by Joanna Gawn
“Help me,” a creaking voice said.
Chloe yelped. The voice had come from the book.
“Please! Help me!” it said.
“Noooooooo, this isn’t real, it’s a bad dream -”
“I wish it was,” cried the voice. “I want to get away!”
Chloe sobbed. “Away from what?” This was unreal. Talking to a book!
“You’re reading the book!” the voice replied. “Wouldn’t you want to escape if you knew you were going to be murdered?”
Chloe felt sick. “Are you . . . Robert?” Would he become the ghost of Melton Grange?
“Yes! And you have to get me out!”
Her nausea intensified. “I don’t -”
“It doesn’t matter how you do it,” the voice said, “but do it soon, before I’m killed!”
“You want to - you want me to help you get out of the book, out of the story?”
“We’re wasting time! Of course I do! I never wanted be trapped in a book in the first place. That’s what happens when you allow magicians to write stories. They put their enemies into their books, trapping them within the borders of their words! I should be living in the real world!”
Chloe’s mouth fell open. This Robert had been a real person? And magicians were real, too? She took a shaky breath. If only Mac was here to instil some sense into this bizarre conversation.
There was only one thing she could think of that might help Robert.
Destroy the book.
One by one, she tore the pages out. Her father would kill her if he saw this. A librarian, he was a man who treasured books and the words within their pages, the worlds and universes they created. Well, this was an evil book, and Robert deserved his freedom. The book was empty now, the pages scattered like torn autumn leaves across her carpet.
A pressure in her ears, a feeling that space was compressing, being squeezed - and a shadow appearing behind the sofa. Her nausea became overwhelming. The shadow gained form, colour, bones and muscles and skin. Robert, against all reason and logic, was standing in her lounge. Chloe swallowed. Now that he was here, real and breathing, she was terrified.
“Hello, Chloe,” Robert said with a disarming smile. “Thank you for helping me to move beyond the book.”
She took a step back. “Um. I’ve just remembered your girlfriend. Ursula. The one you went to the Grange with.”
“What of her?” Robert’s tone was frigid. “You can’t help her.”
“I can’t?”
“No. You should have read more of the book, Chloe. She’s the one who was murdered. Ursula’s the ghost.”
“Then what are you?”
Robert smiled.
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About the Authors
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We hope you have a magical and inspired day.
Joanna and Ron | The Lazuli Portals
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