'Sup?

I can't believe it's been a year and a half since I got on here. Anybody miss me?

...

Right.

Anyway, I've been working on this for a while (got bored with my other story-that's right, I only have one other story on here) and finally got it up for public ripping-to-shreds. It deserves it, by the way.

This is just a crazy idea I had and wrote down...enjoy!

KylerM

P.S. The title bar for some reason paired my characters and it looks like I'm getting Meggie and Edward together...*gag*...so not happening.

THE ACCIDENT

Meggie closed her eyes and let the world melt around her. She suppressed the strange, alien instinct she felt traveling between worlds. The Inkworld had disappeared in tendrils and now swirled inside Meggie's head. She kept her eyes tightly shut and her hand locked around the anchor to her world. Her soul mate squeezed her hand as the spinning Meggie felt faded to a rocking, then yielded to firm ground.

"Open your eyes, Meggie," Doria's voice whispered in her ear. "We're here."

Meggie blinked and stared at the familiar setting of Elinor's house. It was just as she remembered it.

"Oh, heavens! Look at how dusty the place has gotten," Elinor's brisk voice cut through the slightly surreal moment of arriving back in Italy. "Oh, my poor books!"

"I'll tend to them, Elinor." Mo, always the calm one. "But I will need some help. Meggie? Luc?"

"Me! Me!" Luc jumped up and down, tugging at his father's hand. "I want to help!"

"I've got a job for the two of us," Darius said quietly, putting his arm around Luc. "Your sister and Doria can help Mortimer."

"I will leave you all to it," Elinor was already heading upstairs to her room. "I am headed to the bookstore in town. There has probably been a new Pride and Prejudice written in the last year."

"Could I tag along?" Resa removed her traveling cloak. "I do believe we need some groceries."

"Meggie?" Doria held out his hand. "The library?"

Meggie laughed breathlessly. "Just let me get changed."

...

As Meggie headed upstairs, she could still hear her brother's high voice bouncing shrilly off the walls. Luc. He had been born in the Inkworld and had never come here until he was three. That was when Mo and Fenoglio had come up with the brilliant plan. Elinor had become increasingly worried about her books, still in their original world. Fenoglio had written them two pieces to read aloud: one to journey to Italy and one to return to the Inkworld. Every year, for one month, the whole family, Mo, Resa, Meggie, Doria, Luc, Elinor, and Darius would live in Elinor's house on the lake, tidy up, add to Elinor's book collection, and update on what was happening in the world.

"If a third world war breaks out, I would like to hear about it," Elinor had remarked. "No use not knowing."

Meggie closed the door to her room and took off her dress. She found a jumper and a pair of pants in one of her drawers. Then she untied her hair and let it fall down around her shoulders. As she turned to leave, her eyes happened to fall on her bed. There was a small scorch mark on the bedspread. Meggie walked over to the bed and touched the mark, her head swimming with memories.

When she and her first love, Farid, had ventured into the Inkworld, fire-elves had come out to replace them, so Mo had said. Now there was a small black burn mark on the sheet where one of the elves had briefly settled. Meggie closed her eyes again and fingered the worn blanket. Six years, she thought. Nearly six years since we left. Meggie was going to be nineteen in a few months, and Luc was five and a half. Fenoglio, the creator of the whole Inkworld, was now practically bedridden, though he continued to write and tell stories. Mo was still reserved about using his talent of reading aloud; Meggie usually read them to Italy and back.

When Luc was born, Mo's and Resa's worst fear was that he would be what Dustfinger called a Silvertongue. But he had read aloud many times with nothing happening.

Although he more closely resembled his father, Luc was closer to his mother. Both of them dreamt of flying as birds, as Resa had eaten the shape-shifting seeds known as Little Death when she was pregnant, which had turned her into a swift. Resa sometimes truly slipped into her feathers while she slept, but Luc only dreamt.

There was a quiet tap on Meggie's door. Doria. Meggie smiled slightly and rose from the bed. Time to get to work.

...

