Megan's reply

The long silence came to an end, "Is someone actually harassing people or are you lying to keep me calm." I didn't answer, "Someone used it didn't they? Who did it choose? What happened to them?" I tried to think of the right thing to say, "Ryan you better answer or I swear..."

I sighed, "Alexa."

"NO!"

"I don't know much else. I got a warning from Max. He told me to check in on you, that you might be next. Alexa knew more than anyone about that book and now you're the number one expert. Anything you can tell me?"

"In case you find me as a victim and not as a half asleep woman watching Netflix?" she hissed. "I don't know!? It's an old book of forbidden knowledge, it survived for so long mostly because it was banned and forgotten centuries ago. One of the teachers had found it on an expedition and brought it to the college to study with the class and learn more about it. Alexa had a theory that the book contained rituals and maybe spells, typical nonsense old cultures believed in. She might have been a bit too vocal on how rare, valuable and cool it was and not vocal enough on how it is probably just a silly old book from an old lost culture."

"Well Alexa spontaneously changed apparently. Max thinks it was the book."

I was pulling into Megan's, the headlights spotting a figure. I yelled out, cursing at my reaction. The figure bolted away, holding something that reflected the headlight. I clumsily got out of my car and tried to give chase but the figure had already cleared into another backyard, I couldn't get there in time. Cursing and walking back to where the figure was my heart sank. There was a ripped garbage bag with disposables inside. Blood on them. I hung up my phone and turned my car off. Knocking at the door I saw Megan's concerned face as she opened it, "What was that noise?"

I pointed back towards the garbage, "Some creep going through your garbage. Think they stole some bloody rags."

Megan's eyes widened in horror and she nearly collapsed, I rushed forward to catch her, "No...no...nononono! I don't wanna change! I'm a good girl! We need to figure out who this is before they get a chance to get me."

I helped her inside, trying to ignore the cute blonde's scantily clad bed attire. She was wearing next to nothing. "Look Megan, we could have days...we could have minutes. Give me a crash course. What could someone do with that book?"

Megan sat and teared up, "Um...a lot. It was banished most likely due to it's sinister nature. It was meant as a book of vengeance, or to procure power that was deserved. People who used this thing probably were angry and ****. It can change people. Some rituals are slow and methodical, being very precise. While others are brutally blunt and are somewhat random. However the user decides what the theme, or specific thing is changed about the person. Like say they want me to be a prudish nun. They say that during the ritual and if it is slow they have much more control of what type of prudish nun I become. A quicker ritual has no control what I end up as, as long as I end up a prudish nun in some sort of way. There's more advanced things as well. But they need essence."

"Essence?" This was seriously sounding crazy. Maybe Max was high or something, wasn't exactly his thing but there was no way this stuff was true.

"The more people change and stay changed, the more essence the book absorbs. The more people accept the changes, the stronger the essence. There were scarier things in that book, mind control...charms...augmentation...weird summons. But they require some serious essence to use more than the odd subtle time." Megan hugged herself, pressing her black bra up and I glanced before pulling my eyes away. Everyone knew Megan had some nice tits, not massive but very perky.

"Can we change people back?"

"If you can get the book, there are reversal rituals in there. I think I remember one. Oh! Yeah I do! It was a protection ritual to lessen a ritual's power against whoever drank it. I need water, rosemary, sage, ginger, and oh god...mushrooms."

I almost laughed, "Shit, that isn't so bad. Well probably tastes like shit but still."

Megan looked sadly up at me and I reminded myself that I had a girlfriend and not to think about how cute she looked. "I don't like mushrooms! I don't have any!"

I frowned, "Alright no problem. There's a gas station down the road with a grocer. I can grab some mushrooms you get everything else ready."

I didn't want to leave the nervous blonde by herself but I didn't know how long that weirdo needed to get back to a safe place. Or how much of a rush they would be in. Clearly the person was targeting Megan next, and if we could hurry fast enough then we could stop whatever they were doing. Megan was key in making sure we would all be safe and not in the dark. I eyed a person slowly following my car behind me, I was being followed. Checking I was clean and not venerable to some weirdo stealing my hair I pulled into the gas station and got out of the car. I dashed back as a pipe came down and hit my car, a big figure swinging at me clumsily.

I dodged again and widened my eyes. The figure was a large man. His movements looked unnatural. Like strings controlled his movements. I threw the best hook I could give and heard a crack. The figure moved without hesitation and hit me in the side with the pipe. Fuck that hurt! Something weird was happening and this seemed like an unfair fight. I pretended to go left and dived right, running into the building and waiting for the figure to follow. Instead I watched helplessly as the figure began hitting my car and blowing my tires. I turned to the cashier and saw he was calling the cops. I was being stalled, I rushed to grab mushrooms and ran out the back door. Diving between a small gate and rushing back to Megan's.