What I Thought Was There

Maybe Part 1?

I glared down at the blank piece of paper in front of me with a grimace. All these images in my mind yet no way to write it out.

“Honey, stop working and come hang out with me for a little while.” Her cold hands wrapped around me.” Maybe we could go out to eat. I hear that the Saturn Sunday Diner has very delicious brunch options.”

I circled my chair around and saw no one was there. After rubbing my temples, I got up and walked around. I felt like I was losing my mind. I lived alone and tentacle women didn’t exist, right?

Returning to my writing desk after grabbing a quick bite to eat from the fridge, which only contained expired milk and yogurt, I got back to work with a new kind of vigor:

                Fredrick flew halfway across the galaxy, in pursuit of a piece of merchandise that he was hired to find. Weeks of planet hopping and asking known merchants what they knew, he ended up on the planet of Pluto. The planet was most known for the Crystal City, which wasn’t made of crystal but ice, that was located at the most northern part of the planet.

                The city was ran by a royal family of blue, humanoid-like people known as Tentallions. They lived within the Ice Palace that towered in the center of the city. The marketplace was just outside the Ice Palace’s walls. That was where Fredrick began his search. However, it was interrupted when the city’s bells rang out, alerting everyone to an incoming snow storm. Pluto had windy blizzards like Earth had rain. There were days when it was freezing yet calm, and other days when it was even more freezing with winds over 160 mph and next to no visibility.

                The only place he could take shelter before the storm hit was a nearby antique shop that was ran by an old ladycat.

                “Can I help you find something, dearie?” She croaked from behind a counter at the far corner of the store. The wind outside was picking up, making it harder to hear so Fredrick moved further into the store.

                “I just needed shelter from the storm. How long do they usually last?” He had to raise his voice so she could hear him over the noise of the winds.

                She seemed to giggle, “An outsider, heh? They can last anywhere from a few minutes to a few days. Let us hope that it isn’t the latter.”

                “Yeah, let’s hope. Since I’m here, have you seen this?” He pulled out a picture of a crimson red diamond circlet with gold plating.

                The old catlady took the photo and studied it with her narrowed eyes, stroking her whiskers.

                “Ah, this piece is just purrfect. I may have seen such an item around the streets recently.” She replied. He was very familiar with how intelligence gathering worked and, luckily, he could just write it off as a Galactic Tax Write Off. He pulled out his wallet and slid a 100 dollar bill across the counter. A grin crossed her face and her paw fell down on the dollar pull. “Yes, I remember it purrfectly now. A gentleman sold it to the Royal family just yesterday.”

                Fredrick thought about this for a second. “Thank you for your help. You have a nice day.”

                “You’re going out into the blizzard, human?” She asked with a glimmer of playfulness behind her eyes.

                “I have an errand to run.” He pulled a pair of goggles and a face mask from one of his many pockets and put them on, then pulling his hoodie over his head.

                He exited the shop and immediately felt the power of the wind against him. With one hand, he grabbed on to a pole just outside the shop and, with the other, reached down and clicked a button on both of his boots that allowed his boots to stick to the ground. He slowly made his way across the street to where, he assumed, the Ice Palace walls were.

                After a few minutes, his hands finally felt something solid. He took a pen from his pocket and clicked it, causing a heat laser to come from within the pen. He cut a circle into the wall and knocked it over, creating a hole in the wall. After he crawled through the wall, he stood up to see a giant palace in front of him. The ground around the palace was deserted like he knew it would be, he figured the guards wouldn’t want to be outside where the blizzard could hit them, which meant that they’d all be inside.

 

I rubbed my eyes and yawned. This world I was creating was so jam packed with action and fantasy. It was better than this boring life.

“Come on, dear, let’s spend a romantic weekend on Haley’s Comet.” An icy hand rubbed his head and shoulders. “You’ve been writing all day. You’re not still writing your memoir, are you?”

Memoir? I wasn’t writing my memoir… was I? My thoughts were foggy and unclear, causing confusion to jolt my body.

“Yes… Haley’s Comet… of course.” I whispered back, my eyes never leaving the words that were on the paper in front of me.

“What are you writing, my love?” She asked, her soft voice right next to my ear causing a chill of relaxation to run down my spine.

“… The first time we met…” I replied.

“On Pluto! Oh, it’s such a romantic story. You were such a bad boy sneaking into the palace during that dreadful snowstorm.” She replied with excitement in her tone.

“Do you think your Father, the King, still wants me dead or can we go over for a family dinner sometime?” I asked. An ice hand slapped me in the shoulder.

“Don’t kid like that, love, you know what happened last time we saw him. He tried to kill you by leaving you in the middle of nowhere in an area infested with Frost Trolls. Terrible… come to think of it, you never did tell me how you got away.” I could feel her intense curiosity and her glare pierce the back of my neck.

A moment of awkward silence passed… and then another. After many moments of the same silence, I turned around. No one was there. Funny. I could’ve sworn I was married to an Ice Princess. Or was I? No. I wasn’t. My character in my story was. At least, that’s what I planned on happening at the very end.

That’s right, my thoughts became just slightly clearer, I lived alone in a studio apartment. Right? I think so.

“Princess, you here?” I called out. Darkness and silence were the only response. It was night time and the only light on was the lamp on the desk where the story was.

Heaving a heavy sigh, I got up and made my way through the darkness until I reached the sofa and lied down. I was exhausted but my mind was in overdrive, trying to make sense of what was real and what wasn’t. Is this was Edgar Allan Poe felt like? No, I don’t think he lost his mind like this.

“Love, you seem so troubled. What’s on your mind?” She asked.

“Oh, nothing, my dear, nothing. Just tricks of the mind.” I replied, unable to see anything except for the same lamp I forgot to turn off.

No, no. It’s all wrong. I’m all alone. I wasn’t in a room with a character I made up, right? Or did I make her up? Maybe I based my character on her? A searing pain introduced itself inside my head, telling me that my brain was overheating and unable to figure out what was real and what wasn’t. Was this it? Was I about to officially dive unwillingly into madness? All I knew was that some whiskey sounded real good at that moment.

Author's Note

Hey, guys. I actually made this story because of a writing prompt.
Prompt: "A writer loses his ability to distinguish reality from the fantastical worlds of his stories."
This was a pretty fun and difficult one for me so, if you guys decide to do this prompt, send me a read request so I can see how you guys did! Good luck!