The Writer by Amy Cross

few inches away from them, scraping the wooden floor in the process.
    “Tonight was their last night,” John continues. “I hired them so long ago, when I first started all of this. I always knew that I’d kill them off at some point, but that was the whole purpose of the story. Ever since then, they’ve been making occasional appearances in your house, pretending to be ghosts. The whole thing required a great deal of planning, but we managed to pull it off.”
    “No,” I reply, still trying to get free with more and more force until, finally, I accidentally tip the chair sideways, landing so hard against the floor that I bang the side of my head.
    “Jesus,” John mutters, hurrying over and hauling the chair back up. “I get that this is difficult,” he continues, “but try to listen, damn it. I don’t want you hurting yourself.” Once he’s got me back in position, he takes a step back and tries to get his breath back. “Did you like the special effects tonight?” he continues. “That was tricky, getting the system set up in your house and projecting the footage of Hannah and David, making it so we could do all the stuff with their injuries suddenly appearing right in front of you. My God, you have no idea how much it cost just to do that one scene.”
    “Scene?” I ask. “What the hell are you talking about?”
    “Didn’t you ever wonder what I did with all my money?” he asks. “I’ve sold so many books, and most of them have been turned into movies, but almost every penny ended up being reinvested into this project. My biggest, best story to date. I had to pay the actors, pay to stage certain scenes… It cost a lot, even more than I expected, but I was fortunate that a few of my books became very popular movies. The royalties were extremely useful.”
    Staring at David and Hannah, I realize that they’re watching me with a kind of cool dispassion.
    “It was lucky,” John continues, “or rather, I chose well. If you’re wondering why I picked you, Beth, it was because you had no family and very few friends, which meant I could more easily control your entire world. Once I’d introduced David, and once the two of you had started a family, I had you pretty much set. I tolerated your friend Jacqui for a while, but eventually I tried sending her off to Australia by hooking her up with a job. When she came back, I knew it was only a matter of time before I had to…” He pauses. “Well, every story has to have an ending, and I guess you already know what I had to do to her. And to Doctor Ferguson, and that psychic woman as well.”
    “So it was all fake?” I ask, with tears in my eyes, as I stare at David. “You never actually loved me?”
    “It was just a job,” he replies. “I mean, no, over time I definitely… I came to really, really like you, and I’m going to miss you and…”
    “You were a good Mummy,” Hannah says. “You were better than my real mother. She’s always pushing me to do more acting jobs.”
    “They’re going to go back to their real lives now,” John explains. “They’ve been paid enough to keep their mouths shut for the rest of their lives, with certain added provisions in their contracts to ensure that they’re never tempted to do anything stupid like telling anyone what happened here. That side of things is well taken care of and…” He turns to them. “I guess, guys, that it’s time for you to leave now. I need to… You know… What we discussed.”
    “Come on,” David says, putting a hand on Hannah’s shoulder, “we should head off.”
    “No!” I shout, watching as they turn away. “None of this is true! Why are you doing this? Come back! Please!”
    “I realize this is difficult to comprehend,” John says calmly.
    “Stop lying to me!” I scream through the tears as I struggle once again with the restraints. “Why are you doing this?”
    “Careful,” he continues, hurrying around behind the chair and holding it down, to keep me