Leave the book

John didn't have the inclination to buy yet another geeky prop; he was lucky that none of the guys he hung out with at the gym had seen him come into this store in the first place. Better to leave now with his reputation intact.

"Thanks, but I'm good." You push the door open on your way out, not bothering to listen to what gwen was saying - something about a warning? Yeah, if she was gonna get you to spend any more money you'd be doing so now. You swing the wand in your hand in front of you and notice a string tied to the handle attached to what looks like... a fortune cookie? You grab the paper in your hand and unfurl it, seeing it as a very small scroll in some other language. You peer closer at the symbols, but don't have any idea what they could mean. Still, looking at the paper just seems like the right thing to do for whatever reason...

...

"WATCH OUT!"

You look up from your study as you were walking down the sidewalk back to your apartment, when you hear a screeching sound and freeze in fear. An eighteen wheeler is coming straight for you! How did you get into the middle of the street? wouldn't you have noticed walking all the way down the sidewalk before now? No time to consider any of those questions as your life seems to flash before your eyes. The truck barrels down towards you and the only thing you can think to do is to push your arms out in front of you for protection. Maybe the impact will shatter your arms but let the rest of you survive... yeah right. Goodbye world.

Suddenly in your minds eye, you see one of the symbols from the little scroll burn into your vision, hanging in mid air in front of the wand. The symbol burns brighter for a moment before popping out of existence, and you feel a terrible lurching deep within yourself as you are physically shunted to the side seconds before the truck turned you into mince-meat. You fall onto your ass as your heels hit the curb, and the truck barrels past you.

You lie there for a minute, trying to catch your breath, as you process what just happened. You were about to die, no two ways about it, then you waved the wand and... the wand! You frantically look around for it as it fell out of your hands during your fall. You search and search the area around you, panicking more than you think would make sense, before a rigidness in your pants grabs your attention. Why would I be horny now of all times? you think to yourself, before considering wait, that stiff feeling is in my rear area. You reach down towards your hind quarters and feel the grain of the wand tucked neatly into your back pocket.

Dazed at all of the events unfolding to quickly, you spin around and dash home. You don't take your eyes off of your path, afraid that something else will change spontaneously and make you doubt your currently fragile sanity.