CHAPTER 1
Lily wandered the local library casually looking at the books on the shelves. She had read almost all of the books as the library was only small; however she was sure there must be at least one more she could read. Reading had become her only source of normality since her dad had pulled her out of school to travel the world. He was a historian and was always looking for new ruins. They had been living in a small town in Italy for about a month now and her dad had found many ruins so he was hardly ever around.
The librarian smiled at her as lily turned the corner to look up the other isle. With no school and no friends to talk too, Lily spent most of the time hidden in the far corner of the library and the librarian had come accustom to seeing her. Lily carried on looking for a book, stroking the biddings as she walked past; she loved the feel of leather and paper biddings holding all the books secrets inside. She jumped as the librarian coughed loudly, and her hand knocked a book to the floor, she bent down to pick it up and read the cover. She had never read this book so picked it up to read the blurb inside, but it had faded, slowly she carried it to the front desk. The librarian checked it out without looking at her; she pushed it across the desk towards her and turned around. That's odd, thought Lily, normally she says something about the book, obviously not one of her favourites.
Lily walked out of the library tucking the book under her coat, as she walked down the steps two men in black jackets ran up the steps and pushed her out of the way. Lily sighed but walked on she didn't want an argument especially with men like them. She walked towards the bus stop as the bus pulled up; she jumped on and paid the fare, she took a seat by the window at the back of the bus. Lily watched as the two men stormed out of the library again, looked either way then darted of towards the centre of town, obviously couldn't find the book they wanted, lily thought.
The bus pulled up at the end of Lily's road. She jumped off and slowly walked down the road, thinking about the strange black clad men. The road was almost deserted except for three parked cars. Lily turned up her drive and walked towards the little cottage that had lately become her home, the garden was a mess and the drive was cracked and full of pot holes. Her dad had taken their little car up to his latest ruin sight so the drive was empty. She unlocked the door and stepped inside; she quietly shut the door and made her way towards the back of the house. She placed her book on the kitchen table and bent down to light the little fire. She curled up in the armchair at the end of the kitchen, and opened the cover of the book. The picture on the inside of the cover showed a little creature with horns looking over the title, Inkheart. How cute, Lily thought, it is just like a martin.
The day turned to night and Lily kept reading, being drawn further and further into the dark world of Inkheart. The door banged and Lily jumped dropping the book on the floor. 'Lily' her dad called 'I'm home'. They sat down and ate their tea, talking about the day's events. At nine o clock Lily put her plate in the sink and walked out of the kitchen.
"Going to bed already?" her dad called after her,
"yeah I want to read" Lily called over her shoulder.
She walked up the stairs and entered her small pokey bedroom; she shut the door, turned on her lamp, sat on the bed, pulled the covers up and grabbed Inkheart. She delved deep into the world of Inkheart, following the amazing adventures of Dustfinger and Basta; she heard footsteps on the stairs and quickly looked at the time. It was midnight. Lily placed the book on her bedside table and turned off her lamp; she buried deep into the covers and fell asleep.
That night she dreamt of Basta and the horror of Capricorn. She woke with a start as Basta's knife came towards her. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, the clock showed 5 o clock and the gentle rain could be heard on the window. She turned around and switched her lamp on throwing weird shadows up on the dirty cream walls. Lily shook her head and was soon asleep again