Louise sat up, finding herself in the Tristain infirmary.
She sat there for a while breathing.
She stood, carefully, and made her way out.
...
As she made her way to the dining hall, her mind went over the events of yesterday.
That... Couldn't have been real, right?
The door had to still be normal.
And she had failed her ritual.
Right?
As she made her way though the halls, Louise found the lack of servants, teachers, and students eerie.
She began to panic.
They couldn't be...
She ran to the hall, and slammed the door open.
Everyone was there, eating, laughing, as was normal.
Louise slumped, relieved.
She closed the double doors.
Her heart skipped a beat.
Imprinted on them were the words 'LOOK BEHIND YOU' in massive green letters.
Louise turned, expecting a joke.
She screamed.
In the few moments between turning to shut the doors, and turning back...
Everyone had been slaughtered.
It was... brutal.
A mass of blood at the center of the floor twisted into a cone, pointing upwards.
Louise kept screaming.
The mass of blood formed a human one, and looked directly at Louise.
IT grinned.
Dreams and Reality are so malleable, aren't they?
Then IT stabbed her through the chest with IT's bare hand.
...
Louise sat bolt upright on the bed, screaming her head off.
Kirche, a loyal friend, despite claiming to be her rival, jumped to her feet.
"Louise! What's wrong?" asked Kirche, her voice higher than normal.
Louise took several deep breaths. "What... happened...?"
"You mean after you're familiar showed up, scared us out of our pants, literally in the case of Guiche, and you fainted?" asked Kirche.
"Ye-e-es?" said Louise, reluctantly.
"Nothing." said Kirche, shrugging.
"What do you mean, nothing?"
"I mean, your familiar vanished, then Professor Colbert carried you up here."
"And everyone is alive?"
Kirche looked at Louise, reality dawning on her face. "You had a nightmare that your familiar killed all of us."
"Yes." admitted Louise.
"A fate you still might face." said a new voice.
Louise and Kirche whirled to face the new person in the room.
He was tanned, and elegant. He... was very attractive. His long red hair rivaled Kirche's.
He was sitting on a rather elegant chair, with armrests, that had appeared from nowhere.
"Who by Brimir's name are you?" demanded Kirche.
"Oh? You can't tell?" The red-haired boy grinned.
Or, perhaps, you would rather I speak like this?
Louise and Kirche shivered.
"T-the former." Stuttered Louise.
"Okay. Just making sure." said Nyarlathotep, pulling his legs over the armrest, and placing his head on the other one.
All-in-all, it looked rather uncomfortable.
"Not for me." said Nyarlathotep.
"DID YOU JUST READ MY THOUGHTS?!" asked Louise, horrified at the prospect, her mind immediately...
"Yes. My, I didn't realize you were so domineering." He said, placing enough emphasis on the last word to prove it.
"PLEASE DON'T!" shrieked Louise.
"Oh, all right. Wasn't planning on it, anyway." Said Nyarlathotep, waving a hand in a dismissive gesture.
Louise breathed in and out, trying to calm herself.
Kirche, meanwhile, apparently was having issues of her own.
"Your name." She said to Nyarlathotep. "It's too hard to say. Can I call you something different?"
Nyarlathotep sat up, shrugging. "Certainly. Just not anything too wrong."
Kirche sat, thinking.
Louise, meanwhile, had questions.
"What did you mean, when you said I rule this world?" she asked.
Nyarlathotep's eyes flickered. "Literally what I meant. YOU have a powerful story, and it is not simply destroyed."
"Story?" repeated Louise.
Nyarlathotep leaned forward. "Have you ever read a novel filled with fictional events and characters?"
Louise nodded.
"Well, you see, there is a dimension where EVERY story ever made is fiction."
Louise's eyes widened. "Including..."
"This one? Certainly." Confirmed Nyarlathotep. "However, I'm not done yet. There are three true dimensions, only one of which I have complete power over."
He held up one finger. "The first is commonly referred to as Earth. This dimension is the one where every story is fiction. Where even this world is fiction to them. I have almost no power there, only truly able to manifest when a powerful Imaginator creates a world which I am involved in."
"Imaginator?" asked Louise.
"The creators of fiction. Writers, painters, stuff like that. The second dimension is the True Fiction dimension. That dimension is where the True Stories live."
"The True Stories?"
"Complete works of fiction. Such as the Inheritance Cycle, the Camp Half-Blood series, Warcraft, Starcraft, etc. I have more power there, able to manifest myself in a decent amount of them, mostly thanks to people such as Stephen King, and people like him who write stories involving my kind."
"Your kind?" Louise's eyes widened. "You mean..."
"No. I am the most powerful of my kind, and most sentient. Most of the rest of my kind are idiots, the greatest of them all being my father."
"Your father?"
"Azathoth, The Blind Idiot God. He Who Slumbers. Suffice it to say, without scaring you anymore than I need to, if he awoke, all of the universe would be screwed."
Nyarlathotep leaned back. "Where was I?"
"Nyaruko!" exclaimed Kirche, suddenly.
"Nyaruko?" asked Louise, confused.
"No." Responded Nyarlathotep flatly.
"Oh, come on! It's perfect!" Protested Kirche.
Nyarlathotep sighed. "Were you listening to me, when I explained to Louise about the three dimensions?"
Kirche nodded. "You didn't get to the third one, though."
"Right." Nyarlathotep scratched the back of his head. "The third dimension, which I call the Omniverse, is actually better known by the name, Fan Fiction."
"Fan Fiction?" asked Louise.
"Yep." Confirmed Nyarlathotep. "Created by lesser Imaginators, these stories are inspired, and come directly from, the True Fiction. For example, a Imaginator named Manta Aisora created a Fan Fiction commonly referred to as Nyaruko: Crawling With Love."
Kirche laughed once. Then it came to her.
She stared at Nyarlathotep. "Crawling Chaos. Crawling with love."
He nodded, obviously pained. "You see it now. As it was, that actually became a True Fiction story, seeing as how my kind's stories are part of the Public Domain."
"Public Domain?" Asked Kirche.
"Basically, you know how people claim that something is theirs, even when it isn't?"
They both nodded.
"Well, Public Domain stories are basically True Fictions, that other people can add on to whenever they want."
"That sounds... annoying." Murmured Louise.
"Oh, it is. Thankfully, there are usually people who go through that stuff that people want to add, check and see if it makes sense, or there's a gap that they can fit it in. I call them the Wiki Editors."
"Wiki?" Asked Kirche.
"Don't even ask." Groaned Nyarlathotep. "As for nicknames... Fine, you can call me Nyaruko."
"So, what happens now?" asked Louise.
"Well, you have three choices."
"Three?"
"Three." Confirmed Nyaruko. "A: You stay here, and do what you would normally do in your True Fiction, except I'm here. B: You come with me to visit the stars, and I show you the extent of it. Or, C, we do both A and B."
Louise considered this. "I think..."
"Hold on. Before you decide, I want to get a public opinion." Interrupeted Nyaruko.
"And how are you going to do that?"
"Simple. I run a poll on Earth."
"And how do you do that?"
"I go to my fanfiction profile, and create a new poll."
"And how do you do that?"
"I'll explain later. Go through today, and maybe a few more, than I'll have some good results."
A/N: Nyarlathotep: I'm serious folks. There is a legit poll asking that question on this account right now.