not be one of these people," I told her and pointed to the carpet of rotting and rusting remains. I reached into my pocket and withdrew my lighter.
A look of shock and disgust washed over the librarian's face as I set fire to the small book.
"Animal. You are one of those people whether you like it or not. Destroying that book does not make the words in it any less true. You will find that we all meet the same fate eventually. You may leave the library whenever you wish, mind you- I will not have you destroying the rest of the literature in here."
"I think I am done here, actually." I responded and she disappeared into the darkness. I kicked the small pile of ashes that remained of my book and scattered it about the catacomb.
I climbed the staircase back up into the dim blue light of the lobby. The librarian hung silently, suspended by her cables, peering solemnly into the dark cityscape from her window.
"Nobody has ever left before." she muttered as I climbed through the small door and back out onto the city streets.
