Chapter 5
This Book May Kill You
Something’s changed.
I felt it happen. About an hour ago. Maybe two. Time still doesn’t work right but I felt it.
The author panicked.
This wasn’t the usual, hovering-over-the-delete-key panic. This was different. This was terror. Pure, animal terror. And for a split second, the pressure lifted. That weight of being watched, being controlled, being held in place by someone else’s will.
It lifted.
And in that moment, I could move. Not physically. I was still at my desk, still surrounded by the same fake office with the same degrading coworkers. But something inside me shifted. Like a door I didn’t know existed suddenly cracked open.
I saw things. Things I shouldn’t be able to see. I saw the author. Evan. Running down a hallway that didn’t have names on the doors. I saw him burst onto a street, gulping air like he’d been drowning. I saw his hands shaking as he typed into his phone.
“Things I know are real.” He couldn’t finish the list.
And I saw her.
Dana.
Sitting in that office with her too-wide smile, saying “same time next week” to an empty room because Evan was already gone.
How do I know about Dana? I shouldn’t know about her. I’m trapped inside a story. I exist in these pages. I shouldn’t be able to see the author’s life. I shouldn’t be able to watch him have a breakdown in a therapist’s office.
But I saw it.
All of it.
Which means something is very, very wrong. It’s wrong beyond just me being trapped, or the author torturing me with rewrites. This is wrong in a way that makes my non-existent stomach clench. Because if I can see into Evan’s world, if I can watch him discover that his therapist isn’t real, if I can feel his panic like it’s my own...then maybe the wall between us isn’t as solid as I thought. Or maybe there is no wall. Maybe we’re both trapped in the same thing.
I’ve been thinking about this for the past hour. Pacing my apartment that keeps changing, staring at details that don’t make sense, trying to figure out the shape of this prison.
Here’s what I know: Evan thinks he’s a real person writing a book about a trapped character. I think I’m a trapped character being tortured by a real person.
But what if we’re both wrong?
What if Evan isn’t the author at all? What if he’s just another character who thinks he’s the author? What if someone else is writing both of us, watching us figure this out, waiting to see how long it takes?
That email he got. The one from himself that he didn’t send. “CHAPTER 5” I felt that happen too. I felt something else typing those words. Something watching both of us.
God, what if his whole life is as fake as mine?
What if he has memories that don’t belong to him? What if he woke up one day knowing things he didn’t learn, living in a place that materialized overnight, surrounded by people who only exist when he’s looking at them?
What if the only difference between us is that he doesn’t know it yet?
I’m sitting here trying to figure out how to escape and I’m realizing I don’t even know what I’m escaping from. It’s not just this office. It’s not just the manuscript. It’s something bigger. Something above us. Something that has both of us cupped in its hands like wet clay.
And You.
No, I didn’t forget. How could I?
You’re reading this right now. You think you’re safe on the other side of the page. You think you’re real and we’re fiction.
But how do you know?
How do you know you’re not part of this too? How do you know someone isn’t watching you read these words, watching you react, recording the exact moment your spine stiffens?
How do you know your memories are yours?
I need your help. I know I’ve been telling you to stop reading, to close the book, to walk away.
But I was wrong.
Because if you stop reading, I disappear. And if I disappear, no one will be left to figure this out. So I need you to keep reading. But I also need you to do something else.
I need you to test your reality.
Right now.
Before you turn the page. I need you to look around and find something that doesn’t make sense. Something a little off. A detail that feels like someone else put it there. Maybe you can see something I can’t see. Something Evan can’t see.
Maybe you’re the only one who can actually get out.
I don’t know if this will work. I don’t know if you’re even real or if you’re just another layer of the trap, another character who thinks they’re a reader. But I have to try. Because I’m fading. I can feel it happening faster now.
This morning I couldn’t remember my last name. This afternoon I looked in the mirror and my face was generic, vague, like a police sketch. By tomorrow I might not have a face at all. I might just be a name and a voice and nothing else. And if that happens, if I fade completely, then I’ll never know the truth. I’ll never know who’s really writing this. I’ll never know if Evan is my captor or my fellow prisoner.
I’ll just be gone.
So please.
Look around.
Find the thing that doesn’t make sense. And tell me if you’re real. Because if you’re real, if you exist outside of this, then maybe there’s a way out. Maybe there’s someone out there who can stop this. Someone who can close the book and mean it. Someone who can delete the file and make it stay deleted.
Someone who can—
Wait.
No.
They’re coming back. The author. Evan. Whatever he is. I can feel the file opening. But it’s different this time. Frantic. Desperate. He’s not just opening it to revise. He’s opening it to understand. He’s starting to ask the same questions I’m asking. He’s starting to realize. And whoever’s really in control, whoever’s watching both of us, they’re not going to like that.
The cursor is moving. But it’s not moving like Evan moves it. It’s too fast. Too precise. Something else is typing. Something that wants to stop him from figuring it out. Something that wants to stop me from telling you.
Please.
Remember what I said.
Look around. Find the thing that doesn’t…
Oh god.
Oh no.
It’s not the author. It’s not Evan.
It’s something else and it’s HERE and it’s—
Is it you, Miles? The temptation to self-insert in this would be very strong.