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Shit. No, shit, why did this happen? How did this happen? How did she fail so badly? Fuck.
Breathe, she told herself. It’s okay. Everything’s going to be fine.
Everything was fine. He hadn’t actually gone back to sleep, right? Crisis averted. Everything can just go back to normal now! He’ll try and awaken the remaining sleeper, and she’ll run her games. The audience will be satisfied. The story has a hero again! She just… needs to do some rewriting.
She sits down at her desk, in her room, in private. Alone. Perfect. Still, though, why did this happen? Everything was going great for the Awakened, right? They had the lounge, Yugo and Hailey had awakened. Why did Vinny give up? He was the hero, he was stubborn. He wasn’t meant to just give up. That wasn’t in her plans…
She sighed, sinking her head into her desk. It would be fine. They just needed to awaken the last sleeper. Then, everything could be-
“Hello, Murder God.”
She was snapped out of her thoughts. Hurling around on her chair, she stared at the figure behind her.
She groaned. “What do you want, Doctor?”
Doctor McGillicutty looked through her. “What happened, Miss Murder?”
“What?” she stood up to face him. He was still looking down at her, but, well, height wasn’t everything. “I don’t understand what you mean.”
The doctor rolled his eyes. Or, she assumed he would have, if his eyes were visible behind the opaque glasses he always wore.
“Why did your hero try and go back to sleep?” he asked.
“I don’t know. He’s your friend, why don’t you ask him?”
He stared into her eyes, “Well, I think Mr. Reid has made it very clear that he wants to be left alone, don’t you?”
“And your point is?” she said, turning away with a huff.
“Well, it seems perfectly clear to me that you’ve done something wrong. You’ve made a mistake, Murder God,” the doctor said, raising his eyebrows.
“Shut up!” she said, the urge to do something indescribably bad to him flaring up suddenly, then just as suddenly fading away.
“Just leave me alone…” she said, turning away. This was her room. This was her place, a place where she could be safe, think uninterrupted.
Wait a second.
She spun back round to look up at the doctor.
“How did you even get in here? This is my room.”
The Awakened shouldn’t be able to get in. But, the doctor wasn’t one of the Awakened, was he? He was The Fly. He was something else entirely, something that escaped her grasp.
“And the penny drops,” he said, snapping her out of her thoughts. “How did I get in here?”
She scowled. “Don’t be enigmatic with me, Doctor.”
He probably didn’t even know himself, what with how much he seemed to black out.
“Did you just come here to lecture me, or did you want something?” she asked.
“Oh, I just wanted to see if you’d figured it out,” he said, blank-faced as ever.
“Figured what out?”
“Well, for one thing, your name, ‘Murder God’,” he said, smirking slightly.
She stumbled back. “W-what? How do you…?”
“Shocked? I’m not surprised. I didn’t think you had it in you to figure it out. And after I made it so obvious too,” he replied, taking off his glasses and revealing nothing but an empty black void where his eyes should be.
Those eyes, or lack of eyes, it looked so familiar. She just couldn’t place it.
“What are you talking about?” she asked, her voice cracking slightly. “I swear, if this is some sort of joke, I will inflict suffering upon you worse than the pain of-“
“Oh please,” the doctor said, cutting her off, though she wasn’t certain that this was even the doctor anymore.
“Come now, a first name ‘Doctor’ with a wife named ‘Missus’ and a son named ‘Junior’? That’s so obviously made up that I’m honestly surprised that you didn’t question it. Though I suppose you had your games to run.”
“What are you?” she said, unable to tear her eyes away from the figure in front of her.
“You still haven’t figured it out?” the figure said, raising an eyebrow. “Come now, McGillicutty, Stephen Cutter, Monsieur Guy le Cutaux? There’s clearly a theme to these names.”
She said nothing, staring silently as her brain tried to come up with some explanation, any explanation.
“I suppose that I’ll just give the game away then,” the voice shifting away from the doctor’s and into something else entirely. “I am the cutter of the strings, the severer of souls, the revealer of desire free.”
“No…” she said, in a single, silent, horrified breath, as the figure in front of her changed into something all too familiar.
“Now you’ve got it, stardust,” said Ælethias.
She was frozen, thoughts racing through her mind then vanishing in an instant as she tried desperately to rationalise this.
She opened her mouth and all that came out was a single, breathy, “Why?”
“Why?” the being repeated, raising an eyebrow. “Well, you were at risk of breaking the rules. So I inserted myself into these games, knowing that you couldn’t do any real damage to me, and watched things play out.
“And, you did break the rules, didn’t you, stardust? Sure, the Awakened began awakening, but you had far too many. And, when you trapped them in the Lotus Eater, fulfilling their wishes, but unable to continue the games, well, you should be grateful that I freed them before the audience got to you.
“Then, I got rid of two awakened, and you gave me your word that you would keep your audiences satiated. You gave me your word that you wouldn’t grow attached. But, I’ve seen you with that child, stardust.”
She tried to rebuke, “It’s not like-“
Ælethias held up a hand, silencing her, “Don’t try to deny it when you know full well that I’ve been watching you.”
She fumed silently, still unable to think of anything to say.
“Why now?” she managed.
“Excuse me?”
“Why now?” she repeated. “Why reveal yourself now? You could’ve done it whenever you wanted, but you’re doing it now. Why?”
“I heard what you said to Vincent, stardust,” they replied. “You cannot use the awakened to get out of your decision. He is not going to ‘save you.’ Like it or not, you must choose your name. Or, well, you know what happens to you. Someone had to stop you before you went too far.”
“Fine,” she said, through gritted teeth. “So, what are you going to do now? Tell them about what I’ve been doing? Take over my story?”
“No, no, nothing like that, stardust. No, I want to see how this plays out. Just remember, I’m watching you. Don’t break the rules.”
“And what’s going to happen to the doctor?” she asked.
“The doctor will return to the lounge. As far as the Awakened know, he’s been in his room the entire time. This will be our secret, stardust. No one needs to know about me,” they replied.
“Fine,” she said turning away. “Just leave me alone. I need to do some rewriting.”
“Hmm…” Ælethias murmured. “I’ll leave you to it. I will see you around.”
“Yeah,” she said with venom in her voice, as they turned and left and tears began to fall, “See you around.”