Dangerous tomes.
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I sure wished I'd have kept my old gas car.
Electric's all they allow by now, and for folks
like me that means a wrecker chassis and one of
those lousy eMod refit kits. I can barely get 50
clicks on this pile, when it starts.
So I'm at Rav's in town, and she's trying to
upgrade its software or something. Says it will
be a bit. So I go to some book store I see across
the street, wedged between a pawn shop and that
new government-run termination service office.
The store is so packed with dusty old stuff I
can't barely get in the door and turn around. Guy
in there looks about 97 years old, but bushy grey
hair and mustache. Got these bulgy watery eyes
following me around as I go find something to
stare at. I'm not much for reading so I go to the
back and grab the biggest book I see, big read
leather thing must be the size of a truck tire.
Somehow I get it off the shelf and open, but it's
all gobble-gook inside, nothing I can read.
Suddenly, old grey from front is right up behind
me, hand on my shoulder. He says to me, I see you
have ... an interest ... in forbidden lore. What
me, oh no I just grabbed this for no reason. He
looks at me wide eyed and nods slowly, then
suddenly grabs the collar of my shirt and scowls
at me with this horrified look.
"Unnameable scripts, buried since time immemorial!
Unnowable volumes! Ancient rites! Cursed spells!
Forgotten bestiaries! Mad incantations!
Dangerous tomes of banished ceremonies, ancient
beyond reckoning! The insane medieval ramblings
of Count Von Hililgitz, who read too deeply of the
Mad Arab, Azkellobeth! These books are UNSAFE!"
My collar is almost ripped off by now, and my eyes
are about as wide as his, although I'm trying to
blink away the spit he's spraying into my face as
he's whisper-screaming at me with all this. I can
barely get an ummm... out of my mouth, before the
floor starts shaking under his little store. He
lets go of me and yelps, ahhh I've said too much!
I back off and kind of give him some room. But
then the tall bookcase suddenly wobbles and tips
over onto him as he lets out a horrible scream.
He's crushed, and all I can see is his hands
sticking out under the sides of the fallen
case. And I'm so shocked that I just stare at this
for a couple of seconds. Then I go to try and
help, but then a couple of tentacles slither out
from under the fallen bookcase. One of them has
an eye on the end, it winks at me, and then I
guess it sucks the old man down under with it, as
both disappear from under the case and the ground
stops shaking. And now I'm all by myself in this
place.
I show myself out the door. Wow, I guess he was
right. Those books were pretty dangerous after
all.
