Horror Stories from Horrified - Volume One (2)

"Apologies if the tea?s a bit cold, I had some paper w or k to file upstair s and for got
all about it. Anyhoo, shall w e open up shop? I have a feeling today could be a good
day."
As the old man dr ifted to the fr ont door , Lily thought to her self it was str ange how
quickly he had r etur ned w ith the tea. She figur ed that she must have been star ing
at the str ange book in the cabinet for longer than she?d r ealised.
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It appear ed Mister Gr egor y?s good feeling about the day ahead was misplaced, as
by lunchtime bar ely half a dozen people had come thr ough the door s. Most of these
w er e visitor s or passer s-by and they had little to no inter est in books full of tips on
decipher ing Byzantine inscr iptions or about the histor y of clay in Cr ete epigr aphs.
Never theless, Mister Gr egor y r emained optimistic about the day and Lily kept
her self busy r ear r anging the labyr inth of books that litter ed the stor e.
As she tr aver sed the r ight-hand wall, Mister Gr egor y r ecollected that at one point
in time he had been quite an or ganised fellow. Repeated mentions of a ?modified
Dew ey Decimal System? convinced Lily that he was indeed telling the tr uth, though
how long ago this modified system was implemented seemed an impossible
question to answ er.
"That?s r ight, my dear , class 200 of my Decimal System is still Religion, but
r elative to epigr aphy. So, for example, class 270 w ould tr aditionally be 'Histor y of
Chr istianity', but my system w ould r eplace that w ith 'Histor y of Chr istianity'-?
"- in r elation to epigr aphs," finished Lily. Mister Gr egor y smiled and nodded.
Holding her br eath, Lily dived into a pile of books on the bottom shelf, looking for
anything mar ked w ith a 270. Lo-and-behold, she did indeed come up for air w ith a
handful of books on the topic of Histor y of Chr istianity in r elation to epigr aphs.
"So, w hat class w ould the study of par anor mal epigr aphs be, Mister Gr egor y?"
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