"Books of Blood" Vol. 2 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Meat

The story follows Stephen Grace, a college student in English Literature. One day, he meets a colleague, Quaid, in a bar and they begin speaking about philosophy. Inevitably, the two become somewhat friends with Stephen following as a 'student'. The two speak with another person in Stephen's elective philosophy class, Cheryl, on Quaid's topic of choice, dread. Quaid hypothesizes that dread underlies all; people are inherently born with dread and can not escape it. Cheryl fights back saying that she's well off in her life to be positive and fearless, but Quaid says her positivity and overconfidence must be covering a much larger dread than most. On one occasion, Stephen accidentally lets his dread slip.

At six years old, he was hit by a car and had a bout of temporary deafness. Before his seventh birthday it returned, but the horror he experienced in his own mind was enough to traumatize him.

After many similar conversations, Stephen begins to avoid Quaid and they fall out. The following year, Stephen runs into Quaid at the library and Quaid invites him over to pick up a book or two.

When they start talking, Quaid reveals he had an important experiment with Cheryl. He locked her in a room of the house with a large, well-cooked piece of meat and let her face her dread, examining her behavior through the process. Stephen watches a set of photographs chronicling her six day descent into dread before she finally eats the now-spoiled meat in order to escape.

Answer: He is driven insane

Before Stephen can leave, he is attacked by Quaid who uses chloroform to bring him down. When Stephen awakens, he's in a dark, circular room suspended on a grate. Above and below him is nothing but darkness. He soon notices that he has been deafened; Quaid has placed a device on his head and in his ears to silence the world around him. Slowly, he starts getting frustrated, and eventually the sounds in his head, from his own tongue to the throbbing of his heartbeat eat away at his mind.

As he accidentally drops his show down the grate, he is pushed over the edge being unable to hear it hit the ground, an indeterminable distance below, and he breaks free and falls through the cracks.

He is later pulled free of the room by Quaid who makes him some food, drugs him once more, and leaves him in the street for the cops to find. Stephen wakes up and inevitably winds up in a hostel, unsure of who he is and reduced to an insane shell of what he once was. Upon being reminded of the events he suffered through, he procures an axe and makes his way back to Quaid's house.

When Stephen arrives, Quaid meets his greatest dread: Stephen's insanity and a vengeful murderer who has lost his mind. Soon, his own experiment comes back for revenge.

Answer: London

In this story, a race is beginning in London. Joel, a young athlete with ample talent, is being prepared by his friend Cameron. When the race begins, Cameron spots a familiar Mercedes containing one of Joel's fellow racers driving away, so fearing a cheater he follows it across town before stopping at an alleyway. He keeps his distance but follows them inside. Descending into the building he overhears the men inside. One of these men is a local politician dressed entirely in goat furs and another is Voight, one of the racers. As they turn to leave, Cameron jumps into a nearby room, but doesn't realize how cold it really is inside.
Joel continues running his race, but his competitors are slowly diminishing. One, Loyer, finds himself looking back at the competition, but gets pulled down to the Earth by a seemingly invisible force. Only Loyer knows that the hands of Hell are reaching for him.
Cameron is pulled from the room at the last moment merely seconds later before freezing to death in his hiding space by those who he tried to hide from. Burgess, the politician informs him that it is one of the many entrances into Hell. Voight reveals himself to be one of the Familiars from the depths below and Burgess states that this century, Hell is running the race in order to take over the world, destroying humanity. If Hell crosses the line first, they win, but the Devil pursues the runners who look back and see it. Cameron is frightened when one of Burgess' superiors arrives with a bellow from the cave behind him. He goes to run, but looks back to see the awful beast behind him. He is barely able to escape, but soon the seed planted inside him bursts open, incinerating him before he reaches the street.

Answer: Kinderman

Along the racetrack, other competitors keep turning around and meeting their fates. McCloud, one racer, looks back and feels the life squeezing out of him. Joel tries to help, but McCloud forces him ahead, knowing his fate, and tells him not to look back. Joel catches up to Voight who tells him to turn around, but it isn't until Joel sees the image of Cameron in the distance, disintegrating, that he unconsciously turns around and sees the beast behind him. Cameron struggles and races forward despite himself physically shutting down, but he manages to tackle Voight and push him off the track. Voight fights back, biting into Joel and decapitating him, but Joel's efforts are not in vain.

The remaining competitor, Kinderman, who spent his time in the back of the pack, forges ahead and takes the lead crossing the line saving Earth and mankind for another hundred years. Burgess flees to a nearby cathedral but is met with his boss, whom he continues to avert his gaze from.

The beast forces him to look, twisting his head around behind him.

Hell may have lost this time, but next time it will win.

Answer: Ben

One day, housewife Jacqueline Ess tries to commit suicide by slitting her wrists in the bathroom. Her husband, Ben, saves her in the nick of time and she's taken to a hospital. Shortly after her recuperation she speaks to her doctor about the situation, but in the process discovers that she has a horrible gift- the power to mutilate people with her mind. Simply thinking of their fate produces a result.

Her doctor makes a simple comment and Jacqueline thinks that he can't feel the same way because he's not a woman.

His body immediately shifts its form into that of a woman's, killing him during the manipulation. Her husband is her next victim; when he admits to being adulterous, she shuts him up, converting his body into a tightly-squeezed package, effectively 'shutting him up' altogether. Frightened, Jacqueline comes across her husband's old colleague, Oliver Vassi, whom she inevitably opens up to.

As he becomes more infatuated with her, she realizes she needs to hone her power to avoid hurting others. Vassi gets caught up in her love as though she were a succubus.

