Day Twenty-Five
Gerald knew that he couldn't sit here for an eternity, so he finally stood up and walked back. He needed to have a chat with Sebastian. He could probably tell him more about the current situation. As he walked towards the scenery again, the building seem to reappear again. They didn't show up in one blink of the eye, and they didn't slowly appear like they have been hidden by fog. He just happened to notice them again. Should be even wonder at that point? He didn't come to a conclusion, but maybe that was because he wasn't supposed to.
As he reached the bakery, he saw Sebastian sitting beside the window, drinking his coffee. The look on his face was clearly indicating that he waited for him all the time. Gerald walked in calmly and took the chair standing behind Sebastian, rather than watching him in the eyes.
„So you've found it out by now“, Sebastian said, sipping his coffee again.
Gerald nodded. „Frank told me, and Catherine confirmed it.“
„And were you able to spot the nothing?“
„I just came back from it.“
„Good to hear.“
They sat there, silently, while Sebastian continued to drink his coffee. Gerald was trying to search for the right words, but he couldn't come up with anything. To calm his nerves, he ordered a cup with cocoa and, like Sebastian, kept staring at the street. He sighed in a depressing way.
„So they all knew it?“
Sebastian put his cup down. „Exactly.“
„And they all didn't care?“
„Why should they?“
„And have you never wondered about the reality?“
„It would be just wasted time in my opinion. Why trying to reach for something I'm never going to see?“
„Not even for a second? You can't tell me that you haven't even thought about taking a glimpse!“
Sebastian remained silent, drinking his coffee again.
„Really, Bastian? You won't even try to answer?“
The blonde didn't answer, but instead kept drinking.
„You weren't curious about it for at least a millisecond?“
„How can I be curious about something that I have absolutely no information about, Gerald?“ Sebastian's voice was surprisingly angry. „And you're going to tell me that you want to see it even though you have no idea what is going to come up?“
„Isn't that the entire point of „being curious“ in the first place?“
Sebastian sighed, before putting his cup away.
„You don't seem to listen to me“, Sebastian explained. „You haven't even heard rumors about the reality. Maybe it's a complete hell hole!“
„How can you know that, Bastian? You just said that there are no informations about it!“
„Listen, I-“
„Bastian, sometimes you have to take risks if you want to discover the truth.“
„That would require us to find a way out of here. And there is none.“
„Maybe that's the case now, but someday, we're going to find a way...“
„Why do you want this so badly?“, Sebastian asked, being confused by the way his friend acted.
„Maybe because I don't know about it for very long.“
Sebastian sighed and turned to him. „You're just confused, aren't you?“, he asked.
„I'd like to say „Maybe“ again, but then I'd start to repeat myself.“
He turned back to his table again, remaining silent as he ignored his coffee.
„I gotta go now, Sebastian. Frank told me that I have to fight him in the near future, and I want to get it over with as quickly as possible.“ Gerald stood up and went to the door, as Sebastian didn't move and stared at the table. Gerald's thoughts started to make him think himself. He heard Gerald's footsteps to his side as he wished he could have told him his opinion in a better way. His world felt so ignorant while he went through the dialogue, thus he got that weird feeling in his stomach.
What Gerald said may have been stupid in some way, but he dealt with it a lot better than he thought he would. Maybe he just hasn't fully comprehended at that point.
And maybe it was better that way. At least for now.
The novel's atmosphere seemed to stay the same every time, and yet it was always different. The streets were completely empty, even Anthony, Vincent and Frank were nowhere to be seen. But maybe it was the best for now that Frank didn't spot him, or otherwise he'd have to wait for him to come back to the novel again.
The clouds were depressingly gray and the air was so wet it was a surprise it didn't start raining already. The colours were monotone and made him almost fall asleep looking at them.
