Day Sixteen
It was funny in his opinion. Since Helena spoke in clear words to him, she didn't appear uninvited anymore. It was like her mission was accomplished...
...or was it?
For whatever reason, it just didn't help him. He knew what he wanted to know from her, and it did clear a few things up, but the more he thought about it, it actually just got worse. Why did Gerald want to make him a villain? The script clearly made Vincent look like he was going to be the antagonist. Why weren't there any hints at all? It was an unsolvable enigma.
He had to confront Gerald about it, no matter what.
It was a pretty nice day, when Frank left his office to look after Gerald. He hoped that he was going to show up at some point. He walked down the street to the bar, where he was probably going to show up.
It was surprisingly quiet on this day, with only him and about three people, with the barkeeper included, were present. It was pretty silent, too, and little to no people were walking on the street. It was really irritating.
„Something to drink?“, he got asked from the side. It was the barkeeper.
„Um, just a beer, please.“
„Will be there in a sec.“
After the barkeeper walked away again, Frank saw Anthony walking past him on the street. He knocked on the glass to get his attention. Anthony turned to him and saw Frank's hand winking towards himself. He then entered the bar and took the seat opposite to him.
„Is there anything imporant?“, Anthony asked.
„Yes. I want to talk to you about something“, the detective replied before the barkeeper came back again and put the glass with beer in front of him, before turning to Anthony. „You want something to drink as well?“
„I'm fine without it, thank you.“
„Well then“, the barkeeper answered before going away again.
„Why did you want to talk to me now?“, Anthony asked again. „Is it because of Helena's brainwashing tactic?“
„No, she gave up on that“, Frank answered. „Though it has to do with her.“
„I see. What is it then?“
„Say, could you imagine me being a bad guy?“
With a baffled look on his face, Anthony stared at him. „Sorry, I think I had something in my ears. What did you just ask me?“
Frank sighed, before drinking out of his glass. „Don't make jokes about it. I'm serious.“
„But- Okay, I think Helena finally managed to make you go insane. We should get you a good doctor.“
„Maybe it would be better to explain it a little bit more in detail“, Frank said. „See, Helena told me that she has been concepted to turn me into a villain because Gerald couldn't come up with a better way.“
„...you know that this makes little to no sense, do you?“
„That's what's bothering me too. I don't get it either. It makes sense in some ways, but in others, it's even more confusing.“
„Maybe the time you spent with her did what she wanted to do with you in the first place.“
„But... she seemed so normal this time...“
„Define „normal“ for a woman with an insane cult behind her back and a smile that's on her face all the goddamn time.“
„She didn't even attempt to act like that while she was explaining this to me. It was like it wasn't Helena in the first place.“
„Have you completely forgotten what Helena's intentions were? To screw with your mind! And now, she's finally succeeding!“
„You don't seem to listen to me either“, Frank defended himself. „She wasn't acting in an arrogant fashion at all when I asked her to give me more details. Normally, she would come with stupid question to make me lose it, but that time, it felt like she was genuine about it.“
„Oookaaay“, Anthony responded, „I'm going to ask Gerald to insert a doctor into the story so he can give you some pills or make your brain function again.“
Frank sighed. „Do you really think I'm losing my mind there, Anthony?“
„Definitely, Frank. It doesn't sound really healthy anymore. And after all, you yourself admitted that it didn't make any sense. So, in other words, it makes sense again.“
„...now you're confusing me more than Helena ever did.“
„Heh, sorry.“
Frank took another sip, as he wondered about the chat he and Anthony just had. Maybe her plan was working out after all. But the idea of being a villain still fascinated him, as some of the things she said seems to be true. Then again, that could be just part of an even bigger plan he hadn't got by now.
„Okay, I have to leave now“, Anthony said before standing up. „I have to meet somebody in a few minutes. If you excuse me...“
„It's not a big deal.“
„Goodbye then.“
Anthony left the bar, as he worried more and more about Frank. He needed to talk with Gerald about it, who he was going to see in the dead end.
„Are you serious about that?“ That was the reaction Gerald showed after Anthony told him what he and Frank talked about in the bar.
„Yes. He really thinks that Helena was honest to him and that you want to turn him into a villain.“
„That makes no sense at all!“
„It's not like he doesn't admit it, but he seemed to be a little bit convinced by the idea.“
„I have to tell Frank that it's all just a trick set off by Helena!“
„Don't worry about it, I already explained it to him. He probably just needs a doctor or just something to talk to about what happened in the recent days. Messed up stuff did happen, after all.“
„But why would Helena go this far as making him believe that he should have been turned evil?“ Gerald wondered. „All that I need is to tell him the truth and all of what she did was completely unnessecary.“
„We need to talk to her when she shows up again. Maybe then it will make a little bit more sense.“
„Either that or she's going to try to confuse us again. She's certainly good at that.“
While the novel had relatively nice weather, when Gerald returned home again, it was rainy and cloudy, just like a November day was like. Frank's condition sounded more and more worrying, so he decided to contact Catherine about it. The computer was still on, and when he logged onto the forum, she seemed to be online as well. Promptly, he wrote her a message saying:
„You got some time now? I need to talk to you about a few things.“
It took her a while to respond with the following line:
„Of course. Not very busy at the moment.“
„Good to hear. Say, you remember me talking about this cult that developed in my story that tried to escape my story?“
„Yeah, I do. Why?“
„Well, first of all, their leader somehow managed to visit my place a few days ago.“
„Wait, what? How could she do that?“
„I got no idea. She was just as irritating as always and I almost had to kill her out of emergency because she made me freak out so hard with the arrogant way she talked to me with.“
After he sent that message, it took Catherine a while to respond. Maybe he shouldn't have mentioned the entire killing thing.
Then, it appeared on his screen.
„...WHAT? Sorry, but WHAT?“
„Yeah, I think I should have kept it for myself. Thankfully, the entire thing ended with her acting quote-unquote normal again as soon as I got my hands on a knife. The only thing that suffered in the end was my living room table.“
„At least you seem to be fine. Anything else?“
„Yes. That woman now also makes the main character believe that I wanted to make him a villain.“
„Really? Shouldn't they know that already?“
„Yeah, but here's the thing: I didn't. I don't know how she came to that conclusion.“
„But how can she come up with these things if you didn't even have the idea in the first place? That defies the rules!“
„I know that, and it makes me wonder too. She doesn't seem to be a normal character anyway, so there needs to be more behind this. If I can only get behind it...“
„Surely sounds weird. And how is your story going on anyway?“
„Well, I'm doing pretty fine, but all that business just keeps me irritated. There is something I'm missing there, but I don't seem to see what it is.“
„I see. Sorry that I can't help you there, because nothing like that happens in my story.“
„I's fine, really. As long as I have somebody to talk about these things... If I talked about that to anybody else, it probably would have gotten me into an asylum.“
„I would call them if I didn't know more about it.“
„Thank God you don't know where I live... or do you?“
„Of course not!“
„Well, I'm gonna make myself something to eat. Read you again.“
As he closed the web browser, he went to the kitchen to brew himself some black tea. Everything seemed to make less and less sense as it all went on. If he only knew more about the current situation, but that wasn't the case. Maybe not thinking about it too much and repeating the same thought process over and over again would help him. Maybe.
All he could do now is watching the water in the cup turn deep brown as the tea bag fell into it. Oh, how simple was the time when he didn't knew about the ritual, when he didn't have to worry about his characters going insane thanks to a mysterious woman, when he didn't have to expect completely weird things to happen. „Why couldn't it have stayed that way?“, he wondered while his tea still became darker and darker.
