Second part of the above chapter added, please check it out.
I’ve gotta start watching Heroes again.
A book made real? That sounds like something that would come out of Read Or Die.
Just for the record, folks, I came up with my character’s storyline for this year before that Hana character in HEROES was introduced. I haven’t seen anyone sucked into a book in Read or Die, either.
Not that either concept is new, they’ve been used before- they’re just not that common.
Next chapter tomorrow night.
Nice update Wil.
Can’t wait to see what sort of Hell Ken’s got himself into this time. You just shouldn’t play around with Chaos Magic. Oh well.
No, Not R.O.D., books pitting out characters and pulling authors inside are more along the style of the Inkworld books.
More awesomeness and excitement Wil. Though “Sniff Sniff” ? While that might be something I’d do It still seems a bit silly saying it outloud. :hahaha; Can’t wait for the next update.
Indeed. Why WOULD I try to bring a book full of horrors alive. Dun dun DUNNNN!
Hmm … increasingly interesting. Wonder if the book will have anything to do with the secret organization …
Aya Brea is rather “babealicious”, now that you mention it. 
Anyway, 'nother good chapter there.
Yes, I knew it reminded me of something, that’s it.
Anyways, awesome chapter Wil. The part about your new powers was funny. Darn it, I should have said I wanted more part in the plot than just .Hack. xD Oh well, I can wait until the next time that comes up. 
Yeah, thinking on it, ROD is more of the reverse. It takes things out of books into the world.
Oh man, getting sucked into the horros that you yourself created? That would be intense. You would expect something to happen, only to realize that you wouls count on yourself expecting it. That and the horror of the story its self would be enough to drive someone mad.
CRAZINESS.
A TOWN LOCATED WITHIN A DIMENSIONAL POCKET:
The town was covered in snow. From afar, it didn’t look particularly different from any other typical, modern American town.
People went around their business as usual. They shopped, they talked, they worked and played, they went to bed. Just like real people.
Which they weren’t.
For despite their appearance, they were all nonhuman creatures – doppelgangers, changelings, incubi, succubi, and all other manner of shapeshifters or magically-disguised “monsters.” This town was actually a refuge- a disguised haven where those who were hunted nearly to extinction, had hidden away from human civilization, yet, were close enough to watch it.
Today they walked in a somber mood, for it was Wintertid, their Day of Mourning their Legendary Champion, Grendel, who had dared to attack the encroaching humans, only to be slayed by the warrior Beowulf. His defeat had marked the beginning of the Great Retreat.
Or so they believed.
Ken Rountree knew better. As he watched them come and go from the window of a large house, he was aware that they were all nothing but figments of his imagination, parts of a novel he was writing as a College project, inspired in part by his own experiences with RPGC. There was nothing –literally- beyond the town’s borders. If you walked a short distance into the woods that surrounded it, you would find only an endless void. He hadn’t decided where it was supposed to be located, yet.
Except now- for the time being- these beings were REAL, solid, living things. Or were they? He still wasn’t clear on the details.
He walked to an old chair, and sat on it.
He had been kept in this room of this house, for at least three days now- by his own reckoning, as time didn’t seem to pass in this “World”- it was dusk when he arrived, and it was still dusk. Probably because he was not writing any new scenes, Ken thought. He had tried to mingle among the ‘locals’ when he first arrived, but was quickly sniffed out and captured.
He heard the door open. He turned around to see who it was.
It was her.
She was the main character of the novel, but had no name. Ken couldn’t come up with one he was happy with, so he decided to leave it for later, as he and his partner in College worked out the details of the story and the art.
Today, she was looking again like Audrey Hepburn, her favorite form. Ken’s too, he had to admit; he had always found her to be the sultriest Hollywood actress. Maybe it was because of that he had “given” this Doppelganger the habit of copying famous actresses. He decided to just call her “Audrey” for now.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audrey_Hepburn)
-“Well? Have they decided what do with me yet?” he asked, sarcastically.
-“No, the Town Elders have not come to a decision” she said, somewhat flatly.
-I must remember to give her more of a personality Ken thought. And the Elders? He hadn’t even figured out WHO they were yet!
-“You can’t keep me here forever” Ken said, getting off the chair and walking up to her. “Someone is going to notice my absence sooner or later. And I have friends, “Audrey”. POWERFUL friends. With magic like mine, or even stronger. They’ll come for me, sooner or later.”
-“So you say” she countered, turning her back to him.
-“You still don’t believe me, do you? That I’m your creator, and that none of this is real?”
