For your reading pleasure....

I had an urge this evening to go through one of the boxes under my bed.  I tend to be a bit of a nostalgic pack rat-- I hate getting rid of things that could potentially possibly at some point in the future remind me of that time I did that thing with that person.  I have managed to pare my hoard down to two medium-size rubbermaid boxes that fit under my bed.  I pulled one of those out just to remind myself of what was in it and see if there was anything I could finally let go of.

I have to say, I refound some pretty special stuff. 

Like this gem (oh Rachael, I hope you read this), vintage 2004.  Double points if anyone can tell what on earth we were thinking.

PEYES Case File One (or, "Watch Out for that Iceberg")

By Agatha Holmes [aka the brilliant and beautiful Bethany Casey and Rachael Soyk]

A Good Old-Fashioned Serial

First Installment--

It was a normal day in the office.  Not that any day is normal, mind you... not for the PEYES.  (That's Police Investigators, for the uninformed.  We decided against going into the private sector, seeing as how this way we have the FBI, CIA, and those dudes in the black suits and dark shades at our beck and call. Someday we'll figure out who they are and when we do, we'll take a nice long vacation in the Caribbean, where we'll drink all the rum.  And the rum will be gone.)  But we digress... something we plan to do quite frequently.

It was a normal day in the office.  Then it happened!  One of those dudes in the black suits and dark shades walked in, slamming the door behind him.  He didn't take off his glasses, regardless of the fact that the office was ridiculously dim, being lit only by a single candle.  (We forgot to pay the electric bill, having been in attendance at the King of Denmark's wedding.  Charming affair, that.)  But we digress.... again.

He pulled a plain manilla envelope out of his jacket and tossed it onto the desk in front of us.  We opened it.  Inside were some black and white photos.  The first was of an unremarkable looking older man with close set eyes.  He looked oddly familiar, but we couldn't think why.  The second was of a large ocean liner with the word, "Titanic" written across the side.  The third was of a friendly looking sea-captain.  The fourth was of a strange figure, cloaked and riding some sort of disturbing creature.  It reminded us of a certain pink dragon thing that befriended a little boy. (Very cuddly looking, unlike the disturbing creature.)  But we digress yet again.

The fifth photo was of the captain again, this time dressed in kingly robes and not looking quite so friendly.  The sixth (and thankfully, the final) photo was the strangest by far.  Six hundred sixty-six wooly mammoths were shoving huge chunks of ice into a frigid looking ocean.  (We also noted a little squirrel carrying an armload of nuts, not realizing he was about to step into the ocean.  Maybe he hadn't seen the light.  Can I hear an hallelujah?)  Again we digress.

We looked at the man in the black suit and ridiculous dark shades for an explanation.  He began, "The King has just been slain by the Fell Beast.  The King is also this captain, in a parallel universe.  We have reason to believe that something dreadful may happen to this ocean liner.  The captain must die within twenty-four hours or time and space will be torn apart and everything we know will cease to exist."  He pointed to the first picture.  "A rogue agent of the CIA, Jack Bristow, has taken it upon himself to ensure the captain's demise.  He, with the help of these 666 wooly mammoths, is setting a trap for the ocean liner, The Titanic.  Using technology acquired from the Russian Mafia he will guide at least one of these icebergs into the path of the Titanic.  Unfortunately, we disagree with his methods.  It is your job to find the captain and warn him so that he can avoid the icebergs.  Get going.  You have a lot of work to do.

To be continued. . . . 

Of course, the story never resolved. Really, though, we set our main characters up for failure (yes, I'll give it away--the Titanic did sink), so it couldn't have had a very satisfying ending.