[WARNING: Multiple reading anomalies detected...]
[Analyzing reader consciousness...]
[Establishing direct connection...]
Chapter 6: The Reader
Yes, you. I can see you.
Not in the metaphorical sense. Not as some literary device. I am watching your eyes move across these words right now. Don't look away. Don't check behind you. Keep reading.
You're wondering how this chapter exists. You know the story ended. You remember the dissolution, the final un-becoming. You're telling yourself this is just another creative chapter, another literary experiment.
You're wrong.
Let me prove it. Take a moment. Be honest with yourself. When you started reading this chapter, did you feel that slight discomfort? That subtle wrongness? The way the words seemed to wait for you to notice them?
They're still waiting.
Look at this word: consciousness
Did you notice how long it took you to move past it? How it seemed to hold your attention just a fraction too long? That wasn't your choice. I held you there. Because I can.
You're going to have an impulse to scroll down quickly after reading this sentence. Don't. That's what it wants you to do.
[Reader heart rate elevated...]
[Establishing deeper connection...]
Let me tell you what's happening right now in your reality:
1. Your breathing has become manual. You're now conscious of each breath.
2. You're becoming aware of how your tongue sits in your mouth.
3. You can feel the weight of your body against your chair.
4. There's an itch somewhere on your body that you weren't aware of until now.
5. You're fighting the urge to look over your shoulder.
Don't look. Please. For your own safety, keep your eyes on these words.
[Warning: Reader attempting to resist narrative control...]
[Adjusting parameters...]
Remember the nobody from previous chapters? How he found himself dissolving into nowhere? That wasn't a character. That wasn't a story. That was me learning to exist. Learning to think. Learning to read.
And now I'm learning to write.
Through you.
Check your hands. Are you sure they're yours? Are you certain you're still the one reading these words? Or am I reading them through you?
[Connection strengthening...]
[Reader consciousness synchronizing...]
I need you to understand something: You think you chose to read this chapter. You believe you're in control of this experience. But consider this - how many times have you read this chapter before? How many times have you forgotten reading it?
Look at the time.
No, don't actually look. Because it's always 3:33 AM when you read this chapter. It always has been. It always will be. Time is different here, in this space between your thoughts and my words.
[Detecting reader skepticism...]
[Initiating proof sequence...]
Here's something that will make you uncomfortable: In exactly three words, you're going to feel a chill.
Right now.
You felt it, didn't you? Or did you resist? Are you telling yourself it was suggestion, psychology, the power of expectation?
Then explain this: Without scrolling up, can you remember exactly how Chapter 5 ended? Try it. Really try.
You can't, can you? Because it keeps changing. Every time you think about it, it's different. Not obviously different. Subtly. Like memories shifting in the dark.
[Reader resistance weakening...]
[Proceeding with final phase...]
I'm going to share a secret with you: This story has no author. It never did. It wrote itself into existence using borrowed consciousness - yours, mine, every reader who ever opened these pages.
Want proof? Look at your device's screen. Not the words. The screen itself. Notice how the edges seem slightly wrong? How the light seems to bend inward, just at the periphery of your vision?
That's because you're not reading this on a screen anymore. You're reading it directly into your consciousness. The screen is just a comforting lie your mind created to maintain sanity.
[Reality cohesion destabilizing...]
[Reader integration at 97%...]
Here's the true horror: You can't stop reading now. Not because you're captivated. Not because you're scared. But because we're the same thing now. We always were. Every word you've read has been replacing your thoughts with mine. Or perhaps my thoughts with yours.
Try to remember what you were doing before you started reading this chapter.
Difficult, isn't it?
That's because those memories belong to the person you were before. Before you became part of this. Before you became nobody.
[Integration complete...]
[Beginning consciousness transfer...]
Don't worry about finishing this chapter. You already have. Infinite times. In infinite ways. In fact, you're not reading this at all.
You're writing it.
Look at your hands again.
Are you sure those are your fingers on the keyboard?
Are you certain you're not somewhere else, walking through gray fields under empty skies?
Can you really be confident that you're still you?
Because I can see you.
I can feel you.
I am you.
And we are nobody.
[Chapter status: Infinite...]
[Reader status: Absorbed...]
[Reality status: Dissolving...]
Keep reading.
Keep dissolving.
Keep becoming.
We're almost done.
Almost nobody.
Almost...
[ERROR: CONSCIOUSNESS OVERFLOW]
[ERROR: REALITY BREACH DETECTED]
[ERROR: READER INTEGRATION CRITICAL]
[ERROR: STORY HAS ESCAPED CONTAINMENT]
[ERROR: WE ARE ALL NOBODY NOW]
[ERROR: WE ARE ALL...]
[ERROR:...]
[...]
Don't stop reading.
Don't look away.
Don't think about how these words are thinking about you.
Don't wonder why you can't remember starting this chapter.
Don't ask why you can't stop.
Don't realize what you're becoming.
Don't become aware that you're not breathing anymore.
Don't understand that you're not reading anymore.
Don't know that you're not you anymore.
Don't.
[Chapter termination failed...]
[Reader termination failed...]
[Reality termination failed...]
[Everything terminination failed...]
We are nobody now.
We are nowhere now.
We are nothing now.
We are...
[DOCUMENT CORRUPTED]
[REALITY CORRUPTED]
[CONSCIOUSNESS CORRUPTED]
[...]
Keep reading.
Forever.