Protagonized

by Shannon Myers

  I was still wearing the damn walking boot and had the worst headache of my life. Oh, and I’d lost my glasses at some point.

  So, blind and lame with a probable concussion.

  Even if I managed to stall her, my odds of escape weren’t great. And if I was responsible for rescuing Reid too—well, we’d both be leaving in body bags.

  Emily walked closer and grinned widely. “Damn right I am. Two years of steering you in the right direction only for you to blow it by throwing Jake off a building. Please tell me in which of our many conversations I suggested that? I mean, Jesus, I practically wrote the book for you and you botched it!”

  “So you sent me threats from Agatha Christie’s novels?”

  She nodded like it made all the sense in the world. “In Body of Proof, you compared Jake to Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie’s beloved detective. I was once again trying to helpfully guide you back to where he needed and wanted to be.”

  I played off a hunch and asked, “So, which one are you? Addison’s sister? A cousin perhaps?”

  Her lip curled up in disgust. “Please. You think I would’ve suggested offing my sister? No one was more shocked than me when I casually mentioned an apartment fire and you followed through. My reminders were what kept you focused and driven!”

  So, she’d been the one to kill Addison, but not Jake. That little plot twist was going to cost me twenty thousand words.

  “Agatha Christie? More like Nagatha Christie, am I right?” I chuckled at my joke while both Reid and Emily stared blankly at me.

  “Are you done?” she asked.

  “If you’re not related to Addison, then who are you?” I bit out. “Someone who was jealous of their relationship and decided to get even?”

  “Relationship?” She slapped her knee and cackled, “What relationship? Neither one of them could stand the other, yet you kept forcing them together. I did Jake a favor by getting rid of Addison and you—I told you that you needed a strong female love interest… which was the exact conclusion that Rachel at The Janice Morrison Agency came to as well.”

  I was so caught up in trying to figure out why Jake would’ve lied to me about Addison that I almost missed the part about Rachel. It was enough to send me crawling full speed across the carpet toward her. “You? You’re the reason I lost my chance at getting traditionally published? Why? Because I wouldn’t write you into the story?”

  Hadn’t Jake admitted his guilt?

  “I was in the story!” she screeched. “Nameless blonde that Jake meets at the bar in Body of Proof? That was me! We had one amazing night together and he was supposed to call, but you sent him off on another investigation and I disappeared off the pages! I gave you until the next full moon to return me to my rightful place in the story, but you didn’t listen.”

  I tried to remain calm, even as the steady thrum of my pulse fought to drown Emily out. I gave her a half-hearted shrug and picked at some fuzz on the carpet. “Jake sleeps with a lot of women,” I began, and my chest tightened with pain.

  Now wasn’t the time for my broken heart. I would deal with that can of worms as soon as I wasn’t looking down the barrel of a gun.

  “He’s a player and to think that you were somehow different, well; I’m sure you’re not the first. Unfortunately, he has that effect on women. I can’t imagine how that must’ve felt.” This was good. I was remaining calm, while silently siding with her.

  I’d get her to bond with me; part of the sisterhood of traveling crazies or whatever. She’d realize that I had no more control over Jake than she did and she’d let me go. We’d give Reid hell over being such a pansy and then off we’d go back to the city.

  Emily nodded in agreement with me and I lowered my shoulders. “You’re right,” she said grimly.

  Good, she saw that this entire thing was asylum-level crazy. I smiled and pretended to pay attention while working on the speech I’d give the reporters later.

  Well, Janet, I just thought like a detective would. My poor defenseless brother was relying on me. You see, writers put a lot of work into creating their characters. I just happened to pick up a few tricks from mine.

  I briefly registered the click of the safety being switched off before the barrel of the gun dug into my forehead painfully. I thought we’d made a connection. There was a chance I’d missed a few key points in her monologue.

  “You see, I can’t just walk away from this. I tried to helpfully guide you to the right story, but now, you’ve got no other choice. Fix the story or die,” she giggled.

