The book itself. There may be more to uncover.

You find Anne and Kacie seated in a café not far from their apartment. There is an awkward silence between them as Anne sips on a sugary-looking beverage and traces her fingers along the book's pages. Every time that Anne sips from her cup Kacie winces in anticipation, expecting their curse to strike her friend down at any moment. Anne is too focused on the book to notice her friend's growing paranoia. Over her shoulder you get a glimpse of the passage Anne is reading.

You look at your watch. It's only 10 o'clock. There's still plenty of time to enjoy the sumptuous feast laid out before you. After a long
flight you feel like you haven't eaten in days, so you tear off a turkey leg and gobble it down. As you wash it down with a little wine
you feel your stomach gurgle and twist. A loud belch escapes your lips. You wipe some drool from your lips. When you pull your hand
away you see green scales starting to form on your skin. You frantically try to scratch the scales away, but more appear. "It can't be,"
you think as your ears elongate and your eyes turn a reptilian yellow. "I checked the time. There are still hours until midnight."

The singular chime of an old grandfather clock grabs your attention, indicating that it is now one in the morning. You look at your
watch again as your fingers stretch and claws form where your fingernails once were, and then you realize your mistake. You forgot to
set your watch to the new time zone. Without even realizing it you'd ignored the old man's warning. You stare at your reflection in the
wine glass as your features become monstrous. You have fallen for one of the Trickster's traps so you know that this is

THE END

"Aw, this one's not as sexy as the last one!" Anne exclaims as she reaches another bad ending.

"You are actually looking for information in that book, right?" Kacie asks, sighing as she leans across the table.

"Yes, I'm following the instructions this time and trying to find an ending where the reader beats the Trickster, but it's not going well. I'm starting to think this book might be unwinnable..."

"Here, gimme that." Kacie reaches across the table and snatches the book out of Anne's hand.

"But I wanted to read more of the endings..." Anne mumbles.

Kacie's foot rapidly bounces under the table as she opens the book to the first page, reading the same warning that you were given. After a few pages it's clear that she has no appreciation for gamebooks. She's ignoring the choice prompts at the bottom of the page and reading the book linearly. What a blatant disregard for the rules of the book! Sure, you and Anne both skipped to the the endings to give them a peek, but that's because you're both huge fans of the genre. This is just blasphemy.

"That's not how you—" Anne starts, swallowing the words in her throat, before summoning up the courage to speak out. "Kacie, you can't read it that way!"

"Who says I can't? I'm getting through it faster this way."

"Yeah, but—"

"I can read it anyway I want." The tomboy says emphatically. "I can even skip to the last page and then read it backwards if I want."

She flips the book over and opens the back cover first, trying to prove some kind of point to the redhead. When she does you see something scrawled in pen on inside of the back cover. With a closer look, you can read 'If you find this book, please return it to A. Parrish' along with an address. Strange. You're pretty sure that your copy of the book didn't have that in it, which either means there are multiple copies of the book, or that message wasn't there before. Oh no! You try to warn then, but then remember that you can't speak.

"What's this?" Kacie sees the address written on the back page and smirks. "Looks like the address of a former owner. How did you miss this, Anne?"

"I don't think that was—" Anne stammers. "I don't remember that being there. Maybe I was too concerned with the endings..."

Kacie has a smile on her face for the first time. She stands up and slaps Anne on the back.

"Yeah, you are! You're kind of turning out to be a slut for these things." Kacie teases. "But we have a real lead now! Come on, let's go check this place out!"

"Shouldn't we think on it first? Maybe there's another option we're—"

"No! This is a real, substantial lead! Not everything we do needs a multiple choice. We're going."

Sorry, there are no choices here for you. You are going to have to follow the girls to address in the back of the book. You can only hope that A. Parrish is on their side and not the Trickster's.