The Ella Parable

Chapter 1 - Awakenings

This is the story of a girl named Ella. Ella attended high school in year 11. Ella was in Legal Studies 2 where she would listen to the white noise of legal chatter. 
Rather uncharacteristically of Ella, she soon nodded off at the desk. Many tried to wake her but would eventually give up.


Upon Ella's awakening, all of her co-students and teacher were gone. It was around midday she hadn't slept long but where could they have gone? 


Ella sat there wondering where everyone went, perhaps there was an evacuation, and she was left behind. In a sudden panic, Ella assumed that the rest of her co-students were outside for evacuation. Thus, she decided to exit room AU10 to look out for where the rest were lining up. 


Ella was given a choice, she could either exit via the sky bridge or take the flight of stairs to the ground floor. Ella wasn't a dull character, so she chose to walk through where the sky bridge is and attempted to escape by jumping off the edge.


She plummeted to her death.


"This wasn't the first time Ella would die. That cheeky sod thought she was so clever by perishing in the first chapter that the Narrator had to talk about it. Bloody attention hog, oh well, let's start again. Wake up, Ella."


...


This is the story of a woman named Ella. Ella attended high school in year 11. Ella was in Legal Studies 2 where she would listen to the white noise of legal chatter. 
Rather uncharacteristically of Ella, she soon nodded off at the desk. Many tried to wake her but would eventually give up.


Upon Ella's awakening, all of her co-students and teacher were gone. It was around midday she hadn't slept long but where could they have gone? 


Ella sat there wondering where everyone went, perhaps there was an evacuation, and she was left behind. In a sudden panic, Ella assumed that the rest of her co-students were outside for evacuation. Thus, she decided to exit room AU10 to look out for where the rest were lining up. 


Ella was given a choice, she could either exit via the sky bridge or take the flight of stairs to the ground floor. 


In awe of what just happened, Ella felt a shiver go down her spine, she was currently afraid of going anywhere near the sky bridge, so instead, she took the easy route and casually walked down the flight of stairs, slowly.


"Now that wasn't so hard was it, Ella? Feeling better having not leaped to a premature death? Hm? Now then."


Under the cola was empty, not a person in sight. Everything seemed odd. Almost like rain clouds suspended over them gave everything a grey tint, like limbo.


A shiver ran down Ella's spine once again, feeling nauseous with a little bit of worry emerging, she continued to walk to the middle of the cola, not a single person in sight. Isn't that strange? Ella remembered that the school evacuation point lay at the oval, however, the MPC seemed to be locked up, perhaps they were all hiding there, or in the middle of some sort of assembly.


In pure curiosity, Ella thought it wouldn't be so harmful to stop by the MPC before heading to the oval, a quick pitstop per se.
Ella arrived at the MPC, the doors were locked, perhaps there was a side entrance she could enter by?


She thought about calmly checking to see if there were other doors, but in eagerness to prove that she was in charge of the story, she continuously banged herself on the doors in certainty they would open. Ella CLEARLY had no idea how physics worked and almost dislocated her shoulder. 


"See Ella, your actions have consequences, now choose a spare door already."


"Why are you in my head? Who are you and why do you think you're in charge of me?" She asked, sternly.


"Well, I wasn't expecting you to become self-aware of this quickly, welcome to the world Ella. I am the Narrator,"
*Cue trumpet solo*
"Tadaa!"
"So... No applause?"


"I don't think I have the proper brain power yet to figure out how to move my hands for that..."


"Of course, you do, watch this"
Ella punched the brick wall of the MPC.


"Ow! Why on earth would you do that? Who exactly do you think you are? You're making me look insane!"


"Insane? There's no one around, if anything you're the very opposite. Now pick a door and progress the story. Please. I have a job and a script to fulfil."


Ella huffed, she groggily strolled to the left side of the MPC, checking to see if there were any open (or unlocked) doors that she could see into, or enter.


The only available doors were the change room doors, so Ella was given the option to enter the leftmost door or the rightmost door.


Since Ella was a very strong independent woman, she knew it was instinct to enter through the right side, what a muscly woman!


"Congratulations Ella! You found the boy's change rooms, the only change room where Julius Caesar gets killed twice in dramatic Star Wars recreations. It's almost exactly like a theatre."


"I still don't see anyone yet, are you just dragging me everywhere for the sake of your own entertainment?" Ella asked, attempting to confront the Narrator. 


"Well, the answer is no. In fact, I thought it would be interesting to tell you the truth. Now I'm sorry, but because you hurt my feelings..."


The door directly leading to the MPC was locked, Ella would have to enter via the stage entrance through her left. 


"I lied, my feelings aren't hurt at all, I'm just disappointed you tried to snub me. My integrity is all I have left."


Ignoring the Narrator's childish antics, Ella entered via the stage entrance, though once she was standing on the stage, she could not see a thing due to stage lights glaring in her eyes, unable to see if there were humans on the level below. Would the only way to find out is by jumping down?

"Well, Ella? What do you think? It's dead silent, who could be down there? Maybe It's a surprise."

As Ella stood and thought for a quick moment, she realized that the door behind her didn't shut, so she still had the option to turn back.

"Oh no, you don't."

The door slammed shut, locked somehow.

"Sorry buddy, you gotta make a choice."

"HEY, you can't do that! I was going to walk through there!" She was aggravated, so she turned back around leaning over the edge, looking down to see if there was a bottom, it looked like an endless pit in her eyes.
"No, you weren't. Now come on make a choice, there's nothing for me to do until you either jump down or jump down."

"But it's scary..", She pouted, like a child.

"Don't be scared, Ella. Just, jump into the void. After all, that's what your predecessor did in a small office space. I told him not to, I warned him, but no. He just had to jump in."

"ll I dieWi?"

"Hopefully not. You won't, maybe. Wait, did you just say "Diewi?". What does that even mean?" 'Diewi'? "

"I was trying to ask if I'd die."

"Maybe not."

With slight hesitation, she thought for a moment, there was no other way out of this but to jump. As she hit the ground, she...

Saw nothing at all. The entire MPC was empty.

"So... No standing ovation?"

"At least I didn't die... Thank god".

"I feel like this story is going nowhere. Cue the music."

*Stanley parable adventure line .MP3*

"WHERE IS THIS MUSIC COMING FROM"

"Don't worry, just feel brave in your exploration! Now set forth! And leave this MPC! "

As she left the MPC, she began to start a conversation with the Narrator, "Do you like... have a physical body..?"

"Yes and no. It's complicated, we don't talk much."

"Can I see it?" She twiddled her fingers (she was definitely 100% simping)