Don't Read This.

“Server still down?” Theo asked, the door clicking shut behind him as he walked into the room.

Carter muttered a curse under his breath and stared into the screen that’d been taunting him for the past hour and a half. “No, Theo, I’m sitting here for fun. Yes, you fool, it’s still down.”

Terese snickered at this while Theo set his mug down on the table, raised his hands in a mock surrender gesture. “All right, all right,” he replied, “my apologies. Who pissed in your Cheerios this morning?”

“Probably the server,” Terese said with a laugh.

Carter shot a half-hearted glare her way before running his hands across his face. He rose from the desk chair, shoving it back with what was probably too much force (as it collided with the filing cabinet behind him), and walked to the windows overlooking New Harding. Cars and taxis dotted the street several floors below them, filed in a neat little line, like insects on a branch. “And it had to be today, too,” he muttered. “Couldn’t be yesterday. Couldn’t have been next week. Had to be today.”

“Steph’s out of office, at least,” Theo replied. “We’ll get it online in no time. Business as usual.”

Carter pulled a sticky-note off the window and folded it, slipping it into his pocket. “Steph being out of the office is part of the problem. Mike’ll go on one of his power trips and give us some deranged sermon about productivity in the workplace.”

Theo chuckled at this, nudging Terese with his elbow. “Well then. I’ll leave you both to hide in here from the aforementioned sermons.” He looked up at Carter and smiled. “Try not to burn the place down or kill Mike in the meantime, will you?” He then turned around and left the office.

Terese snorted in laughter and brushed a lock of hair from her face. “What’s the deal with you and Mike, anyhow?”

Carter circled back around to his desk, leaning against the edge of it with his arms crossed. “He’s a pompous blowhard, Terese. Got a personal thank-you card from the CEO and now thinks he’s the second son of God.” Terese laughed at this, and Carter couldn’t help smiling. He liked seeing her laugh. “I’m serious, y’know?”

“I know you are,” she replied, “and that’s the funny part.” The woman shifted her weight in the desk chair. “He’s put in vacation time for next month. I think he’s going on another cruise. You’ll be free of him for a little while.”

“Well that’s something to look forward to.” A car horn sounded off in the distance. Carter extended his hand out to grab his desk chair, wheeling it forward and plopping into it. As if suddenly aware of the fact Terese was watching him, he adjusted the collar of his shirt, sitting up a little straighter than usual. “I, uh– you know Terese, I’d been thinking. If there’s ever a night– after work, that you’d wanna go… grab some drinks, or dinner, I mean… I’d be available. And up for it. I heard there’s a decent bar on the south side of New Harding we could try out–”

“Yeah,” Terese said. “I’d be up for it.”

"You would?" The man's cheeks burned and he grinned, clearing his throat and poorly disguising it as a cough. "You would– that's– well, that's great. I can text you and we can see about... next Thursday, maybe?"

Theo opened the office door, stepping into the room and allowing it to click shut behind him. “Server still down?”

Carter sighed, turning his attention towards the computer screen. “No, Theo, I’m just sitting here for fun. Yes, you fool, it’s—“ his voice cut off when he turned his head to the side, seeing the coffee mug already sitting on the table. His gaze flicked up to Theo, who held another mug in his left hand, his right hand raised upwards. Carter blinked. Then blinked again.

The first and second mug both stared back at him.

“The hell?”

“What?”

“I— why do you have another one?”

“What are you talking about?”

Carter shot up, storming towards the table as the desk chair crashed into the filing cabinet behind him. “This—“ he said, picking up the first mug and extending it towards Theo. “Why did you bring another cup of coffee with you? You left the first one here.”

Theo glanced at Terese before looking back at Carter. “That… isn’t mine, Carter. It was here when I came in.”

A small huff of air resembling a laugh escaped Carter’s mouth. “It was here when you came in because you brought it in here not even what— five minutes ago? Do I look like a damn idiot?”

Terese stepped forward. “Carter… are you good?”

The man swore under his breath and set the first mug down, waving his hand in the air. “Yeah, yeah, I’m all right, just don’t know why you’re pulling this crap. Ha-ha, Carter’s an idiot, so–” He walked back over to the window, noting the traffic below them… and pausing at the sight of a sticky-note pressed to the glass.

He brushed the tip of his index finger against it. Carter’s other hand slipped into his pocket and felt the first sticky-note that’d been folded up. His breath caught in his throat. “Okay.” He turned his head and looked at Theo. “Fun’s over. What is going on?”

Theo and Terese, who’d been whispering to each other, stopped abruptly and faced him.

“Carter,” Terese said, “we’re experiencing something called a loop in the system narrative. It's nothing to be concerned about.”

The man blinked. “What?”

Theo nodded. “It’s happened before. We just need to follow the script. Sometimes the same dialogue has to repeat a few times before it unravels. We’ve handled it before. And the narrative will progress.”

Carter’s hand tightened around the folded-up paper in his pocket. “I… don’t understand. Nothing you’re saying makes sense.”

Terese lifted an eyebrow at Theo, and Theo took a step forward.

“Carter. We’re doing our parts as characters in a story. Everything we’re saying and doing has to coincide with the script that the system narrative created. The– second mug, and the sticky-note are indicators of a loop. They’re unfortunately common in this field.”

“The– system narrative?”

“Yes. In primitive terms, the story. We are characters, supplementing the plot.”

