Author's Note: In case you missed the posts explaining what this is all about, a few years ago, some friends and I decided to create a list of writing prompts where our original characters "visited" other books. Seeing as the resulting stories were too much fun to let languish on my hard drive, I've dusted them off to share on my blog :)
Enjoy!
Much love,
Saffron Amatti xx
Lucas swore under his breath. 'More fog and gloom?' he asked me, sounding rather peeved.
'It's Scotland. What do you expect?' said Clara, looking rather marvellous in her Medieval dress. 'Now, come along, there's a good boy. Go kill the King.'
'Do what?' cried Lucas, backing away from her in horror. 'I can't do that! King Henry and I have been friends for years - and he's your brother.'
'Yes,' said Lady Clara patiently. 'But this way I'll get to be Queen, instead of that drippy Queen Debbie, and that sounds like a lot more fun than just being Lady in come draughty castle in Inverness.'
'Clara, I've never seen this side of you before,' said Lucas, sounding horrified. 'I'm not sure I like it.'
Clara sighed, gave me a sideways glance - or tried to, as I'm not really in this scene - and whispered, 'Come along, Lucas, you know how it works. Everything gets reset tomorrow, like none of this ever happened.'
'But I'll know,' he argued. 'Even if Henry doesn't remember, I'll remember sticking the knife into him, and all the blood -' He shuddered, turning a little pale. 'The blood! I'll never be able to get that out of my head.'
'Do you want me to do it, MacRathbone?' she said cheerfully, hefting the dagger thoughtfully. 'I'm sure I could.'
'No,' he snapped, taking the knife from her. 'No one is killing anyone, and that's that.'
'But it's a Shakespeare play,' complained Clara. 'There's always lots of murder in those.'
'Yes, and it always ends badly,' said Lucas, sheathing the dagger in his sock. 'So, no murder in this one. Got it?'
Clara grumbled, but was soon distracted by the arrival of Tommy, who is taking the role of Banquo today.
'Hullo,' he said cheerfully. 'Why the long faces?'
'Clara wants me to kill Henry so I can be king instead,' said Lucas. 'Have you ever heard anything more ridiculous?'
'You mean other than all the other things those weird women on the moor were saying?' said Tomquo.
'Did you tell her about that?' hissed Lucas, advancing on the interloper angrily. He glanced over his shoulder at Clara. 'She was never like this before...'
Tomquo shrugged. 'I thought she had a right to know she was going to be queen.'
'And as you know, I'm a very impatient woman,' said Clara. 'So hop to it, darling. Off you go.'
Lucas looked miserably between them. 'I can’t do it,' he moaned. 'It'll only cause another ghost, and I don't want to deal with any more of those. Certainly not Henry. You know how he takes offence at things. He's bound to be offended by being murdered.'
'Who wouldn't be?' said Tomquo cheerfully. 'But if t'were done, t'were best done quickly, and all that, so...'
He gave MacRathbone an encouraging look, and Lucas glanced miserably between him and Lady Clara.
'But, but,' he said. 'I can't kill anyone! I feel guilty killing wasps.'
'That is bad,' said Tomquo. 'Wasps are evil little gits and deserve everything they get. Look,' he added kindly. 'If you like, I'll go kill the King - but you do realise this means I'll be king instead.'
'Fine by me,' said Lucas. 'Although really, I'd rather you not kill Henry.'
'Sorry, can't hear you,' said Tomquo, scurrying down the spiral staircase. 'See you later, peasants.'
'We're still nobles,' yelled Lucas, for what good it'd do.
Thank you so much for reading! If you'd like to see the chaos crew in their own books (rather than hijacking classic works of literature), you can find them here :)