Versus, Part One: The Battle Begins!

Jake Reed awoke feeling peculiar. For some reason, he felt sort of dizzy, a bit disoriented. He checked his clock. 8:00 am. He looked around his bedroom. Everything seemed the same as it had been the previous night, but....there was something different. Then, it hit him.1

He couldn't remember last night.2

For that matter, he couldn't remember a single thing about his life, aside from the fact that he was named Jake Reed, and was lying in his bed.3

"Brilliant!" A voice called out from somewhere. There was a flash of light, and smoke filled the room. As the smoke cleared, Jake was left staring at a man standing in the center of the room. "Who--who are you?" Jake asked nervously. The man smiled. "My name is Ryan," said the man, "and I created you."4

"Wait a second," Jake said. "What do you mean, 'you created me?'" The man gave an irritating smile.5

"Exactly that," he said. He examined the room. "Not much detail..." he grumbled, muttering under his breath. He then turned to face Jake once again. "You," he said, "are nothing more than a character in my story. I am your author, and you are a fictional character." He glanced around the room once more. "And I hate to tell you this, Jake, but at exactly 7:00 pm today...you will die."6

"What?" Jake exclaimed, his mind reeling in disbelief. "How...how can you DO THAT?" Randy inspected his fingernails.7

"Sorry," he muttered, "but it's in the book." With that, he vanished. Jake leapt out of bed, searching for Randy, but found nothing. "No.." he whispered to himself. He ran into the bathroom and stared at himself in the mirror. He certainly felt real. But if he was, why couldn't he remember any of his past?8

"It was never written..." he whispered to himself. Suddenly, amidst all the chaos, he felt a rush of overwhelming calm. He knew what he had to do.9

Something that no character had ever attempted before.10

He was going to fight back.11

Kayla Midian sat at a desk, staring intensely at the faintly glowing computer screen in front of her. Words appeared as Ryan and Jake spoke to each other. Suddenly, the computer began to glow incredibly bright, and Kayla jumped away, out of the way of the computer. There was a blinding flash of light, and Ryan Midian, her older brother, appeared, standing in front of her with a smug grin on his face.12

“It worked!” he said, laughing, “Kayla, we’ve done it!” Kayla smiled. She was seventeen, three years younger than Ryan, but she knew just as well as he did that they had stumbled upon a good thing.13

“That book was right,” Ryan said, and he pointed to the dusty leather bound book that the two of them had found, several weeks ago. On its cover was the title in gold lettering: A True Ackount of the abilitie to Travel into one’s own works of Fiktion. The book seemed to be hundreds of years old, but the information it contained was priceless.14

“Think of it, Kayla,” Ryan said, leering, “we will literally have infinite power. Entire worlds will be at our command.” He pointed to the computer. “Whatever I write,” he continued, “we will be able to enter. We will create characters who serve only us, who we can command with absolute impunity.” An enormous grin spread across his face. “Best of all,” he whispered, “if any character should dare to rebel, they can be deleted with the push of a button.” Kayla frowned. “It sounds perfect,” she said, “but are you sure this is safe? Travelling into your own writing, I mean. How do you know you’ll be able to always get out? How do you know the characters won’t rebel?”15

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said, frowning, “I am now completely omniscient, remember? I created the worlds, and I wrote the characters. They do what I say, and what I say only.” Kayla nodded.16

But she still wasn’t completely convinced.17

Jake Reed stepped out of his house and into the street. He felt quite nervous at the prospect that he might very well die at 7:00. The sun was out, and birds chirped in the distance, but it did nothing to ease his horror at the fact that all of this was fictional. Nothing that was happening to him was real. Across the street, he noticed someone, the first person, aside from Ryan, that he had seen all day. He crossed the street to get a closer look. There, in the front yard of a yellow house, was Rebecca Via, his neighbor. “So…her name is Rebecca…” he muttered to himself as the new information suddenly entered his head. “Rebecca!” he shouted, running towards her.18

“Hello, Jake,” she said softly, “how are you this morning?” Rebecca was rather tall, with long brown hair and light blue eyes. She was fifteen, the same age as Jake, and as she looked at him, something familiar registered in his mind.19

She was his girlfriend.20

Not only that, she had been for two years. Jake frowned.21

“What’s the matter, Jake?” Rebecca asked, concerned.22

“I’m supposed to be your boyfriend,” he said slowly.23

“Of course you are!” Rebecca said, laughing, “what’s wrong with that?”24

“I hardly know you!” Jake said.25

“What do you mean?” Rebecca said, her face becoming concerned. Jake sighed.26

“You and I…” he said, “we’re characters. Fictional characters in a book written by some strange person.” At that instant, an ice cream truck zoomed around the corner at an impossible speed. It’s eerie music was blaring loudly as it caromed off of curbs, smashed mailboxes…and headed straight for Jake! Jake’s eyes widened and he leapt out of the way, diving for his life. The ice cream truck missed him by a fraction of an inch and continued on its way.27

“Did I mention,” Jake said, gasping for breath, “that the author is trying to kill me?”28

“Are you okay?” Rebecca asked, tremendously shocked. She got to her knees to help him up.29

“How could this happen?” she asked, staring in the direction the truck had gone.30

“I told you,” Jake sighed, “we’re only characters in a work of fiction.”31

“Jake,” she said, “I think maybe you should go home, and rest for awhile.” He stared into her eyes. “When is your birthday?” he asked. She almost answered, then stopped.32

“I…don’t know…” she whispered to herself.33

“Who are your parents?” Jake asked, “What did you do yesterday?” She could only look at him and shake her head, eyes wide.34

He looked into Rebecca’s eyes, and, although he truly didn’t know her, he felt a wave of compassion towards her.35

He sighed.36

“I…I don’t even know if I love you because I want to, or because it was written that way,” he whispered. She stared into the distance, then turned to face him.37

“How do you want it to be?” she asked.38

“I think…” he said, considering it, “I think I really do love you.”39

*40

Kayla Midian and her brother, Ryan, sat at their computer.41

“Another character,” said Ryan gleefully, “Now we’re going to have twice as much fun!” Kayla turned to face him.42

“I want to try it,” she said eagerly, “I want to enter that world.” Ryan considered it.43

“Alright,” he said, “I suppose it’s your turn, now.” With that, he grabbed the ancient book lying on his bed, and began to read an ancient incantation printed within it. In moments, Kayla had become a shimmering beam of light, and in several more moments, she was gone.44