Copyright – Alastair Forbes
This Photo Prompt came from Alastair’s Photo Fiction.
Tom held the bottle up to the light. There was only a small amount of Madam Scott’s solution left. He flicked the light switch and got into bed before opening the bottle. Bracing himself, he forced the last of the viscous potion down his throat. He only just had time to put the bottle down before he started feeling unimaginably heavy.
In his dreams, Tom was always a spectator. He watched himself as he found the old diary in a cardboard box that had appeared in his living room. The diary grew and he was swallowed by it.
Now he was in the thicket he’d often walked through as a youth. The trees looked larger; their branches reached across seemingly impossible distances. The leaves were such a dark green they were almost black. They whispered to each other. They knew that Tom did not belong here.
The girl who was waiting for Tom thought differently.
To Be A Magician 
Oooh. I likey
I’m not sure how you would have liked the gin-soaked version. About eighty characters were devoted to how cheese causes bad dreams.
HAHAHAHA 😀
That’s just a more direct form of tyromancy, methinks. (There are only bad things in our futures.)
Very-well described and the supernatural fits well. PS…another challenge..pls join! http://yepirategunn.weebly.com/2/post/2013/06/ligo-haibun-challenge-1406-2106.html#.Ub8P2flM_c8
Thanks, I’ll take a look. Haikus scare me a little bit though.
I understand, best regards – no rules on the haiku!
here’s this week’s! http://www.yakutia-coppercure.co.uk/haibun.html#.UcTFl_lM_c9
Was perhaps the girl, Madam Scott? I like how the book swallowed him. I imagine that he had read an old diary and became smitten with the woman who wrote it…maybe not Madam Scott after all.
Thanks for stopping by my story.
I originally imagined that the old diary was his. He’d lost it, and it was only in a dream he could get it back.
The girl I couldn’t figure out. Is she just a memory, or can they communicate through this magic?
I think of two movies; niether where I can remember the titles, one a guy and the other a gal through dreams go back in time. The gal more or less willed her present self to death to live in the past. Her ‘present’ husband, after her death found paintings of her in the attic with a necklace that he had given her…
All sorts of twists and plays with this one – have fun if you should choose to continue it.
Looks like ‘Madam Scott’s solution’ opens up roads untravelled by most
Madam Scott can make many wondrous solutions. She’s favoured by the Lords and Ladies. 😉
Very cool. There have been many times in my life when I wanted a potion like that. A very cool concept and great story.