Short Stories

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     Xer looked around in confusion. "Where am I?" They monologued. They were in the middle of the desert with nothing in sight. They began to think of home. A busy town, not big enough to be a city but not exactly small enough to be a town in the first place. Xer gasped, watching his home being constructed around him. "What?" They muttered; confusion written all over their face. "What's happening? Where's my family? Where am-" They were stricken with shock, desperately trying to search for their name. How could I forget my own name? They clutched their hair, before looking up, there were people around him.

Xer began to panic, taking deep breaths, they tried to make sense of all of this. How does any of this make sense? Short answer, it doesn't. Xer took a deep breath, "Okay, calm down," they muttered to themselves. "This is probably just a dream-" they cut themselves off. They heard something strange.

"Fuck, this is the part that I hate most." Xer heard in their head, but it wasn't their voice, it was a female's voice.

"Wha- who are you?" Xer asked, confused and upset.

"Who do you think I am?" The voice said, Xer could imagine the female, sitting in a chair, her hands on her lap, relaxed. Composed. Xer thought about her question for a moment before getting angry.

"You! You... You made me! I'm not real! This isn't real! I don't wanna be here! I want to go home!" Xer couldn't wrap his head around this. What was happening? Were they going crazy? Who were they? They couldn't breathe.

"Hey, hey, calm down, I don't need you to get traumatized yet. Trust me, you will love being alive. I will give you so many adventures to go on. Adventures that I wish I could go on."

"What?!" Xer exclaimed in fear. Traumatized, what did that mean?? Adventures?

"Tell me who you are!" Xer demanded. They could hear notes being written down, heard some muttering.

"Well, I suppose you could call me the creator. I don't really have a name." Xer heard; how could she be so casual about this? "Why did you make me?" Xer commanded.

"I didn't make you. I thought of you, you made yourself. Think about it. I don't know anything about you, and you don't know anything about yourself. We're learning about you together."

"You're wrong," Xer hissed back, hating how the creator could get into their head like that. "You made me. You can take me back. Stop this nonsense."

"That's not how that works, and you know that." The creator replied. Xer imagined the creator, sitting upright now, her back straight, a notepad somewhere close to her with a pencil or pen in her hand.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Xer yelled into the sky. Some strangers around them stared at Xer like they were crazy. "You can control everyone here! You made them stare at me."

Xer began to walk in a store they liked so much, "See? You're trying to avoid this conversation!"

"I want the story to continue," the creator said, monotonously.

"You don't even know me very well! You haven't given me a name, given me a sex! Do you even know what the story is about?"

"Of course I do, but I'm learning about you. I don't know you very well because you are your own person. Right now, you are like a stranger I have just met and need to understand and know. Unfortunately, I came up with a storyline and not many characters. The story needs characters, though. Since we have a little bit of time, why don't you tell me about yourself?"

Xer was taken aback. The creator was asking about them. To talk about themselves. But they didn't even know the first thing about themselves.

"Shouldn't you already know that? You made me! I should be asking about you!"

"But I don't know you. You are simply a placeholder; I don't know anyone in this story yet. So why don't we begin with you? Who are you? What's your name? What do you sound like? Look like? What do you like to do? Like to eat? To drink? How old are you? Are you the protagonist? The antagonist?"

"Wait! Slow down, I don't even know what that means! How could you be asking me? I don't know the first thing about myself! Where am I? Who am I? What's my name?"

"Gosh, I never had anyone be so annoyed..." The creator sighed softly. "Hopefully, I can make this story. I'm sure you'll love being alive. You're not in my world, you're in the perfect world."