"Fountain Pen of Dreams" by Evie Chan: September 2024 Runner Up

“Dad,

It’s been a while. Where are you? Mom says that you’re gone. That you’ve gone off somewhere far, far away. Please come back, Dad. I miss you.

Arthur”

The fountain pen was put down. The little letter was scrunched up into a ball. And the boy had drifted off to bed as these words of desire sat there on his table.

With that, his eyelids slid down, bearing the weight of a thousand words left unsaid.

A faint glow disrupted his sleep. As the little boy struggled to open his eyes, a clatter of sound attracted his attention. There was nothing there. Could he be dreaming?

Just then, the light returned. It was as if someone had captured the moon’s gentle glow and bottled it up. The boy’s curiosity overweighed his fear. He inched closer to the light source and at that moment something happened that he could hardly believe himself.

His fountain pen was held upright with not so much as a gust of wind to grip it. And shining with the might of every star in the sky was the luminous, golden ink that filled this magic-like pen. He had never seen anything like it.

The boy’s eyes glistened with childlike wonder as he stared at the pen, floating just off the ground. Slowly, the nib of the pen touched the floor. It traced a circle around the room, getting faster and faster and faster. Until it had lit up the whole room with light and sparks.

He stood at the brink of the ring, slack-jawed as the floor had started to disappear. In its place was a void, stretching and clawing its way into his room. An abyss that was filled with nothing but the swallowing darkness of space. As it reached its way to the edge, it stopped.

Blinding white light burst out from the hole, reaching across the room and engulfing everything in sight. The boy shielded his eyes from the intense glare. The light faded as a silhouette appeared. There stood a man that some would call a miracle, some would call a monster and the little boy would call...

“Dad.”