Inspired by the Inkheart trilogy.

It was a Wednesday. Just a regular, old, boring Wednesday. There’s hardly anything spectacular about a Wednesday. It’s a very neutral day, being right in the middle of the week. So why did it happen on a Wednesday? Curse my bad luck.

I don’t know what I did. Perhaps I did something wrong. Perhaps I offended the Gods. Perhaps it was just Fate and her cruel ways.

I scratched my horned marten behind his ears while I opened and closed a matchbox with one hand absent-mindedly. People walked past me in a blur, often throwing me more than one curious glance. They knew I didn’t belong here. One of those monsters belching black smoke roared past me. I hardly noticed. It didn’t bother me anymore, as it first did when I came here.

Here. Into this world. I spat on the ground. It was nothing like mine. My world was filled with leaves that glowed red as fire, fire-elves, the water-nymphs that healed the scars on my face, the huge trees towering to the sky with leaf canopies that stretched on and on, my beautiful wife and daughter…

A sharp pain shot across my chest and a short gasp escaped my lips. I clutched at my heart, doubling over and dropping the matchbox. The matches spilled out. A sick feeling rose up in my throat as the pavement before me blurred. How I longed to be back in my world, away from all these people and all this dirt and grime that filled the streets.

I took a few steady breaths and bent down to pick my matches up. My marten leaped from my shoulders and onto the ground, next to my hand. He barred his teeth at me.

“There now, Gwin. Steady,” I murmured reassuringly to him, picking him up lightly and placing him back in my rucksack. I gathered the matches up. I struck it and watched the flame as it danced before my eyes. The fire in this world didn’t speak. It never had. Unlike the fire in my world.

I sighed, and closing my eyes, popped the flame into my mouth. Fire was so easy to tame. It no longer bit me. I stayed in that position for some time, leaning against a wall, my head tilted to the sky with my eyes closed and my hands holding the bundle of matches loosely.

I opened my eyes. Night was falling. I guess I might as well start. I took out my cassette recorder and starting lighting torches for my fire performance when I heard a voice. Or more specifically, a name.

“Capricorn.”

I froze, my hand in mid-strike of lighting a match. And suddenly, he was beside me. I whirled around and quickly backed away, fear making its way across my heart. It was him. Basta. The man who scarred my face.

“Basta. What do you want?” I snarled, sounding braver than I felt.

“Ah, Dustfinger. Always the same. Including that face of yours,” he sneered. The shadows cast by the torches danced across his face, making him look all the more sinister.

“And I see you’re still wearing your rabbit charm. Trust me, it won’t protect you from the devils in this world. They’d get you, sooner or later.”

Basta’s eyes flared. He grabbed me by the collar and pulled me right to his face, his other hand already straying to his belt, to his knife. “You trying to curse me? Try that again and you’ll get another three scars to match the ones already on your face.”

I shuddered and bit back a response.

He glared at me for a moment longer before releasing me roughly. He turned around sharply. “Capricorn is interested to know the whereabouts of Silvertongue. He thinks you might know.”

Silvertongue? I grimaced. I never wanted to see his face ever again. He who spoke the words. He who brought me here into this world. He who refused to return me to my world.

“Why would I know? I’m just a fire-eater.”

Basta looked at me from over his shoulder. “You have your sources. And we know you’re very reliable, aren’t you? Capricorn has the book. He says if you can get Silvertongue, he might be able to read you back.”

My heart skipped a beat. Capricorn has the book? I swallowed, hardly daring to believe my ears. “I…can return?”

“Why, yes,” Basta smiled nastily. “But first, bring Silvertongue. You know where our village is.”

And just as swiftly, he disappeared into the night. I was left with my marten sneaking out of my rucksack and a suddenly empty street.

Home. I can go home.

It was a Wednesday when it happened. Basta had been once again, shaking me by the collar for insulting his superstitious ways and Capricorn stood behind him, an amused expression on his face. And then we heard a crackling noise, and suddenly we were in a room. I saw two other faces, a man and a toddler. Their faces were full of bewilderment and fear. Basta was the first to react. He threw me to the ground roughly and tried to draw his sword, but it fell from his grasp. Capricorn looked around and staggered. Even my head was spinning. Capricorn started cursing the man, but the man picked up Basta’s fallen sword and forced them out. The man left the room and I managed to get to my feet. When he came back in, he had blood running down his arm. I was terrified. I pleaded for my life. But he seemed to know all about me. A magician, I had thought.

It was the day that changed my life. And now I had to go back to him. That magician with the accursed voice. Silvertongue.

I packed my belongings, tickled Gwin behind the ears and got ready to track down Silvertongue.

“Home,” I said aloud. It sounded sweet to my ears. I hoisted my rucksack up. My life was about to change again.