The Ghost of the Wicked Crow

Ian Wilder and Penelope Archer are matched puzzle pieces across an infinite, jigsaw universe. They just don't know it yet. For now, they muddle about their high school lives in Alton, Minnesota, only to race home and plunge into the fantastic worlds of their imaginations. From western shootouts with kooky outlaws or surviving a horde of alien zombies aboard a space station, their stories have always been their real lives. They spend every free moment in the outgrown treehouse adjoining their neighboring yards. There, under dull glow of dying flashlights, Ian scribbles the words and Penelope paints the worlds. It was only a matter of time before they kiss, before they embrace each other under the sleeping bags of that old treehouse. And as they fall farther in love, something changes. Penelope grows distant. Troubled. Bad dreams and unforgiving worry wrack her mind. And then, the unthinkable. A brain hemorrhage. And she's gone. Ian cracks. Catatonia sets in. He has never known a day without her. But that's her in the coffin. Soon, his reality blends with his unhinged imagination and he spirals downward. At his lowest moment, a strange, otherworldly substitute teacher named Steve breaks through the clutter with a revelation. Penelope didn't die. She was murdered by an inter-dimensional assassin. And if Ian doesn't help him, other alternate versions of Penelope could perish as well. Ian takes stock. Here, in his world, he's alone. His words without her images. But if this odd man is right, he could see her again. He could save her. He could feel love again. But at what cost? His sanity? The normalcy of a life without her. Ian ventures off with Steve to another reality, a world teeming with blood-thirsty pirates, to reclaim a sliver of the Penelope he has lost.