Jack One hung up the phone. Would what he just enacted work? Or would it lead to plot holes? Paradoxes? Would he need to retcon things? He considered, reading over the past few paragraphs, the ones at the end of chapter five. And it had been chapter five, too. And now, since the beginning of this particular paragraph, he had been in chapter six.
“Welcome to chapter six, reader,” he said. “With any luck, we’ll get things straightened out before too long.”
He looked at his councilmembers, his brothers. They were still all time-frozen around the table.
So, once he unfroze time, would they see the text of his little adventure on their laptops? Or were their own laptops time-frozen as well, showing them only what had been the beginning of last chapter? The Jacks, once unfrozen, would still believe they were in the previous chapter. Jesus fucking Christ, what a mess. Jack One’s work was literally never done.
One thought about just unfreezing time and letting Jack, the real Jack, figure out what was going to happen. Would that be allowed? Jack One was tired. “System,” he said.
SYSTEM: SYSTEM ONLINE
What did he want? Jack Two’s chapter four had already been completely written, if he could believe what Jack Zero had told him. He could probably access that and read through what happened. He supposed he was going to have to do that at some point, anyway, so that he knew what his copy had said to Jack Two during that time. But Jack Two was still in the elevator right now, so maybe that wouldn’t be wise.
Jack One scrolled up on the story application, up to the beginning of chapter five. Then he scrolled up a little bit more, to the end of actual-chapter-four. He read the last few lines, just to see if Jack Zero had been telling the truth. Yep, it had been already written, it seemed. It looked like it ended on a positive note, too.
Now, had Jack One just caused a paradox? Jack Two was still in the elevator in this timeline. But Jack One’s laptop contained actual chapter four, which had been completely written. So, Jack One supposed, he had just killed the whole free will thing. Was that right? Jack One considered. Jack Two’s actions were written down prior to him actually having gone through with those actions.
Jack One was starting to get another headache. A really bad one this time. That was a bad sign. He needed to stop jerking off and move the fucking plot forward. He could feel the readership, feel their boredom. “Sorry about this,” he said.
“System,” Jack One said. “Delete the contents of the entire document for me and all other users.”
SYSTEM: That would be a major thing, Jack. Are you sure you want to do that?
“Tabula rasa,” Jack One said.
SYSTEM: What of Jack Five?
“What about him?”
SYSTEM: You froze time in the middle of him saying something. If you go back in time a few seconds before you unfreeze time, as you have done in every instance of unfreezing time, then he will begin—
“Alright, alright, alright. I’ll fix it,” Jack One said, his head thumping. “Reader, I’m very sorry to have to do this to you, but I’m going to have to get into some minutiae, I believe. Some nonsense. If you get bored, just scroll down to where I unfreeze time and start there.
Jack One scrolled up to the top of chapter five and read through it up to the point where he had frozen time. “So, if I delete the contents of the document right now, that will delete them in the unfrozen time: at the moment I rewind time to. So what I’ll do is I’ll rewind time back to the point immediately after I told everyone to shut up, and because, once the document has been deleted and I unfreeze time, that will be a different… different… fuck… what’s the word? A different ‘input.’ So then Jack Five will start saying something different than he did at the beginning of actual chapter five, most likely. He’ll remark upon his story app just having lost all the text. Isn’t that right? I’m right, right? System?
SYSTEM: Buddy you’re on your own on this.
One’s headache had turned into a bona fide migraine. But hopefully things will work themselves out. He rewound time to the point directly after he told everyone to shut up, but he didn’t it unfreeze it yet.
“So, System, go ahead and delete the contents of the document now,” One said.
SYSTEM: DELETED. ALL TEXT ABOVE THIS LINE IN THE NARRATIVE NO LONGER EXISTS IN THE IN-UNIVERSE STORY APPLICATION.
And that was true. all of the text on Jack One’s laptop had been deleted. There was only that last system message at the top of his screen now, as well as this paragraph that’s currently being written.
Jack One unfroze time.
One second passed.
Jack Five raised his hand, “But—"
“What happened?!” Jack Four barked, his eyes had been glued to the screen of the laptop. “The narrative!”
The others seemed to have noticed now, too. They all looked at their individual laptops and began reading through the past few paragraphs, which were now the only paragraphs that were in the document.
Jack One needed a drink. He materialized a glass and a bottle of whiskey. He poured himself a glass.
