"Sigh.." a man was sitting at what seemed like a makeup stand while holding his head in his hands.

"It's not even well written or an original concept. Why did it become so popular? The character wasn't even anyone important to the story so why's it such a big deal!"

After a few seconds of struggling in anger, the man stared at his reflection in the mirror before getting up and laying on a couch that was in the room.

"I shouldn't have agreed to do it."

The man had his arm over his eyes while thinking back to half an hour ago

~~~

"Do you have plans to turn your work into something other than a novel?" A woman asked.

A man across from her seemed to think for a second before answering

"I've been looking into it, but as my novel is free to read online I don't exactly make as much money as people would assume. Most of it comes from donations or things like this. If anyone wants to fund me though, we can make one of those 12 episode promo anime's that never gets a second season." The man chuckled as he finished his sentence.

Some of the live audience laughed at his joke, but most of them were glaring. The atmosphere was pretty strange for what seemed like a normal interview.

"Well, Cleo, we don't have much time left, so I have one last question for you. What made you decide to kill off a character so beloved by everyone? Surely you knew there would be backlash." The interviewer asked.

After surveying the live audience, Cleo glanced back at the interviewer. He anticipated the question, but hoped they wouldn't ask it. Clearing his throat, he decided to be honest.

"It's not really as special as people might assume. He wasn't a character I intended to keep around long in the first place, but apparently everyone fell in love. He stayed alive longer than planned because I was aware of his devoted fan base, but I didn't wish to ruin the story I had laid out to keep this character in the story longer. I needed to move the plot along and he didn't really fit." Cleo said bluntly.

Some of the live audience seemed even angrier at that answer, but the interviewer kept her professional smile and kept going.

"Well, while I'd love to know more about what you mean by that, we're out of time. Perhaps next time." The interviewer said while reaching out for a handshake.

Cleo reached his hand out and responded "Yeah, maybe next time" while knowing deep down he probably would never agree to another interview after today.

As he got up and started walking back stage, he heard the interviewer telling everyone to check out his novel if they haven't already, and explaining the plot rather poorly.

While it was good for promotion, the experience itself was horrible. Openly judging his story while he had to stay professional and not actually saying what was on his mind. To think he also had to do a fan meet after this. He regretted agreeing to all this.

*Knock Knock*

He stopped thinking about his horrible experience as he heard a knock at his dressing room door.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Come in."

The person who walked through was none other than the woman who interviewed him today.

"Miss Star, was there anything else? I assumed everything was over already." He said as he got up from the couch.

"Please, no need to be courteous. Just call me Angela." She responded while waving her hand, signaling him to sit back down. "I'm just here for a casual chat."

Cleo looked at her confused, as today was their first time meeting, but obliged anyway.

"Uh sure. What did you want to talk about?"

"Your story actually." Angela responded with a smile on her face.

Cleo's face, however, visibly distorted.

"I thought this was supposed to be a casual chat? We did the interview already."

"Oh come now, there's no need to be like that. Just take this as talking to a fan of your work. It's all off the record."

Surprised to hear that, Cleo's eyes widened for a split second before continuing the conversation.

"I wasn't aware you actually read my novel."

"Of course. Over night, a no name author became famous by posting an unfinished novel online. Well, I also needed to read it for the interview, yet I found myself addicted."

"It isn't as great as you're making it seem. I appreciate your kind words."

"Since I'm here, I'll be blunt. Why did you actually kill off Alyn? For a side character, fans of the novel seemed to enjoy him more than your main cast."

"I already answered this question out there." Cleo said rather annoyed. Was this really what she came to talk about?

Ever since the release of the chapter, he's been getting nonstop hate. From online threats to people berating him in public. The chapter where Alyn dies has more views than even the beginning of his story, but it's also the most disliked.

"Oh come now, it's only the two of us here. You can be honest. There has to be more of a reason than what you gave out there for the public."

Cleo sighed and stood up. While straightening his suit he responded,

"Sorry to disappoint you. There actually isn't some special reason besides moving my story forward. I had to rework many situations that I didn't originally plan for Alyn to be a part of, and I couldn't keep doing that. I didn't create his character to survive."

He started walking towards the door of the dressing room while finishing his thought

"I appreciate you reading but I still have a fan meet today so I must be leaving."

As he started opening the door, a hand shot in front of him and closed it again.

"Wait" Angela looked directly at Cleo and said

"Ms. Star, I really should be leaving. As you said earlier, maybe we can continue this next time."

As he said that, the professional smile that Angela had the whole time cracked and her voice started sounding shaky.

"At least tell me if you plan on bringing him back. Even if he isn't part of the main plot, he doesn't have to be dead for you to continue your story."

Cleo grabbed his head, already feeling a headache coming. He knew this is what the fan meet up will be like.

"Look I'm usually not one to spoil, but I'll tell you. There's absolutely no way I'm bringing him back. It wouldn't work. Stuff is about to get serious. Plus, even if I did, his strength wouldn't hold up and he'd just die again. His abilities are too weak. Oh, actually that's not too bad of an idea. I should write that down."

After saying that, Cleo reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a small notepad. It's something he takes with him everywhere.

Any idea he thinks is interesting, or any characters he thinks about adding, he writes down. While the majority of it is filled with scenarios he scrapped, or characters that would be too imbalanced and ruin the story, he still finds it useful to fuel his creativity.

However, since he was busy writing, he didn't notice the interviewer was extremely angry. Her prior professional smile was nowhere to be seen, and she looked rather psychotic.

"You..."

"Oh, sorry if it seems like I ignored you. It's a habit. I had to write down the idea." Cleo said while putting his pen and notebook back into his pocket.

"Now I was serious earlier, I really should lea.."

Before he could finish his sentence, he felt a stabbing pain in his right side. Looking down, he witnessed Angela's hand holding a knife that was covered in blood. Perhaps due to shock, or because he was unsure of if what he thought happened actually happened, all he could do was stare at his side while he fell to the floor.

"You're horrible!! How could you kill my future husband like that!!" Angela yelled as she went down to the floor and started screaming in Cleo's face

"Who do you think you are?! You're just a man with nothing to your name besides some fame you got overnight! The only worth you had was writing scenes with Alyn! But you killed him?!"

She raised the knife and stabbed him in the stomach repeatedly with a crazed look on her face. She kept screaming at him while continuing to raise the knife above her head and stabbing back down into him.

"He's too weak?! He's not important to the story?! Who cares about your shitty story! He was mine!"

All Cleo could do was sit there and watch. He tried to say something but ended up just coughing up blood.

"Ahh.. is this how I die?"

Eventually, Angela stopped stabbing and looked around at the bloody mess she made. She seemed shocked, but what she said made Cleo realize he was mistaken.

"You deserve worse. But now you can rot in the Abyss, unable to hurt anyone ever again."

It's worth it to note, the Abyss is the unoriginal name he came up with as his stories version of "hell". While it's actually different, he hasn't had the chance to add a detailed background to the story yet.

She raised her knife to her throat and said "Now, I can freely ascend to The Beyond and be with my beloved Alyn to let him know I avenged his wrongful death!"

The Beyond was what Cleo created as his story's version of "heaven". Once again, it was different. He just wasn't far enough in the story to get into detail about all its different aspects.

Then, she pushed the knife into her neck and immediately fell to the ground.

"She's fucking psycho" Cleo thought to himself as his vision faded to black