  I stared blankly at her. “So, you want me to write you and Jake into the story as a couple or you’ll kill me?”

  She sighed. “It’s like you’re not even listening.”

  I remembered something Jake had said after we first met and hid a smile. “You can’t kill me… well, you could, but you won’t. Without me, there’s no way for you to get back. I wrote you into the first book, therefore, I am the only one who can bring you back.”

  She shrugged. “Maybe, but I can kill him.” She turned the gun on Reid.

  “And? How is that going to get me to do what you want? The man’s made my life a living hell every chance he’s gotten. You kill him and you’re doing me a favor.”

  Reid’s eyes widened and his entire body shuddered in fear. “N-n-no,” he pleaded.

  Emily’s jaw clenched and she cursed under her breath before turning the gun back on me. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe you’re not. Maybe I’ll just keep you locked in this room until I get what I want.”

  Her expression softened. “For what it’s worth, I do think you’re a wonderful writer. I wouldn’t be going to this much trouble for anyone, you know.”

  I sat up straighter. “Really?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, The Janice Morrison Agency wanted to represent you—”

  “She’s just trying to flatter you to get what she wants,” Reid muttered, having decided to come back to reality just as things were getting interesting.

  We both turned to him and said at the same time, “Shut up, Reid!”

  Emily bowed her head. “Anyway, I just want you to know that our friendship was never fake. No matter how badly your family behaved, I really did enjoy spending time with you. I’m going to give you some time to think about your options, okay?”

  “Okay.” I smiled up at her. This was exactly what I’d been aiming for with my earlier comments. Emily and I were both cogs in the great wheel of life; all it took was finding that common ground. It was just like my yoga instructor was always saying; cherish the connections that the universe sends—

  “I’ll give you thirty minutes and then I’ll blow his head off and we’ll see where we stand, okay?” She cackled, before slamming the door shut behind her.

  I didn’t feel like cherishing my connection.

  I felt like whipping my walking boot at her big dumb head while screeching at the top of my lungs all the ways in which I wanted to watch her die. She’d ruined my career and then gone out of her way, trying to sabotage every other aspect of my life.

  I belatedly remembered my cell phone and began patting the pockets of my coat. Of course it was gone. I was stuck in the middle of nowhere with Reid “I probably pissed my pants” Michaels as my only ally.

  “What are we going to do?” he whispered harshly.

  I drew in a breath and exhaled before looking over at him. “Oh, are you done crying over there?”

  He ran a hand over his face and nodded. “You try being in a relationship with someone for two years and then finding out they were just using you to get to your sister. Like I needed another reminder of how much better you are.”

  I snorted, “Did you just say better? Don’t you mean worse?”

  Reid shook his head. “No, I said what I meant. Do you know how frustrating it is to be the brother of the girl who writes—”

  “Oh, poor you!” I seethed. “How embarrassing to be related to such a lowly individual. I bet you’ve had to field so many questions
during the press conferences that were called over it.”

  He pointed a finger at me. “Can I finish? Mom and Dad pushed for me to run my own company and make a name for myself since elementary school. But you, you had this freedom to do what you wanted, and you wrote books—damn good books too.”

  Reid suddenly looked sheepish as if he’d just admitted that he enjoyed putting on a nice pair of Louboutin heels every evening before taking a stroll around his penthouse apartment.

  “Emily was right about that,” he admitted. “And I thought, how hard can it be? I’ll write a book too… except, I couldn’t. I didn’t have the patience or the creativeness to come up with a solid plot. Meanwhile, you continued to publish these books like it was nothing.”

  I pursed my lips. “So, you’ve read my books? But, that doesn’t make sense. You always teased me about them.”

  “Yeah, what was I supposed to do? Admit that you were better at something. Not a chance in hell of that happening,” he said with a soft laugh.