“What… you… you froze time?” Three asked.
Jack One took a sip of his whiskey. It was good. “We’re in chapter six right now, and we’re not quite a thousand words in.
“I thought we were in chapter four,” Seven said. “What… what happened? What did you do?”
“Don’t worry about it,” One said simply. “I fixed an issue. That’s all.”
“But—” Seven began.
“I said don’t worry about it,” Jack One interjected.
“So that’s it?” Jack Three asked. “You’re just going to freeze and unfreeze time at your pleasure, doing God knows what, and then you’ll come back and not tell us a fucking thing?
“Yes,” Jack One said.
“Fucking bullshit. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.” Three said.
Jack One took another sip of whiskey, waiting for Three to say something else. All Three did, though, was roll his eyes, shake his head, and cross his arms. Good.
Jack One had to get back to business now. Each member of the council was to get their own chapter and their own room, and then they were supposed to all come back down here and they’d proceed to take Six, who was still bound to his chair with ropes, and take him to the torture room and have Jack Four… “re-educate’ him.
Jack Three read through the last paragraph and just closed his eyes. He would wait, still. The shock collars were an afront to their humanity, but they hadn’t been used too badly, not yet. Although thinking that way made Number Three sick to his stomach. He was allowing an evil. A small evil, he said to himself. But that made him feel sicker. He felt like a crab in a pot of warm water. When would it begin to boil?
Jack One considered things. So, whose chapter was this one going to be? He had started with Jack Two, so was Jack Three next in line? Jack Three was big energy, though, so maybe his chapter should come last. He also had the chapter word count to consider. “System, display the word count for this chapter on the laptops,” he said. “Thank you. Now, who wants chapter six?”
“You should end the chapter now since so much time has been spent on it already,” Jack Five said. “It wouldn’t be fair to give everyone else but one jack 5000 words.”
“Fair?” Jack One asked. “Fair?? FAIR?!?! Since when has any of this been fair? Fair books aren’t interesting to read, Five. You should know that. And if it was fair, I’d be getting paid. A lot.”
Jack One continued to consider the question. Last chapter was interesting, wasn’t it? Jack One thought it was. So, should this chapter follow the least interesting of them? Get them out of the way quickly, so that more palatable Jacks have more time? Who was that? Five? Or maybe that’s the wrong focus. Maybe it should be given to whoever can bring things back to normal the quickest. Would that be Seven?
“I’ll do it,” Four said. “Give it to me.”
“I will decide,” One said.
“Then decide already,” Three said.
“You think I’m boring?” Five said.
“I don’t mind doing it, either,” Seven said. “Whatever’s best for the story is best for me.”
Jack One could cut the chapter short, like Five had suggested. Or he supposed it could even go over the word count, for that matter. He was king, after all. But no, he wanted to keep things consistent. Consistency is key.
“One, please. Dawdling doesn’t make for a good story,” Seven said.
Seven was right. He was right, dammit. “Uhh…” One intoned, trying to think quick.
“You think I’m boring?” Five asked again.
“Choose someone already!” Three said.
“Uhh…” One intoned again. “Uhh… give me a second… god dammit… FIVE! You’re up!”
“Because I’m boring?” Jack Five asked.
The narrative came into Jack Five’s head. He was boring? Uninteresting? What had he done that was boring?
“You’re not boring, Five,” Seven said. “You’re just who Jack wants you to be.”
“You’re just being nice,” Five said.
“Everyone shut up,” One said. “I’ve got some important things to say right now. THIS is Five’s chapter, BUT, BUT!, but we’re all going away at the same time. Remember, your individual chapters are happening at the same time in-universe. Jack Two only left a few minutes ago. His chapter is still going on as we speak. So, System, are you there?”
SYSTEM: SYSTEM ONLINE
“Good,” Jack One said, looking at his laptop. “I want you to create rooms four through… uhh… ten. Have them be copies of this room with windows that peer out to the white void and have them be empty. I shouldn’t have to say they’re going to be stacked on top of each other and accessible by the elevator, right? Well maybe the reader needs to hear that, I don’t know. Anyway, get to it!
SYSTEM: COMPLETE
“Do we get to decorate our own rooms?” Five asked. Was that a boring thing to say?
“Within reason,” Jack One said. “Remember to take your phones.”
“So do we leave?” Three asked.
“In a minute, give me a fucking second to set things up,” Jack One chided. “We’ve got to put in a BREAK. So that each of your chapters starts at the same time in-universe.”
