The Writer

The Writer
When I'm not working, I'm here. When I'm not socializing, I'm here. When I'm not doing anything else, I'm here. The amount of time I spend on here keeps growing; slightly at first, but now exponentially. Some of the stories aren't too good, Hell, most of them aren't. But I don't care. If they aren't good, they're at least funny. 'So bad it's good', as they say.

I never took the time to think about who was making these stories. Most of them probably average Joes who were bored on a Thursday. Who knows? Who cares? I didn't, but some of these stories are...Strange. They're not good on a writing basis, they're just disturbing. The only good parts of the stories are their descriptive abilities, but the only thing they describe is gore or insanity. I guess if a supposedly 'scary' story is disturbing it's at least somewhat doing its job, but I felt more concerned for the authors than fear from the stories.

So I contacted one, I had nothing to lose. This specific story I read was authored by the person I messaged, and it had no plot. There was no story. It was in the format of what I can only describe as a Coroner's Report. It didn't look official at all, but then again I'm not a Coroner, and I've never seen an official one. It just described the death of a teenage girl who was raped and tortured. The story described the body in such vivid imagery that it felt overdone and unneeded. If a 13-year old hadn't written it, an insane man did. I obviously took the path of Occam's Razor and assumed it was the former and that some kid just wanted to be edgy.

I didn't expect a response, this guy probably wrote it thinking it would become the most popular thing on the Internet. But my assumption was soon found to be incorrect as I saw the author had messaged me back. For context, I initiated the conversation simply asking what drove the author to write the story.

The author's reply was a simple "Why".

I responded with "I was just curious"

"Idk I felt like it"

This was definitely a teenage boy thinking he was cool and different by writing about blood and gore.

"Well just as some constructive criticism, I'd suggest you write something that's actually a story. Just describing the body of a dead girl isn't really scary and it's not too interesting to read."

A bit of a snarky entitled message, I admit, but I legitimately wanted to help the kid with writing future stories.

He responded: "Ok thanks"

This was going nowhere, this kid clearly didn't care about the story they wrote. I tried another author who wrote an absolutely terribly written story about a house that was haunted by a ghost of a Civil War soldier. The story wasn't scary at all, at least the previous one was disturbing, this...This was just a romance. The girl moving into the haunted house ended up falling in love with the soldier, and there was nothing scary about it at all. The actual writing was worse, the grammar was all wrong, spelling mistakes everywhere, the entire thing was one paragraph with hardly any punctuation.

I messaged the author with the same message I sent the last one, asking why they decided to write it.

Their response: "Why"

The exact same response as the last one, obviously a coincidence, so I wrote a different response:

"I had some constructive criticism"

"Ok"

I gave my criticism, stating the same things I noted before: The terrible grammar, the horrible plot, the fact that it doesn't pertain to the site it was posted on, everything. There was no response afterward.

I tried many other authors, most of them to no avail. Either no response or the conversations were as short as the first two. Then I was taken by surprise when instead I was sent a message.

The message read: "You are very curious."

I was confused, was this a moderator possibly about to tell me to stop? Maybe they meant to message somebody else?

"What do you mean?" I messaged back.

"You are constantly messaging me with your criticisms and curiosity on the motives of my writings."

What? I never messaged this account once, and I only sent a few messages to what was possibly twenty or so accounts.

"What are you talking about I never messaged you?"

"Yes, you have. All of them asking why I wrote those stories and telling me how to make them better. Perhaps you should instead ask yourself: why do you care so much about these stories?"

I didn't care that much about the stories, I just read them and had a few thoughts about them. I was helping people better their writing, that was all. Besides, I never messaged this account. I sent him a screenshot of my sent messages to prove that I never sent anything to them.

"Those are all me." They responded.

This had to be a moderator trying to troll me, trying to mess with me.

"Ok lol, they don't match your account name so they aren't you."

"You don't understand, all of those accounts, all of those people are me. Even you, are me."

Alright, this person was obviously a troll account. This was on a website dedicated to scary stories, after all, maybe they just messaged me trying to be scary and all the details were a coincidence. Nevertheless, I decided to humor them:

"How exactly are you me?"

"I am every person who has ever read, written, or told a story. I know your name because it is my name. I know the names of every other being in this universe throughout all of time because all of those names are my names."

"Okay, so what's my name?"

He responded with my actual real name. The one I had never given online. Only close friends and family knew my name...Wait. Of course! This was just some friend playing a trick on me, that's how they knew my name. I called them out, accusing them of being one of my close friends:

"Lol, I know this is Jared."

"You are correct. This is Jared, but this is also his mother, and your mother, and her mother. You fail to understand, I am every being that has ever lived to tell a story."

So it was just Jared. I texted him, telling him it was a good joke, and asking how he managed to find my account. Of course, he responds saying "What are you talking about?" and "That isn't me." He has to stay in character, keep the joke going. So I messaged him on the site instead so he could continue.

"Okay, then what should I call you?"

"I have no set name. As I have stated I am every being throughout time, throughout space. You may call me 'the Writer', however, as that is what I am. I write stories, I read stories, and I tell them."

I began to write my message back until an extensive paragraph was almost instantly sent to accompany the last one. Almost as if it was a copy-paste. It read:

"You do not understand. I am the Writer, I am every single person that has written, read, or been told a story. I have written or will write every story and every single one of them will come true. I am the embodiment of every single person that will write a story or has been told one. You are in a story right now. However, you are also not in a story at the same time. You will exist in reality at some point. The events that are taking place right now will happen or will have already happened. The being that reads this exact story is also a part of another story. That story will be written, and it will also take place in reality, as all stories do. Every single story you read or are told will happen or has already. Every single one, no matter where you find it. In a fictional novel, from your grandmother...Online. Even if you don't know that story even exists, it will happen if it hasn't already. No matter how supernatural or fictional it sounds, the rule still applies. Even those who read those supposedly fictional stories are a story. That story has simply already been written or perhaps will be written about. That story about a creepy serial killer, no matter how badly it was written, will happen. That story about a scary game cartridge found in a dumpster will happen. That story about a tall, faceless man who abducts children will happen, if it hasn't already. These events, the ones you are witnessing right now, will be written about, and the story will have already happened.

And the person reading the story of these events will soon become a story that will be written about...If they haven't been already."