Epilogue

Andy looked forward to settling into his overstuffed recliner, anxiously anticipating the grand finale of the book he had been reading for the last four days. He wasn’t a slow reader; on the contrary, if left alone, he could plow through most books in two days max. The problem with this book was that every time he settled down to read it, something or someone interrupted him. Either the phone would ring or the dog needed to go for a walk. Occasionally, a friend would stop by for a visit. Once, he had to work a double shift because someone called out sick. Tonight was going to be different. He only had two chapters and the epilogue to get through, and he could return the book to the library and find a new one.

Andy positioned himself in front of his favorite chair, book in hand, and was about to sit when, from out of nowhere, an electrical crackling noise filled the room. Speaking to an empty room, he bellowed, “Oh, what the hell is that? The book gods don’t want me to finish this story, do they?”

Frustrated, he changed his gym clothes for coveralls and his slippers for work boots, put the book in his back pocket, then trudged off toward the exit door. To expand the living quarters, every mechanical system needed to keep his house livable was placed in a detached utility shed. They had been inspected two weeks ago and passed with flying colors. Of course, things break unexpectedly, but seriously, what are the odds it would happen just when he was about to finish his book?

Oddly enough, a similar situation happened to the main character in his book. The difference was that, in the book, an evil spirit possessed the house’s electrical system and was causing short circuits in the appliances and bolts of electricity to come arcing out from the wall sockets. Andy was positive this problem was nothing more than a blown fuse or a frayed wire in the junction box. It was just that these annoying problems always seemed to happen during his time off, just the way it happened to the guy in his book.

It was even colder than usual outside, and Andy now wished he had taken the extra time to check the temperature before making the walk to the utility shed. He’d been living here long enough that making a dumb mistake like this was unforgivable. To make things worse, he was standing halfway between the shed and his house. Faced with a similar situation, the guy in the book chose to return to the house. Andy thought that choice was a mistake, but he wasn’t sure because he hadn’t finished the damn book yet. It was silly to parallel a real-life situation with a plot in a book, but keeping his mind active helped keep him from dwelling on the biting cold. One thing he was sure about was that it was time to decide before he froze to death. Find the cause and you fix all of the problems quickly became his mantra, so he pivoted to the shed and ran full speed toward it. The increased wind from running intensified the cold, and he could feel frost forming on his fingertips and earlobes.

With only seconds to spare before turning into an icicle, Andy grabbed the doorknob, gave it a turn, shoved open the door, and immediately found the problem. He stared in utter disbelief, his body trembling, not from the biting cold but from sheer terror. The settlers in this Martian colony had often joked about encountering a native Martian, but no one believed they actually existed. Andy could now testify beyond a shadow of a doubt that they do exist.

Unfortunately for Andy, these creatures are not sociable. The reason no one has ever seen one is because that’s how they want it. The Martian grabbed Andy and dragged him back out into the cold, kicking and screaming until the cold took control and froze him to his core. Once Andy was dead. The beast removed the book from his pocket, opened it to the epilogue, placed Andy’s finger on the page, and left.

A search party found Andy’s frozen body several days later. His finger rested on a specific line in the epilogue, which read,

“If you tempt fate, expect to suffer the consequences.”