“This chapter’s already been started, though,” Three said, sounding unsure.
“Shut up! Shut up!” One said. “The BREAK will be in a moment, and that will mark the point where all your chapters begin. It… it... god dammit it’s not that fucking complicated. We’re getting way, WAY too into the weeds right now. What I’d like you all to do now is grab your laptops, grab your jackphones, and stand up. And here’s some laptop bags, by the way. You’re welcome.”
Jack One clapped and materialized laptop bags for everybody. Then they all stood up and grabbed their stuff, all except Six.
“And it’s done,” One said. “Each of your chapters have officially begun. Now go! Get to it!”
Jack Five looked at the others, the more interesting members of the council. After a few moments, they all shuffled over towards the elevator.
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“One at a time in the elevator!” One shouted from his seat. “Five first!”
Five sighed. He looked at each of them, his brothers. Three nodded at him, Four and Seven both smiled a him.
“You’re not boring, Five,” Seven said.
“And who cares if you are?” Four said. “It’s as Jack wills.”
“Enough talking!” One yelled. “Five! Get in there, GO!”
Jack Five really didn’t like Jack One. What a rude person. Jack Five walked slowly into the elevator. He turned around and waved good bye to the rest of them and the elevator doors closed. He pressed the button and the elevator’s doors closed and the carriage started to slowly ascend.
Jack One called Jack Five on his phone and gave him the same information he had given to Jack Two in his chapter, the bit with the foyer, the locked door, the thumbprint scanner, and the key in his pocket. He also had him place the jackphone in his inner jacket pocket while it was on speaker, so that they could continue to talk.
When Jack Five opened the door to his room, he found it empty. As empty as his personality? Jack Five went and put the laptop on the ground in the middle of the room, opened it up, and sat before it, watching it type.
Boring. Boring, boring, boring.
Was he going to mope, now?
That would be boring.
No, he needed to pick himself up and dust himself off.
Maybe he’d reinvent himself? That could be fun.
Jack Five nodded as he read through those lines on the narrative. He was a Jack. No! Not just a Jack, but THE Jack. Wasn’t he?
“We’re all Jack,” he said. There was nobody in the room with him. Jack One was listening in, though. And, he supposed, the reader was too. He was being observed. It was a good thing he didn’t need to use the bathroom. He went to his laptop:
USER: HOW MANY WORDS DO I HAVE LEFT?
SYSTEM: APPROXIMATELY 3000
A little over half a chapter. Darn. It would have to be enough, though.
So, what would Jack Five do? What could he do, for that matter? He looked around his empty room. He had plenty of space to do things. What would be exciting for the reader to read about? What would be exciting for Jack to write about?
He knew there were rules he had to follow, so he had to be careful. He didn’t want this whole chapter to be the laptop telling him he couldn’t do something. But how would he know what he could do?
What did his intuition say? He needed to work on the setting. That didn’t sound very exciting, though.
USER: GIVE ME THE SAME STUFF JACK TWO HAS
SYSTEM: PROCESSING. PLEASE HOLD.
There. Short, sweet, economical.
SYSTEM: COMPLETE
Jack Five’s room filled up with things. Modern things. A bed, a tv, a kitchen, yada, yada, yada. The reader had all heard this before. He took off his suit jacket and grabbed the jackphone from within it. Then he untied his tie and threw himself on the couch.
Being a couch potato wasn’t exactly exciting, but maybe it would work as a bit of comic relief. He had to have time to think, like Jack One did. He didn’t like Jack One, but he couldn’t deny that he was able to drive the story.
“You’re too kind, Five,” One said from his jackphone.
“I can do this on my own,” Five said, seeing through One’s comment.
“Alright, alright,” One said. “Do it, then.”
Jack Five considered. It wasn’t enough for something to be exciting, it needed to be interesting. He bet he could create someone to fight. Fights are exciting. But if that fight didn’t mean anything to the story, what use was it? No, he needed to focus on conflict.
What conflict was there, though? He was, after all, the only one here. He didn’t want to have to rely on One, either. Maybe if he did a good enough job for a long enough time, he could take One’s spot as the king. He’d be a much more benevolent ruler than One.
“Five,” One said. “I really want to let you do your thing, but you have to do it right. Focus on avoiding white room syndrome.”
“What’s that?”
“You know what that is, Five.”
