The room around him was replaced with a vast blackness. "Still an improvement, I guess." he said aloud.

The blackness faded slowly, being replaced by a dark room. Dust drifted through the air tickling his nose, and the only light came in through a gap in the paper covering a window. The other windows, however, were all completely covered. It seemed anything that could have been used to block out the windows had been.

A woman in a torn and stained dress was leaning over a stack of papers, her blond hair falling over her face. She hadn't seemed to have noticed him yet. "He should have been here by now." she said to herself. She looks kind of familiar he thought.

The dust tickled Ben's nose until he couldn't hold back any more. "Achoo!"

The woman jumped from her chair and cursed. It was in the brief moment that she stood up and looked him in the eye that he realized he knew her. Or, more precisely, had read about her. "Asheyna."

He knew the room as well. This was where the story Free Your Mind had started. But this certainly hadn't happened. Gwen had come in and -

At that moment the door burst open, and in came none other but the Gwen he had always pictured in his mind.

Asheyna ran past her out the door, yelling something he didn't understand. And then, they were both gone and he was left alone in the old room. "That definitely wasn't how the story happened." he muttered under his breath.

He ran outside to see if he could find them. When there was no trace, he tried to remember what happened next. Ok, Dark and Robyn come in and have news. But if that was going to happen, it would have already. Something is very, very wrong.

The sound of a struggle outside the window caught his attention. "Private Addams to control. We've just apprehended two Protagonists, and Captain Grey is pursuing another one. They're headed toward Main Street."

I messed up big time.

RATE THIS CHAPTER!

Author guidance for This story

It is an old leather bound book of mysterious powers. It is a dynamic guide to creative writing. And it is also a portal to the world of the imagination. The first character to be introduced is Ben. He finds the book at the back of his cluttered closet. The book demonstrates its powers by transporting Ben into another world. But he doesn't realize that this initial magic was not just a demonstration. Because from now on, every story he reads will swallow him whole... And, what better place to be swallowed whole then on this very site?--On Protagonize, where the stories are brimming with powerful imagery and enveloping plots. On Protagonize, where hundreds of authors collaborate to create a good time for the casual reader, and one tremendus adventure for the reader who is swallowed whole.

updated Nov 17 '08 by olius_brightwell