"The Forbidden Book"
The storm outside raged as the control room flickered to life, strange bursts of power running through the cracked monitors. Jas stood, frozen in place, their eyes glued to the screen, unable to look away from the disturbing footage.
Then, like a forgotten relic, hidden beneath a pile of burnt papers, they found it: a strange, singed book. It was wrapped in a tattered cover made of warped plastic and brown parchment, its edges scorched like a survivor of some forgotten world.
The title read:
Let Them Eat the Rich: A Graphic Cookbook of Global Decline
(Contains Recipes, Rhymes, Emergency Warnings, and Illustrated Dystopias)
Jas opened the book, their fingers trembling as they flipped through the pages.
The first illustration showed a cartoon of greedy billionaires roasting on spits, basted with rental cheques instead of marinade. The next page read:
“Eat the Billionaires for Breakfast: How to Poach an Oligarch”
And the recipe was disturbingly detailed — from their flambéed yachts to the chefs dressed in corporate suits.
Jas chuckled bitterly, their stomach twisting. Dark satire painted the horrors of the present with an absurd brush, but behind the sarcasm was something deeper, more unsettling. As they read, they saw news clippings mixed into the book’s pages:
“PBS Investigates $5,000 Rents in Manhattan — A National Crisis”
“Metro Vancouver CEO Makes $700K While Social Assistance Pays $935”
“Housing Prices Surge as Tenants Face Displacement Across Canada”
The pages moved quickly: the disturbing cartoonish recipes were paired with headlines showing the stark realities of the rising rents, minimum wages, and corporate greed of the world before the storm.
Suddenly, the power surged again, and the control room filled with a strange blip—a broadcast was coming through, and it was almost live. A newscaster appeared, his voice trembling:
“In 2027, in a desperate move, the government allowed artists to take to the streets with slogans like ‘Eat the Billionaires for Breakfast’—while rents hit $5,000 in New York, and families were priced out of their homes across the nation. We now stand at a crossroads.”
The video was scrambled, but Jas could make out the shaky footage of tent cities, flooded neighborhoods, and the powerful elite racing to escape in rockets. The truth was buried in jokes and art, but it was still real. Still happening.
The book was more than just a parody — it was a warning. It was a record of what had been hidden from the masses.
Jas closed the book slowly. "This is what the world was becoming," they muttered, voice trembling. "Before the storm. Before everything changed.”
Ivy Mae stepped forward, placing a hand gently on their shoulder. “And now we need to change it back. Before the rest of us are cooked on that spit.”