Chapter four: Warning For Another

..Warning For Another..

Yet through all the horror and confusion ran the trail of two clear thoughts: he realized that the first tramp had sneaked at a fast double through the heather and so come down to meet him; and that something heavy was torn from the fastenings that clipped it tight and close beneath his clothes against his body . . .
Abrubtly then the darkness lifted, passed utterly away. He found himself peering into the map he had earlier misplaced, against the signpost. 'Where did I find it?' he appeared shocked. The wind was flapping the corners against his cheek, and he was poring over names that now he saw quite clear. Upon the arms of the signpost above were those he had expected to find, and the map recorded them quite faithfully. Including the compass, all three tallied. All was accurate again and as it should be. He read the name of the town he had meant to make - it was plainly visible in the dusk, two miles the distance given. Bewildered, shaken, unable to think of anything, he stuffed the map and compass into his pocket, the map unfolded and hurried foward like a man who has just awakened from an awful dream that had compressed into a single second all the detailed misery of some prolonged, oppressive nightmare.
He broke into a steady trot that soon became a run; the perspiration poured from him; his legs felt weak,and his breath was difficult to manage. He was only conscious of the overpowering desire to get away as fast as possible from the signpost at the crossroads where the dreadful vision had flashed upon him. For Earzo, a writer on a holiday, had never dreamed of any world of psychic possibilities.
The entire thing was torture. It was worse than a 'cooked' pressure that some conspiracy of writers and publishers proved at his innocent door. He raced as though the countryside ran crying at his heels. And always still ran with him the incredible conviction that none of this was really meant for himself at all. He had overheard the secrets of another. He had taken the warning for another unto himself, and so altered its direction. He had thereby prevented its right delivery. It all shocked him beyond words. It dislocated the machinery of his just and accurate soul. The warning was intended for another, who could not - would not - now receive it.

Reviews

[PyroKitty24]

How weird. I'm not sure what to make of this. I liked it, it was deep, but I wonder what is going on.

[JulieZee]

"He raced as though the countryside ran crying at his heels." I love the fresh new way that you describe things.

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