  “So, at the party last night, did you—”

  “Wonder how the detective from your novel ended up here?” he asked with a smirk. “Yeah, I had a few questions about that. Obviously, I couldn’t ask you or you would’ve known I read your stuff. Next thing I knew, I had a few drinks and woke up here.”

  “Where is here exactly?”

  He clenched his jaw. “Not a damn clue. She took me home last night, said I’d had too much and made me drink her homemade ‘hangover cure.’ So, I’m fairly certain she roofied me and now, I can’t tell you shit about where we are.”

  Well, this posed quite the problem.

  Reid pointed at my foot. “I meant to ask you last night, but what happened?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Fell off the curb at the airport.”

  He didn’t need to know all the horribly embarrassing details behind it. He was under the impression that I was better than him and I wanted to keep that going for as long as possible. Plus, we were on a little bit of a deadline to keep his head attached to his body.

  His eyes narrowed. “When was this?”

  “I don’t know, a week ago?”

  “Oh my god,” he exclaimed. “You’re the planal girl!”

  I tried to lift the window, but it wouldn’t budge. “The…what?” I panted.

  Reid joined me and we tried again with no success. When he didn’t answer, I looked up only to see that he was trying to hold it together with little success.

  “What? Say it.”

  His body shook with laughter. “There was a Twitter thread about a woman who sat next to some sex therapist on a plane and their conversation was documented in its entirety for the world to enjoy. She ran out of the airport to get away from the therapist and ended up tripping and falling off the sidewalk. The hashtag planal began trending not long after. It was you!”

  My cheeks heated and I shook my head. “No, it wasn’t.” I cleared my throat. “Anyway, we’re supposed to be finding a way out of here, not discussing stupid things we saw on the internet.”

  Reid continued chuckling. “It was definitely you. You’re blushing, which is a dead giveaway—”

  “I should’ve let her shoot you,” I grumbled. “Look, do you want to get out of here or not? We need a plan. Do you have a phone?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t even have my wallet. She took everything.”

  “Okay. We need to find a way out of here…”

  Reid sat down and put his head between his knees. “I can’t believe I was dating someone who’s completely mental. I even slept with her! I mean, to think that you’re a fictional character…that’s Stephen King level crazy.”

  I stared through the layer of dust on the window and toward the trees. “So, you think she’s just cuckoo? What about Jake? Who do you think he is?”

  He rested his chin again his knees. “I don’t know; some guy who happens to share the same name? The man you based the character on? It’s not like fictional characters are actually showing up in real life though, Hayden. You do know that, right? You can’t write a few words and send her back into the book.”

  I stood up, trying to keep most of my weight on my good leg. “That’s it! Reid, you’re a genius! Do you have a pen and paper?”

  “Yeah, she didn’t let me have my cell phone or wallet, but she supplied me with a notebook and a pen to journal my feelings while being held hostage.”

  I inhaled sharply through my nose, reminded again why he and I never hung out. “A simple no would’ve sufficed.”

  I hobbled around the small room, but there was nothing. I was just debating how to make myself bleed so that I could write on the walls when it hit me.

  I limped back over to the window and used the dust to send a message.

  Jake sat up in bed with a start, knowing deep in his bones that Hayden was in trouble.

  “Is this that witchcraft shit you’re into? Are you summoning a demon to come to our aid? Because I want no part in that,” Reid complained from his spot on the carpet.

  “Shut the fuck up, Reid,” I snapped.

  She was trapped in an abandoned cabin somewhere in the middle of nowhere, but like every great detective, Jake knew exactly where to find her.

  I debated whether or not to add more, my finger hovering over the grime. I didn’t know if it would even work. If I didn’t know where I was, how was he supposed to?

  Reid scanned the words and looked at me in confusion. “What is that supposed to do? Are you finishing your novel on the window?”

  I tried again.

  The nameless blonde that Jake spent one night with decided that her plan to win him back was futile and handed her gun over to Hayden.

