BOOKMORK - TIMELINE #872169001

(Timeline Tuesday #54)

There are few moments that feels cozier and safer than curling up with a good book, but it’s this expectation that bookmorks use to their advantage. A scourge to readers everywhere, this pest is responsible for numerous unfortunate attacks across any timeline they inhabit.

Bookmorks are flat, insectoid creatures, featuring six legs and a pronged mandible at the front of their oblong bodies. These features are easily tucked under a bookmork’s body, giving them a perfectly rectangular shape as needed. When positioned in this way, a bookmork appears nearly identical to the bookmarks of this timeline, a simple tool used to keep track of what page you’re on.

The coloration of bookmorks varies, but they are almost always vibrantly hued and tend to feature wild patterns. There were no bookmorks on this layer of reality before the year nineteen-eighty, and it’s believed the timing of this incursion is what caused bookmorks to adapt in this particular way.

This species draws all its sustenance from warm-blooded creatures, but they strongly prefer the blood of humans. Bookmorks hunt by lying in wait within the pages of books, whether hidden in someone’s home or tucked away on the shelves of shops and public libraries. When an unsuspecting reader opens a bookmork’s volume, the bookmork will spring out and bite with their sharp fangs. These mandibles are designed to hold tight, and the flat body of a bookmork means they are nearly impossible to harm through smashing or squishing.

It only takes approximately ten seconds for a bookmork to have its fill of blood, and a single feeding will usually give the creature enough sustenance to last a decade tucked within the pages of their next book. A human receiving a bookmork bite is not in mortal danger, unless they are very young. They will, however, be in extreme pain for up to two weeks, as well as display a mental fog that keeps them from reading for approximately two months.