"I'm (never) gonna quit writing..."

 

 

 (Sequel to "I'm gonna quit writing...")

I knock twice on the door and wait for an answer, which I don't get any time soon.

"Knox! Are you there?"

No answer.

My eagerness to see my friend whom I haven't met for a month, or probably two gets me to break into his house to check in on him. 

But I can sense an element of danger. Things don't look like they're where I last saw them in his apartment.

Besides, I cannot recollect when I last gave him a visit, or where and when we'd last seen each other, my wrecked skull doesn't let me...

I cough his name out. His living room is bathed in the dust almost making the air opaque.

"kn-oh-oh-x-uh-uh"

"Yes?" "Yes?" The echo gives me relief and I turn back hopefully, only to realize that it wasn't an echo..!

My headache reaches me within a fraction of a second and I can vaguely visualize a tall lamp post on a sidewalk and the blurred image fades away as instantly as it hit me, shoving me back to the present.

The three of us stay back, motionless.

Three.

Knox in a white hoodie near the dining table, me between the television and a grand window, and Knox in a black sweatshirt near the main door.

My head feels numb and the pain is excruciating, this time though I drag myself to what is happening in the room rather than to focus on my lost memory. Little did I know, such actions aren't voluntary...

Knox in the white hoodie breaks the silence after a ridiculously long dramatic pause.

"So we meet again" he addresses me and continues sipping his drink in the dining area.

I feel vulnerable and insecure. I would've run back to my car if only another Knox wasn't guarding the main door.

"WHO IS HE?" I shout the words out of fear.

"who is who?" Knox doesn't even bother to keep his drink aside and give me his total attention.

"The guy near the door" I cry out.

"There's no one at the door"

I drop myself on the couch feeling resigned.

"Don't you think you shall see someone?" Knox asks after another greedy gulp of his drink.

"I am seeing another you near the main door and that is the problem!"

"There is nobody near the main door. No one who can harm you. Alright?"

That feels like the worst kind of assurance coming from a guy who himself cannot see anything is wrong.

"Fine" Maybe I really need a psychiatrist.

"Okay, I'll prove it. Come with me"

Having no better option, I follow Knox to the fireplace, and we both sit down on the floor.

Happily pretending like there's nothing wrong.

Happily pretending like there's nothing wrong. That's how he declared that he was gonna quit writing, didn't he? Things began to fit. It was back. My memory was back! 

I knew what was happening and I could feel it unfold- the mishappening.

"Feel the warmth in the fire, can you?" he askes gently.

"Yeah, I can. The warmth in the fire and the coldness in your intentions" I look at him straight in the eye, enraging fire burning inside me. 

"Now that you can, I'm afraid it'll freeze you" 

Yeah right, because he hadn't frozen my memory enough.

I think back to the day two months ago, in his car when he became the reason behind my head injury. And it hits with a jolt that he still can, and as it does, I don't hesitate to grab a log of wood-burning at one end from the fireplace and threaten Knox to stay back where he is with it.

He laughs wildly.

 "No use of that, newbie! I'm a character from a cursed book. You cannot harm me that way" 

I ignore all the rubbish and throw the burning birch on him only to see it go through him.

"Yeah, I'd warned you. But you didn't listen. Face the consequences!" 

He runs furiously towards the bookshelf and throws all the books onto the floor scattering them. I figure out instantly that he's just being a moron and try to make an escape but the sight of another Knox, still near the main door all along frightens me.

I'd become too much used to the "pretending". 

My fear brings me back to the fireplace where Knox in the white hoodie grins at me devilishly, with a book in his hand. 

"This cursed book has you. You are just another character which will perish as I burn this book in the-"

I hear just that much before I faint, for I don't know how long.

*****

When I get back to my senses, I find myself in a car. In Knox's car. 

Knox in the black sweatshirt.

He's driving and when he notices I woke up, he smiles. 

I've no clue what's happening. Is this what life after death looks like?

"I'm sorry, I know you deserve an explanation. The Knox in the white hoodie committed suicide you can say."

"And you think that's all the explanation I deserve?"

He snorts a laugh, despite himself.

"I had replaced the cover pages of the cursed books. He burnt the book where he came from not the one where you came from." 

Things made almost complete sense. No doubt I felt like I was in the last chapter of a mystery novel, literally. 

Except, I had a question. 

"Who are you?" 

"oh! me?" he laughed so hard that it forced me to tip my seat backward.

"I'm the creator- the author. Now tell me which story would you like to teleport to?"