The Invisible World

Chapter 23: Thriller

Um, I think she just cracked. I had no idea what to do, so I just asked, "Jenny, are you okay?"

"Does it sound like I'm okay?" Jenny asked me back, her voice still shaking. "I have lived every single day of my life knowing that it's all going to come to an end. You do know that, right? That this entire book is my life? That I simply spawned into existence at the start of the second chapter?"

"You've already said that," I reminded her.

"There's only one chapter left after this one," she said, "so why is it now when I want to live the most that the book's deciding to end?"

Only one chapter? That changes things a lot. All of my questions about what I was supposed to do now that I had moved in with my parents seemed to vanish: I could just do nothing. For all I knew, the last chapter would end in a couple of days. That was nowhere near enough time to start a job search or a search for a new apartment. I could just wait out the days until we no longer existed. However, Jenny didn't seem nearly as ready for everything to end, so I just said, "I don't know what to tell you. You've been telling me to let it go for so long that I'm not sure how to react to you suddenly flipping."

"I don't, either!" Jenny shouted. "Jack and Alice were supposed to have the main romance. Brian and I were supposed to be some B-plot, but then the plot decided that Jack didn't want to confess his feelings to Alice after all, so now I'm the one stuck suffering."

Why is she talking about Brian and Jack and Alice all of a sudden? Actually, why wouldn't she talk about Brian for any reason at all? "This is about Brian?"

"Yes, it is!" Jenny replied. "When has it not been? I wasn't supposed to fall in love with him. Not this hard, at least. I found a reason to live because of him, but now my desire to live has turned back around and is threatening to stab me in the chest. I don't want to live in a book anymore. I don't want to live in a world where my relationship with Brian has to be cut short like this, not when I've gotten the chance to know him. I wish that we could just...jump off these lines and go somewhere that won't end! I don't know!"

I nodded. "So do I."

"Help me, Katie!" she yelled. "My will to live is too strong! I can't live like this anymore!"

"Then are you hoping the book ends here so that it ends your suffering quickly?" I wondered.

Jenny sighed. She must have been coming back to her senses. "No. Even if I wanted the book to end, that's not my choice to make. This book is going to be 24 chapters whether I like it or not. If anything, I want this book to last forever and ever and ever!"

"So do I," I repeated, "but that's not our choice to make, either."

"I know. I just wonder what's going to happen once the book ends."

"Don't we all."

"Like, is this really going to be the end for us?"

"Not if there's a sequel."

There was a long pause. Then Jenny said, "A sequel?"

"Jack suggested it after he talked me out of killing him," I explained. "I thought it was silly when he first mentioned it, but what if we actually have a future after all?"

Jenny chuckled. "Then it would completely take the gravitas out of the situation. If there is a sequel, it'll either take place immediately after this book, or our memories will be filled in between now and when it takes place. Either way, we'll never notice the book ended."

"Then let's hope there's a sequel."

"Actually, you want me to let you in on a secret?" Jenny asked. "There are plans for a sequel."