Read My Shorts

Under London

London has always been a city of hidden things. This is even more true of those areas below the ground, and the places where even rats fear to tread harbour a far deeper past than just playing host to Churchill's drunken ramblings during World War 2. What London is built upon is mostly London; the bits of London nobody wants or cares about, the bits of odd things and old beliefs, things no longer held dear or cherished, and darkness... there's always the darkness.

And the darkness has always held more than the mere absence of light. Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is something you should run away from rather than obediently following the parallel steel rails to your doom.

The old ways never went away, they merely moved further away from the light.

Do you want to pay homage little man? Are your fantasies and dreams leading you down the rusting steel paths where locomotives once ran into the oxbows of underground London? Does Morpheus await your pale offering of obeisance and blood? Or will you stand looking back at the light with terror staining your shoes and bile creeping into your throat? For once you venture into the area known as Under London, your soul will be forever changed and your view of the petty human ants crawling through the streets above on their mindless quest for money and power will be forever changed.

Here there is real power and only here can your true potential be realised. Come, join us in darkness and become the man you wish to be. Follow the rails, follow your heart, and join your brethren in the darkness beyond the light.

The power is there to be taken: take the step, and allow your Morpheus dreams to come true.

~

I'd forgotten about this little piece of oddity until I found it tucked away on a pen-drive. It seems appropriate to post it now though as I've recently returned from a lovely trip to London where I spent time on a school visit working with the students at Heartlands School in Wood Green with the most excellent TaranMatharu, friend and great writer, and then met up with some of the Ambassadors to whom this chapter is dedicated. 

Talking to students about writing and seeing their enthusiasm, invention and ideas is a wonderful thing, and I always love talking to writers, or those who're interested in storytelling. And of course meeting some of my team in person is utterly invaluable. Spending a few hours with lovely people like me2you804, wrightstory, FinnyH, and jewel1307 made for a truly excellent morning. 

London is a fascinating city. It moves too fast for me, but I like to confuse Londoners by stopping and looking at things which always seems to worry people who're bustling along to a meeting or event. I even spent a happy hour or so talking to an old Liverpudlian guy in a pub while I was whiling away a little time before my evening meal. 

It's a city of little nooks and crannies, a city of old and new, and a place where you never know quite what's around the next corner. And if the darker side of your imagination talks hold it's a city where anything could be lurking or watching from the shadows, or the high places, or the hidden corners, or in an old pub...