Day 6

Characters upset with the author.

Rocking back and forth in the weathered chair, I surveyed the small rolling hills outside my cabin as the sun sank below the horizon. The mosquitoes buzzed merrily, looking for their evening meal. I was glad I had already had mine. My lips wrapped around the stogie in my mouth, but I didn’t light it. The doctors warned me that it would cut an end to my already shortened days.

As the rays of the evening sun glanced off the small, brackish pond I kept my koi in, I wondered idly, but without much worry, how many more sunsets I would see.

A soundless explosion in my ears.

My hands flew to my chest.

An enormous weight crushed me, driving me toward the ground. Breaths came in short gasps.

Suddenly, I was back in the hallway of Stonemore High, red lockers and yellow tile floors reflecting fluorescent lights at odd angles. And next to locker 125…

“Otto?” I cried, uncomprehending. It was impossible, but there he was, tall and thin, arms crossed with a sarcastic smirk playing around his lips. He wore a tattered black suit and a red velvet bow-tie, and his complexion accentuated his strong chin and broad cheekbones. Otto stared at me and his smirk widened.

I glanced down at myself.

The hands were smooth and strong, free of knotted veins and wrinkles. I was back in my favorite pair of faded blue jeans, below which were white high-tops. I straightened up and tweaked the seam of my worn leather jacket down off my hip. But that couldn’t be, because that jacket had burned down in the fire.

“Been too long, Ken,” said Otto in the soft, deep voice I had always heard so clearly, like a bell behind my eyes.

“Otto… I… how…” The words couldn’t seem to escape my throat. “How… how are you…here?” I finally choked out.

“Kenneth, I’m surprised. Don’t you remember?” Otto uncrossed his arms and pointed down the hallway, toward Mrs. Gilroy’s classroom. The oak door with the glass pane swung outward moments before the final bell rung, and a young girl in a blood-red sundress came quickly down the hallway, her face blotchy and wet from tears.

“Angela!” someone shouted, and a young boy followed.

A young boy in white high-tops, faded blue jeans and a worn leather jacket.

His pudgy face was contorted in worry. He looked down the hallway, looked right through me, but seemed to take no notice. He saw Angela turning a corner and jogged to catch up with her.

I looked back to Otto. He wasn’t next to the locker, but I saw his thin figure down the hall, turning the same corner. I ran to catch up.

“Otto,” I said, the words coming more easily than they had in years, “I don’t understand! What is going on?”

“You’ll see,” said Otto, a small chuckle in his voice, “I can’t believe you haven’t already.”

Down the hall, the kid had caught up with Angela. Their words were indistinct, but I could see Angela getting more and more agitated. As she brushed hair back around her ears, I felt a long-dead flutter in my stomach come to life.

Then, with a shock, it hit me.

“Son of a…”

Otto turned his face to me, his smile wide. Somehow, though, it didn’t reach his eyes. He looked down at me, searching my eyes.

“That’s when I first thought of her.”

“Selena,” Otto said softly, but the humor had left his face. Otto had always been capricious, and now he glared down at me and crossed his arms. “My Selena.”

I looked up at Otto. His eyes, large and dark, just as I had always imagined them, seemed to glisten slightly.

“Otto… It was… You were…” I said slowly, thinking quickly, but it was pointless.

“Expendable. A fantasy. Just a phantasm in the night.” Otto’s nostrils flared, and he snapped a sudden finger.

The school had vanished. We stood on top of a massive volcano, the glowing magma spitting flames occasionally, and a fierce wind tearing across the barren landscape. Small bits of scrub littered the uneven ground, and the sky was black as soot as a massive storm rolled in. Sulfur burned my lungs, and my pulse quickened, but I had no need to look around. I knew every detail of the landscape, having dreamed every inch almost every night for nearly 14 years. Otto stood next to me, looking across the open chasm at two stick-like figures. They moved gracefully, but the elegant movements were broken by sudden bursts of ugly posture, as though they were having some sort of seizure.

I couldn’t help it. I smiled. This was Mount Dunkall, the same landscape I had spent an entire weeks putting onto paper. I remembered the fitful nights of sleep, the moments I would wake with excitement, only to scribble a few scarce words onto paper and then heave myself back into bed.

“I’m glad you’re excited,” said Otto grimly. His arms were still crossed, but his posture, usually relaxed, was rigid like a statue.

“Otto, we don’t have to stay,” I said, and I suddenly noticed the difference in my voice. With a jolt, I looked down to see the old hands had come back, and the weariness had returned to my limbs. I missed my cane. “We shouldn’t-“

“How long did you know?” asked Otto. “Did you know from the beginning? Or did it come over time?” He stared at me. “Your memories are unclear, you see. Other things,” He said the words with disdain, “took precedence.”

I frowned, a deep resentment building up in my chest at his tone. “Like Angela? Like Charlie and Tiffany?” I paused. “Like Renee?” I said softly, and sniffed. Even now, I couldn’t even say her name without the pain returning.

Otto glowered down at me. “What makes you think they matter… any more… than her?” He pointed across the chasm, just a jet of fire loosed itself from the mass of magma and illuminated the far bank. I could see them clearly, Otto looking fierce, with a long sword in his hand, striking towards Vallin Von Vender, a gruesome figure clad in shining blue armor. Out of the darkness came a third figure, a striking woman in chain mail, who swung a massive mace toward Vender. The hulking form of Vender stumbled, but quickly regained his ground and began to swipe furiously at Otto and Selena with his massive battle-axe.

I remembered clearly how the scene would go. I closed my eyes and sighed. As much as he was in my head, I suddenly realized I could feel Otto’s emotions and memories, could see every line of dialogue I had composed, every detail I had given him. He had been one of my favorite characters to write, and was so real to me, that I understood his pain.

“But you aren’t real,” I blurted out angrily. “You all were in my head.”

“And that makes us expendable?!” Otto roared, grabbing me by the shoulders. His eyes gleamed with fury and sadness. “You toyed with us! You threw us against all sorts of evil… and for what? For entertainment!” He spat bitterly.

A sudden howl ripped through the air, and we both swung around to see a colossal mass of fur with glowing red eyes lumbering along the lip of the volcano. It was moving slowly toward Otto and I. The eyes were locked on us, and I knew the creature immediately. Varg, the deadly monster of Felgar Forest. I glanced at the three battling figures on the other bank. They showed no reaction.

A cold stab of fear hit me in the stomach. I knew this story. Varg did not belong here. Varg belonged to the Fallen series, and I hadn’t written that until well after Otto and Vender had this final showdown. Otto looked to me, and I could see he was more confused than scared.

Across the bank, Vender let out a roar of pain, and one of his arms spurted blood. He swung his axe slowly, and the other Otto stabbed him cleanly through the chest.

“No,” I said, the cold filling moving up my spine. “No, that’s not how it goes! She… she should have…”

The Otto next to me stared, then shook his head. “I don’t… understand…” he said slowly.

A light burst in the sky. Through the clouds, a small silver and green tube hurtled towards the ground. Inside, I could just glimpse a figure, bald and hook-nosed. Glandin Four.

“Otto!” I yelled, suddenly looking around. Otto had gone, and so had Selena and Vender. The wolf Varg was only yards away, and as the ship crashed into the earth, I felt the shock-wave push me back.

“Clear!”

“He’s unresponsive. Resuming CPR.”

“Clear!”

“Still nothing.”

“Clear!”