Euri wandered aimlessly through the strip-mall of Death thinking how odd it was. It wasn't the first thought that came to your mind when strip mall and Deb U were used in the same sentence. No matter, this would be very interesting. Now which death to choose... can't drive stick shift so the track is out, just finished re-reading A Tale of Two Cities so no to the Guillotine, elevator too messy, but the vampires were very tempting...
She stopped suddenly at the poison booth. Now here was a classic Agatha Christie way to go. Yeah, this would do nicely.
Seeming delighted at a new customer the gruesome gal behind the table gleefully displayed several bottles. An inhalant perhaps? No, what was the point of poison if you didn't drink it? Hmm, cyanide,arsenic, clorox, draino, strychnine... strychnine? That suddenly hit target so to speak and Euri knew that it was the one she needed. But just to drink the poison? Hmm, what if we lace it with something else.
In searching around for a more interesting additive, Euri glanced down at the book in her hand- 'The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge'.
"Could you give it to me with a good dash of opium?" Euri asked suddenly more excited. With strychnine heightning her sensory awareness and the bit of opium this would be worth a journal entry when she was finally restored.
A nod and a wink was the only answer needed. Cradling the vial in her hand Euri felt her hand tremble. Here finally she could have the chance to discover the missing section of this poem that had haunted her for years. Without a thought she downed the entire contents and felt her body go limp as her mind whirled away...
'In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree..' And there it was. A beautiful palace whose lovely gardens ran down to the shores of the Alf just before it entered the enigmatic caverns surrounding the vision of peace.
Euri heaved a sigh of fulfillment. Soon very soon she would see the land of vanished vision and verse. A very jerky hiccup didn't sway her sight from the lovely damsel with the dulcimer playing a sweet melody. Another hard hiccup, and again.
The damsel turned to her no longer sweet, but dressed in black and red and shaking a large orange flamingo at her. "She's the one! She ruined the game! Off with her head!"
Before Euri could protest a very large Dodo bird was pushing her from behind and telling her that she was late for the Lobster Quadrille. "But, but, I don't want to dance," Euri sputtered and hiccuped again.
Pushing the bird away, she tripped over many oysters out for a walk with a walrus. "It's better to walk,' they advised. 'The Jabberwocky only chases those that run.' Maybe it's best to hide. But when the rabbit and the funny man in the large hat tried to stuff her in a teacup, they found she simply wouldn't fit. They gave up when they heard a loud roar behind them.
Without looking back Euri ran deciding that the oysters likely weren't the best ones to give advice. But the thunderous footsteps came nearer. Euri almost couldn't run anymore. The hiccups were making it so hard. They were more like convulsions and they began to get more violent. They hit the hardest just as the Jabberwocky grasped her about the middle and squeezed, its breath hot in her face. Another violent jerking convulsion and Euri's sight and mind turned black. But just before she could have sworn that she saw a bodiless cat smiling right at her.... So much for Xanadu.
~The Shade of Euri
|