-“No, we- we KNOW it’s true. We have… memories of lives, yet, they’re incomplete. And… the World itself, it FEELS incomplete. Unreal. We weren’t aware of it until you arrived, but now, we can feel it- at least, those of us who spoke with you.”
-“Then you know, you can’t kill me” Ken stated. “If I die, you all die with me.”
Actually, Ken wasn’t sure of that, but that ‘fact’ was the only thing that had kept him alive ever since the ‘monsters’captured him.
-“We’re investigating that now” Audrey said.
-“…Investigating it?” Ken asked, puzzled. “How?”
-“We sent one of us, to take your place, and explore your World” she said, her tone turning bitter. “But… he never came back. We prayed for our God, Mxflchodriachk, to guide us on this time of uncertainty. It came, and went forth, into your ‘real’ world, to take its measure.”
-“WHAT??” Ken gasped. “But, but I didn’t write that!!”
Audrey turned around, and smirked. “Then I guess you’re not the true master of our fate.”
Ken reeled at the revelation. Could it be? Had his creation now acquired a life of its own? Or was part of his mind still “writing” it? Like in a dream…
Or a nightmare.
He then realized that, if the Hidden Ones’ Elder God had gone into the Real World, it would have to use the portal in his room, which meant it would have arrived on-
-“BALDWINSVILLE!” he gasped out loud.
He tried to run outside, but was caught at the door by monster guards. As he struggled to escape, he couldn’t help but fear for the safety of his wife, his friends, his loved ones-
-What… WHAT HAVE I DONE?? he mentally cried.
Audrey walked out of the room, and up to him. “Are you scared now, ‘creator?’ Do you understand now, the fear that you made us feel?”
-“…Fear?”
-“Tell me, how would you react- to finding out you’re not real- or your friends, or your very world, even? That it was all a lie? That your destiny isn’t yours, but is in the hands of a ‘god’ you know nothing about and who cares nothing about you, and who can play with your life or end it at a whim?”
-“I, I…” Ken stammered. He had never considered that. They were, after all, just characters in his story. Not real.
Until he MADE them real…
-“Look, I, I’m sorry. I never meant for this to happen. I was just… experimenting. I had a writer’s block, that’s why I hadn’t finished the novel… and a- friend of mine suggested that I use my powers to bring the novel to life, to become part of it, to understand it better. It sounded like a good idea… It’s not like I realized that I was creating… people.”
Audrey turned her back to him. “Is that, then, all we are? Experiments… accidents?” she snorted.
-“EVERYTHING is an accident!” Ken cried out. “Everything is random -Chaos- even in the Real World. Just like my magic. Which I can’t control fully, either. If I did, I would never have allowed this happen!”
Audrey was silent for a moment.
-“…What happens to us?” she then asked, her back still to Ken.
-“What do you mean?”
-“In the novel. At the end. Do we thrive? War with humanity? …Get wiped out?”
-“I…”
But their conversation was interrupted by noises coming from outside. Howls, screams- explosions!
-“What??” Audrey cried out, then ran back into the room, and looked out of the same window Ken had been looking out previously. Ken and the guards also ran there.
There, on the street, some kind of battle was going on. The town’s inhabitants were attacking a trio – a Latino man, a blonde woman, and a man with long, pink hair. Ken of course recognized them immediately.
-“Who- are those people?” Audrey asked, in shock.
-“My friends” Ken said, with a bitter smile. “I told you they would come for me.”
The monsters were getting slaughtered. They were just no match for the seasoned RPGC warriors, who, figuring out they were fighting imaginary beings, were not holding back for once. Val in particular was cutting a bloody swath through them.
-“NO!!” Audrey screamed, in horror.
-“Let me go to them!” Ken shouted. “I can stop them!”
Audrey looked at him, not sure what to do.
-“They will tear this town apart looking for me. You must let me go!”
-“How do I know you won’t destroy us anyway?”
-“…You don’t have any choice, do you?” he pointed out.
Down on the street, Wil, Val and Lugia were facing a torrent of monsters, who seemed to pop up as fast as they killed them.
Wil considered atomizing them all with a Mega-spell spell, but was afraid of what that might do on this reality –not to mention, hurt Ken. Of course, Ken might already be dead for all he knew…
-“STOP!!” a scream sounded.
Heroes and monsters stopped in place, and looked in the direction the scream had come from. There, a sultry, dark haired woman and a young man with brown hair stood nearby.
-“Ken? Is that the ‘real’ you?” Wil asked.
-“Yes. Please, stop fighting!”
Unfortunately, Val, still in berserker mode, continued to slash madly at anyone near her.
-“VAL!!” Ken screamed.
