Wish Granted

by Peter James West

  The Kletch realises that the man is speaking - making sounds to share his thoughts. The sounds he makes are deep, almost familiar, and they come in short bursts, intertwined in a rhythmic tone. The sounds are forming words.

  'Oh Clarence, you know I have no wish for parlour games,' Katherine says.

  The man - Clarence - laughs and sweeps Katherine up into his arms, kissing her flat pink face until her lacy hat is askew and her flapping arms have surrendered into his embrace. She smells of roses. Her hair is thick and rich, rolling across her narrow shoulders like a waterfall.

  'You know your father does not approve of me,' he says.

  Katherine shines. Her smile fills the park with wonder. 'My father does not approve of any man who would court his daughter. If I were to bring home the King of England he would still find fault.'

  'And will you?'

  Katherine laughs and slaps her lace gloves against his chest. As the trees sway in a light summer breeze, the two link arms and walk onwards through the park. An angry grey squirrel glowers at their impertinence while gripping a fresh nut between its paws, and the couple laugh as they make their way around it. They walk in silence for a time, enjoying each other's company. They savour the clean fresh air and enjoy the warmth of the sun. Clarence swings his uncle's cane by his side as he walks, the silver fox head handle feeling solid beneath his hand.

  'Why must you go Clarence?'

  Clarence pulls her closer and whispers into her pale white ear. 'I must. You know this is a wonderful opportunity. My Uncle's expedition will be incredible.'

  'And what of me? Will you find an African woman to take to your bed?'

  Clarence laughs. 'Oh Katherine, you know I shall not. My heart belongs to you. I shall be gone for just one year -'

  'A year! You speak of a single year, and yet does it not contain so many lonesome days?'

  'Ah, my love. It does. But each day will make us stronger, so that when I return... '

  Katherine stops walking and turns to face him with excitement in her eyes. 'When you return...?'

  'Nothing.' Clarence walks a few more steps as though he hasn't noticed her excitement, but she soon catches up with him, her small hands beating on his chest with mock anger.

  'Do not tease me sir. Perhaps I shall send my father for the King of England after all.'

  Clarence laughs and pulls her close for another kiss, and when they are done he finds the courage to say what he had intended all along. 'When I return from my Uncle's expedition, we shall be married, Katherine.'

  Katherine leaps and squeaks and wraps her arms around his neck. 'Can it really be so?'

  'I shall have to ask your father, of course, but when I return from my Uncle's hunt, he will see me with new eyes. You will see that it is true.'

  She smiles a deep smile and holds him for a long time.

  A group of children scurry past, singing a song about the burning bridges of London and giggling at the sight of them holding each other, but Clarence doesn't care. He is in a world of bliss.

  'Does it have to be Africa?' Katherine asks. 'Could your Uncle not forge an expedition to Europe? Somewhere closer, so that you could return in... in a month?'

  'A month! Why it will take longer than a month to reach Africa. Europe would not be the same, my dear. Africa is a wild and distant place full of creatures that you cannot imagine. To journey there is the only way to push ourselves to new limits.'

  'But why?'

  Clarence holds one finger to her lips, requesting her patience. 'I am young, Katherine. My Uncle has provided me with this wonderful opportunity to prove myself. When I return, I will be able to take any position I please. Clarence the explorer and hunter of wild beasts! Who will turn down such stories as I shall possess?'

  Katherine gazes into his eyes but he can see that she still doesn't understand why he has to go.

  'Oh Katherine. Africa is full of beasts you would not believe. Have you not seen the paintings in my Uncle's study? I have to see these creatures for myself. I wish I had the power of a lion, and the speed of a cheetah. I wish I could leap like a gazelle! Oh what it would be to be strong and powerful - to be the mightiest beast of them all.'

  'But Africa is so far away.'

  Clarence shakes his head. 'I am an explorer, Katherine. Had I the chance, I would journey to the Moon itself!' He lifts his silver fox head cane and points it at the matching silver crescent of the Moon.

  'Go if you must,' Katherine says, 'but I wish you had not the mouth to say such things.'

