Tell the Story to Its End by Simon P. Clark

Author:Simon P. Clark
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466874640
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

THIRTEEN

‘Look out of the window,’ he says. I look. The forest, the road, the sky, the moon. All hazy and far away. ‘Could you tell me what they look like, in such detail, in such vivid colour that I could paint them, and not be a hair off reality?’

‘What? No … how could I ever remember…?’

‘Could you tell me what your face looks like? You’ve had it long enough, ugly mug that it is! How big is your nose, how far from your mouth?’

‘I don’t get—’

‘I know you don’t, puddle,’ he says. ‘Is it this hard for you people? Details ain’t what matter. I tell you there’s a moon, you imagine a moon. You make up the way it looks ’cause you know what a moon looks like.’

‘Telling a story – hearing a story – is like making up your own…?’ I say. He nods for a moment, then points out the window again. A grey cloud spreading over a grey sky.

‘That’s all yours,’ he says. ‘You made it, even if you can’t tell me right now what a moon flippin’ looks like.’

‘I didn’t make this, Eren, we’re—’

‘Where are we?’ His voice is hard, a knife cutting through the darkness and the cold.

‘We’re in the loft,’ I say.

‘Then tell me this, if we really are still there: how many panes of glass make up that window?’

Turning, I frown and start to count. One, two, three, then across the top and … No. I must have stopped paying attention. One, two, then at the side there are one, two, four and then … my eyes are slipping away from the corners. I can’t focus on how many edges the window has. I try to force myself to touch them one by one, but it seems so impossible, so ridiculous. I can’t see where the window starts and stops.

‘We left this place a while back,’ says Eren, putting a hand on my shoulder. I shiver. ‘You’ve done a good job on making this new ’un, this new world, but you’re trying to count something that isn’t there, boy. Whispers and dreams and shows. Nothing here is real, any more, nothing here is solid and countable. Do you know where we are, boy?’

I can’t believe him. I try to run, away from him, away from here, down to the house, but the floor, grey and bare, isn’t moving even though I’m running. The window behind me is throwing dead light into the corners of the room, so near, so far away, and then gone. I can’t leave.

‘What is this?’ I shout. A flutter of wings and shadow move in the space in front of me and Eren is standing over me, wrapped in velvet and silence.

‘You know where we is, boy!’ he says, a high laugh curling his lips. ‘We’re in your story, now.’

We’re in your story, now.

He’s in my story.

It’s all a story.

How long have I been here?

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