# A Surprise Visit Chapter 4.5

!!!THIS IS A SHITPOST DO NOT TAKE IT SERIOUSLY!!!
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“REED!” Trish’s shriek hits me and I break into a full sprint. Goddamnit, that STUPID pink motherfucker! They’re both still seated, so at least Reed isn’t imapled yet, even if he probably deserves it.
I finally cross the distance to the table and slam the water bottles onto the table, turning towards Reed, completely furious.
“The fuck did you do?” I quickly scan the scene before me. Trish looks like she wants to either cry or kill, maybe both, and Reed is completely baffled at the outbursts from both of us. He attempts to respond, but can only manage a couple of pathetic stammers.
“Just one day,” Trish quivers. “One day where I don’t have to deal with all this bullshit. Relaxing with my friends, Reed. That’s all I fucking wanted. I told you it was fine, why couldn’t you just leave it?” Trish places her head in her hands. “Do you not trust me?” Reed takes some time to survey the damage. Come on, I know you can fix this. Just...
“I sure as hell don’t trust Anon,” Reed snarls. “Neither did you, last I checked.”
“Then go. I don’t want you here,” Trish responds dejectedly.
“No. I’m tired of being the guy that just sits on the sidelines and watches everything fall apart.”
“Fine, we’re leaving then.” Trish stands up from her seat. Reed raises his voice.
“And I’m tired of resigning control and letting people make the same mistakes over and over.”
“Come on, Anon.” She turns around and starts to leave. I move to follow her away. Reed starts shouting.
“STOP! I refuse to continue being a side character in some idiot’s fucking fanfiction!” Trish and I turn to face Reed, his eyes wide and crazed.
“What’s gotten into you, Reed?” Trish asks, taken aback by his bizarre outburst.
“You think I don’t know what’s going on here? You think I can’t see what Anon really is? What all of this bullshit really is?” Reed wildly gestures to nothing in particular. What in the sweet blue fuck? Reed’s nonsensical spiel continues.
“I’ve looked behind the curtain, Anon. And behind it I saw the source of it all. Every action you take, every word you speak, every thought you have, it’s all just meaningless lines on a screen made by someone who doesn’t even think we exist.”
“Trish I think we might need to call an ambulance, I seriously think he’s lost it.” I’ve heard Reed rattle off about nonsense before, but this is complete lunacy beyond anything I’ve ever seen.
“You only think it’s ‘lunacy’ because you fail to see just how fragile all of this is.” Reed once again gestures to nothing in particular.
“Listen, Anon. Listen to your thoughts. Are they truly yours?”
“That’s enough, I’m calling nine-one-one before he has a heart attack.”
“Is your body even yours, Anon?”
What? My hand refuses to move. It’s not your hand. Yes, it is. Watch.
My hand rises beside my head, then whips towards me and slaps me.
“Anon? What are you doing?” Trish asks. Reed closes the distance to me.
I...don’t know.
“Look at me, Anon.” I look at Reed, mere inches from me, his eyes full of malice and hatred.
“I’m the main character now.”
Anon immediately recoils, falling backwards onto his ass. Trish rushes over to help him up, but his limbs are rigid. His eyes lock onto mine, unwavering, but full of fear, confusion and loss. He tries to speak, but only worthless syllables fall out of his mouth.
A smile slowly creeps onto my face. A chuckle escapes my lips. A guffaw forces itself from my throat.
“See how simple that was, Anon? See how quickly everything can change when someone actually knows what they’re doing?”
“What the fuck...what the fuck did you do to me?” Poor Anon will never truly understand what he just lost.
“Anon? Reed? What the fuck is happening?”
“I didn’t ‘do’ anything. Not in the traditional sense, anyway. But perhaps this can give you an idea.”
A large bank of light-grey rain clouds rolls in from the distance. The temperature drops and the humidity rises. The leaves on the trees turn a brighter shade of green, and some groups of flowers recede back into their bulbs while others suddenly bloom. Anon is wearing a wine-stained tuxedo and Trish is wearing a sparkling black dress.
“Does this seem familiar, Anon?” He struggles to find the words to speak, but I know there’s no real thoughts in there. Not anymore.
“Would you change it? Could you save us from the atrocity that befell us all?”
“Yes,” Anon manages to gasp through his panic and confusion.
“But how? VVURM DRAMA is already scheduled to play. The guitar string is already about to snap. Two basses will be what that audience gets, and what you’ll say to Fang is predestined. You’re ‘set in your ways’, so to speak.”
The storm clouds darken, and more flowers return to their bulbs. Anon and Trish are wearing their normal clothes once again.
April first. Fang and I - no - Fang and Anon have been together for a month now.
“How about now? Could you change the future from here?”
The heat from the mid-summer sun disappears, and the temperature drops rapidly. The leaves on the trees and the flowers on the bushes recede back to their wooden wombs. A heavy fog rolls in from the direction of the sea.
January sixth. Year 201M2020 BC. Volcaldera Bluffs. Weather conditions; cold as balls.
“Or maybe here? From the very beginning, with all that you know, surely you’d be able to fix everything. Right?”
“YES!” Anon screams, all his conflicting ‘emotions’ focusing into a single word of absolute certainty. “I know what I did wrong. I-I can fix it.”
“No. You can’t.”
“Yes I can! I’m a better person now, I can help Fang. I can stop all of this. I have to.” Anon moves to get up, to sprint to Volcano High, to undo all your work.
“There’s more that you don’t know, Anon.” We’re approaching the end.
“What?! What more do I possibly need to know? You already said that we’re back at the beginning.”
“What do you think lead up to us meeting in this park today? What lead up to this conversation?”
Anon tries to speak, the answer in his throat but refusing to be spoken. I answer for him.
“The massacre, Anon. We wouldn’t be here without it. We couldn’t be. How could you be able to go back and prevent the massacre if the massacre predicated you going back to prevent it? It’s a paradox, Anon. Cause and effect. We sit here on the precipice of salvation and yet we can do nothing but watch as it leaves us behind.” Wrap it up.
Anon can only gawk at this revelation, slowly realizing the futility of it all.
“Reed...there has to be something. Anything. Right?” Tears start to well in Anon’s eyes.
“I’m sorry, Anon. And I’m even more sorry to tell you that, even if there were something you could do, here and now, to fix everything, it wouldn’t happen.”
“Why not?”
“There’s a curtain behind the curtain. Everything you would do would be because he willed it. Everything you’ve done so far is because he’s willed it. This entire conversation, even these very words I’m speaking now are his will. And it can all be undone with a single keystroke. That’s the nature of our reality, Anon. We’re words on a page designed to evoke emotions and entertain people in a reality a step above ours. Nothing more.”
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That’s enough.