"Caf?"
Her eyes swivel over to me. She props a pillow behind her and sits up. "Hello, Cato."
My eyes are deceiving me. This is not possible. But at the same time, here she is, right in front of me.
I can't seem to choke out the words. "How- Buh- ... What happened?"
"The Monitors took away my account. Pella, the main girl, to be exact. I set up a new account right away. Technically, you should be calling me Paf right now, but that sounds stupid, and I am known as Caf.
"It took me a long time to update this story. If you notice I look slightly older, it's because time passes constantly in my dimension; when I'm here, time is, quote, relative. I can play with it to my advantage, unless the Monitors are around. Then we have a problem." I glance down at her bare neck. "Oh!" Caf exclaims, answering my unspoken question. "If you're wondering about the collar, thankfully, it was left behind with my deleted account."
"But why is Glimmer here?" I ask. She sits on the corner of the bed and picks at her nails. Caf must have already filled Glimmer in on everything.
"Cato," Caf explains, "when encountered with a decision, in this case being weather to bring Glimmer along with us, you must choose either to take the fun and thrilling road, or the safe and wise one."
"Uhh," I stumble. "Fun and thrilling?"
"No! You always choose the safe and wise road! But I thought I deserved some slack, so I included Glimmer into our mission. Plus, she's really cool. Basically, I changed the original story, just like how I changed it for you. She escaped before the Games started. I got her to fetch you, and here we are."
"What did you mean by mission?"
"Well, I still want to save a certain Character, but I also want to get my old account back. We can talk about that later, though." Caf waves it off.
"Wait, what happened to the Reviews?"
Her face pulls back in shock. "I forgot all about them!" Caf closes her eyes, bows her head, and raises her arms high above her. With the wiggle of her fingers, a small box appears.
Caf furrows her eyebrows. "Why aren't they moving?" She prods her finger around in the box, then, releasing the tension, exhales. "Okay, good. They're not dead. I think my Reviews are just a bit gloomy. I guess I've been away for too long."
Glimmer suddenly moans in boredom. "When are we going to actually do something?" She twirls a lock of hair around and around in her fingers in a meticulous pattern.
"I still need to see how you respond when you read a how-to. I can send you and Cato to buy a candy bar from a vending machine."
"I'll go do my hair!" Glimmer squeals. She turns around towards the bathroom.
"No, I know how long that will take you. Here." Standing up now, Caf raises her hands in front of us.
An incredible gust of wind blasts from an indistinct source. I'm blinded by anything a meter in away from me. Somehow, it doesn't freeze me as it spins in circles around me in a cyclone, swishing all everything around.
The wind dies down, and I can see Caf lower her hands. We are all in a fresh change of clothes. Caf must have used some sort of Author magic; she looks a million times better than she did in her previous state.
Glimmer inspects a lock of her hair, sniffs it, then pouts. "You didn't use the right product!"
Caf chuckles and rushes over to a desk where a pen and paper await her. She hastily scrawls out words. At one point, she tries to contain a smile, but it's too big, so she clamps her hand over her mouth to prevent excessive laughter. Her shoulders nod up in down without control of whatever she's giggling at. I'm very scared of what she intends on doing to Glimmer.
"Here you go," Caf says, handing Glimmer a sheet of paper folded in half.
Cato, you may benefit by knowing what it's like to be under the spell. Don't leave Glimmer.
I shoot Caf a look, who just grins an me. "Okay, well, you guys should probably go now." She leads us to the hallway and slams the door shut.
"Rude," Glimmer huffs. She unfolds the paper.
Instantly, her pupils dilate in and out. They become so large, blocking out the emerald of her irises, then shrink back to a pin-point. The madness of her eyes finally stop after a couple of seconds, and haze over with a milky white thin enough so you can still see her pupils.
A shudder skitters up my spine as she begins to reads the letter.
One Hour Later
"Welcome back!" Caf cheers.
I hobble in dripping wet with water, trying to hide the lipstick stains all over my cheek, the Nutella on my elbow, and the itchy purple knee-high socks. That was way more than a trip to the vending machine.
It doesn't work. Caf balls on the floor laughing. After a full minute she puts her hand where her lungs should be and mutters, "Ow, ow, ow..." She snickers at her own pain.
"I thought you were going to torture Glimmer this time!" I almost yell.
Caf smiles at me. "It's just more fun to mess with you, though."
I pelt a 3 Musketeers bar at her. "Here you go, your eminence."
Sorry it took so long to update. I'm trying to start back up my forum, Finding Your Inner Tribute. I'd love it if you would visit! Please get the Reviews up and active again by giving them more brethren! Thank you!