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The Letter

Billy · 2008-02-15T11:03:32Z

***Prologue to a story I thought of in school, tell me what you think.*** The Letter There was a letter, and it was on his desk. Harry didn’t know what it was doing there, or who had put it there. Just a typical envelope: white, plain and bearing a stamp in the upper right corner. Everything seemed to be in order. The letter was addressed to him, but also marked: ‘Do not open under any circumstance.’ It seemed to be a joke: some prank by a friend of his designed with a single, annoying purpose. The letter, especially its slogan, presented him with something of an ultimatum: follow the instructions, and never find out what was inside the letter; or open the letter and release whatever nasty surprise had been left for him. But what if , Harry thought, What if the letter isn’t a joke? What if it has something that someone wants me to read, but at the same time doesn’t want me to read? He sat back in his chair, watching the letter with a mixture of suspicion and glee. The thing was a riddle. He reached out to it, then frowned, drawing his hand away. He couldn’t eliminate the possibility of the letter being left there as part of a trick. Harry picked up the envelope carefully, turning it over and looking at the back. No ‘Return to Sender’ address. He weighed it in one hand, though there was no hint of anything other than a sheet of paper inside it. Putting the letter back down on the desk, he bent forward to study it. He looked at his nails. They were bitten down as far as they could be. He bit them anyway. I suppose this letter could be seen as a test , Harry thought, A test of curiosity, that is. It might contain nothing at all, just the simple knowledge that I failed. Maybe I should just put it away and forget it, or run it through the shredder. But then I would fail the quest for knowledge, and it could be important. I seem to be in two minds about this. Harry glanced at the shredder. No, that was a much too violent way of dealing with this problem. He turned to his cupboard, looking at the highest shelf. He could see dust gathering on it. He looked back at the letter. It seemed to stare back at him. He slammed his fist down on the desk, making the letter shiver with the rest of his things. Why does this have to be so hard? It’s just a freakin’ letter, for Christ’s sake! He picked it up and reached for the short side marked ‘Easy Open.’ The he tossed the letter back onto the desk. Harry stood up and paced the room, watching the letter, half-expecting it to do something. He stopped, watching it. This is stupid. It’s an inanimate object, it’s not going to do anything. What are letters made for? To be opened and read. Well then , He thought, That is what I shall do. He picked up the letter and grasped the ‘Easy Open’ tab, hesitating for a moment. A feeling of anticipation mixed with nervousness grew, hanging in the air. He ripped the letter open, then dropped it as if it were something hot. It lay on the floor, the sheet of paper inside peeping out, like a small child afraid to leave their room for fear of being noticed by a grown-up. He picked up the letter once more and pulled the piece of paper out. It was yellowed, not with age but having been produced that way. The page itself was folded, whatever message written on it hidden from his view. Once again he considered putting the paper away, leaving it to its own devices until such a time that he felt he was truly ready to see what it had to offer. I am ready now, though. If I do not read it now, I will never read it, and I will spend the rest of my life imagining what could have been. Harry took a deep breath and unfolded the paper, screwing his eyes shut as he did with the intention of not ruining the surprise. The sheet had to be fully unfolded before he could bring himself to read it. When it was, he opened his eyes slowly and turned them towards the page. The anticipation swelled in his stomach. He looked at the page with both confusion and curiosity, not understanding either the meaning or the intention behind the single word scrawled in large letters across the centre of the page: Beginning

magiclukehutch

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Tue Jul 08, 2008 10:36 am

magiclukehutch says... · Tue Jul 08, 2008 10:36 am

This was brilliant. A fantastic opening to a great Action/Adventure plot. I can't wait to read more. It had had me gripped the whole time! You could sense how confused Harry was. Well done!

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"The trouble with Borrowing another mind was, you always felt out of place when you got back to your own body, and Granny was the first person ever to read the mind of a building. Now she was feeling big and gritty and full of passages. 'Are you all right?' Granny nodded, and opened her windows. She extended her east and west wings and tried to concentrate on the tiny cup held in her pillars."
— Terry Pratchett, Discworld: Equal Rites

The Letter

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