feste_thejester

“I winced as he pushed the dagger harder into my flesh and I felt a small trickle of blood slide down my neck. "Okay, okay, th-the truth is my name is Elizabeth Burrough. I'm from twenty-first century America. I have no idea how I got here. All I know is I fell asleep reading my favourite book - _this_ book - and when I woke up, I was inside of it. You, Stone, William, Lord Gallagher, all of you - you're all characters from the book. _That's_ how I know everything that's going to happen, _that's_ why I keep telling you I don't belong here, and _that's_ why I insist that you hurry to the deck before William loses his balance and goes flying over the railing where he'll be swallowed by a whale." I stared at him, breathing hard. _Please, don't hurt me._

He was silent for a moment as if he couldn't tell whether I was joking or not. His eyes burned into mine. I couldn't read the expression on his face and had no clue what the next words out of his mouth would be. Finally, he said, "There are no whales here this time of year.”
― Ashley Tropea, Missing in the Pages

“I am surely not the only writer who has the distinct sense that every sentence I write is surrounded by the ghosts of the sentences I could have written at that point, but didn't.”
― Philip Pullman

“But then he paused. Hesitated a moment, his feet shifting forward and then stopping a few times, before he finally faced me once more. Very quietly - so quietly I almost missed it - he said, "I wasn't going to make fun of you, Elizabeth."
Then he walked away, leaving me staring after him in stunned silence as the carriage rolled away.”
― Ashley Tropea, Missing in the Pages

“With furrowed brows, I obeyed, repeating his words in the poshest English accent I could muster. "Just give it a go."
His whole body locked up and he looked as if he'd seen a ghost. Swallowing hard, he nodded and glanced out the window. "Perfect.”
― Ashley Tropea, Missing in the Pages