Day Fourteen
It hasn't gotten better in the last few days. Frank now has completely vanished since he was dragged out his own office by Helena, and the Freedom Seekers didn't try anymore to attack Gerald. The author decided to back off his story again to think of a way to continue the investigations.
It was a cold, rainy day. Gerald was lying on his couch, with a pen inbetween his teeth. A cup of black tea was standing beside him on the table. The entire thing still utterly confused him, and did so even more the more he thought about Helena. Just, what was up with that woman?
He grabbed the cup from the table for a quick sip, only to figure out that it's already empty. Gerald sighed, before standing up and going to the kitchen.
„Say, do you have another cup? I'm thirsty as well.“
„They're in-“
He stopped. That voice was familiar. But it couldn't be!
„They're in what?“
He turned to the door leading to the living room, only to find Helena standing there with her signature smile.
„So, where are they now?“
Gerald slapped himself. That was just impossible! When have they managed to get their hands at the sentence? There was no way this couldn't be a dream, or maybe „only“ a hallucination. But it seemed so... real...
„Oh!“, she realised. „I completely forgot. It doesn't seem normal for me to be here.“
„How did you get here?“, he asked her in a panicked fashion.
„It's a secret“, she replied. „Now, how about a black tea in your living room?“, she asked before leaving him alone in the kitchen.
Gerald on the other hand just stood there, still not able to believe his eyes. Without thinking too much about it for now, he grabbed another cup and filled with a tea bag and hot water. Maybe she could clarify a few things while she was at it.
„Ah, nothing like a good tea to awaken your senses“, she said before putting the cup back onto the table. It still felt weird for Gerald to have the woman who manipulates his main character and is the leader of a cult designated to get rid of him sitting in his appartment and drinking tea, like she was a normal person. Though, maybe it could be because he had a woman in his enviroment at all. He didn't really know why it felt so weird, it just... did.
„Why are you here?“, Gerald finally asked.
„You don't like listening to people, do you?“, she replied. „If I told you that, it would ruin my plans.“
„But... if you can leave the novel, why haven't you told your friends from the Freedom Seekers how it works?“
„I don't want to spoil their fun“, she answered. „They aren't as interested in escaping as it seems. They are more interested in messing with you.“
„Like you do all the time?“
She nodded. „I just have my fun with it. And I'm in no hurry with my actions, so why not have some fun while I'm at it?“
„But... why is it so important for you to not make any sense?“
She took a sip, before she replied: „As soon as something make sense, it gets predictable and therefore boring. I can't understand why people always want to get behind things. In the end, it just becomes utterly disappointing.“
„So you just like to be mysterious because otherwise, people aren't interested in you?“
„Something like that.“
Gerald wondered about it for a while, before asking:
„You know that this just made a little bit of sense, did you?“
„I just want my actions to be incomprehensible, my motives for it can be as transparent as glass“, she replied.
It started to feel weirder and weirder, as the dialogue progressed. It almost seemed like Helena was...human. Even after what she did to Frank and what she is – or maybe, was - trying to do with him and the Freedom Seekers, it almost was like she felt sympathetic.
He knew that it had to be some sort of trap. There was absolutely no way that she suddenly turned genuinely nice and acceptable.
„There is more behind it, isn't it?“
She turned to him. „What are you talking about?“
His rage started to rise. „Stop playing dumb and nice. I know that this can't be everything.“
„So I can't just have a drink with an author?“
„You're trying something funny on me, admit it!“
She only could shake her head at this answer. „My, my, you're being rather paranoid...“
She tried to enrage him, he thought. She was just waiting for an opportunity to attack. He needs to stay cool, or God knows what may happen.
„How... how is Frank doing?“, he asked, trying to keep himself calm.
„He's still struggling with me“, she replied. „He just won't understand that I'm trying help him.“
„Helping him to do what?“, he wondered. „Opposing me and trying to escape a world he clearly has no intentions leaving soon enough?“
„Thats just his tough side speaking“, she answered. „He won't admit that, but somewhere deep within him, he wants to leave this place. Living without being controlled.“
„Maybe there is a voice in him telling him this“, he wondered, „but if it isn't that big of a wish for him -“
„You're holding them like slaves, making them perform your plays.“
„- but if it's such a big problem, why is only my story ridden with people trying to run away?“
„That's not true. Every story has its characters that would like to run away from it.“
„I know another author using the ritual who told me that the characters in her story were baffled by the idea of having the desire to quit.“
„Huh“, she replied. „Maybe she's treating her characters nicer than you do...“
She started to sound like she was talking either to or about a dictator. She really wanted him to lose his control.
„The only two things that I thought were a little bit over the top were the enormous sun and forcing Frank to go to the warehouse. But everything else happened in favour for the story.“
„Yeah, that's what you're saying and thinking. But you and the story are two entirely different things.“
„You're doing it again, aren't you?“
„Confusing you? Of course. That's what I'm good at, remember?“ All of this with her smile that just didn't want to leave.
He wished he could just slap her across the room, because what he thought was acceptable on her started to fade away slowly, only to be exchanged with arrogance. His hatred towards started growing, while his hand slowly started to rise, before he swung it in the direction of her face. Her reflexes, however, stopped his hand before he hit her, as she was grabbing his arm.
„Were you trying to harm me?“, she asked, with her smile and her relaxed voice gone, but instead looked like somebody held a flashlight under her chin and sounded like she was about to smash him into the ground.
„N-no, it's a misunderstanding“, he defended himself, trying to prevent the inevitable. „My-my hand slipped and I'm getting pretty nervous around women-“
„Silence!“; she yelled, making him lose his voice due to sheer fear. „It's not very gentlemen-like to attack a woman!“ She threw him to the ground and stepped onto him with her high heels. „You should feel ashamed of yourself!“
He tried to get some space between her and himself, as he tried to crawl away from her, looking for a good place to hide.
„Oh no, you won't!“
She grabbed him at his shirt, dragging him up to her. „You need to be punished for your foolish behaviour!“
Fearing for his life, he grabbed Helena at her side and threw her onto the table, which broke due to the sudden pressure. But that didn't seem to stop her, as she stood up again, without any hit that she may be hurt. She looked even angrier than before.
„You have a death wish, don't you? Well, we could arrange that!“
She tried to get to the kitchen, but Gerald stopped her by holding her legs, making her fall over again. „I can guess what you're going to do, but I won't let you!“
Helena then proceeded to hit his chin with one of her feet, before he moved his head away from them. He had no choice. It he wanted to leave this situation alive, he needed to get rid of Helena. He rushed into the kitchen, leaving Helena behind.
Gerald looked through his cutlery, trying to find something something sharp enough to finish her off. He was about to grab the right knife, as he heard Helena's voice again:
„Shall I help you searching?“
He turned to her, pointing with the knife at her chest, only to see her with her smile, as if they just didn't fight in his living room.
„Let's just forget that we fought to the death, okay?“, she said. Gerald couldn't really trust her, but he cautiously put the knife to his left on the table, with his doubts starting to leave again.
„Well, I'm going to return to the novel now“, she continued. „Hope to see you soon again.“ And then she disappeared.
Gerald stood there in disbelief. He slowly put the knife back to where it belonged, before entering his room, as he saw his table broken down to pieces, with the cups laying on the ground unharmed. As he began to get as much of the damage undone as he could and clean the carpet that has been spilled with his black tea, his thoughts were on just how unbelievable Helena is. He couldn't understand how she slipped off his radar for so long despite being so utterly weird. He couldn't comprehend just what she was trying to accomplish with all of this. Or, in just one single word: Why. As in „Why is all of this happening?“.
