The Horror of Fantasy

"Florencia recited the words from the book... No, that stinks..." Charlie scratched out that last line. "With bated breath, the young witch muttered the spell aloud... That's even worse!" Her notes weren't so much as an experimental first draft as they were a crude attempt at crosshatching. The entire two-page spread had been scribbled and slashed in thick black ink - a mad scrawl reflecting the artist's gathering frustration.

"Gah! Why is writing so hard?" She dragged her fingers through her pixie cut, withdrawing suddenly as she remembered all the styling mousse she'd layered into it. "Damn it!" She scurried to the family bathroom, checking her hair in the mirror while scrubbing the residue off her fingertips.

When she returned to her bed, not five minutes later, her face flushed to a ripe cherry at the sight of her younger sister piecing through her notebook.

"Give me back my book, dumbass!"

The sibling reared back, leaping over from her sister's bed to her own. "Come and get it, toad-breath!" She teased - teeth bit into a sly grin. Reading the passage she'd come across only made her sister more furious.

"'Oh Percival!' Florencia gasped, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck as he embraced her. 'I've always loved you!' Mwah, mwah, mwah!" She acted out the scene, giggling all the louder and blowing raspberries as she avoided Charlie's attempts to grab her.

Charlie took the pool noodle from behind her bed, one that she had acquired during the family's most recent beach holiday, and smacked Evelyn repeatedly. In her final attack, the noodle broke over her skull. The child's laughter fell silent. It probably hadn't even hurt that much, but the dull 'thunk' against her head was enough to shake her up. She threw the book and ran off, crying out for help.

"Mum! Charlie beat me up!" She howled through her tears.

"She's lying! Tell her to stop going through my stuff!"

Evelyn vanished downstairs. Their mother's voice echoed in her place. "Charlie, I swear to god, if I have to come up there again, you'll be on six weeks, young lady!"

Charlie bit her cheek. Detention at school, getting grounded at home, having an annoying little sister rifle through her things and constantly get away with bothering her, hadn't she suffered enough? She slammed her bedroom door, scooped her now crumpled notebook off the floor, and took out her laptop from under the bed.

She didn't like using her laptop. It was an old model, and ran like a sloth. It would take twenty minutes just to load her manuscript. Thankfully, the online editor she liked saved her work very frequently, so she never had to worry about losing her work.

However, she'd been banned off the internet, so she couldn't work on her book. Her mum just didn't get it. When she needed to write, it was like being stuck in a box and itching to stretch, to run. It was the only way she preserved her sanity in the mess that was her life. School sucked. Home sucked. Life sucked. She wanted to scream, to spill her own guts. She was stuck in hell and writing was her only reprieve.

The default document app on her laptop was an absolute abomination. She had none of the features of her favourite online software. In fact, barely any features at all. What idiot designed this crap? One font, one text size, and no text wrap at the edge of the screen? It was barely fit for purpose, but if it meant she could keep it password protected and therefore safe from prying eyes, it was better than nothing.

She typed up her physical notes before shredding them, so Evelyn wouldn't be able to recover them from the bin and piece them back together. She soon caught up to her total six-thousand existing words by nightfall. Her mum called up to her, announcing that tea was ready. Charlie didn't want to go, but she couldn't face another week without her phone and internet.

Evelyn was already sitting at the table with a chocolate milkshake in her hands. She had that dumb, smug look on her face that she had when she'd been shown the 'youngest child treatment.'

"Quit sulking, Charlie. And eat your tea!" Her mum spat, shoving a plate of Spaghetti Bolognese in front of her. Charlie hated spaghetti.

"I thought you said we were having chilli con carne tonight?" She narrowed her eyes, trying not to sound like a whining child.

"Your sister wanted Bolognese."

Of course she got her way. She always did. Charlie grumpily ate her food, sorted the dishes into the dishwasher, and went back up to her room. Checking her draft was like trying to decipher another language. She punched the letters into her keyboard.

"The... forbidden... words... spilled... from... Florencia's... tongue... Too... long... had... she... lived... under... her... step-mother's... cruel... reign... Her... goblin... sister's... evil... cackling... resonating... over... every... scolding..."

A snide laughter echoed in her head. Charlie held her breath, snapping her eyes around the shadows around her room. Evelyn was still downstairs, right? It must have been her imagination. She shook her head and looked back at the screen.

