THE MOST HORRIBLE STORY By John W. Jakes - https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/65727/pg65727-images.html

 Do you think a story could ever make you

shudder with a horror too great to bear? There
is one like that—and you will have to read it!

The room was a very plain room. It had four walls, a ceiling, a floor. But it was new to Thompson because he had never seen it before. He stood in a relaxed fashion, studying it. There was a desk in the center of the room. It was gray, but Thompson could not identify the material from which it was made. A very old man with a clipped beard sat behind the desk. A candle flickered in a brass holder on top of the desk.

The hands dipped down again. Thompson wondered if it was some kind of game. They came back up. They put a book on the desk. It was a thin book, roughly a foot square. It had a whitish cover. The old man's fingers rasped on the cover when he put it down on the desk.

"Human skin," the old man said cheerfully. "Very good binding."

"Um ... yes," said Thompson. He glanced at the cover. In square letters the cover said, The Most Horrible Story In The World. Smaller type, down near the lower right hand corner, said, James Thompson, January 3, 1953.

"I don't like this book," Thompson said.

The old man said nothing.

"And the door's locked. I want to leave."

"You can't."

"What do you mean I can't? What kind of a place is this anyway?" His tone was threatening, belligerent. And weak.

"You're a member now." It was very final.