Wild Fiction

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The author raised a hand to his face to cover a smile as he realised that it was he who had made Conrad crush the ladybird. Rebecca, he had decided, was his prize and not Conrad’s.
Conrad looked hurt. ‘I’m sorry, I was just trying to follow instructions.’
Rebecca moved herself to the edge of the bed and tucked in her Tshirt. Conrad broke the short silence that followed. ‘Are you okay Becky?’ he said moving forward and examining the cut above her eye that had started to swell.
‘Re-be-cca,’ she said enunciating each syllable of her name. ‘Yes, I think I’m fine now, but I must have fainted. I don’t remember coming here.’
The author explained what had happened but only got as far as the moving bookshelf. Conrad’s eyes lit up as he headed straight for the door. The others followed him into the study to see the hole in the wall. Conrad lit a match and held it into the darkness.
‘Go down the stairs,’ James said.
‘There aren’t any,’ Conrad replied. ‘That would be too predictable. There’s a narrow corridor that runs behind the rest of the bookshelves.’
The match went out and Conrad emerged from the hole with cobwebs clinging to his hair and shirt.
‘We need a torch,’ he said. The author pulled one out of his pocket and gave it to Conrad. The three fictionals stood still and stared at him.
‘Don’t you think that’s a little contrived?’ Rebecca asked. ‘We need a torch and suddenly there’s one in your pocket. Wouldn’t it be a bit more realistic if you “scurried off to your desk and rummaged around in the drawers before producing one”?’
The author flushed red. ‘It’s done now, just get on with it.’
They followed Conrad into the secret passage and watched while he shone the torch along the walls into the corners. To their disappointment it was empty. Not even rat droppings could be found. They backed out dejected that nothing had been found.
‘Damn,’ James said. ‘I thought that was just the break we were looking for.’
‘Break for what?’ the author asked.
‘To get the story moving again,’ he replied.
They stood there examining the way the bookshelf opened to reveal this secret passage and found the trigger mechanism that Rebecca must have leant against. At the author’s insistence they closed it up again and helped him replace the books.
The author returned to work and Conrad and James took Rebecca into the garden.

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