Forbidden Codex

You’ve got a freind named Denise, with a strong interest in the supernatural--something you have in common. At times, it seems she has a crush on you, but you’ve been friends for years. Besides, Denise was just older than you by enough that you figured she didn’t think of you that way.

One afternoon, you knocked on Denise’s front door. When the door opened, a pretty red-haired young woman appeared at the door, brushing her hair away from her glasses.

"Hey Adam," Denise said. She noticed the book you were holding. "Whatcha got there?"

"I got it from ebay. They said it was some spell tome, but the price was so low that I decided to go for it. Twelve bucks, and look--it seems like the genuine article. Leatherbound and everything. It seems pretty old.”

Denise smiled, motioning for you to come in. You slipped off your shoes.

“Twelve bucks? You got a deal, even if it’s a total fake. It looks awesome. Have you already looked in it?” She asked. “Does it have any sort of specialty?”

“There seems to be a lot about living essence in it,” You said. “There’s like a chapter on ‘Augmentations of objects, conspicuous and hidden’ and something like ‘Enchantments for taks and dutiful operations’.”

“Ha--like doing homework, hopefully,” Denise laughed. “Bring it in and let's try it." Denise went straight up the stairs, and you followed.

"Are we going to your room? Where's your mom?" You asked.

"Out at the shopping centers for the day." Denise answered, smiling. “She’ll be gone a while.”

You followed Denise into her room, always a little overwhelmed by the decorative scheme. It was all covered in typical girly crap like supermodel magazine cutouts, pink things, and a sweet perfume scent, but it was punctuated with hints of paranormal subculture like Crowley and Levi. A dark poster depicting nothing but white letters that said BELIEVE. She had a wall half-covered in chalkboard paint, and a couple lines of poetry and some symbols written on it. Her closet was open, messy with new purchases and clothing that wasn’t properly hung up.

“Sorry about the mess,” Denise said. “If you weren’t you, I wouldn’t have let you up here to see my mess,” She laughed. You figured you should take that as a compliment.

“Thanks, I guess,” you chuckle. “It’s certainly nothing I haven’t seen before,” you say, grinning.

“Shut up!” She laughs, mock punching you. “It’s just messy because of all that new stuff.” She sat on her bed and pointed at the book. “So let’s try something from that. You need a circle or anything?” You shake your head.

“Not from what I can tell. I think you’re just supposed to read it.” You flip thought the book, landing on a particular set of animations. “Oh, how about this? it’s not like a love spell or like a good luck spell--we’re going to know if this one doesn’t work.”

“What is it?”

“I dunno--seems like it should get your clothes off the floor, though.” You laugh, thinking about the insanity of it. “I mean I get why people thought charms might protect them from sickness and stuff--it’s all statistics. But like--things getting up and moving on their own? What ever gave anyone the inclination?”

“Entheogens,” Denise said, spouting a weird word you’d never heard before. “Wuzzat?” You asked.

“Like something people take to hallucinate and have like a religious experience,” Denise shrugged. “I read that somewhere--like the people who thought witches could fly all ate like, bad wheat or something--and they all hallucinated really bad and all got sick. So like when the midwife or like the nurse or whatever her equivalent was tried to help people, they were all tripping balls and thought she was a monster who was feeding them poison and making them sick...and they they killed a bunch of women--all because the village ate like moldy crops.”

“Uh...huh.” You said, trying to process all that. “Kind of a downer.”

“I’m sorry--just reading I’ve been doing lately,” Denise said.

“On, um...hallucinating?”

“On witches, you twit!” She mock punched me again. “So how about that magic spell? Let’s get it over with and chalk yet another ‘magic tome’ up to busted.” She grinned.

Your eyes glanced over the heavy material addendums with the spell itself. Instances of direction, time of day, season, conditional commands, blah blah blah...what was the point of going into all this detail when the author knew it was bullshit? Maybe this is what sold the book when it was first put together. There even seemed to be a warning, which you snorted at just before you started reading...