Jack looked down at the planet, a strange mix of exhaustion and awe washing over him. "They're going to come looking for me," he said, thinking of SION. "My life is over down there."
The witch tilted her head. “I’m a protagonist without an ending. Do you know what that feels like? To be written but never resolved?”
Lena took out her pen. No paper. She didn’t need it. She closed her eyes and wrote the ending on the inside of her own mind.
Lena learned this when her phone buzzed with a text from an unknown number:
And right now, the most wanted story in the world was a curse.
"No," Sarah said, pressing a small device into his hand. It looked like a simple silver coin. "Your life is just beginning. This will erase your digital footprint with SION. They will not find you. We owe you a debt, Jack Tanner."
She had read the script herself last night. And now, at 7:42 PM, she saw a woman in a black hood standing across the street. The woman didn’t move. She simply waited . And Lena understood: the story had chosen its next reader.
She walked outside. The marquee now read:
"There," Seth pointed. "The propulsion drive has been removed. We must interface with the mainframe."