The Cornerstone Read Online Free PDF

character, but this was ridiculous.
    He read down the page, getting more and more freaked out as he did.
    It was about him.
    It was about today .
    Everything was in here: going into the library, finding the note in Clive Bonnet’s book, losing his keys, collapsing when the choir broke into song.
    There were also events from Max’s past, like when his stupid sister had broken his copy of God of War.
    Most disturbing, there were private things about him written here that nobody else could know.
    Even what he was thinking was laid out in front of him on the page, as if somebody was reading his mind at every turn.
    All that had occurred in the last hour or so was captured in detail. Whoever the author was, Max didn’t like they way they handled the story. The whole thing was done in a cheerful, flippant tone that Max didn’t think took the situation anywhere seriously enough.
    This was his life being turned upside down on this increasingly weird Thursday afternoon and it should be treated with a bit more respect, damn it.
    With mounting terror, he got to a paragraph that read:

    Reaching out a tentative hand, he shut his eyes and grimaced as his fingers came into contact with The Cornerstone…
     
    Nothing .
    Nada.Niet. Zip. Zilch. Sweet FA.
    He poked the book  aggressively a couple of times, but this didn’t provoke a response either.
    This is where I pull it out and the universe explodes.
    Max pulled out The Cornerstone.
    The universe remained resolutely unexploded .

    This was describing what he’d done mere moments ago.
    He was reading a book that was describing itself being picked up and read by Max Bloom, who was reading a book that was describing itself being picked up and read by Max Bloom…
    A wave of vertigo washed over him and he slammed The Cornerstone shut, sitting back with his eyes closed.
    Was that written down as well?
    What had just happened?
    Did it outline Max reading a passage from the book, being overcome by vertigo, shutting the cover and sitting back with his eyes closed?
    He bet it did.
    What would happen if he read to where now was being described? Could he carry on and see his own future?
    The book was a big, red button and Max had to press it again.
    He opened The Cornerstone where he’d left off and read down the page, eventually getting to this sentence:
     
    He opened The Cornerstone where he’d left off, and read down the page, eventually getting to this sentence:
     
    He opened The Cornerstone where he’d left off, and read down the page, eventually getting to this sentence:

    At this point, the universe exploded.

    …well it didn’t, but Max could be forgiven for thinking so.
    He was engulfed by a blinding silver light and an enormous rushing sound - as if the ethereal choir had collectively realised they’d left the gas on at home and were hurrying out of the church to go check.
    He felt an unpleasant fluttering sensation in his stomach and was pulled violently forward from the centre of his chest, as if some cosmic angler had hooked him and was reeling in.
    Max threw his arms out to cushion the impact with the bookshelf.
    No collision came however. He felt himself propelled further forward, way beyond the confines of the library and out into some unfathomably large space.

    After a few moments of disorientation, the blinding light faded and Max’s rapid forward movement slowed, giving him the chance to catch his breath, recover his shattered wits and look around.        
    The dark space he floated in wasn’t black like the night sky, but a deep, loathsome shade of purple, like a fresh, painful bruise.
    Around him, the atmosphere writhed and boiled, making him feel sick. It was like being surrounded by some vast living organism that twisted and turned in this nightmarish void.
    The word digestion drifted through Max’s head, which didn’t help matters one bit.
    The silence was oppressive. The only sound he could hear was his own shallow breathing.
    ‘Hello?’ he