The Grimoire

Introduction

This is another Vocal first line prompt story from here

The Grimoire

"The old book sat on the shelf, waiting to be opened and explored..."

It had been there forever. People said that if it were ever read it would open a gateway to Hell or somewhere worse, so it was left, growing more impatient to be opened and used, to let the words in contained be free in the world.

Rumours were that the pages were made from human flesh cut from the bodies of hanged criminals, but that was probably just shoolboy talk to make the book more temptingly mysterious.

And of course, it was a small gang whose curiosity got the better of them and went into the old library with the intent of opening the book.

Warnings had been enough to keep the book unread for centuries, but if someone had written it then someone must have read it. There must have been a reason for it and that is what the gang was sure they would find out.

They opened the book and the pages were brittle with illuminated typing, but as they turned the page, it disintegrated, or rather fell apart, eaten by vicious mites that floated and flew and boys eating into their flesh.

There were brief screams but within minutes there were just piles of bones.

The book now just consisted of a cover, empty of the pages destroyed and eaten by the mites which now had a taste for flesh.

The following day the bones were discovered, they were identified as three young males, and dental checks confirmed it was three boys who hadn't returned home last night. There were no clothes and as they had been wearing canvas trainers no footwear either. The mites had eaten everything but the bones, but no one knew what had happened.

Investigations gave no clue as to what had happened, it was a mystery. The flesh and clothes had just gone as though they had been dissolved or eaten, but it was all conjecture.

It was left as an open unsolved case.

Then someone found the bones of their dog which they had just left out in their back garden for a run. The distraught owners called the police and while there were similarities between the cases they could not define a cause.

People started saying that The Grimoire must have released a curse on the town, but no one knew what it was. The Grimoire was now empty having released it's contents to started feeding on the life of the town and the only things left were the bones.