Horror Stories from Horrified - Volume One (2)

anything of impor tance off the oak bookshelves. Clapping some war mth back into
her gloved hands, Lily scanned the shelves as she tr ied to keep afloat, noticing that
a number of the books that sur r ounded her w er e indeed about the ?lost ar t? of
epigr aphy that she and Mister Gr egor y had pr eviously discussed. Volumes upon
volumes noting ever ything one could w ish to lear n about the topic; epigr aphy being
the study of inscr iptions or car vings on stone, w ood, ter r acotta and other mater ials.
Lily glanced thr ough the half-open black door w ith the w or n ?no entr y?sign and a
lar ge book caught her eye. Encased in a glass cabinet, it was a peculiar colour , a hue
that she couldn?t quite put her finger on. The fr ont cover was ador ned w ith a
delicate patter n of ivy in gold leaf and the spine was bound by jet black str ing.
Though the thing was pr obably centur ies old, it looked like it had never been
touched
Lily made a tiny mental leap of joy at the sight of it. Though she was studying
epigr aphy at univer sity ? and quite enjoying it, she?d hasten to add ? Lily had
always been mor e inter ested in car vings and inscr iptions that had a mor e
super natur al quality. Sur e, analysing Gr eek stamping on ter r acotta pots was
engaging enough, but she always found it far mor e exciting if those stamps had
instr uctions about r aising the dead. This peculiar ly colour ed book looked like it
might contain a few of those instr uctions.
Lily swam thr ough the last of the shop-pr oper and tiptoed thr ough the black, no
entr y door. This backr oom was smaller and shallow er , the ceiling was low er. Lily
felt cr amped and boxed in. The r oom also had a dank, r otten smell. The
eye-water ing scent clung to Lily?s skin as she continued into the r oom. It didn?t have
the same cosiness and comfor t of the fr ont of the stor e.
It felt consider ably mor e oppr essive and sinister.
A few pr icier looking tomes w er e fancifully displayed in a dozen or so other
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