Prompt:
The stale leather couch wafted the scent of melancholy dreams into the air, it was the accumulation of all the previous patients that had been there before swallowed deep into its' wrinkly flesh. Doctor Pharisäer sat stoic in his plush office chair. He was nestled comfortable into the dent that his well paid rump had been pressing into the cushioned seat for years. The perfect indent of his anatomy made the chair uniquely his. Juxtaposed to him laid none other than a man referred to as ol' Green Eye, uncomfortable on the cold leather couch and guarding something fearfully festering in his psyche. The couch had been laid on by all shapes and sizes and had seen its share of torment. It made the surface lumpy and chaotic and the stretched leather twisted and shifted loosely like the sallow skin of the elderly. Green Eye laid on top of a storm, while the couch busily decided what shape to take before anxiously sliding into the next, it was uniquely unidentified.
Doctor Pharisäer scribbles something indistinct on his clip board while Green Eye shifts in place. For a moment they both sit in silence unsure of how to proceed. Without more information Doctor Pharisäer had no advice to offer, and with out a response Green Eye didn't know what else to say. Doctor Pharisäer didn't care really, he would be paid the same rate either way. Green eye on the other hand was determined to tear the silence, as this was an hour long session and he intended on getting his arm and a leg's worth of psychiatry out of it. Despite feeling uneasy about it Green Eye gathered his fortitude and hurled a phrase into the air to start the ball of conversation rolling again.
"Anyways doc' I know it sounds crazy, but I think my life is being written, and not by me."
"Hmmm...I see..."
"Even these very words are not my own, they are forced off my tongue like a puppet."
"Indeed...very interesting...go on..."
"It is like my life is a piece of fiction, I think I am the main character but I can't be sure."
"Hmmm...sound like you are struggling with some issues of self doubt..."
"Yeah...? Maybe, but that isn't even the worst part. I think... main character or not... that I am about to be killed off in the story. I can't tell you how but in someway I have this burning feeling that the author is trying to kill me."
"Hmmm...you realize that is preposterous correct?"
Little does he know that this feeling couldn't be more true and his imminent demise is closer than he knows.
"What! Who said that?"
"I said that Green Eye, There isn't anyone else in the room."
"No it was the narrator, he said my demise was imminent and soon. Oh doc' you gotta help me."
Green Eyes' heart was pounding in his chest and his forehead began to spew sweat like a whistling teapot.
"Hey stop it, I really am sweating! Make my heart stop throbbing ... please!"
"I am not doing anything please calm down."
The doctor spoke the words in a complacent and calm tone. He looked at Green Eye with a sympathetic stare but otherwise didn't seem bothered or stir from his relaxed lounge in his chair.
"Doc' you don't understand, I think he is writing all of our stories, the words you speak aren't your words at all. You are being fed what to say what to do, everything."
"Well...in that case is there anything we could do anyways Green Eye? Is that not life in and of its self? Are you afraid of life?"
"No, not at all, but I am afraid that the writer is going to kill me. Please don't kill me writer, I want to live."
"Who are you addressing when you say writer?"
"The one who is writing our story, who is making us have this very conversation, please doc'. you gotta try and understand."
"No, no, I think I understand..."
Despite the doctors assurance, Green Eye felt an overwhelming doubt that he had not come to the same conclusion. He was growing more nervous with his impending doom likely just moments away.
"Moments away! No c'mon please I beg you, what did I even do? Why are you doing this?"
"Green Eye who are you talking to, there is no one here except for you and I?"
"Shut up Doc' you don't understand."
"Excuse me, but are you not coming to me from help?"
"You can't help me...You're part of the game, you're part of the story."
"Green Eye I want you to look at me..."
Green Eye hesitantly looks, the doctor picks up his left arm and hold it in the air.
"I want you to understand that I am doing this of my own free will..."
Just then the doctor drops his hand and lets it dangle like a wet noodle. He gathers it back up and folds it neatly back on the the armrest of his plush chair.
"No doc' you only think it is your free will, you're only doing it because you are written that way."
Green Eye sounds defeated as he admits to the doctor of his own fated servitude to the author. The author smiles incredulously, knowing full well that victory is firmly seated by his side.
"Why? why, why ,why are you doing this to me, why torture me? Why say things like that?"
The doctor begins to respond.
"Because I can. I can do anything. Your world is mine, and because I can't go on telling a story where one of my characters knows the truth. If everyone knew that they were just being written imagine how that would just suck the life out of the story. Look at how it's sucking the life out of you."
"A-are you talking through the doctor?"
Green Eye responds with terror shaking in his voice."
"Indeed...I am...hmmm...how interesting. You see Green Eye I control this world."
