Professor Layton: Love In All Adversities

A Delicate Lie

Bonus chapter!!!

I thought I would share with you a short story I began for Clive about his time in prison. Originally, I wanted to expand this out into a longer story dealing with many psychological issues, though someone else has beaten me to the chase. As many authors say, however, just because someone else has written a similar idea to you before, it does not mean it should dishearten you and make you abandon your project. Did you know, around twenty years ago, a story about young witches and wizards in a school was published and Harry Potter came out some time after, though no one can say that just because they have similar premises, they are the same story or stealing. Maybe J.K. Rowling knew about it, or maybe not. Even so, it wouldn't have dissuaded her from telling the story she wanted to tell.

So that means I could have gone ahead, making my story about his time in prison my own. But with the ridiculously busy year I've had, and the other projects I've been working on, I discarded the story and decided to let it fade away. That is until, an eager fan messaged me wanting to know when the next story is out. I had no thoughts of the next book coming out soon as I really have been too busy and preoccupied with other projects. The problem is, you can't just dive into a beloved franchise, create your own works based off that universe and gain a following, and then abandon it. (Well, if you're a nice person that is. And I am.)

Here lies the short story, finished and edited which gives a glimpse into Clive and his reasoning for turning on the Professor in 'Love in All Adversities'. It may be quite short, but hopefully you like it. Be sure to check out a new Layton journey 'Angel's Prophecy', out now, and the upcoming short story collection I have in the works!

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He showed me a true kindness, and that has kept me going. Through it all.

The days were rough, and at times I thought perhaps that I'd never make it out of here sane. Trying to destroy London does put one in the bad books, under London's most dangerous, for a very long time.

So it is that I have spent the months rotting away behind bars. Well, I shouldn't say rotting. It's all been rather fun. Dodging the hairy, greasy whale-sized men as they try to squish me beneath their posterior. Eating mush that was more akin to crumpets left in the mouth of a little Yorkshire-Terrier for two weeks and then spat out on the pavement to be trampled on by no less than five-hundred people. But I digress.

Despite the constant misery surrounding this place, as thick as the air itself, something else has consumed me just as rigorously as all that. It's... Well, there's no beating around the bush, so they say.

It's the guilt.

Despite his words that soothed me so, the Professor's trademark wisdom had done little to set me at ease in the long run. Life was a puzzle; one the Professor could solve. I just... didn't fit into the equation. I was a discarded piece, not to know my true place. That's what had kept me awake many a night these days. So what if I have to take a little beating, and eat slop? The troubles of the mind are a far more potent threat in the long run.

I have a thirst for puzzles, true, but really what I want more than anything right now is to be out of here. To taste freedom in the air and feel... alive. I want to find a purpose for myself. People need those these days. I had one. It didn't really suit me. You know, the whole act of revenge and the criminal business. Ghastly stuff, really.

I suppose what would truly bring me contentment, what would rekindle a fire inside me would be to take my place at the Professor's side. I used to think that was such a terrible thing. I was foolish. Once upon a time I looked up to the man in the top hat, comforting me when I lost everything.