Apollo and Hermes got nervous and hugged the books they were carrying tightly as if they were stuffed animals, they passed two corridors and Adam didn't hear anything.

But the number of footprints was such that the floor was dyed green, for which the young hero preferred to wait a few more minutes listening, before moving forward. The next hallway looked empty from the corner, but this many footprints didn't help reassure Adam.

The group carefully walked down the hall, when they were halfway through some bubbling could be heard from ahead, and they were getting closer, but they were moving very, very slowly. Hearing them, Adam stopped walking and shouted loudly, so the old man could also hear him:

—Drop the books and grab a shelf, don't let go for a few minutes and wait for me to tell you to drop it. If you see the inkwell, just grab the shelf even tighter.

Adam released the old man and put him on the ground near the same shelf he was taking. Then he told the two boys to take the shelf and covered them with part of his robe, trying not to see the creature and not drop the shelf out of fear.

The old man saw the strange scene, but he noticed the frightened look of the children and how Adam covered them as if he were a hen with her two chicks. Instantly he understood that this was the way to survive and took the bookcase.

Time passed and the bubbling grew stronger, when the children began to notice them, the slow creature had not yet crossed, Adam cautiously looked around the corner as the minutes ticked by.

When the frightened old man could hear the bubbling that to Adam were fireworks at that moment, it was when a leg approached from the corner of the corridor.

The leg was black and dripping something similar to ink, besides being very long: only half of the leg was Adam's entire body, however the leg was very thin and at the tip of the leg were the tiny claws that Adam could feel all over the floor.

The rest of the 'inkwells' began to show from the corner. The creature was not very tall to Adam's surprise, it was slightly taller than him. The 4 long legs of the inkwell seemed to bend at numerous angles in order to hold it, which made it very strange to look at.

The creature's body was a mass of flesh that dripped black ink onto the ground, and its head appeared to be several skinless human faces stuck side by side. All of the faces were missing their lower jaw and had very long black tongues, flicking everywhere.

Adam was quite scared when the creature noticed him; however, his slowness made it less terrifying, but he still remembered that the old man was missing his legs, and it seemed like a bunch of librarians died for this creature.

The creature looked at the group glued to the shelves and continued to move slowly towards them, each step the inkwell made taking a long time, which was being hellish for Adam.

But finally the inkwell reached where they were holding on, as if he were prying, numerous tongues from the skinless human faces reached out and sucked on Adam, staining his body with ink. The inkwell sucked at all four of them for a while, until he lost interest and continued his slow march forward.

To Adam's surprise, the ink on the floor and on his clothes evaporated into the air after a few minutes, forming bubbles that burst violently in the air. Which ended up filling the corridor with black bubbles that burst everywhere. The explosions were quite loud, so they were very annoying to Adam.

The inkwell walked slowly down the aisle until it turned the corner, when Adam noticed that the bubbling was far enough away, he released his grip on the wood and murmured:

—Take the books and continue.

The children took the books, while the legless old man looked with a bitter smile at the corner where the inkwell had gone, he couldn't understand how such a stupid thing as grabbing a shelf could save his life before such a creature. He wanted to say something, but he was already a bit weak and preferred to conserve his strength, so he just smiled at the misfortune of his traveling companions.

—Are they done yet?—Adam asked, concentrating on listening to the bubbling go away.

—Yes—Hermes answered bravely and with his hands full of books.

Adam approached the old man and carried him on his back again, they continued walking through the corridors, luckily it seemed that there was no other inkwell in these corridors, so they managed to reach the mirror safely.

The mirror was framed in gold and the size of a double door. The entire frame of the mirror had a beautiful decoration of little angels blowing trumpets and an inscription that said in the language of the middle floor: 'Happy is he who manages to save himself from his unjust sentence'

Adam looked at the children and said with a smile:

—The three of us take the same step at the same time, going outside is safer, this was the complicated part of the trip to the candy store.

The two children happily prepared to take the plunge and when Adam noticed that he was ready, he called out with a childish smile on his face:

—It was a great day of adventures, but the hero has to return home!

Then the three boys took the first step. Touching the mirror, Adam felt as if something sucked him in and his body disappeared into thin air alongside the old man on his shoulders.