Meggie reached up and took another stack of books from Doria. He stood perched on a rickety ladder against Elinor's towering bookshelves, wielding a feather duster to clean the books, then pulling them off the shelves to hand to Meggie, who stood on the floor. His wavy brown hair was brushed back neatly, and he wore a striped jumper and a pair of denim pants. Meggie chuckled to herself. Doria had never gotten accustomed to wearing the clothes of this world, and Meggie could never get habituated seeing them on him. She carried the heavy stack of eighteenth century science journals to the table where Mo sat, struggling to see around her badly balanced load. As she plunked them on the table, she wiped sweat off her forehead. Mo glanced up and handed her a handkerchief, to which she smiled in thanks.

Meggie exhaled deeply. She'd been feeling slightly clammy all afternoon, but no one had noticed yet. They probably thought she was too delicate to be carrying around all those books. If she was ill, she at least wanted to wait until Elinor returned with new books before making a fuss.

Mo took the book on the top of the stack and gently leafed through it to make sure it didn't need repair. After he inspected it, Mo passed the book on to Luc and Darius, who marked it off on the inventory and prepared to put it back in its proper place.

"Hello! Everyone!" Elinor was back. She paraded into her sacred library, surveying the work approvingly before approaching Meggie. "I have the most wonderful book for you," she said in a half whisper. She reached into the bag she was carrying and pulled out a black-bound book. "Twilight," she hissed in a sinister tone. "It's about vampires. An American wrote it, but I've been told it's a wonderful love story."

Meggie gingerly took the book. Ever since she and her family had lived in the Inkworld, Meggie tended to avoid fantasy books. But there were no vampires in the Inkworld, so perhaps she would read it. Just then a wave of heat flushed her face and she was reminded of what she'd planned on saying.

"Elinor," she began. "I've been feeling slightly feverish all day. I think I may have come down with something."

"Oh, dear," Elinor sighed as she felt Meggie's forehead. "Have these musty books given you a bug? How naughty of them."

It turned out Meggie had a fever and a cough, and she would need to stay in bed for a few days. However, the confines of her bed were incredibly boring. She itched to read something, but she felt dizzy every time she tried to focus on words on a page.

The third day of Meggie's confinement, she woke up to find Elinor's vampire book sitting on her bedside table, with a note from Mo on top: Meggie—Read this, it'll make you feel better.

She lay back in bed as Resa brought her some tea. Luc carried a small bowl of soup in behind his mother. As they turned to leave, Meggie had an inspiration. She didn't feel like reading herself, but she would love to be read to.

"Luc," she called out, her voice slightly rusty. "Could they spare you for a day? I'd like someone to read to me."

Luc looked up at Resa pleadingly. She smiled at him and ruffled his long dark hair. "Please be careful," she said.

He weighed the book in his hands. "It's big," he said apprehensively. "Does it have pictures?"

Meggie smiled weakly. "No. It's all words. But Resa could draw something for you if you like."

Luc shook his head glumly. "I just hoped that there were pictures to make it shorter."

"You don't have to do this," Meggie reminded him. "Resa could—"

"No, I want to read to you," Luc interrupted. "I'm hardly ever allowed."

Meggie smiled tiredly and lay back on her pillows to listen.

Luc opened the book and began the first chapter. "First Sight," he said grandly.

Luc read beautifully for a young boy. He never stumbled over words, never mispronounced anything. Mo always said he had the makings of a town crier.

For several minutes, Meggie listened intently to the storyline. A teenage girl was at a new school, and she noticed a strange boy sitting in the lunchroom. Luc read out the description of the boy dramatically. Meggie wondered faintly if he was a vampire.

Then she realized how caught up in the story she was. She couldn't stop listening to her brother's voice. There had been a fly in the room, buzzing quite annoyingly, but Meggie didn't even notice it anymore. She smelled a faint scent of food, like the cafeteria at her school, a long time ago. She knew in an instant what was about to happen. It was an instant too late.

"Luc!" she shouted, trying to resist the magic of his voice. "Luc! Stop reading!"

CUT! Just at the moment of climax! Gee, I WONDER who got read out... (It's really obvious.)

I named the kid Luc after Doria's friend who dies in Inkdeath. Saves me the trouble of making up some totally weird name that everybody hates. (If you're wondering, just pronounce it Luke. I don't care if it's right; it works for me.)

By the way, I don't write stories because I'm an aspiring writer and want to improve my skills, but I'd love constructive criticism anyway... ;)

Thank you for reading KylerM.