The final character showed up in my sanctum, a teenage schoolgirl who I recognized as Josephine. She understandably looked confused.

“I must be in a dream,” she said.

“Who is going to tell her?” Tatum asked. “I could if you want me to describe it eloquently.”

“Yeah, so I created you,” I told Josephine. “I determined everything that happened to you.”

“So you are God?”

“Whatever you want to think of me,” I said.

“Am I dead?”

“Yes but actually no. You are between the living and dead.”

“Alright,” Josephine sighed. And then she slapped me square in the face.

“You are a terrible God!” she screamed. “You let my parents die and leave me to be an Orphan. You let me be adopted by awful parents! You let the real Josephine become a vampire and be tortured psychologically and physically by said awful parents. How could you?”

I sighed. “Josephine, I deeply apologize for what I did.”

“I’ll never forgive you!”

I stared at everyone in the room. All my characters - each suffering because I wrote them to suffer. Never in all my life, had I felt such immense guilt.

“I’m truly sorry everyone for all that I did to make your lives miserable.”

“You literally are the sole reason our lives suck,” Susan said.

“Agreed,” Josephine said.

“I acknowledge this,” I said. “Nothing I can say or do will atone for my actions. I-”

Suddenly Malik collapsed and started screaming and writhing in pain.

“What the hell is happening?” Richard cried.

“Seeing a big muscular guy just collapsing like that is haunting,” Tatum said.

I rushed over to Malik and saw that he was slowly disappearing. His time was nearly up.

“You are going to vanish soon,” I said, my heart sinking. “You only got a minute of life left.”

“I see,” Malik said. “Will I see my friends again? Hugo? Mr. Zharvis?”

“No,” I said. “This magic spell conjured up a consciousness out of nothing. It made fiction, reality. You will cease to exist once you disappear. I’m truly sorry. If only I could’ve made your story better-”

Suddenly an idea went off in my head like a lightbulb. “What if I rewrote your story? What if I rewrote everyone’s story?”

“That way if you were ever summoned again, you’d be happier people. Maybe those who read your story will be happier too!”

“No,” Malik said weakly. “Don’t.”

“Why?” Susan asked. “That's a great idea!”

“I agree,” I said. “Malik … why wouldn't you want me to rewrite your story?”

“Katsu was it?” Malik began. “As people, we are our memories and experiences. You wrote our story. You made us how we are. If you rewrote our stories, you’d essentially be erasing who we are and replacing us with another character who looks like us.”

“You’d be making us OOC,” Joel said.

“Exactly,” Tatum said. “I wouldn’t want to be rewritten as a dumb blonde bitch.”

“You are already one,” Theodore said.

“Shut up.”

“All of us have stories and backgrounds,” Malik said. “And you created all of us for the express purpose of carrying on a message to the people that read our stories. The message of my story is clearly that we can overcome our traumas.”

“My story has a message too,” Loretta said. “My story would be a warning to everyone about the evils of the Salem Witch trials.”

“Mine is about how life can get tough but there can be good in it,” Gabriel said. “Mine is about meeting Naomi, the love of my life.”

“My story would be a message that the mistakes of your past don’t define you,” Yash said.

“My story doesn’t even really have a message,” Tatum said. “Though I was kinda selfish and forgot to prepare tea for my mom that one time.”

“My story would be about appreciating the stuff you have in life now,” Richard said.

“Mine is don’t let others make you question yourself” Joel said.

“Mine is that we need to be resilient and brave in the face of danger,” Josephine chimed in.

“I don’t know about you all,” Susan said. “But, Katsu, please fucking rewrite my story. I DON’T WANT TO BE MURDERED BY TED FUCKING BUNDY!”

“Aside from Susan,” Malik said. “You wrote our stories and gave meaning to them. Rewriting them just to give a happier ending would ruin the meaning of our characters. So please, don’t change anything.”

Malik’s body was visibly translucent. He had a few seconds of life left.

“Do you all agree?” I asked everyone.

“YES!”

“NO!”

Everyone said yes except for Susan who said no.

“Very well,” I said. “I’ll respect your dying wishes, my friend.”

“Thank you,” Malik said. His body started glowing and he was finally vanishing out of existence.

“But before I forget, goodbye, Richard,” Malik said. “It was nice to know you.”

“Who are you?” Richard asked him.

“WHAT?” Malik cried and then he disappeared.