Writer's Journey

  Her mother had repeated the story several times already, yet it never lost its appeal. Although she knew every little detail of this tale, the gleam in the narrator’s eyes and the excited gestures brought it new life every time. Even as a child, she asked her mother to tell her the story of her eighteenth birthday every night before bed. Kiara had grown up believing that receiving her letter on her eighteenth birthday would be a magical moment. After all, she had heard many times now about how her mother had found out about the man she would marry, her now-husband, through the letter from the future. Every time her parents glanced at each other, she saw their love soften their glances and warm their expressions. If the letter could give her mother such a wonderful blessing, what could it give Kiara? Everyone knew that a letter would reach their mailbox on their eighteenth birthday, addressed to them from their future selves. Sometimes, it was written from a mere few weeks in adva...

  The first time Dahlia used the pen, she felt terrified. It was unnatural, abnormal, for anything like that to be able to occur in a world she previously believed worked according to certain fixed rules. She locked the horrifying item away in her attic, far away from her and any prying eyes. The second time was only months later. She had been on the brink of bankruptcy, and the novel she had spent nearly two years perfecting had been rejected by every publishing house she had submitted her manuscript to. The fresh college graduate was penniless, in heaps of student debt, and had really needed the money from a successful publishing to be able to pay off her mother’s hospital bills. So, in a moment of desperation, her mind flashed to the creepy pen in her dusty, abandoned attic. The writing utensil stuck to her fingers the moment she touched it, nearly leaping from where it lay as though longing to be used. A shiver ran down Dahlia’s spine as the cool metal touched her skin. It felt...