Paper Ambush

A sudden, violent twitch launched me straight onto the wooden study desk, landing dead center on a sprawling, open sketchbook. There it was—a dense crowd of black ballpoint stick figures sketched across the white pages: Sticktopia. Not a sound escaped my frozen, gaping mouth. In one abrupt jerk, I whipped my paddle high into the air and brought it slamming down with a flat thud. The wide blade pinned three inked figures to the paper, creasing the page beneath the strike. I locked my thin limbs rigid against the paper, refusing to yield an inch as the desk went still.