Two hours later, Lu, Theo, and I sat together on the end of my bed, staring at the vessel on my desk.

“It looks so innocent,” Theo said. “Hard to believe what’s trapped inside.”

“That wire looks pretty fragile,” Lu pointed out.

“We’ll fix that,” I said. “I don’t want anybody to be able to open that ever again.”

“You did the right thing, Marcus,” Lu said wistfully. “The smart thing. You totally played that monster. But it was a huge price to pay. The Paradox key is locked in there with the Boggin. We’ll never enter the Library again. Nobody will. None of the other stories will be finished.”

The two looked pretty down. I could read their minds. Lu was thinking about her cousin, and Theo was worried about his fourteenth birthday.

“I hope it was worth it,” Theo said glumly.

I stood up and said, “There’s actually one more mystery you guys can solve.”

“Really?” Lu asked, brightening up.

“What is it?” Theo asked.

“Just how dumb do you think I am?”

The two exchanged confused looks.

“What kind of question is that?” Theo asked.

“Do you really think I was stupid enough to put the real key in that box?”

The two sat bolt upright.

I reached into the pocket of my jeans and took out the Paradox key.

They both jumped to their feet with surprise.

“You switched keys?” Lu exclaimed.

“I found a bunch of old keys in the basement when I was looking for copper. That’s when I got the idea to trick the old hag.”

Theo said, “So the Boggin’s stuck in there with—”

“With a key that probably fits some dusty old cabinet in our basement. I don’t want to pile on, but I hope she knows it.”

“Oh, please, pile on,” Lu said. “That is just sweet.”

“So this means we still have a shot at finding our own stories?” Theo asked.

I looked at the tarnished brass key and its clover-leaf design. It seemed so normal. It was hard to believe it possessed such amazing power, and magic.

“Absolutely,” I said. I went to my desk, picked up the vessel, and turned to my friends.

“Ready?” I asked.

“Now?” Theo exclaimed nervously. “Right now?”

I walked to my bedroom door and felt the familiar warmth pulse from the key. I held it out toward the door, making the keyhole appear.

Theo gasped. “After all I’ve seen, why am I still surprised?”

“Get used to it,” Lu said. “We’re still just getting started.”

I twisted the key and opened the door to reveal the stacks of books beyond. Theo looked every bit as stunned as Lu had when I first brought her there.

A laugh came from deeper inside. Something had struck Everett as funny.

We hurried past the aisles of books to the circulation desk, where the spirit librarian sat, reading a book, of course.

“Oh, that was absolutely perfect,” Everett said, chuckling. “You switched keys and taunted the demon until it jumped into the vessel. Brilliant, Marcus, brilliant.”

“I thought so,” I said.

Everett glanced at Theo and said, “You must be Theo. Quick thinking about the copper wire, lad.”

Theo stood with his mouth open. It was the first time I’d ever seen him speechless.

“Is that Michael Swenor’s book?” Lu asked.

“Aye. And quite the story it is,” Everett replied. “Turns out it wasn’t just about delivering the Paradox key to you, Marcus. It was about recapturing the Boggin. That’s the event that finally ended his tale.”

Everett held the book out to us so we could read the final page. At the bottom, beneath the last paragraph, were two beautiful words.

“ ‘The end,’ ” I read aloud.

“My two favorite words,” Everett said. “Now all it needs is a title. Every book has to have a title.”

We all stood there, at a loss, until…

“What about Mysterious Messenger?” Theo said.

We all shot him a surprised look.

Theo shrugged and said, “You know, because Michael Swenor brought the key to Marcus. And all that.”

“I don’t know” I said. “There ended up being so much more to the story than that.”

“Then let’s just call it what it was,” Lu said. “Curse of the Boggin.”

Everett raised an eyebrow and looked to me.

“That’s more like it,” I said.

“Then Curse of the Boggin it is!” Everett declared as he snapped the book shut. “Welcome to the party, Theo.”

Theo rubbed his ear and gave me a small smile.

Everett said, “Now I can place it with the other Boggin stories, in the Completed section.”

We watched as Everett ambled to the aisle of completed stories and shelved the newest volume.

