Last Train to Parthenia

Short story, 22 pages approximately. Unhappily married, Bob Johnson has taken a night job working on the inner-city circle of StateRail, Sydney. He is a man who has always sought escape from reality in sword and sorcery magazines. His great favourite is the writer, Robert E Howard, ill fated author of the Conan novels. One night Johnson finds a pewter bracelet on the railway tracks. He decides to keep it, regarding as a lucky talismanâ€"an amulet. A few nights later, while at work, he is hit by a train. In the last seven minutes of his life, before his brain shuts down, he imagines that, through the magic power of the amulet, he has been transported to the mythical kingdom of Parthenia, a romantic world full of broadswords, intrigue and glamorous women. 7,350 words.