"She... chanted... the... incantation..." She thought for a moment. Coming up with spells without an online translator was a nightmare. She usually went with a mix of Latin and Greek for that mystical, ancient vibe. Instead, she had to look deep inside herself for the words. "Velosceila... Axatara... Pherosnota..."

A spark cracked through the room. Charlie's heart staggered as she pushed herself up to the wall, eyes bulging as she watched a spiraling void manifest in front of her. The force pulsing from the gate roared against her ears. A hand reached through from the other side. Only when she realised they were struggling to get through did she reach out and help them.

A young woman emerged from the portal, with smooth ashen skin, flowing curly hair that shimmered like the twilight, and a draconic tattoo wrapped from her forehead to her right cheek. Her eyes shimmered like an aurora trapped in the ice.

Charlie hesitated for a moment, studying her strange robes, her ethereal presence. "... Florencia?" She asked, breathlessly.

"Do you know me?" The woman asked, tilting her head.

Charlie grinned. "Yes! I... I created you! And you look exactly as I imagined, even down to your tattoo!"

"You... Made me?" She sounded a little nervous. "For what purpose?"

"I..." She started strong, then trailed off. "I don't know. I guess, I just always wanted to write a book."

The woman seemed somewhat unsatisfied with that answer, but at the same time, it was as if she wasn't all there. "Then... What happens next?"

"Um..." Charlie turned back to her open document. At some point, she had typed that Florencia had stepped through to the human world and met her creator. She considered her home life, and all that she had to gain from leaving it behind, and following Florencia back to her world. "We go back through the portal together, so I can live in your world!"

"Really?" The woman's brow furrowed. "You want to come to my world? Where my wicked stepmother rules with an iron fist, and my goblin sister's army terrorises the countryside?"

"Yes...? I can give you the tools you need to overthrow them! Then we can live together happily! You and Percival can get married. We can tame dragons, and learn magic!"

Florencia looked over her shoulder at the laptop screen. "So, you mean that the entirety of my world is influenced through this device?"

"Um... I guess so?" Charlie muttered.

"Through your writing or anyone's?"

"I'm not sure. I haven't been working on this document for that long..."

The woman gently lifted the laptop off the bed, scanning her eyes across the words. "You made me... Like this?"

Charlie's heart sank. "Y-Yes?"

"You're the reason my kingdom is in shambles? You're the one who killed my parents, the one who compelled my step-mother to oppress my people?"

"Well, I..."

"You monster!" She cast a spell, throwing Charlie backwards. She hit her head on the wall. Florencia tapped a few sentences into the screen. She was suddenly wreathed in dark energy, hands glowing, and eyes trailing with a cold light. "You shall suffer for all you have done!" Using her telekinetic powers, she dragged Charlie by the ankle off her bed, towards the portal.

She grabbed the post of her sister's bed, desperately clinging on for her life.

Florencia narrowed her gaze at her. "You said you wanted to come to my world? Well, now you can answer for your crimes!"

"No! Let me go!" Charlie kicked her, knocking the laptop from her hands. It clattered to the floor. The impact caused the screen to freeze, as it did when anything knocked it. The portal stuttered, and Florencia herself appeared to glitch. Charlie was released from her hold, scrambling for her laptop. She pressed and held the power key, gasping as she cowered in the corner, her heart pounding as she stared at her fracturing protagonist. As the screen turned black, Florencia and the portal vanished. She hadn't saved the document. The last few hours of her work were gone - her horrible mistake erased.

She clutched her laptop to her chest, catching her breath. Evelyn came skipping up the stairs and into the bedroom.

"Mum wants you to stop making that racket. And were you talking to yourself? Nerd."

"Huh?" She hadn't fully recovered.

Evelyn laughed. "You look like you're about to pee your pants! What, did you see a ghost?"

Charlie composed herself, sitting back on the bed.

"Oh, so you're just ignoring me now? Whatever, loser." She left, slamming the door behind her.

Charlie didn't care. After everything she'd just seen, a few hurtful words from her little sister meant nothing. Another few seconds, and who knows what would've happened to her. Her own masterpiece-in-the-making had turned against her... But that wasn't the most important thing on her mind. What she held in her hands was the answer to all her problems. Writing a draft of her first novel using that program had been a mistake, sure. But anything she wrote in it came to life... She could do anything she wanted...