Chapter 37 The Ghost of the Creator
The man in the black suit was gone, swallowed by his own phone. But the victory felt cold. We weren't in the forest anymore. The green trees and the smell of pine had vanished. Now, we stood in a white void that went on forever. There was no sun, just a flat, blinding light.
In front of us stood a line of people that made my blood freeze.
There were hundreds of them. Dozens of women who looked exactly like me. Some wore my battle scales. One wore the yellow floral dress from the fake memory. Beside them were men who looked exactly like Xavier. There were even children with silver hair and sad eyes.
"Who are you?" I whispered. I pulled Leo and Elias behind me. My heart was thumping against my ribs.
The Elara in the yellow dress stepped forward. She held a kitchen knife, and her eyes were red from crying. "We are the versions of you that didn't make it, Elara. We are the 'drafts.' Every time the author got bored or the readers got tired, he deleted us. He threw us into this white trash bin so he could start over with you."
Xavier growled, his golden eyes scanning the crowd. "You aren't real. You’re just echoes."
"We feel real!" a scarred version of Xavier yelled back. "I remember the smell of the lab! I remember the pain of the fire! We all remember!"
The crowd of clones began to move closer. They didn't look like monsters. They looked like people who had been robbed of their lives. They were angry, and that anger was directed at us.
"The legal department is gone," the yellow-dressed Elara said. "The system is crashing. There is only enough energy for one family to go back to the real world. Why should it be you?"
"Because I broke the cycle!" I shouted. I held up my hand, showing the blue sparks still dancing on my skin. "I fought for this! I became the virus to save my sons!"
"We all fought!" the crowd screamed in one voice.
Suddenly, a massive sound shook the white space. It sounded like a giant sobbing. Behind the crowd of clones, a door made of white bone began to rise from the floor. It was huge, taller than a building. The door wasn't locked. It was hanging open, and a thick, black liquid was leaking out of the cracks.
"Mommy," Leo whispered, pointing at the door. "That’s not a monster. That’s the real author. And he’s crying."
I looked through the bone door. Inside, I didn't see a God. I saw a small, dark room. A man sat on the floor, surrounded by piles of torn paper. He was holding his head in his hands, shaking with deep, heavy sobs.
He looked up. His face was a mess of ink and tears. "I can't finish it," he wailed. "Every time I try to give you a happy ending, the readers demand more blood. I had to kill so many of you. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
"The author is broken," Xavier whispered. "He’s lost control of the story."
The yellow-dressed Elara didn't care. She lunged at me with her knife. "If he won't choose, I will! I want my life back!"
I didn't want to hurt her. I knew her pain because it was my pain. But I had to protect my boys. I stepped to the side and caught her wrist. We tumbled to the floor, rolling in the white void.
"Stop it!" I yelled. "Killing me won't fix anything! Look at him!"
I pointed at the man in the bone room. He was fading. His hands were becoming transparent.
"The story is dying because he gave up!" I realized. "If he disappears, the whole world disappears! The real world, the pack, everyone!"
The clones stopped. They looked at the fading man. The anger on their faces turned into pure terror.
"Fix it!" the scarred Xavier yelled at the author. "Write us a way out!"
"I can't," the author sobbed. "I lost the pen; the legal department took it."
I looked at my hand. The blue spark was still there. It wasn't just a virus. It was the power to create. I realized that when I bit the man in the suit, I stole the "copyright." I was the one holding the pen now.
"I’ll do it," I said.
I ran toward the bone door. I stepped into the dark room and grabbed the author's hand. The ink from his tears stained my skin, but I didn't pull away.
"Give it to me," I commanded. "Give me the ending."
The man looked at me, his eyes wide. "If you take it, you have to stay here. Someone has to keep the story alive. Someone has to be the one who writes the words."
I felt a cold chill run down my spine. To save my family, I had to stay in the dark forever.
"Elara, no!" Xavier ran to the door, but an invisible wall stopped him. "Don't you dare!"
I looked at Xavier. I looked at Leo and Elias. They were the most beautiful things I had ever seen. If I stayed here, they could have the forest. They could have the sun. They could have a life without labs.
"I love you," I whispered.
I gripped the author's hand. The blue light in my veins turned into golden ink. I felt my soul being pulled into the paper.
But as the world began to rewrite itself, a hand grabbed my shoulder.
It was the version of me in the yellow dress. She wasn't holding the knife anymore. She was smiling.
"You did enough, sister," she said.
Before I could speak, she pushed me back. She grabbed the author's hand instead.
"I already lost my world," she whispered. "Let me be the one who writes yours."
The white void exploded into a million colors. I felt myself being pushed through a tunnel of wind.
I hit the ground hard. I felt grass. I felt rain. I heard Leo and Elias laughing.
I opened my eyes. We were back in the forest. Xavier was holding me, his heart beating fast. We were human. We were safe.
I looked down. In the grass, there was a single piece of yellow fabric from a dress.
"She did it," I whispered. "She saved us."
We stood up, ready to find the pack. But then, I heard a sound that made me stop.
It was a phone. It was ringing in the middle of the empty forest.
I walked over and picked it up. There was no name on the screen. Only a message.
"The sequel just got greenlit, and they want a new villain. Look behind you."
I turned around. Xavier was standing there, but his eyes weren't gold anymore. They were red. And he was holding a silver dagger pointed at Leo’s throat.