“What do I do with this?” I asked, pushing the vessel across the desk. “It’s not like I can keep it in my room next to my football trophies.”

“Bury the beastie,” Everett said. “Stick it in a vault. Find a place where nobody will find it. What happened here wasn’t the first time. I’ve got aisles of stories that say so.”

“I guess I’ll have to figure something out,” I said.

“That’s not all that needs figuring out,” Everett said. “There’s the issue of that missing book. We still don’t know why Michael Swenor released the Boggin, or who put him up to it. There’s a whole other story in play here.”

“We saw my parents out on the water,” I said. “My birth parents.”

“They were, like…ghosts,” Theo said.

Lu said, “Were they like ghosts…or were they ghosts?”

“Give me a break,” Theo shot back. “I’m out of my comfort zone here.”

“I think the missing book is my parents’ story,” I said. “It could be about what really happened to them.”

“Does that mean you’ll be trying to finish it?” Everett asked.

All eyes went to me.

I gazed down one of the long aisles of books that held the unfinished stories. It was daunting to see so many thousands of books, all containing stories of people from different times and places whose lives had been disrupted. As Everett said, there was no way to know what would happen with any of them, because it hadn’t happened yet. But there was one thing we did know.

The stories could be finished.

“Not knowing who my real parents were and what happened to them has bothered me my whole life. The way I see it, I’ve got a shot at putting a few of my own ghosts to rest. While I’m at it, I might be able to help some of the other people who are locked in their own mysteries.”

“Like me,” Lu said.

“And me,” Theo added.

I looked to Everett and said, “I’ve got two research projects for you.”

“I’d be honored,” Everett said with a wink. “It’s what I do.”

“You’ll need help, Marcus,” Lu said.

“Absolutely,” Theo added. “From somebody smarter than you.”

“Yeah,” Lu said. “And from Theo too.”

Theo shot her a withering look.

Lu just smiled.

“Seriously? You guys would help me tackle some of these mysteries?”

“Wait,” Lu said. “You’re asking if I’m willing to go on mysterious adventures filled with danger and excitement? Do you know me? Have we met?”

“That’s a yes,” Theo said.

I looked to Everett and said, “Then you’ve got yourself three new agents.”

But before we could even think about tackling a new story, I had some other important business to settle.

—

On Sunday afternoon I sat in the park near the Stony Brook train station with Lillian Swenor. Alec was off playing on the swings. He didn’t seem all that interested in seeing me. I figured it was because he was still upset about giving me the key. They were two people whose lives were never going to be the same, thanks to the curse of the Boggin. I needed to let Mrs. Swenor know that Michael was at peace, though I didn’t think for a second she’d believe me. Still, I had to try. I sat there for the longest time, trying to find the right words.

As it turned out, she said them for me.

“Is Michael’s story finished?” she asked.

I was so surprised by the question that I didn’t know how to answer. She looked at me with a twinkle in her eye that gave me a hint of the bright personality she must have had before Michael died.

“Don’t look so surprised,” she said. “Michael told me a little about the Library. To be honest, I didn’t believe him. I didn’t want to believe. But I do now.”

“Then, yes, his story is finished,” I said. “I don’t think I’m going to be seeing him anymore.”

Mrs. Swenor sighed and said, “That’s a good thing, I guess. Thank you, Marcus.”

“For what?”

“Michael’s at peace now, and so am I.”

Alec came running over, out of breath from doing laps around the slide.

“Can we go now?” he asked his mother.

“Not yet,” I said. “Alec, I’m sorry for taking the key. I know how much it meant to you because it was your dad’s, and I feel bad that I had to take it.”

Alec shrugged and looked to the ground without a word.

“But I think I can replace it with something way better,” I said.

I reached into my hoodie pocket.

“My father wanted me to have that key,” I said. “And I’m pretty sure your father would want you to have this.”

I pulled out Michael Swenor’s New York City firefighter’s badge. Alec’s eyes lit up as I held the treasure out to him in my open palm.

“Michael’s first badge! I thought that was lost,” Mrs. Swenor exclaimed. “Where did you find it?”

