At first the light was blinding, and we stumbled about with our eyes squeezed shut. What a sorry bunch we must have looked after all that time—disheveled, disoriented, most of us gibbering like fools. But I knew the importance of making a good first impression. Squaring my shoulders and shooting my dingy cuffs, I put on my broadest smile and stepped forward to greet the startled young woman.
“Please forgive our appearance,” I began. “We’ve been locked away forever, and all this will take some getting used to! But I’m forgetting myself. My name’s Plague. And you must be Pandora!”
~~~
Grove Koger works as an adjunct reference librarian at Albertsons Library, Boise State University. He is the author of a survey of travel literature, When the Going Was Good (Scarecrow Press, 2002), and has published short fiction in Death Head Grin, Phantasmacore, Bewildering Stories, Eternal Haunted Summer, Lacuna, and Scareship.
