Meet Your Character

Nadia sat at her table reading the screen before her. She had her dinner plate next to her empty with a glass of water. She figured that she had time today as it was friday. No plans except for tomorrow. So she was getting into the editing and still wasn't sure that she was going to get through it all for the weekend. Laural was going to have to deal with it. Editing was a lot of work. Especially professional editing.

To be honest Nadia did enjoy The Hex Series that Laural had written. Though she really didn't like how much she tended to put her characters through turmoil. There was a lot of it in here lately. It seemed to be a bit much in Nadia's opinion. The work was about those that were called the cursed. A small town that had been targeted by a witch long ago. You'd have to read it to get the real details, but there was a small band of people that were a hybrid between werewolf and vampire. They were called the cursed because of this. Then hexed by a witch to never have the love and completion of a mate.

"Wish she'd stop dragging it out with this couple though." Nadia commented as she edited. Honestly, it was maybe getting a little boring this ring around the rosie. She should let them be together and start a new couple or something. Yeah she got that through a freak chance the cursed alpha of the group found a mate. Just let them have a happily ever after in her opinion. Though reading this she was starting to suspect some serious tragedy was about to happen. After several more pages of editing Nadia rubbed her forehead.

"She better not be about to kill off Xyle." Nadia grumbled, Xyle was second to the Alpha. His brother actually. Nadia really liked the silent and intense character. Though he sure ended up in a lot of pain and such helping protect their pack with Alpha Zyer. Out of curiosity Nadia scrolled down a way to read a few chapters ahead. She saw that Xyle was going to be killed helping save the Luna who was pregnant.

"Oh my god, so many are going to be upset with this." Nadia grumbled. She knew that one of the characters that Laural's readers loved was Xyle. The kind of mysterious bad boy, that always showed up to help save the rest. A dry sense of humor, one of those side characters readers loved to have pop up throughout the story. She read a bit more and shook her head. Well at least it's a noble death helping save the Luna. Nadia scrolled back up and felt a bit disheartened. She saved her progress and leaned back for a moment.

"Maybe a break." Nadia commented to herself and took her plate to the sink and then came back and sat down pulling the sheet to her. Instead of editing some sad and intense sections, she decided to see about this program. She was really interested in it. If it was a kind of talk to text type of deal. The predictive parts and suggestive sounded really awesome that was for sure.

Nadia opened the file that was already there and ready. It opened a dialogue screen and then it went a black with white text and codes. Nadia wasn't that computer savvy, but she could follow directions. She then put in what was given to Laural. It was a pretty long code. Once she had it in she watched a ton of binary as the screen started to cycle through a lot of different words, numbers and symbols. She lifted her hands not sure what was going on.

Then the screen stopped and was black for a moment. Text suddenly scrolled and read:

Voice Activation Required

Please Say Activation Phrase

Nadia looked down at the paper and assumed that it was the really strange phrase at the bottom. Was this latin or something? What was this even for? How was the computer going to recognize such gibberish? Whatever she guessed and she read the lines. Definitely getting paid for this.

Finalizing….

The word just sat there on the screen and Nadia stared at it. Okay now what? There was nothing left on the paper as to what to do. How to exit. Suddenly the screen once more started flashing code and then went black before popping back up on the story she was working on. However it started to scroll fast through the pages down to the bottom. Nadia wasn't sure what was happening.

Once it paused at the bottom then everything started to highlight and scroll back up. Nadia picked up the computer. She tipped it looking at it, what the hell? Then to her horror the entire selected section up to where she had saved last deleted.

"Oh my god!" She immediately tried to go up and select the undo. However the cursor was not responding to her. It instead started to just enter down the page until it reached a new page. Then the words begin a new chapter with a question mark typed out. The question mark blinking.

"Uh, no." She stated and the words deleted then retyped again this time saying, begin a new story with a question mark.

"No! Undo last edit." The screen sat frozen for a moment. Then deleted the words for a new story. This time the screen read, sorry command not understood. Then deleted, would you like to start a new chapter?

Nadia tired to get the damn thing to respond normally, using the touchpad but nothing. She even tried the keyboard commands but nothing again. What the serious fuck? Laural was going to freak out. However the only consolation was that Nadia had duplicated the story in the computer so there was a saved file. That one was just not edited.

"This thing is glitched." She said and ran a hand through her hair. What was she going to do now? Hell it didn't even have a power cord and now that she was looking she noticed there wasn't a power button. She had just opened the thing and started. What was this? She was growing suspicious. She should probably call Laural.

"Would you like to start a new chapter?" Came a sudden automated female voice. It was chipper and Nadia always hated those fake voices.

"No, I'm not writing this story." She told the stupid thing that might have just landed her in a world of trouble. If they couldn't get off this page, how could they get to the story? It just freaking deleted nearly half of this story.

"Alright then." The female automated voice said. "Would you like to start a character interview and report?" Nadia sat there for a second.

"Define character interview and report." Nadia asked curious as to what that was. Was this some new way for authors to get their stories ironed out? Maybe a synopsis suggestion or outline for characters?

"Character interview and report. A first hand experience and meeting of story, plot and development as analyzed from character interpretation and input on story flow." Nadia figured if she had it stuck like this, might as well see what it could do. What else was she going to try? Perhaps this would reset then.

"Start Character interview and report?" Nadia shrugged.

"Yes." The screen sat on the question for a moment.

"Start with last character read?" Nadia figured why not. What was the worst that could happen? Little did Nadia know just how badly her world was about to change.

"Yes." The screen once more sat there for a moment. Then words typed again. Initializing side character Xyle. The screen flashed horribly bright and she actually had to close her eyes for a moment as the flash was so very intense. Then she slowly opened one eye as it dimmed and looked at the page. Nadia didn't see anything on the blank page then words typed out as the automated voice spoke.

"Begin a New Chapter?" Nadia let out a frustrated sound. What the hell, it was broken. Just a loop. However even as Nadia let out the frustrated sound someone else spoke from across the table.

"Yes." The one word was said in a deep tone. There was an authoritative quality to it and Nadia's heart dropped to her stomach. Her eyes shot up over the computer to the man suddenly sitting at her small table. The computer was speaking even as Nadia felt paralyzed in that moment seeing a strange well built man at her table that looked like he could kick the shit out of anyone.

"Good, begining a new chapter. Voice automated system silenced. Auto type and speaker changed to record. All dialogue will now be input into story mode." Nadia didn't even look down to see what the screen was typing out. She just sat there staring at this terrifying greek god looking man wondering if he was about to rob and kill her.

"How about we do this then?" He said in a rather dry tone, and clearly was not happy. "I have a lot to say to you Luaral Benis. I really hope you listen, or I'm going to make sure it's your death written on that page before I am forced back in that horror show of pain you make me live." He actually sneered at her, a curl to his lip. She saw the longer canine he had, and his sea foam green eyes were full of a lot of things. All of which sent a shiver down Nadia's spine.