  Clarence gasps. He feels a pain in his chest. He knows at once that something isn't right. The cane vibrates in his hand. He lowers it, watching the fox's smiling face glowing white hot against the night. When he tries to drop the cane, he finds that his fingers refuse to let go. The Moon bulges in the sky above, and his hand rises against his will until the Moon and the fox head shine together with a vehemence that fills his heart with fear. He stumbles forwards into a strange black void that has opened up before him. The summer's warmth vanishes at once, replaced by a bitter cold that leaves no room for comfort. His thin arms contort in agony, rippling with the sprawling muscles of some strange beast. His back bends low, and his knees crunch as the joints reverse to pivot backwards instead of forwards. Clarence cries out in pain and despair. He doesn't know what has happened, but even his voice sounds wrong in the eternal blackness of the void. His words sound like an alien roar that fades as his ears seal over with a thick grey skin. His mouth closes also, and his nose is lost under a rough grey hide like a rhinoceros. Powerful strands of muscle bulge from his once slender neck, and long black talons extend from his grey, swollen fists. Clarence shudders in agony, tumbling onwards through the void, all sounds diminishing until there is nothing left but the blackness that will surround him for evermore. He finds himself shivering on grey rock, sprawled out beneath an unforgiving black sky.

  Clarence crouches as he has always done, gazing through golden eyes at the beautiful white swirls that cover the earth's verdant lands and sapphire oceans. He remembers how, when he had first found himself alone on the moon, there had been a voice - some malevolent force that had laughed at his tireless pleas to be returned to Katherine. The voice had never shown itself to be a physical presence, but it had been real - for a time. It hadn't stayed long. Its foul deed done through the sickness of the fox head cane, it had mocked his wild wishes and granted them with equal glee.

  As he gazes up at the blue globe of the earth, he realises that it has always been too far away to see the beasts of Africa, or to watch the people walking in the parks. His golden eyes had never been strong enough to see the woman who had loved him. He could never have seen more than a few swirls of cloud covering the continents and oceans beneath. All his visions had been glimpses of his own lost memories. They had been locked away by mental walls that he had built up over centuries of madness and solitude. Those same walls now came tumbling down upon him like boulders from the sky.

  When he had first been abandoned, he had beaten his huge grey fists into the ground with mindless frustration. His anger had formed crater after crater of crumbling soft dust. After centuries of torment, he had forgotten where the craters had come from. He had visited a new crater each day, believing it to be somewhere new, where he had never been before. Travelling in an endless journey to nowhere, he had followed an endless path across the surface of the rock-strewn Moon. The voice had been absent for many years, but in his solitude, Clarence had held onto it, making it anew within himself so that he wouldn't have to feel so utterly alone. He knew now that he had always been alone. How long had it been since he had last stood on the earth? The time must be measured in centuries, not days or years. Everyone he had ever known would be long since dead. Even Katherine - dear Katherine would no longer exist. He had asked her to wait a year, but in the end, she had waited a lifetime.

  What use was his own ageless existence? What good was his power now? It all meant nothing to him now that his memory had returned.
His powerful muscles hung useless as he crouched in alone in the crater. His sharp black talons could do nothing but leave pointless tracks in the dust. Clarence Kletchly stretched the thick muscles in his neck as he pounded grey rocks to dust with hopeless swollen fists. He gazed up at the blue globe of the earth as it sank behind the crater's edge, and watched the sun following in its path until there was nothing left but an orange glow across the darkening horizon. When the blackness returned, he didn't close his eyes to protect them against the savage cold. Neither did he flex his muscles to keep his blood from freezing. He sat in the crater and thought of Katherine as his mind became numb.

  After many hours, when the sun returned for the next lunar day, Clarence Kletchly crouched dead in his crater, his moist golden eyes staring out from a featureless grey face. In the distance, came the sounds of laughter.

  'Wish granted.'

  Information Cloud

  Tales of Cinnamon City - #1

  Click to find out more...

  Information Cloud began as a draft novella in 2004 and after many rewrites, it became the first novel in the science fiction series, 'Tales of Cinnamon City'.

  The citizens of Cinnamon City grow restless under the Dome Shield. The Security Forces are stretched to breaking point. Major Rachel Henson feels like something is changing inside her, but she doesn't want to face the truth even though her strange new abilities grow stronger day by day.

