I present to you a (very) abridged version of my as yet un finished novel,

Shallow grave.

There was me and Ebenezer drawing cards and choosing sides, for he who chose the joker would be the martyr. It was I became the looser in a game no one could win, I had to sail away into forever.

The spirit of the forest said she would sheild my soul, a protection spell to keep malevolence from me.The raven in the sky above, the wolf was close at heel, I knew I had to make it to the mountains.

Ebenezer watched me through his trusty crystal ball, sitting solid on his throne beside the bar. He drank a toast to Liberty, but prayed the Devil took my soul, for he knew I would return and seek my vengance.

Those shamhain nights were cold and lengthy, the snow fell like a mantle, mother nature shivered silently with me. And then I heard those voices sweet, a cry of 'merry meet', and fairies gathered ten fold at my feet.

They took me to their neet abode, beneath the willow tree, there they fed me berries red and sweet, all gathered from the Earths most hallowed forest.

I met the elf king and his subjects, hung on every phrase. He wrode a chariot of gold, andsnails were his horses. Through the night we journied on, forever heading to that pagen dawn.

I felt a shudder down my spine , the joker woke the demons, I heard them cackle deep within my brain.He said I knew i'd faulter cause no mortal man had the might, he said we were to fragile and lacked accord.

And then i felt such wickedness, more shivers down my spine, felt the blood that moves the body running cold. The vampires and the demons who were always on my trail tried once more to hinder in my progres.

I traded tears with Mathusula, a shot gun at my side, serenaded by the holy spirits, I had a ain insid my chest like a owly shalow grave, but death to me was not even an option.

Bealzibub was watching e, like a child, far away, playing in the house of fallen angels. I met the girl who gave her heart, yes Joan of arc herself. She begged me 'never give your heart for no one.'

'Life is such a bitch'. she cried and then the devil took her tongue, left her allalone in fire damnation. The chimes of doom were ringing when her body fell to ground, i tried to tear my eyes out at the sorrow.

The joker stood and laughed at me until I thought that I were dead, and the devil woke the beast that lay within me, for it had been laying dormant there forever and a year, and now at last it rose up from the ashes.

And then, at Imbolc flowers bloomed, the ice at last finaly begins to thaw.But nothing blooms inside my heart, it's dark and vast and tainted. So to my destiny i trudge to seek some resolution.

My journy is nsidious, i feel i'm getting nowhere. I wish i'd been the one to win that card game. If i'd beaten Ebeneezer id be home beside my love, instead of lost amoungst these ever turning pages.

I feast on fruit of bergamot, and sleep with laudanum, the forcefull stag stands proud deep in the forest. And swimming in the babbling brook a shoal of silver fishes, oblivious to life upon the surface.

A mermaid and her hearts desire
a wedding they had planned
i watched them through the looking gass by the wall of falling sand. A unicorn named Galyak bill placed four leaf clover in my hand.

Lady Gadiver on her silver platerd stead, stood powerfull with reverance and glory. Just like the armies of the populace in dark and far flung lands she knew that Ebenezerhad seasled my doom.

The deck of cards lay idle now, the chairs are all uneven. No ale flowed, no tales to be told. Thoufgh the proffits had forseen it, spread the word but people laughed. Now we see them perish in their thousands.

The moon dial told me to be strong, said he could prevail all evil, but Bealzibub was on my trail, waiting for my failiure, but i had no plans to grant him his desire.

In bondage at the Hell mouth all the mortal martyrs stand, blindfold and in manakles of hostage, to a heart without a motive, and a soul withourt a cause, no providence or ethical repose.

Descending spirals i do plumet, feel the fierce ffires my life begins to flash before my eyes. I hear the joker laugh, an evil sneer on his face, i see all the faces i have met.

'I'm falling, falling' now I cry, my place in hell is waiting, Bealzibub has set a place aside. I had such hopes, such plans for life now all my dreams are ended. Lamentation spreads across the land, now broken, baron, brittle, I hear mother Earth call 'why oh why?'

The devil looks upon the Earth, this Hell that we have fashioned, out of gluttony , abhorance and malevolant. He surveyed in all his grandeur what a forcefull hand he had, such an evil demeanor did he carry.

I cried seventeen tear drops as they lay me out to rest, my body full of hate my mind of sorrow, and in the ground they buried me without even a prayer and now i suffer hells eternal fires.

The mirror cracks with faces, people scalded and scorched, by the fires of occultists taking orderswith the scars and scas we gain from life so fragile and unsacred, the dying time is here now beleive me.

The gotic towers soon will crumble, doom mongers revel in it. Those noxious wagging tongues, will break a thousand hearts but Ebenezer, smirk on face stands elated in his house of cards.

I still recall in days gone by, when sunshine shone upon us. In the garden off our off spring, in the play ground of the youth, now the child in the papoose I do pity.

In the morgue cadavers many, lifeless limbless courpses lay,and i this humble man do look arond me, in this hell they call belonging, in this rottting damning hole i abhor this maryrdom thats thrust upon me.

Said Ebenezer 'bow to me, for i am your redeemer'
'No way say I. That i could ever trust you.'
so i prayed for a seance, communique from the humanity i left behind, then two hands reached out for me, a voice called 'this way stranger'. I followed with uncertanty, with fear and trepidation, but tose eyes i saw no seraph could be purer.

And on his door step i did linger, payback now was due, but do i come for justice or just vengence? I hear them sy vengence is sweet, but am i not worth more? Does this make me lesser of a man?

He still feels he will claim the Earth, i can not stand by and watch that, a duel to the death, now i am stronger. At Beltain and the summer smell the wonders of the Earth, i know she's on my side and is my watcher.

I see the giants of mid summers day, paradeing through the town, an air of mystery surrounds them all, and I dream i am in Avalon, and tasting lammas bread, to ensure that my chakras are aligned.

I give word to the deity i'm thankfull to be here, that i made it safely through the dying time. The spirit of the forest who had followed wiccan rede said she knew i'd always make it back to living.

In the arms of my true love we dance beneath the moon, and nobody is ever going to part us. But how can i forget those poor lost souls throughout the world, i wil keep them always in my thoughts.

C. andrew bedell