Jasper lay upon the battered sofa in his rooms. He was alone most of the time, as his room-mate was out at work during the day, teaching children to use semi-colons. His burgundy dressing-gown rubbed at his skin with the coarseness of threads that were unravelling from themselves, and becoming more and more like a ball of yarn every day. He’d been lying there for most of the day, and the pile of paper on which beginnings, middles and ends had been written was getting higher and higher with each passing minute. His wild black hair stuck out in all directions, wavy and smelling strongly of tobacco, as was the whole room. The windows had not been opened for two days, and the smell of stale smoke had begun to become a problem.

Suddenly, a rattling at the door caught his attention, and with gleaming eyes, he leapt up out of his position on the sofa and ran to the door, his dressing-gown struggling to stay together with the force of his movement. A letter had arrived. He scrabbled at the floor in excitement, grasping at the post. His fingers made light work of the envelope, and he discarded it casually on the floor, as he shuddered with anticipation, wanting to learn the news contained within the white page that had been delivered to him. He unfolded the letter, which bore the crest of ‘Rose Literary Agents’ in the header. It read:

He sat down in the living room, on the floor, and re-read the letter. He clicked his tongue, and then heaved himself up. Wandering over to the fireplace, he wondered why his latest book had been rejected by his agents. They’d been pressuring him for months to finish it, and months before that to even start it. He’d told them, quite clearly, that his ‘Angel’ series was over, the main character of which having been detained by the New World Order, seemingly never to re-appear. But Rose and his team of agents had other plans, and demanded that another book was to be written. Jasper had argued that there were no more stories left, and that Dorian Angel had been on his last adventure as the Vampire-Sleuth-Spy-Mercenary that he was. Needless to say, Jasper had tried to write another book, detailing Dorian’s time in prison, and his breakout, letting Dorian roam free once more.