The Strange Book

A young woman walks down the street, out of the corner of her eye she sees something in an alleyway nearby.
She hesitantly goes in, checking for any people or crooks about in the dark passage.

Looking down at the book, it's a hefty sized book, but a book unlike any she's seen, the cover seems to be made of flesh, seemingly human flesh.

Between disgust and curiosity, she is tempted to pick it up, but decides it's best to leave it alone and walk home.

Along the way thinking it'll make a good story to tell her friends, something almost out of a mystery novel.

She opens her door, closes and locks it, she then takes off her jacket and rests it on the coat rack, taking a sigh and she heads upstairs.
She goes into her room, sits down and goes to pull out her journal.

The mysterious yet alluring book from earlier is there, she picks it up, examining it before laying it on the desk.

She decides to open it..

Ancient text in a language forgotten by time, the pictures show monsters never before bespoken.
One page sticks out the most, a ..squid dragon creature it seems, "C'thulhu"

A phrase is underneath in bold text, almost like a prayer of sorts:
*Ph'nglui mglw'nafh C'thulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.*

"Strange...", she mutters to herself.

Underneath it writing in a black marker says, "Do not chant under any circumstances!"
"Very strange..."

She flips to a different page to try and find any actual answers instead of unreadable text.

This page is full of scribbles and more unintelligible writings, with a picture of a mighty king and a play.

It reads, "The King In Yellow."
"Do not say his *real* name!" is written over and over again in the same red marker, getting less and less intelligible.

The next page has the same in various colours, it continues like this for a few pages.

"It seems as if multiple people have owned this book... Huh..", she thinks to herself, although not swayed in the least, morbid curiosity is strong along with a deep fascination with weird, occultisms.

She flips the page again, this time seeing a creature she couldn't begin to describe, undescribable shapes littered with eyes and tentacles, she puts a piece of paper over the picture.

"Don't know if I prefer this or the 'King in Yellow' nonsense..", she says with a sigh, but treks on, reading below the paper.
"Nyarlathotep" it reads, weird name... but even weirder picture.

In blue marker underneath it says, "Do not trust its lies, for it is The Crawling Chaos."

The rest of the pages are unintelligible or just downright scribbles, all but for one thing, in colours unbeknownst to man.

"See, my child."

A strange urge overcomes her, as she goes back to the one page.. the one with the weird squid dragon creature.

The once gibberish is now legible,

"That is not dead which can eternal lie.
And with strange aeons even death may die."

She flips the page, but not of her own volition.

"...They would never really die. They all lay in stone houses in Their great city of R'lyeh, preserved by the spells of mighty C'thulhu for a glorious resurrection when the stars and the earth might once more be ready for Them."

She closes the book, unnerved by her findings, an ethereal haunted feeling looms over her, as if granted knowledge of something she should not know.

She shuts the book and puts it back in her desk. thinking it's all just a bad dream, tries to go to bed and wake up in the real world.

The land of dreams and reality are the domain of those who sleep.

Every time she closes her eyes she sees visions of R'lyeh, of C'thulu, of the sleeping beasts that will one day awaken and destroy everything.

"Can a book give you insomnia...?"

She questions to herself, to her own sanity and conscious.

"No.. no, I'm just scared, I will fall asleep eventually..."