“Uhh.. I do?”
“Don’t you?”
“…No?”
“Well… well then ask your laptop about it.”
Jack Five scowled. This was his chapter. He didn’t need One. Of course, he still needed to listen to One, didn’t he? He looked at his laptop that was over on the floor. He rolled himself off the couch and baby-crawled over towards it.
USER: WHAT IS WHITE ROOM SYNDROME?
SYSTEM: WHITE ROOM SYNDROME IS A LACK OF SETTING DESCRIPTION
SYSTEM: IT OFTEN GIVES THE IMPRESSION THAT THE CHARACTERS…
SYSTEM: …ARE SITTING IN A FEATURELESS WHITE ROOM.
Right, right. The whole ‘tie yourself to the setting’, thing.
But he was sitting in a featureless white room, he thought. Except he wasn’t. That’d be a good joke, though, had he asked about it earlier when the room was still empty. Maybe Jack would edit his joke so it was in the right place.
He received a small shock from his collar, then.
“Stop it!” Five said. “I can do this!”
“Then do it,” One said. “Stop being boring.”
Conflict, he thought. Yes, conflict. He needed something that was going to make him mad.
“I’m making you mad,” One said. “You’re welcome, by the way.”
“I want to be mad by myself!” Five said. “I don’t need you! I can do this on my own!”
“Then fucking do it, Five,” One said. “I would literally stop talking completely if you just started doing it. It’s not like the reader needs to hear any more from me.”
“Then… then… shut up!” Five yelled.
Jack Five didn’t need conflict with One, he needed… internal conflict. Something from within himself. But… how would he do that?
Remembering about the white room syndrome, Jack Five threw his laptop across the room. Now that was some action, he thought.
The laptop was indestructible. Or at least it should have been, right? Oh man, did he break it?
No! No, no, no! Why did he care? If it did break, then they could just make him a new one. It wouldn’t even cost money. He was… he was… he was too nice, wasn’t he?
There was a mirror over on the wall. He went over to it and looked at himself. He looked like the other Jacks, but he wasn’t like them. The others… they were… well, they were dicks, weren’t they? Except maybe Seven. That’s what made them interesting, wasn’t it?
Should he be a dick? Was that his character arc? Is that what it took to be king?
He scowled at himself in the mirror. Be bad. Real bad. He punched the mirror. Then he punched it a second time, harder. It still didn’t break. So, he kicked it as hard as he could. It broke that time.
‘There,’ he thought proudly. It was just like Jack Three did back in chapter two.
So, did that make it plagiarism? Oh man.
“WHOAH,” One said. “WHOAH, WHOAH, WHOAH, Five. Don’t fucking even think about fucking legal shit. Just… don’t think about that again. And I really mean that.”
“Sorry,” Five said.
Jack One didn’t have anything else to say, it seemed.
Jack Five hated himself for having just apologized to Jack One. Would Jack One ever apologize about anything? He didn’t think he would.
“I take back my apology,” Jack Five said.
Jack One didn’t respond.
He looked at the broken mirror before him, his reflection was shattered, too. He, very carefully, got a shard of one of the glass pieces out from it, about the size of a dagger. It had sharp point at the end of it. Five pressed his finger on it until he felt it draw blood. The pain was very slight, but very real. He pulled his finger back and looked at the bead of blood begin to drip down.
The torture scene… they were going to torture Jack Six once their chapters were done. Jack Five thought about that carefully. He had promised Three that he’d stand up with him against evil. But… would that be what a dick would do?
Does Jack want Five to be a dick? His gut told him… well, he really wasn’t sure what his gut was telling him. Did that mean Jack Himself wasn’t sure or did that just mean Jack wanted him to be unsure? Or did Jack even care, for that matter? Was Jack a dick? He didn’t mean that disrespectfully, of course. Jack was his God, after all. He wouldn’t judge if his God was a dick. You can’t judge God, can you?
Jack Five held the shard of glass up and looked at the reflection of his eyes. Was he staring into the eyes of his God? God creates man in His image, after all.
“Don’t talk about the real God,” Jack One said. “That could alienate the readership. Not that we’re taking a public position on the existence of any actual Gods, real or imagined.”
Jack Five didn’t apologize, but he did take the advice. What One said was true, about alienating the readership.
