Lightning: A Machine of Death short story
by Thomas Maluck
Liz is a librarian becoming disillusioned with her career. As she navigates another day of apathetic public service, she notices a Machine of Death slip left behind as a bookmark by a patron, labeled "Lightning." Liz doesn't know if the bookmark is a piece of someone's past or a warning for the future. Whose bookmark is it, and does Liz want to meet a doomed patron?More information about the Machine of Death concept can be found on the About page of "machine of death dot net." Essentially, there is a machine that predicts the cause of death of its user, printed on a slip of paper. This story operates on that premise.