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Cara shoved her way to the stage. “I’m really horny, so if any of you want to hit this, you know where to reach me.”
Even though that shouldn’t be helpful, it did show everyone that she was clearly a different person. “As you can see, you may notice some personality changes in those around you as everyone comes to grips with who they really are. Changes may happen slowly or come all at once. Feel free to embrace those changes.”
“Wait, are there really three dead people under the rubble?” Florrie asked.
I looked behind me and saw a shoe sticking out. “Um…yeah, pretty much.”
“And tomorrow they’re going to be back?” Chance asked.
I nodded. Yep, this was pretty unbelievable. “Basically. See, they only died here. But tomorrow, when Giulia sits down to write her book, they’ll be alive again and doing whatever she wants.”
“So, everything that’s happening right now won’t be real tomorrow?” Derek asked.
“Exactly. It’s real for us, but only until Giulia opens her book again tomorrow.”
“So, what happens to us tomorrow night?” Jules asked. “Will we remember this or will this be like amnesia all over again?”
“You’ll remember all of this, or you should. And by the way, that amnesia storyline was all Giulia. Listen, people, the easiest way to explain this to you is that…all the things you thought you did in your life, they only happened because of Giulia.”
“Wait, are you telling me that I only cheated on Florrie because Giulia made me do it?” Alec said angrily.
“Yeah, pretty much. And she got a lot of flak for that. Readers weren’t very happy with her decision to make you do that.”
“Gee, I wonder why,” Alec retorted. “Do you know how much shit I had to put up with from Florrie? How much groveling I had to do? And you’re telling me that’s all because she decided to throw in some…good storytelling?”
I shrugged. “Basically.” There was an uproar and I held up my hands, trying to calm them down. “Listen! Look, Giulia has her reasons for making us do these things.”
“Yeah, but making me cheat on Florrie?”
“She’s a little sadistic. And if you approach her about it, she’ll only make things worse for you,” I continued, speaking over the growing anger in the crowd. “But this is why we have to stick together! Things are getting out of control. She’s killing off Rob’s girlfriend, which means he’ll never really experience anything we do. For that reason, we all need to stand up to her and make the story go a different direction!”
“Why should we?” Knight spat. “I just got my life back on track. I promised Kate I wouldn’t fuck things up anymore.”
“So, you still love me?” Kate said with tears in her eyes.
“I’d fucking kill anyone that tried to get between me and the woman I love.”
I rocked back on my heels, seeing that this new revelation hadn’t dampened Knight’s sour disposition at all. “And…if it were possible to kill Giulia, I’d allow you to do that.”
“What’s stopping me?” Knight snarled.
“Oh, just the fact that we’re stuck inside a computer and she’s on the outside. I’m not quite sure how you’d get to her.”
“I’d find a way.”
His intensity wasn’t giving even the slightest, though I wasn’t entirely sure I had convinced any of them.
“For tonight, just go home and think on what we’ve said. In the morning, you’ll see that everything is the same. We’ll reconvene tomorrow night after Giulia leaves.”
As I stepped away from the crowd, I prepared for the onslaught of questions. Ice was the first to step up, and he looked like he was about to puke. Glancing back at the crowd, he widened his eyes at me, signaling he wanted privacy.
After we were further away, he totally exploded on me. “Is this real? I mean, are we really not who she writes us to be?”
“For some of us. I mean, I’m not that different, but you can see Cara is…”
“A sex fiend. Yeah, I got that.” His brows furrowed as he sank deep in thought.
“Ice, what is it?”