...Activity detected. Fingerprints scanned...

...Ethan Eudave Gozibell, age 32. Scanning employment history...Educational background...

...Building YMRT thematic model FD-029A6C55A...composing chapters...

...Probability for success 79.99%

Well, Ethan thought, That's an uneventful opening. Non-threatening, unassuming. Cheeky – or tongue-in-cheek, tongue untied, cheek-to-jowl, cheeky monkey, hog jowl, hog tied. Still, he reminded himself, millions were dead, or had killed others all because of this book.

This fatal folio.

This perilous page-turner. (Well, maybe not a page-turner.)

This terrible tome.

This dire diabolical diatribe, delirious discourse, dread dictum, deadly dialogue...

Ethan stopped himself before he found himself in another word whirlpool that would lead nowhere. The one affliction he suffered from had no name, but it began and ended with words. He'd thought the medications from Doctor Solares had cured him, but then the riots had started. And the whirlpools had returned.

His roommates would lock him in his room with a few days' worth of food and water, and a bucket for his 'business.' Then, they had stopped coming to check on him, and he broke his door down. Their building had been abandoned. He'd been abandoned.

He turned to the next page.