Coming this August! The Accidental Detective is back! A brief excerpt from “And So It Begins,” with much appreciation to J. Michael Straczynski, who himself created a modern classic!
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Shutting the Bat Phone, Shepherd laid it on the desk before sagging back to bed. Slipping his CPAP mask over his face and turning out the light, Shepherd laid back, content with his decision.
This time he slid gently into the world of dreams.
***
He was standing on the flank of a great, somnolent volcano, the summit arcing far above his head into a sapphire sky. Below his feet, magnificently broken mountains tumbled away.
A full, rich female voice caught his ear. Turning, he saw a woman in a gray robe looking out over the grand vista, her feet lost in a raging sea of colorful wildflowers. Her face was shrouded under the robe’s hood, yet, somehow, Shepherd knew she was speaking to him.
“From birth, through death and renewal, you must put aside old things, old fears, old lives,” The woman said, the rich tones of her smooth voice dancing in the clear alpine air, “This is your death, the death of flesh, the death of pain, the death of yesterday.”
She held out her hand, proffering something in her grasp. Shepherd tried to see her face, but the eternal folds of her hood prevented him from observing her features.
Sighing, he extended his hand to her. She placed something long and cold in his palm. Looking down, he saw she’d handed him a magnifying glass mounted on a curved piece of elk antler that served as a handle.
Turning, she gazed out to the horizon, “And so, it begins.”
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Copyright 2022, Nathanael Miller. All rights reserved.
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