“It was being held by a good friend until it could get to where it belongs, and it belongs with you, Alec.”

Alec looked to his mom for the okay. Mrs. Swenor nodded enthusiastically. Alec didn’t wait another second and took the precious badge. His father’s badge. He gazed at it as if it was the most valuable treasure he could imagine. Because it was.

“Thanks, Marcus,” Alec said. “I wish you knew my dad. You would have liked him.”

“I know I would have,” I said.

Mrs. Swenor pinned the badge onto Alec’s jacket.

Alec couldn’t have been prouder, and neither could I. In that moment, any doubts I had were completely washed away. I wanted to do whatever I could to help the people whose lives were haunted by the unfinished stories of the Library. The opportunity to do that was a gift from my father, and I was ready to accept it.

—

A few days later, Theo, Lu, and I were back out on the water in Lu’s father’s speedboat.

I had gotten some copper pipe from Home Depot and talked the shop teacher at school into melting it down and sealing the seams of the vessel. I told him it was an art project. He didn’t question me. I think he just liked to play with the furnace and pour molten metal.

My next stop was at a nautical-supply store, where I found the heaviest anchor chain I could load into my pack without it pulling me off my bike. I also bought a twenty-eight-pound navy anchor.

We checked some nautical charts online and found the deepest section of the Sound that was close enough to cruise to. It took only twenty minutes in Mr. Lu’s crazy-fast boat to get to the spot.

It was a still, sunny day. Once Lu killed the engine, all was peaceful and silent. Nobody said it, but we were all scanning the horizon for fear the Boggin might still be able to conjure up a rogue storm.

There was nothing to see but a clear blue sky and fluffy white clouds.

The Boggin no longer had any power.

This was its funeral.

A burial at sea.

“Should we say a few words?” Theo asked as we stood together in the stern of the boat.

The vessel sat on the bench seat, wrapped in chains that were hooked to the anchor.

“Yeah, good riddance,” Lu said.

“Part of me doesn’t want to do this,” I said.

“You can’t be serious!” Theo exclaimed.

“I’m not. Not really. I hope this thing stays down there for a thousand years.”

“How about forever?” Lu said.

“I know, but I can’t help but feel like the truth about what happened to my parents is going to be trapped down there with it.”

“Don’t go there, Marcus,” Lu cautioned. “Michael Swenor broke the seal, and look where that got him.”

“That’s another thing,” I said. “If my father captured the Boggin twelve years ago, you have to believe he would have hidden the vessel where nobody would find it.”

“Yeah, so?” Lu asked.

“So then how did Michael Swenor get it? Who was the guy that contacted him before he unsealed the vessel? And why did Swenor break the seal? What was he trying to do?”

The questions hung heavily as we stared at the chain-wrapped box.

“Maybe some mysteries are better off left a mystery,” Theo said.

I didn’t buy that for a second. That was one mystery I was determined to solve.

“Let’s do this,” I announced.

It took all three of us to lift the weighted-down container up onto the rail of the boat. We held it there, teetering on the edge. Lu took Theo’s arm and gently pulled him away, leaving me holding the vessel on my own.

“All you, Marcus,” she said.

I looked at the vessel and said, “I don’t know if you can hear me, but I’m going to find the truth. I’m going to get that book, and I’m going to figure out what happened to my parents. And you know what else? That library you hate so much? We’re going to finish a lot more of those stories, and there’s nothing you can do about it. You may have all the time in the world, but you’re going to spend it at the bottom of the ocean, wondering how you were outsmarted by a bunch of annoying children.”

I gave the box a gentle nudge, and it fell over, splashing down hard onto the water. Theo and Lu quickly joined me, and we watched as the metallic package quickly disappeared into the darkness of the green water.

My gaze drifted up and out over the expanse of the Sound. It was another perfect fall day. There were no other boaters out except for one lone sailboat that glided along in the distance, headed for the sea. It wasn’t close enough for me to know for sure, but I wanted to believe my birth parents were on board, maybe with Michael Swenor, enjoying another beautiful day out on the water.

“I’m going to finish your story,” I said aloud. “I promise.”