The Protagonists

Chapter Seventeen - Annalise

"What happened to her?" Annalise asked, interrupting his whole-hearted conversation. "You say all this in past tense, like she doesn't do all that anymore. Does she not visit you anymore, like she used to?

Flynn shook his head, his smile faltering slightly. "One day, Maya brought Iris to our little 'hideout'," he continued, "to meet me. We all had a great time. Iris would then join in on Maya's everyday-visiting; we called ourselves a trio. I, being a character that was unable to age, got to watch them both grow up into wonderful people. One day, however, neither one showed up. I just waited at our usual spot, three cups of green tea in front of me. Then, on the next day, I went back to see just Iris; Maya was nowhere in sight. Iris said that Maya had was busy and that she didn't want to see me anymore because she then had a boyfriend. That hurt a lot, considering that I considered Maya and I to be really close. So as Maya messed around with her new boyfriend," Annalise felt a heat of jealousy run off him, "Iris and I gradually fell in love. She taught me a ton of stuff about travelling through tales and together, we started travelling through various tales. Eventually, she let me visit Earth and I instantly fell in love; LA is extremely beautiful, compared to the community I grew up in. Iris let me move into an apartment, making a clone of Flynn, so Rapunzel wouldn't get confused. Don't get confused if you travel to Rapunzel and there is a different Flynn; I'm the real, original Flynn."

Annalise kept silent and continued to listen to Flynn's dramatic explanation. "Later," he continued, "Iris and I met Stacie Reid. Before you ask, yes, Stacie's last name truly is Reid. She's not a fictional character like me; she's just anyone else on Earth. She was born in Seattle and her family moved to LA two years ago, when we first met. Then, we became the trio. Stacie perfectly replaced Maya and we were all happy again. That was until we received news that Maya had died. No one knows how she died; some say it was a murder and others say it was suicide."

"What do you think?" Annalise asked him, interrupting his passionate explanation.

Flynn shrugged in response, not enjoying the topic being asked. "I honestly think it was suicide," he finally replied after a moment of pondering. "It was all right after her boyfriend broke up with her. Even though I didn't feel too fond of her after she practically ditched the original trio for her boyfriend, the fact that she was dead made me incredibly upset. Generously, Iris offered me a chance to join her in a union, guild, whatever you want to call it. She called it the Intellectuals; the Intellectuals are a bunch of tale-travelling people. Apparently, Maya made the group, which made me want to join it even more. So I joined the Intellectuals and Iris granted me a power; she gave me the power to erase. I know it sounds crazy, but it's a powerful gift; I now have the opportunity to delete characters from their stories. So you want to know why you don't see any characters from The Little Mermaid? Well, I deleted all the humans, leaving just the merpeople underwater. This castle," he motioned towards the towering castle above them, "is Iris's favorite from all the fairytales. She wanted it all to herself, so I just deleted all of Eric's workers and him. Now, Ariel lives down with her family, not caring whether or not if she could visit the land."

"So she doesn't care about the land anymore?" Annalise questioned. Flynn nodded in reply. "But that's not right!" She cried, letting go of Flynn's hands. "The story is all about Ariel wanting to see the world above water! How is she supposed to meet Eric now that he's been erased by you?"

Flynn remained silent, not understanding how to respond. Annalise huffed and stormed off towards the water. She stopped at the brink of the sand, allowing the waves to lap up at her ankles. "I don't understand why you're so upset!" Flynn cried from under the cliff, where they were standing before. "I didn't do anything wrong, did I?"

Annalise rolled her eyes, showing off her obvious annoyance. She looked up at the top of the cliff, beside the castle, where they were originally standing; Sam and Stacie had not yet arrived, which worried her greatly. "Are Stacie and Sam even coming?" She asked as Flynn finally worked up the courage to walk over to her. "Or did you erase them just like you erased Eric?"

"Are you really just worked up because of Eric?" Flynn asked, putting a reassuring hand on Annalise's shoulder. "If so, I can bring him back just as easily as I erased him." Annalise shook her head quickly, shaking his hand off her shoulder. "I'm not upset about that," she said quietly, kicking at the water. "I'm just upset that I'm not going to be able to meet any characters without going completely underwater, in which I would indeed drown."

"We could go somewhere else," Flynn told her. "We could go to Alice in Wonderland, where I haven't deleted a single character. It'll be a bit weird, since Alice has openly admitted that she loves me, but I'm willing to do it for you, Annalise."

Annalise nodded, considering the case. "But wait, what about Sam and Stacie?"

"Sometimes you're really smart, Annalise," Flynn admitted, smirking to himself, "but other times, you are a complete idiot. Come on, Annalise; it's very obvious that Sam and Stacie won't be coming. Stacie took Sam to Cinderella and right about now, she should be making a fair trade with Oliver; she'll give him Sam, saying that she'll take him and Sam back home if he gives her Joel. Oliver will obviously say yes and Joel and Stacie will travel before they can react."

"Wait, so won't Sam and Oliver be stuck then?" Annalise puzzled. Flynn didn't reply; he just nodded. At that moment, Annalise realized that Flynn-he had seemed to kind and amazing at the beginning-was not as amiable and cordial as he had made himself to be. She just wanted to wake up back at home-oh, how amazing she thought it would be to wake up and have Julia and Jessica remain alive and perfectly healthy as they did that Wednesday morning. Annalise no longer wanted to be with Flynn, the man who once gave her comfort and security; then, Annalise wanted nothing more than to be with Sam, the only other guy to offer her such contentment and protection from the mess of the world.