Wild Fiction

Genevieve looked across at Rebecca, before turning back to the author. ‘Are you obsessed with young pre-cellulite callipygous women? What happens to her when she reaches my age? Do you trade her in for a younger model, just like you’re about to do with me?’
‘I didn’t say that.’
‘But that’s what you’re were planning on doing, wasn’t it?’
The author looked at the floor and pushed a piece of scrunched up paper around with the toe of his shoe. ‘I’m useless at writing. You know that. The prose is bad, it’s littered with clichés, the characters are two-dimensional, and the plot is going nowhere. I was hoping that with both of you in the story something would come together and figure itself out. I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to write the story myself. That I could watch what you did and chronicle the events and that would make a great story. Now this is the end.’
‘No it isn’t,’ Rebecca spoke for the first time. She turned to Genevieve. ‘You’re fictionally mortal. That means we have to be in a best seller to guarantee our immortality. Join us and make this book number one on The Times best seller list.’
Genevieve returned Rebecca’s stare. A moment passed, her face softened and she nodded.
Rebecca turned to the author. ‘Get writing, this is going to be a best seller.’
She took two steps over to Genevieve, took her hand, and pulled her towards the door. Turning around she faced the author who was standing in the middle of the room looking at the broken computer screen. ‘You can use a pencil and paper until you’re connected up again.’

Chapter 42

Rebecca took Genevieve downstairs. James and Conrad were pacing around the house looking out of each window. James stopped walking, put his arm on Conrad’s, and pointed to the two girls. They were standing at the bottom of the stairs looking both innocent and guilty.
‘What?’ Conrad said. ‘What’s going on? What happened?’
‘She’s a fictional, she’s just like us,’ Rebecca forced a smile. ‘The author created her long before us and she’s been living here as if she was real. She didn’t even know it herself.’
James and Conrad looked at Genevieve. Genevieve glanced at Rebecca, then back at the boys and nodded her head.