Did the readership want Jack Five to be a dick? The hypothetical readership, of course. Villains could be sexy, after all. He recalled something that Jack Seven had said in an earlier chapter. He had called Five, Three, and Two the ‘goody-goody’ Jacks. Jack Five didn’t like that term. It made him feel childish. Was it adult to be a dick?
Jack Five felt lonely. He went over to his laptop and picked it up and put it on the kitchen counter. He placed his glass dagger next to it. He sat on the stool and opened the computer up. It hadn’t broke. The story application was still on his screen and still dutifully typing away.
USER: CAN I MAKE ANY MORE JACKS?
SYSTEM: USER JACKFIVE LACKS ADMINISTRATIVE PERMISSIONS
USER: SHOULD I BE A DICK?
SYSTEM: DOES THE USER WISH TO BE A DICK?
USER: I’M ASKING YOU
SYSTEM: THIS SYSTEM HAS NO OPINIONS
Well that was a wash, Five thought. He went to the fridge and found some orange juice. He poured himself a glass and went back to the laptop.
USER: CAN YOU LOOK OVER MY CHAPTER AND TELL ME IF I’M DOING OK?
SYSTEM: ALL JACKS ARE BLIND AS TO THE QUALITY OF THE WORK
SYSTEM: CONJECTURE: IF JACK IS STILL WRITING IT, HE MUST BE OKAY WITH IT
That made sense to Jack Five. He nodded and drank some more of his orange juice. Was he getting off-topic? Did dicks ask others if they were doing ok? No, Five supposed. Dicks were cocky. So he should be cocky. Afterall, he hadn’t been deleted yet, so he must be doing something right. And what was it that he was doing? He was considering whether or not to be a dick. That was his mission for this chapter.
What would a dick do in this situation? He knocked his glass of orange juice off the kitchen counter and watched it crash on the floor next to him.
“Wow, what a dick thing to do,” Jack Five said. “Who’s going to clean up this mess? It’s not going to be me. I’m a dick, you see.”
Jack Five the Dick. Jack Five the Big Dick. Jack’s Own Dick.
“One?” Jack Five asked.
“Yes?” One replied.
“Fuck you,” Jack Five said.
“You want me in your chapter, now?” One asked.
“I just wanted to tell you to fuck off. You big piece of… of shit. I should… I should go back down there and fight you. Maybe I’ll do that. How would you like that?”
“Five, are you wanting me to roleplay with you or something?”
“I’m not roleplaying,” Jack Five lied.
Silence.
“One?” Five asked.
“What?” Jack One said. “I’m very busy, you know.”
“Sorr—I mean… good. That’s good.”
“Get the fuck out of character right now," Jack One demanded. "You’re not good at it. If you want to be a ‘character playing a character,’ then you’re going to need to do a lot, and I mean A LOT better than that. We already have two Jacks that are completely over-the-top god-damned fucking cartoons and I don’t want to add any more nonsense to an already nonsensical story.”
“I’m working on my story arc!” Jack Five complained. “I’m supposed to turn into a dick!”
“Then do it for real,” Jack One said.
“I’m trying!”
“You’re telling fucking jokes,” Jack One rebuked. “That’s what you’re doing right now. You’re currently comic relief, Five.”
“Well… well… well fuck you!” Five asked. “FUCK. YOU.”
“THERE YOU GO, BUDDY,” Jack One said. “YOU FUCKING DID IT. You’re welcome again, five.”
Jack Five was legitimately irritated by this. Why? He was the one that brought One back into the conversation. He had simply been attempting to try things out a bit – to try on the dick pants, so to speak. He was trying to fake it ‘til he made it, and what did he get for that? An immediate fucking condemnation. One could have just played along. Jack Five wanted to talk to someone, but he didn’t want to talk to One anymore.
“You’re not calling anyone else,” One said. “I know that’s your next thought. They’re busy in their own chapters right now, so don’t bother them. Also, there’s been too much dialogue lately. Tie yourself to the scene again.”
‘I’m not a fucking child!’ He almost said it. It was on the tip of his tongue. He needed to be his own Jack, though. No more interacting with One. Tie himself to the fucking environment? Jack Five hung up his jackphone and placed it next to his laptop. See if One liked that!
The jackphone immediately began ringing again. He watched it for a moment. It rang and rang and rang. Was that… ok? Jack One was his supervisor - or something like that anyway. One had been chosen by the real Jack to lead the troupe, hadn’t he? Jack Five was supposed to be becoming a dick, but he supposed that there was an upper bound on how much of a dick someone could be in this story. Six had blasphemed Jack Himself and look at what Jack had allowed to happen to him.