She disappears. Jacqueline meets with Titus Pettifer, one of the richest men in the country, to learn how to use power. She effectively seduces him, but he becomes worried about cheating on his wife. His assistant, Lyndon, blackmails him when he discovers that she murdered her husband, and upon realizing that Titus isn't as strong as she initially thought, she leaves him...and tears Lyndon in two.

Answer: Amsterdam

According to Vassi's testament, she is captured from right under his nose. On a constant hunt to find his obsession, he finds where she has been living and he witnesses her being taken away by well-dressed individuals. She remains in their custody for a month as Titus Pettifer waits to visit her. On the day he arrives, he tells her that he's infatuated, and because he can't be with her, he wants to die.

She says she can't do this, so he hits her until she feels provoked. Instead of killing him, she turns him into an odd creature, crushing his body into somewhat of a crab.

His bodyguards dispose of him with their guns before falling victim to Jacqueline's beauty as well. Vassi nearly catches up once more, arriving at the holding house a little too late. One of the bodyguards, who stayed behind once the other committed suicide, tells him that she spoke to him before leaving. Vassi quickly deduces that she went to the Red Light District in Amsterdam where she became a prostitute. It is here that he finds her, tied to a bed and locked in a room because she can't fight her power.

Her guard brings her men until she finds the correct one, but she hasn't yet. When Vassi comes in, the two reunite and they lock the door behind. As the two begin to embrace, Jacqueline gives in to her love and the two dissolve into one another, finally free from their horrible curses.

Answer: Welcome

This story starts with a man named Davidson on his way across the state for business. When his car breaks down in the desert, he watches as a procession crosses the sands and chases after them for help. When he reaches them he discovers that they are malformed, hulking beasts, many of which are twenty feet tall. One destroys his car before engulfing itself in flame. He watches as the rest continue on.
In Welcome, the police chief, Packard, finds the creature in the middle of town, burning. As he tries to nudge it, it bites off his fingers. He shoots it in anger and calls a town meeting.
Just outside of town, Eugene, Lucy, and their son argue. Eugene forces his wife out of the house and she takes refuge in her shed while he beats the boy. Lucy recalls a time six years ago when she was attacked by demonic creatures who fathered her child. As Eugene falls asleep inside, his 'son' hears music in the distance and knows they're coming for him.

Answer: Aaron

Davidson arrives in Welcome as the town meeting commences. Packard inevitably rounds up the entire town to attack the creatures which are making their way through Welcome's desert area. Meanwhile, the creatures come for their child, ripping open Eugene's house and taking the willing boy with them.

As Aaron departs, Eugene takes Lucy to follow them although she understands that they should be taking the boy. They come across the rest of the townspeople in their cars in the desert, on their way to attack the demons. Lucy flees when Eugene's back is turned, then doubles back to protect herself. When the townspeople find the demons, they attack with their guns as the demons tear at their cars. Packard is killed in this onslaught.

Inevitably, they make their way to a cleft in the sand leading to Hell. Aaron is killed by his own father as he begins his transformation into a demon.

As this happens, the townspeople are eaten by the Earth beneath them, sinking into the sand. Davidson and three others barely survive with Davidson himself only being buried up to his waist. Lucy, who witnessed the whole thing, is asked for help. Knowing that she won't make it back in time before the sun rises, she goes anyway, leaving the rest behind.

Answer: Artist

73-year-old Lewis Fox has been beckoned to Paris by his dear friend, Catherine, whose brother has been sent to sail for the suspected murder of 19-year-old Natalie Perec, who was viciously killed in a room on Rue des Martyrs. Catherine invites him over to talk and tells him to visit Phillipe in the prison, which he does, but he can't figure out why this timid, elderly man would do it. The police have no leads.
Catherine nearly comes into contact with the killer in the room at Rue des Martyrs and she discovers that the man inside smells of a very fragrant odor. After a brief visit with one of Phillipe's friends, Jacques Solal (who is also confused by the event), Lewis comes across the same man in the room. Before he can ask anything, the man flees into the wintry night.
All the while, Lewis has the sneaking suspicion that the fictional Rue Morgue, outlined in Edgar Allan Poe's "Murders at Rue Morgue" may exist, and that this murder may have something to do with it. After all, the past has a funny way of catching up with itself, and Lewis' grandfather supposedly told Poe the story in the 1890s.

Answer: No

Much like in Poe's "Rue Morgue", Lewis discovers that the murder was performed by a highly-intelligent ape. Phillipe admits that he trained the ape based on the story, curious to see if it would work. He goes mad upon his realization though, and after Lewis departs, he bites into his own wrists, killing himself in the night.

Another murder occurs in the meantime, this time a Mademoiselle Zevaco is found dead in her home, killed by the same distinctly-fragrant killer. After Phillipe's funeral, Solal and Lewis search for the killer and Solal does inevitably track him down to his house.

While Lewis tries to catch up, he is killed and placed in a wardrobe where Lewis finds him after waiting for the creature to leave. The simian doesn't take too long to return though, and Lewis is forced to hide in the wardrobe with Solal's corpse.

In the middle of the night, the ape finds him and presents him to a red-haired woman in bed. She constantly refers to him as Phillipe and the ape, surprisingly, calls his captor Lewis. Lewis realizes that his story was true.

The ape got a taste of the lifestyle presented by Phillipe and now has to live his own based on the stories he was told. The ape doesn't harm Lewis as he knows that he is Phillipe's friend. Phillipe, shocked by this occurrence, departs for the middle of town where he takes his own life by jumping into the freezing river cutting through Paris.