I don’t think there’ll ever be an end to it. I used to think that maybe someday the collection could be complete. “I thought, for a while, that there might be an end to it. Once you’ve accepted the first, it’s impossible to come up with an excuse. i am glad the rest are away from this Hell, for mine is about to. My body lay weak from the endless brutality. He is then left alone in the cold chambers of AM for all eternity, the last human alive, and victim to all of AM's tortures, having directed all of its hatred onto himself. 'There i lay in the great chamber, alone with AM and the ever growing pools of magma, the sharp scent of rusting iron flooded my nostrils, giving my tongue a sensation almost that of licking rust. All of them offering up their bones, solemn and insistent. At the very end of the story, Ted is turned into an amorphous creature unable to harm itself, without a mouth. Surrounded by madness, surrounded by hunger, surrounded by everything but death, I knew death was our only way out. Harlan Ellison, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. You accept the bone, and then there’s blood in the water. AM touched me in every way I had ever been touched, and devised new ways, at his leisure, there inside my mind. They say there’s just the one, right? A child, singular? I don’t think that can be true. I was trapped, and it was on the verge of tears. It feels really mean, yeah, but I guess when you’re talking about life or death, you’ve got to use whatever tricks you can.” And then once it hurries off, you run away as fast as you can in the other direction. It would be terrible if you accidentally sicced it on someone else. Hopefully you’re alone in the woods when it happens. “Yeah, ha ha, it’s really up, isn’t it? Sorry. If you hurry, I’m sure you can catch up!’ ‘My friend back there, they’ve been looking for a bone just like this! Yeah, they’re back there in the woods a little way, you should go find them! I was just talking to them five minutes ago. ‘What an amazing bone!’ you say, before it can even get out a word. The moment it shows you the bone, you go wide-eyed. “Okay, so this is kind of messed up, but this is the trick my cousin taught me. Stride through the woods as if you’ve got somewhere to be, and if it tugs on your sleeve, just mumble something about how terribly busy you are, and push on.” That’s just part of living in society, ignoring one another. What you have to do is ignore it from the beginning. The more involved you get, the harder it is to extract yourself. It’s only the newcomers who feel obliged to stop and talk: ‘Oh, I’m so sorry, dear, that’s very sweet of you, but I’m just not interested in a bone right now’. “Anyone who’s lived here for any amount of time knows how to handle the bone moppet. And then once it’s distracted I take the opportunity to quickly slip away.” That way, if the bone moppet approaches me, I can put on a big smile and say, ‘That’s a very nice bone, that’s very generous of you, but look, I’ve got something for you instead! Isn’t it pretty?’ It’s such a poor thing, a little kindness like that can be overwhelming to it. That’s what everyone says to do, isn’t it? What I’ve found helps, when I have to go through the woods, is to bring some candy, or marbles, or those little toys from a Happy Meal or something of the sort, a little treat. READERS SHARE THEIR TECHNIQUES FOR DEALING WITH THE BONE MOPPET :
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