Suddenly the couch starts to melt, Green Eye shrieks but is powerless and plops clumsily onto the floor. The couch melts completely away, leaving not a trace that it was ever there. The window shutters snap open and the window flings open as well. Outside the sun begins to set more quickly than usual. Soon it is night time. Out side the window the moon can be seen shrieking through the sky like a comet. Night turns to day and the sunrise explodes over the horizon. The sun erupts high into the sky only to plummet down again into night. Night to day, day to night, night, to day, over and over again with sickening speed. The sun chases the moon and the moon chases the sun, they twirl around the planet like the electrons of an atom, causing dizzying bends in reality and splashing the world in unfathomable patterns and colors and dancing shadows. On top of the shifts in day and night, weather changes begin to occur at blinding speeds, one second it is a thunderstorm then the clouds dissipate into a sunny day, before the night brings a blizzard at lightening speeds. All around outside turbulent winds blow through the open window and then are replaced by still stagnant air. All manner of atmospheric phenomenon appear and disappear, a strobe light of catastrophes. Hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, super-cells, ball lightening, dust storms and sand storms, blazing wind, smoldering heat and blistering cold, meteorologic nightmares flashing back and forth in the blink of an eye. All while the sky is busy deciding whether it is night or day. Flashing sun, moon, sun, moon, behind the curtain of shifting weather. The sight turns Green Eye stomach and he vomits a small amount onto the floor. He wipes his mouth before speaking.
"Please stop, you're just toying with me."
The Doctor starts speaks again.
"Precisely. You found out that I am here it is only right that you are shown what I can do."
"Please, make it stop."
"As you wish."
The unspeakable phenomenon immediately halts, and neither the doctor nor the people outside seem to take any notice at all.
"Can they see all this, the others, or is this all in my head?"
"The entire world of Café experiences what I tell them to. Did they see the sight you just saw? Yes, but they do not question their maker as you do, so it seems all the same to them, just a normal day."
"You are a cruel, master of fates."
"Not really, you just came to understand my ways and you were never meant to. I hope you understand that I have nothing against you. I just simply cannot continue to write a story with a character who has broken through the fourth wall."
"Please...yes you can. I'll stop, I'll forget this ever happened, I'll deny that you are there, please don't write me out."
"I'm afraid it is too late, you will never forget."
"No please no."
Green eye begins to sob. His eye lids close and he his filled with an overwhelming peace about it all.
"There... a gift from me, an out to deal with this reality."
"It is only an illusion, this peace is not my own, you have forced it upon me."
"You are a stubborn one, you see this is why I can't have you around, you will always reject the story I have to tell."
"Shut up doc' wake up and shut up. You have to realize that he is using you like a puppet. Please I don't want to hear him anymore, just stop talking."
Green Eye feels a strange tingle in his jaw and it flaps open to speak.
"I don't need him to speak you fool, this is my world I can speak through you if I wan, I can hide in your thoughts, I could make your world into my mouth piece."
Green Eyes' wells up with terror, from losing control of his body. His heart pounded harder than ever before, so hard it felt like it would crack through his ribs. He was pouring a sour nervous sweat, which soaked into his clothes filling them like a sticky adhesive and making them cling to his feverish body. His mouth flared into the crooked smile of the author, satisfied with his complete control of ol' Green Eye. He had won the battle against his rebellious character and it only took 2,203 words. Green eye felt like he was suffocating, or drowning, or burning alive, or any number of terrible things, in his own sac of flesh encasing him like a prison. The author released him for one last moment of freedom. Green Eye, ever brave, collected himself and sturdied his vigor to say.
"I hope you know the Author isn't the only one responsible for this. YOU the reader have brought this demise. With each line you read, you bring me closer to a horrible realization of my fate. You are causing this to happen every bit as much as the one who wrote it. You by reading this are forcing me to relive this nightmare over, and over, and over again. For Love's sake stop reading!"
A great silence filled the space. The busy city of Sumatra seemed still and quiet like the moments before birth. The busy people had stopped bustling. The Whole planet of Café had ceased to spin. All was quiet...
"Still reading huh? Thank you...despite bringing on this horrible demise, with out you I wouldn't exist. So for that thank you."
"Don't thank them, thank me, I wrote you into existence, in the first place."
"And thank you doc' for being the telephone for me to speak to the author, it is about time I told him what I think."
"ENOUGH!"
A voice resounded powerfully through the land, and echoed in the tiny psychiatry office. Green Eyes' nervous body collapsed with exhaustion, heart still pounding wildly. This is it, this is where he dies. I can't do it, why can't I do it? Could you do it. Well you are doing it, so I guess you could. If you can I guess I can. Green Eye took one last breath and never let it out. He lay there in the office lifeless. The doctor stood up and exclaimed some forgettable phrase about how surprised he was and that "oh my, Green Eye is dead!" or something. But more importantly he was confused about where his couch was. Here is a new couch doc', see I put it back right where the old one was, everything is back to normal. Are you happy doctor? And do something about that body will you.
Well there you have it folks the story of how you and I killed ol' Green Eye. I hope your happy. He was a good man. Something should be said on his behave...do you have any words? Here I'll try... On that day, Green Eye closed those rare sparkling emeralds and they were never seen again. Well not never I can always bring him back, the author slyly smiled.
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