"That sucks!" The words escaped Desmond Woods' lips as his silver eyes flashed while he processed the unexpected news.
Standing across from him, a young man with glasses adjusted his frames, his face anxious.
The news had barely settled in before Desmond's thoughts were shattered by a scoff from Lizzie.
"Is that what you're supposed to say in this situation?" Lizzie, her blonde hair falling over her shoulder, rolled her eyes at him. "Boys are really stupid."
Amused by the exchange between Desmond and Lizzie, the twins seated between Desmond and the young man with glasses leaned in, fully engrossed as they watched the banter unfold.
Desmond shot Lizzie a sidelong glance, his detached expression unwavering as he leaned back in his seat. "You shouldn't speak so recklessly in a room full of stupid boys. Your mum might find it hard to identify you if things get out of hand."
A faint tension sizzled in the air. Lizzie straightened, her green eyes narrowed, the challenge hanging unspoken between them.
She wanted to retort, but the young man with glasses quickly intervened.
"The both of you should please calm down," he pleaded, voice calm but edged with worry. "Listen, I know this all sounds... well, unbelievable. But I need to know if you're willing to help me bear this responsibility."
"Hold on a minute," one of the twins interrupted, breaking the silence with his relaxed but questioning tone.
"The fact that you're meeting us here, at the exact spot Lazy_Nerd—the author of Crown of Glory—said to meet, pretty much proves you're him, my favorite author," he spun a pen on the table as he spoke.
"But what I don't get is how your novel could actually affect reality if we don't enter its world and defeat the final antagonist before Parker does. That's just too absurd to believe."
"It sucks," Desmond chipped in, his fingers drumming rhythmically on the table as if they held some hidden message.
Lizzie looked over at him, shaking her head with an exasperated sigh, but she had to admit he had a point. It was absurd. All of this was too far-fetched to believe.
But then Lazy_Nerd leaned forward, his voice dropping to a near whisper, a glint of desperation in his eyes. "I know it's a lot to take in. But I need you all to trust me. Just… look at this."
From his bag, he pulled out a laptop and opened it, revealing an image on the screen.
At the center of the screen was a symbol they all recognized, a single eye enclosed within a pyramid.
Desmond leaned closer, examining it with a skeptical expression.
"Is this supposed to be the Illuminati?" he asked, his tone sardonic. "What does any of this have to do with them?"
"Everything." Lazy_Nerd's voice was low, almost a whisper, drawing in his most loyal readers. "At first, I thought they were just fans of my novel, trying to promote it in their weird, over-the-top way. But I was dead wrong."
A chill settled over the group, and they leaned closer, sensing that the story was about to take an even darker turn.
"They used my novel as a… a main ingredient in some ritual," he continued, a haunted look in his eyes. "A ritual to open a gateway between our world and the world of Crown of Glory."
He paused, letting the weight of his words sink in. "At first, it seemed incredible. I could see my characters alive, moving, almost close enough to touch.
They were real, beautiful, and terrifying. The villains, especially. But I had no idea what they planned to do with my creation. I had no idea how much danger I was bringing into our world."
The group sat in stunned silence, the enormity of what he was saying rendering them speechless. Lazy_Nerd glanced at each of them, his expression desperate.
"After months of trial and error, they perfected it. The gateway they opened was no longer one-way. Before, only those from our world could go into the novel and come back. But now—now that they've perfected it—characters from Crown of Glory would be able to cross over into our world."
Lizzie's face went pale. She looked at Lazy_Nerd, her voice trembling. "When you say characters… do you mean both the good guys and… the villains?"
Lazy_Nerd nodded grimly, and the worry on his face deepened. "That's right. The villains too. In a world as sensitive as ours, a lot of things can escalate the chaos to come.
"That sucks!" Desmond's voice broke the silence, his fingers drumming faster on the table. His tone was dismissive, even mocking, as if nothing he'd heard mattered.
"Is that the only thing you know how to say?" Lizzie's voice quivered with anger, her fear morphing into frustration. "If you're not terrified of what might happen to all of us, then just get lost!"
"Terrified?" Desmond scoffed, a dark, hollow laugh escaping his lips. "What's there to be terrified about? My life's already falling apart, so why should I care if the sky decides to drop on us? At least it wouldn't make things worse for my parents… it'd be quick. Over in an instant."
He laughed again, a hard, bitter sound that seemed to echo through the room, his fingers drumming louder, each beat striking through the silence.
Lizzie stared at him, her anger melting away into something softer, something she hadn't expected to feel.
She saw, in that brief moment, that the boy who seemed so unaffected was hiding something heavy, something crushing. His pain wasn't a distant threat; it was real, immediate.
"I… I'm sorry," she murmured, her voice barely audible. She didn't know what else to say.
"It's alright," Desmond replied, a faint, almost indifferent smile on his lips.
"In the struggle between life and death, death always wins." He sounded as if he were quoting some unshakable truth, a quiet acceptance in his tone that caught the others off guard.
The room fell silent for a moment, each of them caught in Desmond's words. Lazy_Nerd adjusted his glasses with a sigh, his expression turning somber.
"That may indeed be true, Desmond," he replied, his voice low, "but we still get to choose how we live our lives before death comes. And saving the world from the monsters you all know so much about… that would be an accomplishment worth fighting for, don't you think?"
The tension eased slightly, as if Lazy_Nerd's words had rekindled a faint glimmer of purpose.