The Wattpad Game

12. Jane Toppan

Jane and I have a lot in common. We are both brilliant and terrible at the same time. Just like her, I had to learn to be well-liked, bright, and friendly. I remember that surname they once gave me at school "Polly Paul".

Polly is a feminine Latin name meaning "star of the sea" and an endearing pet name for "Molly" and "Mary," but for me, it was because I used to love playing that toy for girls, "Polly Pocket." There was nothing wrong with playing with small portable characters designed for a gender that wasn't mine, but they had to make fun of me. My scenarios were also incredibly creative for my age, as I sent each of my classmates to the most horrendous death.

I never really kill anyone, just like Jane. She poisoned them and held them until they died, while I only poisoned their minds and watched them until they died. Jane Toppan is indeed the perfect moniker for my new puppet account on Wattpad. As such, I could no longer stop the beautiful weapon she would become for me.

Only an amateur will give his own book the highest score in the review; I am better than this, as no connection could be traced between my two online personas.

Only a dilettante will openly insult their victims, and I'm better than this. I'm better than anyone, and my threat will be hidden in plain sight.

Starting with a good bait. A bait is an item selected from and placed within the environment to achieve enhanced prey capture success. The perfect lure for the big fish on Wattpad is the artificial type, and as such, Jane becomes not only an M.F.A. student but a senior retired editor at the famed HarperCollins publishers. I explain in her brief biography that her late husband's demise left her with no real motivation in life other than to help anyone in realising their dreams.

Another good natural bait angler strategy is to use a common prey species of the fish as an attractant, and as such, "The Hospital of Souls"'s review shop was born. A shop free for all with no payment but only the joy of debating on words, from which I will not partake in the comment section.

Without the writers' consent, I start my review on some of the most popular books on the platform. They were spared no humiliation for their work, not even to have their account tagged on it. Some agree with my criticism, others despise it; nevertheless, people talk about Jane. People talk about me.

Then the prey comes. They fill out the form with grammatical errors already and have huge hopes for success. Just like the real Jane's favorite ones, who were elderly and very sick, my victims in the contrary are young and extremely foolish. They are new authors with just a few followers, votes, reads, and no book club affiliation, and they all end their forms with a kind and respectful "Thank you, Jane!"

The trigger to start on my butchering. I slice through their book, purple prosed on their grammar issues. To continue, I smother them with their lack of knowledge in the craft, and to sign their death, I bury them under the never-ending list of references to other best selling books of their genre. It doesn't take less than 48 hours for the said account to suddenly disappear from Wattpad's surface, much to my own joy and contentment.

While this double-edged game continues between the murder of undeserving popular books to please the crowd and the real murder of the newborn writers, Jane's followers number grows exponentially. From 5 followers in one day to 5k within a week, I could not believe my eyes that so many would cheer on the public shaming of others.

People throw their books at Jane, begging her to take an expert look at them. Jane's message board is instantly inundated with "thank yous" for telling the truth, and she quickly establishes herself as Wattpad's anti-hero. She becomes a pivotal figure in a series of online dramas, in which she shines by being heartless.

All those miscreants so eager to have followers, to be famous, and to earn money make me sick, yet they are the kind of food my hunger takes a liking to. I could rip their souls for breakfast, dismember the content of their story at lunch, and finish them off before bedtime.

Some of course complain about my cruel words, as if none of them have ever been cruel to my book, but as the master of the game, I won't lower myself to answer them. I send out Charles to support my arguments, Honoré to make fun of them, and Mary K. to put them back in their place.

It was all a fun game—a funnier game than to write a book about killing people, as I could witness their dreams being crushed right in front of me. It slowly becomes too easy, and the prey are so many, so Jane starts to be more cautious and courteous. I make her send flowery DMs to those who need a review under the pretence of a lucky pick, and the first on the list is "M."

She was the acclaimed winner of the Sweet Dreams Awards in the fantasy category. An unknown, self-taught Wattpad writer who is gifted in graphic design. She is the epitome of everything that bothers me most in this world: a kind, selfless, and supportive person. Every book for which I wrote a review, there was always a comment from her, never pointing out the obvious but cheering instead. In every awards her book always succeeded, yet she is not even a native speaker of the language she writes in.

In every way, I hate her because I was losing Diallo to her. I couldn't allow her to make him better, and I will not allow her to make him win the Wattpad Game.