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I pointed to the name ¨C Darren Shan ¨C scrawled across the front of the top copy, then toit, I let him see the date and the first few lines, then flicked forward to where it described my visit to the Cirque Du Freak and what had happened When he’d read the part where I told about watching Steve from the balcony, I pointed up and shook my head hard

"Oh," Mr Tall chuckled "I see Evanna not only saved your soul &uave the old you his normal life back"

I smiled, pleased he finally understood I closed the diary, tapped the cover, then offered the books to hiain This time he took them

"Your plan is clear to me now," he said softly "You want the world to know of this, but not yet You are right &u the hounds of chaos But if it’s released later, around the time when you died, it could affect only the present and the future"

Mr Tall’s hands moved very swiftly and the diaries disappeared "I will keep theht," he said "Then I will send them to who? An author? A publisher? The person you have become?"

I nodded quickly when he said that

"Very well," he said "I cannot say what he will do with these &uht consider them a hoax, or not understand what you want of him ¨C but I’ll do as you request" He started to close the door, then paused "In this time, of course, I do not know you, and now that you have reinal timeline, I never shall But I sense ere friends" He put out a hand and we shook Mr Tall only very rarely shook hands "Good luck to you, friend," he whispered "Good luck to us all" Then he quickly broke contact and closed the door, leaving me to retire, find a nice quiet spot where I could be alone ¨C and die

I nohy Evanna co to do with books He doesn’t pay attention to novels or other works of fiction If,and publishes a series of books about vampires, Mr Tiny won’t know about it His attention will be focused elsewhere The books will coh vampires aren’t avid readers, ill surely trickle back to them

As the War of the Scars coe a new era of peace, my diaries will ¨C with the luck of the vampires ¨C hit book shops around the world Vampires and vampaneze will be able to read my story (or have it read to them if they’re illiterate) They’ll discover ined They’ll see precisely how much of a meddler he really is, and learn of his plans for a desolate future world Are, and united by the birth of Evanna’s children, I’ether and do all they can to stop hirown Darren Shan I don’t iine he’ll add any notes or instructions of his own ¨C he dare not meddle with the past in that way It’s possible the adult me will dismiss the diaries, write the with the me the way I do (now that sounds weird!), I think, once he’s read them, he’ll take them at face value I like to believe I always had an open mind

If the adult me reads the diaries all the way to the end, and believes they’re real, he’ll knohat to do Rewrite them, fiddle with the names so as not to draelcome attention to the real people involved, rework the facts into a story, cut out the duller entries, fictionalize it a bit, create an action-packed adventure And then, when he’s done all that &uent and publisher Pretend it’s a work of fantasy Get it published Promote it hard Sell it to as many countries as he can, to spread the word and increase the chances of the story capturing the attention of va realistic? There’s a big difference between a diary and a novel Will the human Darren Shan have the ability to draw readers in and spin a tale which keeps the enough to attract the attention of the children of the night? I don’t knoas pretty good at writing stories when I was younger, but there’s no way of knohat I’ll be like when I grow up Maybe I won’t read any more Maybe I won’t want to or be able to write

But I’ve got to hope for the best Freed froIf the luck of the vampires is really with me (with us) maybe that Darren will becoe to him That would be perfect, if he was already an author He could put the story of et on riting his own stuff, and nobody ¨C except those actually involved in the War of the Scars ¨C would ever know the difference

Maybe I’ But it could happen I’s have taken place So I say: Go for it, Darren! Follow your dreams Take your ideas and run with the for you up ahead if you do, with the weirdest, twistiest story you’ve ever heard Words have the power to alter the future and change the world I think, together, we can find the right words I can even, now that I think about it, suggest a first line for the book, to start you out on the long and winding road, perhaps so the lines of, "I’ve always been fascinated by spiders"