“You’re trying to confuse me again, giving me so many variables and options to muddy the whole thing. It won’t work.”
“Then choose,” said the voice of all three.
Lucy pushed back her chair and stood as dying grey sunlight beamed in through the greasy windows. She walked slowly to the three doors. Glowing bright white light etched its way around each door frame.
She was expecting something dramatic, some final tell from the three-fold figure. However, as she turned to look, the shimmering figure vanished. She was alone.
Maybe Talbot would come back to reveal a final truth? The faun did not burst through a window. Conscience? There was no one inside her head to guide her. Dad? No spectral voice came to her aid.
Lucy stood alone, a little girl, scared, on the edge of adulthood. A little girl with a teardrop scar beneath her right eye. She stood and chose. A perfect choice.
Lucy smiled joyfully. It was finally over. She walked up to the door and pushed it, bright, wonderfully warm light burst from within. Lucy bathed in its glory for just a moment; then, she walked through into the reality she had chosen.
Why is a raven like a writing desk?
From Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carol, 1865
About the Author
Chris Meekings is a brand new author. He lives in the city of Gloucester in the UK. If you’d ever been to Gloucester, you’d understand why he sits inside and makes things up.
His work has recently appeared on Bizarro Central’s Flash Fiction Friday. His bizarro novella Elephant Vice was recently released as part of the New Bizarro Authors Series.
Chris is delighted that Ravens and Writing Desks, his first full novel, has found a home at Omnium Gatherum. It took him eleven years to write it. Please be kind.
Table of Contents
Ravens and Writing Desks
Chapter 1 Lucy Gayle
Chapter 2 The Old Man with the Amethyst Key
Chapter 3 The Wizened Legs of William Jacks
Chapter 4 Through the Door
Chapter 5 Lost and Alone
Chapter 6 Schism
Chapter 7 Talbot and the Elder on the Wheel
Chapter 8 Tears and Tears
Chapter 9 Attacked in The Woods
Chapter 10 The Elixir of Memory
Chapter 11 Bestia Sanctus
Chapter 12 The Idleness of Nonsense
Chapter 13 St. Anthony’s
Chapter 14 Walrus
Chapter 15 The Riddling Box
Chapter 16 Riddles and Fire
Chapter 17 Locked Away
Chapter 18 The Forge
Chapter 19 The Land of the Snippets and Nids
Chapter 20 The Statues of Cleverness
Chapter 21 The Little Girl in the Blood-Red Cape
Chapter 22 The House of Cards
Chapter 23 The Tin Woodsman
Chapter 24 The Liquorice House
Chapter 25 Moonlight Supper
Chapter 26 A Knight on the Plains
Chapter 27 Up and Up
Chapter 28 At the Falls of Wanda
Chapter 29 The End of the Rainbow
About the Author
Ravens and Writing Desks: A Metaphysical Fantasy Page 39