„Gerald?“
He turned around to see Frank standing behind him. He started saying the ritual sentence, before Frank stopped him:
„Wait. I need to talk to you. Now.“
„How can I know that this isn't some dirty trick, Frank?“
„Because if it was, I'd be already gone.“
„That may be true, but I'm still not sure...“
„Look, just give me a chance, alright? You didn't have that much trouble talking to me a few hours ago, so why now?“
„...okay“, Gerald said sighing. „But this better be not a trick.“
„Don't worry about it, just let's go.“
Frank brought him to his office, which was just as colourless as everything else. It's like the writer felt like having to give him the finger.
„So, why did you want to talk to me?“, Gerald asked, breaking the silence.
„I got very important news for us, Gerald. It's about the upcoming events in the story.“
„How can you know that?“
„The writer granted me the knowledge of what is going to happen in the next few hours because he can't use Helena for that anymore. From what I can gather, we are supposed to to meet each other on the main street tomorrow morning. The last thing I was us two standing opposed to each other... and that's it. He probably doesn't want to spoil the ending.“
„...is he really that lazy to come up with a way to make us confront each other?“
„Feels like it. But when I understand it right, that probably means that it's going to end very soon for us.“
„You mean... because the story is going to end?“
Frank nodded. „Exactly. We are going to get an entire day at best. And after that... who knows. Most people are saying that it's just going to stop until someone else reads this, but in fact, nobody knows it. All just rumors.“
„I see.“
Silence. Frank looked at his table, sweeping a little bit dirt away from it.
„And...how are you feeling right now? I mean, about that entire „You being in a novel“ thing?“
Gerald lowered his head. „I don't really know. On one hand, I need to fulfil my duty as a character. But on the other hand... I don't really want to. Who knows what we are going to do tomorrow. Because-“
He suddenly got silent.
„Because what, Gerald?“
„...I don't want to fight you, Frank.“
The detective raised an eyebrow. „You know that I injured you by hitting you with a gun, don't you?“
„I remember that clearly“, Gerald replied, holding his arm as if he wasn't feeling right. „But... you're still one of my characters. A creation of mine. And even though you got corrupted by Helena, something within me is still willing to forgive you for all of this.“
„...you can't mean that, Gerald“, Frank said in disbelief. „After all that happened-“
„Let's be honest here: Maybe the writer was responsible for all of this, but I shouldn't have accepted the idea of putting you in danger without any knowledge of what's going to happen you. It was foolish behaviour from my side.“
„But you had no choice, Gerald. You had to do it. You can't even resist it.“
„No, Frank.“ Gerald's voice was starting to gain confidence. „I know that somewhere, there is a way to change it. That, somehow, I'm going to change the plot with my actions so all of this wouldn't happen. Helena wouldn't be needed, the Freedom Seekers would never exist or - going even further – I'm going to make sure that I'm never using the ritual.“
„But- Gerald, that's foolish what you're saying there.“
„Foolish? Wanting to avoid conflict is foolish?“
„In a story, of course.“
Gerald freezed in place.
„Look, I don't like what's happening to much either, but this is fiction. There needs to exist conflict, or we're boring everybody with a chunk of words with people doing things that don't have any consequences. There is no way of avoiding what's going to happen anyway.“
„...so I have to live through it every time?“
„Elaborate there, Gerald.“
„Don't you get it? I have to witness everything every time: I'm going to be responsible for your corruption, I'm going to put all of us in danger, or in other words: I'm going to repeat my mistakes over and over again, and you're saying that I can't avoid any of this?“
Frank lowered his head. „Seems like it.“
„How can you be so calm about it?“, Gerald yelled furiously.
„Because we have to. That's why.“
Gerald didn't say anything anymore as he went out. His anger seemed to stop him from talking.
„...until tomorrow, Gerald“, said Frank, even though he knew that he has already left the building.
The silence started to surround him, as he slowly moved to the chair and sat down. Something inside him told him that maybe, Gerald was right. Maybe they can't wait for it to happen, they needed to do something themselves. But it was easier said than done, because he knew that the final showdown needed to happen. The reason slipped off his mind. As in the actual reason, not the „Because the writer wrote it so“ reason. Why would they still have to fight over the current situation?
But it had no use. He just sat there and wanted to fall asleep.
