Passion in the Pages
Chapter 1:
As the clock struck one in the morning, Meggie wished herself a Happy Birthday. It was her eighteenth. She was now an adult, but she had no intention of leaving to go off on my own. For she did not wish to venture out in the world, she wanted to stay in her Aunt Elinor's house, safe within the pages of her books. For they were the only true place she felt happy, now. After the loss of Farid in the last trip into Inkheart, Meggie never felt happy, and that was when she was sixteen. That was two years ago. Her father has tried to make her feel better but noting has worked 'and nothing ever will.' She thought.
As she sat there in her room, Meggie's hands were closed firmly around a copy of Charles Dickens's West Side Story. She thought about the love between the two characters. This story always comforted her for some reason or another but now it was just not working. So she put down the book and got off her bed. Meggie walked slowly over to the window. As she looked out into the fog and rain, she recalled all of her many trips into the book. None of them had ever left someone behind, but this time was different. 'I will never see Farid again' she thought. 'Never!' Meggie started to feel tears working there way into the corners of her eyes. Her gaze flashed back out the window. She blinked. 'Was that a figure in the gloom? Or was it a trick of the light?' Meggie wondered and stared harder into the rain.
A dark figure was moving out of the gloom and coming towards the house. Meggie tried to imagine who would be coming this late at night. As the figure grew closer, she began worried. 'What if I was someone bad? Like those men who burned Elinor's house before?' She tried to imagine what would happen. 'This can't happen again.' As the figure came closer, Meggie rushed down the stairs, to the back door. She watched through the window as the figure came even closer to the house. Then she turned away for a second and he was gone. Meggie got very nervous. 'How could he be right there and then?' she turned away from the door thinking it was just her imagination in the first place. Just as she reached the table, the door slammed open. Wind and rain gushed in along with the dark figure. His hair was slicked to his face and water was running off his trench coat. 'He' for it was definitely a 'he' as she now realized. He stood tall about 6' tall but he was skinny, not more than 135 lbs. She couldn't make out his face nor who he was.
As Meggie stood there he moved towards her. "Meggie" he said. "You must help me. Please." And with that last statement he fell to the ground. Meggie rushed to him and tried to wake him. As she pulled his hood back it reveled and a strong and handsome face. He looked like someone she knew but she couldn't place him. Meggie picked up his head and held it in her lap. 'Who was this stranger? And why do I feel like I know him?' she thought to herself. Meggie then pulled his hood all the way off and to her surprise his hair spilled out. It was a dark ginger color that matched the pale hairs growing around his chin. His hair was long and jagged, just like….like… "Dustfinger?" she said slowly as she turned his head to see the three long scars on the side of his face. "Is it you?" she said. With her last word his eyes flashed open and his hand grasped Meggie's wrist.
"Meggie" he said again, slowly. He lifted his head up and with a bit of force through the pain he sat up with a wince. "You must help me." He said again. Yes, this man looked like Dustfinger but he was too young, the scars were there and all but it just couldn't be him. "Who are you?" she asked him as she backed away slowly. He smiles as much as he could, through his pain. "Meggie, my dear you know who I am, but if you cannot see do to my age I do not blame you." He said to her. "Dustfinger?" she asked again hesitantly. "Yes, Meggie it's me, but this is me twenty years before you meet me. I am 21 years of age now and I am in desperate need of your help." He finished leaving her in shock. "Come now Meggie say you believe me. I can tell in your eyes you are glad to see me, but I need your help, now so we don't have time to chat." He stood and helped her to her feet. "Come on" he said as he turned to the door. But before he could reach it he fell to the floor again. Meggie rushed to his side. "Dustfinger? Your hurt, were is the wound?" she asked him. Meggie was not sure if there was anything she could do but she'd try her best.
Meggie turned him over on the floor to see blood coming through a gash on his forearm. The blood was draining fast and the wound was deep. She couldn't wake her father, so she rushed to the medicine draw and pulled out a needle and tread. Meggie rushed back to Dustfinger's side and pulled off his coat to reveal strong thin arms and a sturdy chest. Meggie clean the wound with disinfectant and then began to close the wound. "This may hurt" she told him, but he just smile at her through the pain. "You are an angel of a girl, Meggie, you truly are." She blushed at his comment and continued her work. 'Why am I blushing?' she thought. 'This man is old enough to be my father.' 'But, not now.' A voice in the back of her head said. Meggie shook the thought away and finished her work. The wound was clean and sown up well. "There," she said to him "finished." Dustfinger looked up at her again, his silver grey eyes staring into Meggie's. "You're an angel, Meggie. Now come on it's time to go. We must get back as soon as possible." With that Dustfinger stood up more slowly this time and grabbed her hand. He started to pull Meggie to the door and two feet from it she can to her scenes. "Wait!" she said. "I can't. I don't know what you're planning on doing. Where are we going?" Meggie asked him. "Come on Meggie. You know me, trust me. This will be good for you. I need your help." He threw Meggie, her jacket and pulled her out the door.
They were far away by the time the sun rose, and Meggie knew that her father would be awakening any moment to come and wish her a 'Happy birthday' only to find her missing. As Dustfinger continued to pull her through the woods of the Inkworld, Meggie wondered for the first time, what she was about to get herself into. And how she played into what Dustfinger was planning.