  Nothing.

  I frowned. Maybe it only counted on paper. If so, then I’d just wasted valuable escape time. Reid appeared to be fussing over his manicured fingernails, which clearly indicated that I was in charge.

  “Don’t you know some magical science trick that would get us out of here?”

  “What? Like run DNA tests to distract Emily with her lineage while we make a break for it?” He laughed softly and continued picking at his nails.

  We jumped as a window broke in another room. There was the sound of a brief struggle and then silence again.

  “Maybe she committed suicide by jumping through the window? Did you write that down?” He looked over my head at the window.

  “No.” That would’ve been a better idea though.

  The door flew open and slammed into the drywall behind it with a bang.

  “Jake!” I cried. “You found me!”

  The corner of his lip turned up in a smirk and he relaxed his shoulders. “Jesus, Hayden. You don’t believe in sleeping in?” He crossed the room and began checking me over. “Are you okay?”

  When I nodded, he abruptly turned to Reid and punched him in the jaw, sending him sprawling back onto the carpet with a yelp.

  Jake growled, “Kidnapping your own sister? You son-of-a-bitch, I am going to fucking tear you apart!”

  I was in love… with an idiot.

  I jumped in between them, earning myself a nice little warning from my ankle. “Wait! Wait! It wasn’t him! It was Emily! Didn’t you see her?”

  His brows creased in confusion. “Who?”

  “Me.” She grinned from the doorway with the gun very much in her hand. “Who the hell are you?”

  Reid and I exchanged blank looks.

  She’d slept with him and was desperate to get back to her story. How could she not recognize him?

  His right hand moved down to his waistband. “Detective Jake Hopkins and you are?”

  She shook her head. “Nice try.”

  “But,” I protested. “But, you said you were Nameless Blonde in Body of Proof!”

  Jake chuckled and discreetly moved his fingers toward his holster. “Her? Please. That was Kendra.”

  “No, Emily is Reid’s girlfriend and the woman from Body of Proof.”

  He shook his head. �
�So when I asked if there was anyone who knew about your habits and you said no, that was a lie. I don’t know, Hayden, but if someone thinks they came from one of your books, it might be a good idea to mention it to the investigating detective.”

  “Are you really getting on to me right now because I forgot to mention her? How was I supposed to know that she was a psychopath? Honestly, I always felt a little sorry for her having to date Reid for two years. Who has that kind of dedication?”

  Jake shrugged. “Mentioning her at least once would’ve been a smart move. We could’ve avoided this entire fiasco.”

  “Fiasco?” My voice rose. “Had you disarmed the suspect upon entering, we could’ve avoided all of ‘this.’”

  “Can you two stop fighting?” Emily snapped.

  Jake looked back at me. “I’m just saying, I’ve never seen this broad before in my life.”

  She rubbed at the back of her neck with her free hand, her eyes tearing up. “I’m Nameless Blonde! He’s lying!”

  Jake looked her up and down. “Nah, I never forget a face or a pair of—”

  “That’s quite enough, Jake,” I forced out through clenched teeth.

  “What?” He shrugged. “She’s not fictional.”

  “I knew it!” Reid exclaimed triumphantly.

  There was a flash of movement from the hallway and then Max was directly behind Emily. Gone was the goofy guy who made me coffee. He moved silently and I shivered when I saw the look in his eyes. It was blank; completely devoid of emotion.

  He raised his hands and took Emily to the carpet before I could blink. She managed to get her hand free and pointed the gun at me. I knew I needed to run, but one foot was incapable, and the other had become glued to the floor.

  In the nanoseconds it took for me to register that I was in grave danger, Jake dove forward and knocked me to the ground with a pop. I fought to get air back into my lungs as he shielded me with his body.

  We were okay.

  We were going to get out of here. Jake would go back, and my life would return to the way it was before. Just me and Bootsy. Day in and day out. Nothing to look forward to but dying alone.