-“They aren’t real, Ken!” Wil shouted back.
-“I know! Please, please STOP!!”
Wil was baffled for a moment, then casted a sleep spell again, and Val fell face first into the snow.
Ken then ran up to them.
Wil and Lugia looked at his face, to see that he indeed had two differently-colored eyes.
-“Is it really you this time? Or an imaginary version of yourself?”
-“…That’s a fair question. I guess you’ll know for sure only until we’re outside.”
-“Assuming these- people- allow us to go quietly” Wil stated. “We didn’t start this fight, we were attacked.”
Ken turned around, to look at Audrey, who was standing behind him, an expression of hopelessness on her face.
-“Heeey, you used Audrey Hepburn as a character in your story? Nice touch, Ken!” Wil said, smiling.
Ken ignored him. “Can we go?” he pleaded to Audrey.
-“I don’t think we could stop you… even if we wanted to” she admitted.
-“Very well, let’s go, then” Lugia said, picking up the still sleeping Val and slinging her over its shoulder with ease.
Cautiously, Wil and Lugia started to walk out of the village, still watched fearfully by the humanoids. But a few seconds later, they noticed Ken was still standing where he had been.
-“Ken?” Wil called out to him.
Ken turned around, to speak to Audrey:
-“When I started this novel… I was just trying to make the usual, horror story. You know, people come to a far off town only to find everybody there is a monster? But… not anymore” he said, in a regretful tone. “Now, the story will be about monsters and humans trying to understand each other. And no, you won’t get wiped out in the end. I swear.”
Audrey smiled a nervous, but hopeful, smile.
Ken then started walking away from her, and joined the heroes as they walked away from the town.
A few minutes later, the group emerged through a spot of darkness on the wall of Ken’s room. The room was a mess, and one of the walls was broken, probably when the ‘Elder God’ broke out.
Wil turned to Ken, and asked, “Can you make that place disappear?”
-“I don’t know. I won’t try, either.”
-“Eh? Why not?”
-“They are real now. I don’t know for how long… Chaos magic is unpredictable… but, I owe it to them. They didn’t ask to be created, to be put in the situation they are…. It’s my responsibility from now on, to watch over them.”
-“What if some other horror crawls out of there again?” Wil asked, worried.
-“…I don’t think it will. They have learned to fear us. I’ll be on guard, anyway. And if I need help, I’ll contact you people.”
Wil was obviously not happy with that decision. However, after what had happened with Killmore earlier that day, he could understand Ken worrying about people who were not, technically, human.
-“Very well” he said. “But tell me something, Ken: what in blazes possessed you to try to make a horror novel real??”
-“…I don’t think you would understand.”
-“Try me” Wil insisted.
-“Well… it really wasn’t my idea. It was his.”
-“His? His who?”
Ken hesitated to answer for a moment.
-“Ken?”
-“…Hades’.”
NEXT: THE TIRED ANGEL
Next chapter Monday
Hmmm, not sure if you’ve read inkspell Wil, but certain resemblances are uncanny. The author claiming that everything be destroyed if he dies, yet not actually knowing if its true. The author then finding out that they are no longer in control of their creation. Still, good all the same and I think it’s safe to say this isn’t the last we’ll hear of Audrey and company.
Heh. Now that’s worth applause and a half. Great work.
It’s really good. I can’t wait to read more and see more RPGCers.
Actually, no, I have never read Inkspell. But I guess it’s just common sense- when applied to such a situation, I mean. 
Gets better with every chapter Wil, I can’t wait for more. The faceless corporation people was genius!
You have certainly contrived a compelling plot this year, and I look forward to reading your next chapter. May I ask what gave you the idea to weave Grendel from Beowulf into the story?
As a side note, you may want to revise your chapters for spelling and grammar, though; I have noticed a few small errors, but they are nothing serious.
Actually, Sir Percival, that is part of the idea for the new story I’m writing. It’s a society of monsters that worship Grendel as their savior. I changed it a bit when I talked to Wil about it (namely some ideas that I thought were really cool, but I decided wasn’t the direction I wanted to go). The bogeymen are the ones who try to carry on Grendel’s legacy, and one of them finds out what the human world is REALLY like, rather than the way it is perceived in the monster world. I may run a parallel story of a human. Perhaps this is because I studied Beowulf not too long ago and keep reading philosophical texts (such as the obvious allusion to the Cave) over and over again. Of course, it could be the science fiction course I took, too, since almost ALL of them were disguised cave allegories.
A lot of the things were made up by Wil, though, and I think that they are very nice touches that work much better with his personal feel.