Forlot: Not What I Am - Book Twenty

Chapter Thirty-Three

Footsteps made contact with the leaves, creating cracking sounds, and a voice was followed. A female voice.

"That is great that you are not afraid. It is me."

I squinted in the direction of the sweet voice and blinked a couple times. "Ash?"

It was then that I realized that I was never alone. My writer had been with me all along.

Ash J. appeared from the darkness of the woods that surrounded me and had on a blank expression. Her arms were swinging at her sides, and she blew away a strand of her hair that been caught in one of her nostrils.

I would have laughed at that if not for the situation that I was in.

"Hey, Caleb."

I took a step back. "What are you doing here? Did you know that I was in Silver Woods?"

"I followed you to this very spot. I watched you leaving the hospital and decided to follow you." She plopped her bottom on the grass and crisscrossed her legs. "I was hoping that we could talk."

"What is there to talk about, Ash? In case that you were not notified, I covered my hospital room with my darn powers and turned Cindy into a lifeless statue yet again."

She shrugged. "So?"

My right eye twitched. I could not believe her! I had no control of my powers and put my own girlfriend in danger, and my writer, the person whom I have always looked up to, did not think that neither of those were big deals?

How dare she!

I clenched my hands into fists and placed them on my waist. I narrowed my eyebrows at her.

"That is all? Just the word 'so'?"

"Oh," she said. "Did you want me to add more?"

"Duh! I am in a serious predicament!"

"No, you are not, Caleb. You think that you are, but your—"

"What the crub is wrong with you, writer of mine? You are supposed to be a loving, justified person. You are always serious with the problems of this world. What makes my problem so different that you do not care?"

"I do care, Caleb."

"Then why do you not act like it?! You say that you love me! Yet you put me through all sorts of crub! You could have kept me from being abandoned! But you did not. You could have stopped Ava and Slapi from abusing me! But you never did. On top of all that, Cindy's parents hate my guts, and you allow them to get away with it!"

I wiped my nose and cried softly.

"You are an awful writer. The worst creator!"

Silence filled the woods, and the only sound that could be heard was the wind.

My writer soon broke the eerie silence. "Could you please sit down?" She patted the grass.

Even though that I did not want to sit next to her and most certainly did not desire to chat with her, I sat on the hard ground anyway and covered my face with my hands.

"Caleb, I love you, along with all the characters, with all my heart and would give up my life for you."

I figured that she waiting for me to respond, so I whimpered, "Why...why are you making my life a living crub?"

"I am not."

"Liar!"

"Listen and listen well. I wanted you to be the person that you were meant to be."

I decided to gaze at her. "I do not understand."

"And I do not expect you to understand, and that is perfectly okay. You see, before you met Cindy and her parents, you were not Caleb Night. Before you were abused by Ava and Slapi, you were not even close to being Caleb Night. And before your mother and father abandoned you—"

I interrupted. "Let me guess. I was not Caleb Night."

"Correction. You were never Caleb Night."

I rubbed my eyes. "You are not making any sense. I am Caleb Night. I was then and still am. You just tortured me to satisfy your fans."

"That is not true. You have gone through so much development."

"So now your definition of torture is development."

"Caleb, you have become the character that my fans love. Why? 'Cause you are perfect to represent what God asks of us. And trust me. If you never went through such hardships, if you were never abandoned or abused, you would not be the young man that you are today."

"An outcast with mental illnesses."

"No." She took my hands into hers. "A nice, kind, and understandable person."

"And what if I was never abandoned or abused or hated?"

She lowered her voice to a whisper. "You would have ended up like Anti-Caleb."

"So...I would have turned out...evil?"

"As scary as it sounds, yes."

"Dang. I never thought of it that way."

Without any warnings, I hugged my awesome writer tightly and cried hard. Ash hugged me back and played with the hairs on my head.

She was indeed one of the best writers ever.

"I love you very much," Ash told me. "I love your gender. Your skin color. Your glasses. The clothes that you wear. The color of your hair. Everything. That is the way that I created you."

I choked on my tears. "I-I am so blessed to have a writer who cares deeply for me." I smiled up at her. "And I love you too."

"Do not forget the Lord, Caleb. He loves you too. And if it were not for Him, you would not exist."

I chuckled softly. "I love Him too."

I never wanted this comfortable moment to end. It soothed my aching heart. But as you may know, only a few things stay the same.

I closed my eyes and a few seconds later, felt being carried. I heard Ash saying my name, and I opened my eyes...

...and screamed like a girl.

It was Jorgie. Not our Jorgie Special. Anti-Jorgie.