Books are gentle companions. Usually. Except for that one time I was just about murdered by books. That was twenty years ago . . .***I didn't know what to do with my life. I had no prospects. I had an ... [+]
Laurence Raphael Brothers is a writer and a technologist. His new WWI-era fantasy novel Twilight Patrol is available for purchase on Amazon.com. Follow him on twitter: @lbrothers or visit https://laurencebrothers.com/bibliography for more. "Captured by the Dragon Cult" is in Short Circuit #02, Short Édition's quarterly review.
Probably I shouldn't have looked in that NO ADMITTANCE HIGH VOLTAGE DANGER OF DEATH door. I was loitering on the ramp to the #7 subway train at Grand Central Station. I didn't want to go home to Flushing for various good reasons that included my design project coming due and no work done on it yet. Anyway, the door to the utility closet was ajar, so I peeked inside.It was a tiny room with a board full of circuit breakers along with a big old knife switch. I have poor impulse control sometimes, so I had to fight off the urge to pull the switch. But, you know, DANGER OF DEATH, and anyway I didn'