[A Lot Spookiness]

"It's..." Mrs DuPree coughs a few times. "Sixty nine. Then six. Then nine. Then sixty nine again."

...nice?

"It killed all those people. It was going to kill everyone, wasn't it?"

It was.

That's exactly what it was going to do.

Nick is free to head into the factory. The lights are on inside, but the machines are silent. There's a thick, sweet, syrupy smell in here. Not really the sort of smell you would associate with beets. There's a flight of steel stairs thatleads up to the office. Nick can head inside easily. He can use the safe combination. He can open the safe.

There are several things inside. Most of them don't matter. One does.

The tablet.

The original tablet.

Light slithers through the etching like green worms in the rain. The symbol shifts as he looks at it, trying to resolve.

Trying to hook its claws into his mind.

You don't have to do this, it seems to say. I can help you. I can give you anything you want. I can make it real. But I'm so weak. I'm so hungry. They hurt me, Nick. I'm broken.

It's afraid. Like it's so small and frail. A little lost lamb with a fractured leg, hobbling helplessly.

But behind the sweet, woolly words lurk the teeth of a dragon.