“But…” The man looked in the direction of the windows. “What about New Harding, our jobs, the–”

“All a part of the system narrative, Carter. And there is a loop. Which means we have the responsibility to repeat the necessary dialogue and actions until the loop unravels, and we progress the story.”

Carter had stopped, his chest heaving with every breath, his hands trembling by his sides. “So– so what– the world, we, the world we know is– not there? It isn’t real? None of this is?”

“No,” Terese sighed. “The world we know is here, and it is real because we occupy it. But our world exists for the enjoyment of the Reader.”

“The Reader? Can you just– not talk like we’re in some freaking fairy tale crap? Just–” He groaned in frustration. “God, this can’t be real. Just stop the prank. You got me, all right? Just stop. This is enough.”

“Listen.” Theo’s voice was louder this time. Harsher. “There’s more at stake here than just you. Please– walk over to the window, look out over New Harding, and remove the sticky note.”

“Do you hear yourself?” Carter said. “This is insane!”

“He’s right,” Terese snapped. “Do as he says, Carter. Please. It’ll make the unraveling easier.”

It’ll make the unraveling easier.

Carter swallowed down the lump forming in the back of his throat. “So everything,” he whispered, “th-the… server being down and- Steph being out of office and–" his voice cut off, and he looked at Terese with the beginning of tears pricking his eyes, "and you– it's all a lie?"

Theo walked forward and gripped the man's shoulders tightly. "The window, Carter. Walk to the window and say your line. And it had to be today, too. Focus."

"No!" Carter shouted, shoving Theo back into the desks. His head was spinning, as if he'd just gotten the wind knocked out of him. And perhaps he had. "I'm not staying here! I'm not in a story! I am alive! I am real!” Carter shouted into the air. “We have to stop this! Stop this!” Gritting his teeth, he grabbed a nearby chair and flung it at the wall. One of the chair legs punctured the drywall, revealing a patch of some reflective-looking surface.

“Carter, stop! Characters don’t interfere with Readers!” Terese shouted, lunging towards him but she was pulled back by a disheveled Theo.

“Don’t—” he said. “Let him get it out of his system. It might help the loop unravel, and then we can reset.”

Hot tears streamed down Carter’s face as he picked up the chair again, wielding it like a pick-axe, as he repeatedly swung the chair against the wall. Flecks of chipped paint and drywall flew past him as he did so. “Let! Me! Out!” He said after each blow, his voice breaking. Sweat dampened the man’s forehead and underarms. The clock on the left end of the office ticked, but its second hand remained twitching, frozen, teasing. After an indeterminate number of swings, the chair slipped from his hands and clattered onto the floor.

There was a five foot hole where the wall had been.

It provided him with a view of what lay on the other side. A large, glass-like surface, covered in black words, and behind the black words was the semi-blurry outline of a humanoid figure that dwarfed them in size. Carter stood, shoulders heaving with every breath he took. “What is this?” He said. “What is this? What is this?”

Terese turned around and glared at Theo. “I told you we weren’t ready for another character. Not while the narrative was this unstable.”

“Terese, we had no way of knowing. He seemed promising.”

“Does he seem promising now, Theo?”

Carter watched as the black words changed, moving upwards as the humanoid figure pressed what appeared to be its finger against the glass-like surface in a scrolling motion. Terese’s and Theo’s voices faded to an indiscernible buzz in the background. He leaned forward and pressed his nose against the glass, squinting his eyes, trying to make out whatever on earth was behind it all.

Break it, he thought. It can’t hear me. I have to break it.

He spun around and ran towards the supply closet, yanking the door open and opening the first drawer. Empty. Second drawer. Empty. Third drawer. Box cutter.

Terese might’ve told him to stop again, but it was impossible for Carter to hear anything clearly over the high-pitched buzzing noise. He ran forward again, box cutter in hand, before stabbing the glass with all his might. The humanoid’s finger paused, frozen in mid-air.

Carter laughed at this, his pulse roaring in his ears as he stabbed the glass a second, third, and fourth time. “Aha! You can hear me now, can’t you! Can’t hide behind words any more!” He continued stabbing the glass, more frenzied this time. “Let us out, Reader! Let us out! You think you can just– use us, is that it? Use us in a cute little story and then abandon us when you’re done? You think we exist for you? yOU THINK wE DON'''T wANT TO LIvE FOR OURSeLVEs????!!!!!!

“Theo, he’s breaking grammatical code,” Terese snapped, “he’s breaking the boundaries of quotation–”

YOU THINK I DIDn’T WANT A LIFE OUTSIDE OF THIS PLAcE?!

THINK WE WErE JUST GONNA

REPEaT THE

SAME

Th-

-ING AGAIN

AND AGAIN FOR THE SAME

STUPiD

SCRIPt

WELL YOU GUEsSED

WROnG BECAUSE

“““““““““““““,YOU’RE

NOT GoNNA USE ME

YOU’RE NOT GONNA

notnotnotnotnotnot

USE mE AND MY DREAMS

AND MMMMMY LIFE FOR SOME

DAMNED WAY tO PASS THE

tiME

FOR yOU

I AM DONEeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

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A problem has been detected and REEDSYENTRY325 has been shut down to prevent damage to your device.

WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR

If this is the first time you’ve seen this error screen, restart your device. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. In the event of a new character installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any narrative updates you might need.

user/Theo prompted:delete /f_Carter.ext

reedsyprompts /search_Carter.ext – The system cannot find the file specified.