  In the South, the Kamari are raising an army to challenge Central Command, and the Battle of Havers Compound is about to begin. Lord Hades fears that technology will be the end of man, but he is powerless to stop the factions of the Orange Zone from fighting each other. The race is on to create ever more disturbing machines to win yet another war. In his dreams, Lord Hades fears the coming of the Second Black Day.

  Is there any hope for the future for the Orange Zone? Will Rachel learn to accept what she must become?

  Find out now in Information Cloud, book one in the Tales of Cinnamon City.

  Central Command

  Tales of Cinnamon City - #2

  Click to find out more...

  Rachel has been severely injured. After a short coma, she wakes up under mysterious circumstances and recovers much faster than anyone had expected. She works hard to recover her fitness, and when she returns to Central Command, she finds that Admiral Gail Thompson has been exiled. General Alexander Markov has arrived to take her place.

  Markov has a great task ahead of him. He must undo the damage that Thompson has caused, and work out which commanders he can trust. Meanwhile, Cinnamon City thrives and the merchants prosper, but the Guilds are as restless as always. They continue their protests and demand to see the Council Of Lords. When their prayers are answered, they discover just how little they know about their absent masters.

  Rachel hunts down Kamari bases, and tries to understand the Implants. Strange things keep happening to her and she doesn't understand why. Henry Willow wants to help her but she isn't ready for what he has to say. Only Lord Hades knows the true situation and the price of listening to him may be too great to bear. Time is running out for all of them. The War Lords are coming.

  What has happened to the Council of Lords? Why is Jacob talking to his dead brother? Will Rachel ever face the truth about what she has become?

  Find out now in Central Command, book two in the science fiction series, 'Tales of Cinnamon City'.

  Beast Hunter

  (Dark Fantasy Short Story)

  Click to find out more...

  Ralph Pearce has been in Bane Forest once before, and ever since that day his dreams have been tormented by a creature that invades his mind to torment him.

  When the townspeople plead with Ralph, insisting he go back into the forest, he refuses, but the Beast will not leave him alone.

  Soon, he finds himself back in the place he fears the most. Heaven help his soul.

  New Releases

  If you would like to be notified when Peter releases new books, please email peterjameswest@sciencefictionextra.com with the word 'news' as the subject line. Your email will not be used for any purpose other than to provide updates about new books by Peter James West.

  The Author

  Peter James West is a British author who was born and raised in the seaside town of Scarborough, England. Writing since 2003, he has rediscovered the world of fiction and has worked on a number of manuscripts across the genres of science fiction, horror and psychological thrillers.

  In his student days, Peter achieved a first class honours degree in artificial intelligence at the University of Essex and has had a keen interest in science, psychology and music for many years.

  He was married in India and now lives with his wife in London, where the trains break down with the regularity of an atomic clock.

  Peter looks forward to creating many more characters and stories. He hopes that some of those characters will be taken into your hearts and remembered long after the author is forgotten.

  Reviews make a real difference. If you enjoy this book, please spread the word and leave a review.

  You can contact the author at:

  peterjameswest@sciencefictionextra.com

  Follow Peter's blog for regular updates at:

  www.ScienceFictionExtra.com

  With Thanks

  Many thanks to my wife, Uma, for her patience and support while I am lost in the long hours of fiction writing and editing.

  A big thank you to Tony Chandler for helping me see the wood from the trees.

  A big thank you to you, the reader, and to all those amazing people who leave reviews and ratings on Amazon, GoodReads, LibraryThing and blogs all across the Internet.

  Keep spreading the good word!

  Disclaimer

  All characters in this publication are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, companies or organisations, living, dead, past or present is purely coincidental.

  Wish Granted

  Dark Fantasy Short Story

  Copyright © Peter James West 2014

  Published by: Peter James West

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  Cover artwork Copyright © Peter James West

  Find out more or contact the author at the following URL.

  http://www.sciencefictionextra.com

  peterjameswest@sciencefictionextra.com

  Table of Contents

  Wish Granted

  Wish Granted

  Information Cloud

  Tales of Cinnamon City - #1

  Central Command

  Tales of Cinnamon City - #2

  Beast Hunter

  (Dark Fantasy Short Story)

  New Releases

  The Author

  With Thanks

  Disclaimer

  Wish Granted

  Dark Fantasy Short Story