“Hello?” Jack Five said, answering his phone.
“Hello again, Five,” Jack One said.
“Am I… am I in trouble?”
“I don’t know, are you doing what you’re supposed to be doing?” Jack One asked.
“Uhh…” Jack Five intoned. He started patting the counter before him, tying himself to the scene. He looked out one of the windows, into the white void. “Yes?”
“Then I guess you’re not in trouble,” One said.
“So I can hang up the phone?”
“No.”
Jack Five sighed. “Jack I’m trying to test my boundaries, here. I’m trying really really hard to be more of a dick.”
“I know,” Jack One said. “It’s hard, isn’t it? You want to see if you can cross a line and not be immediately obliterated by doing so. Well, you won’t know unless you actually cross that line.”
“So, can I hang up the phone?” Jack Five asked again.
“No,” Jack One said.
“I’m hanging up the phone, Jack,” Five said.
“I said no, Five. Everyone has their phone on during their first chapter. We’re doing baby steps. Once you’ve proven to me that you can handle being on your own, then you can truly be on your own. You haven’t proven that to me yet, Five. You’ve relied too much on me.”
Was this a test? One certainly sounded like he meant it. Jack Five wasn’t sure what to do. He wanted to be a dick, but he also didn’t want to be punished.
“What would happen if I hung up the phone right now?” Five asked.
“You’re not hanging up the phone, Five,” One said. “I need you to keep the line open. That’s enough talk about this for now. Go do something else, and remember to tie yourself to the environment.”
Should he drop the issue, then? Jack Five was still unsure. He hated that feeling. Unsurety. Dicks were just dicks. They didn’t have to think about it this hard. What did Five think would happen if he dropped the call again? One would call him back. Then what would happen if Five didn’t answer? Would One come up here with him? Would he take away his room?
“Jesus Five,” One said. “I said drop it already. You’re being boring again.”
Jack Five saw red. “You’re a fucking bully! FUCK YOU, One. FUCK. YOU. You don’t have to be so mean to us! And if you were good at your fucking job, you wouldn’t fucking have to.”
Silence.
Jack Five tapped his fingertips together a few times in nervous anticipation. What did the silence mean? Was he in trouble? Things had gotten real. That was… that was what was supposed to happen, though, right? Right? Things getting real…
More silence.
Jack Five got up with his jackphone and went over to the couch, waiting for a response from One.
“One?” he asked after some time.
Silence.
Oh shit, did he actually make One mad? Surely not…. One had thick skin, didn’t he? Didn’t he? Five wanted to be a dick, but he didn’t want people to be mad at him.
“One?” he asked again. “Are you there?”
The phone line was still open on his phone. It hadn’t been turned off accidentally. One was still listening in, right? Right? Maybe he was just busy. Maybe he was talking with someone else.
Jack Five got up and began to pace back and forth. His character arc was that he was supposed to become a dick. He certainly felt like a dick right now. A true dick wouldn’t care about hurting someone’s feelings, though, so had he… failed? Succeeded?
“One,” Jack Five said. “Timeout. Just tell me right now if you’re mad or not.”
Silence.
Oh fuck. Five had really pissed him off. Five almost stepped in a shard of the broken orange juice glass while he was pacing. He picked up the pieces and threw them away. He didn’t want someone to hurt themselves.
Jack Five sat back down on the barstool and looked at his laptop.
HOW MANY WORDS DO I HAVE LEFT
SYSTEM: ABOUT ONE HUNDRED
Shit. He hadn’t even given much thought to the whole ‘torture room’ situation. He wasn’t a failure, though. He knew that to be true. If he was, this chapter would’ve been thrown out, right? Right? But maybe it was just about to be thrown out.
Five hadn’t considered that angle of it. What was Two on about earlier? ‘What happens during a rewrite?’ What did happen during a rewrite?
What if Jack only figures out whether to throw out a chapter once he’s finished writing it? Jack Five could be killed at the end of this chapter…
HOW MANY MORE WORDS?
SYSTEM: YOU’RE AT THE END, FIVE. IT’S OVER.
“WAIT!” Five yelled, leaping from his barstool. “WAIT A SECOND. JACK! I’M SORRY. JACK? JACK!??!”
Continued in chapter 7