Warning* Talk about death and bullying.

I swear, I had nothing to do with any of this. One minute I was sitting at my desk, banging my head over schoolwork, and the next I’m in a room filled with people.

Now, it might sound crazy, but I know feel like I know every single of of them. For example, the one standing in front of me, she has long red hair and blue eyes. She looks tough, and has a sword hanging from her hip.

The guy next to her is really tall, with brown hair and green eyes. He also has a sword. Next to the door is a teenage girl with black hair and bracelets all over her arms. Another guy her age was standing next to her protectively.

That’s when it hit me.

I DO know them. Because I wrote them. The two in the corner are Maddie and Ethan. She has bracelets all over her arms because she was bullied in high school.

Ethan is her boyfriend, and he hates that he couldn’t do anything about them.

The girl with red hair is Anna. She the Duke of Valorias daughter. Her boyfriend/trainer is Jasper. Next to them is Nick, Cooper, Dani, Lily, and April.

Aprils face was gray. Like stone. In her story, she got a Fates tattoo that turned her to stone like Medusa.

Standing behind Anna was a little girl. She was eleven. I knew that. She has a scar running across her throat. She had night demons that came alive.

Oh my god.

The first thought that came to mind was, how did they get here? Their only characters I wrote with a pen. Then I was terrified.

Every one of the character went through something terrible. Because of me. What if they hated me? Turns out they answered that for me.

Nick stalked forward. Now that he was closer I could see his hollow, sunken eyes. He was sad. “How could you do that to her?” He shouted. Uh oh. I should’ve known.

I winced and looked at him. This had to be a dream, right? No. A nightmare. “I’m so—“ I am started.

“No! That’s not good enough! Why her? Why did it have to be her?” He looked like he was about to break down. I couldn’t blame him. His girlfriend told him she was gonna live, only to turn a to stone in her apartment right after he left.

I backed away from him just as Anna came towards us with Wind Reaver drawn. “Leave her alone.” She sounded dangerous. The war made her that way. The war I wrote.

Jasper came up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. She backed away but never put her sword away.

I felt someone behind me. I turned around to see Maddie. I was scared for a minute, wondering if she was gonna blame me too.

“It’s not your fault. If you hadn’t someone else would have written me into existence.” She smiled kindly at me and hugged me.

This might have been the weirdest experience I’d ever had. I’d never, never thought I would be hugging a character I wrote out of ink.

“Thank you.” A little voice said. I looked over Maddie’s shoulder to see Olivia. She was rubbing at her scar, and I felt guilty again. “You saved me. Thank you.” Olivia looked happy.

Tears filled my eyes and I smiled at her.

Suddenly, everything started to get brighter. I looked around, trying to figure out what was happening and Jasper answered me.

“You’re waking up. Rebel on, Bailie.” He mock saluted and I copied him. I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see April standing behind me. “For the record, I don’t blame you either. My fate was set in stone.”

She winked at me and I jolted awake in my bed.

[I just realized that all of my characters are somewhat normal, and then there’s the little kid. Who’s night demon came alive and slit her throat 😭]