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A blood-curdling scream echoed through the dark woods of the Macmillan Estate. Another one followed, but it was cut short by the Entity’s roots piercing the survivor’s body. As the last survivor of the trial was carried away in the sky, Susie laid down exhausted: another Trial was over, and that was the last one for the rest of the week. She got up, took her bloodpoints, and walked back to Mount Ormond Resort.
When the girl arrived there, she saw that none of the gang was there. “Guess they’re not done yet with their trials,” she thought. She went upstairs and entered her and Julie’s bedroom. Closing the door behind her, Susie suddenly remembered: “Oh yeah! The novel! Can’t believe I almost forgot about it.” It was, in fact, one of the rare times Susie would have an idea for a self-insert fanfiction, or “novel” as she called them, while she was out and not forget about it once back home. She immediately grabbed her journal, hidden in a box under the bed, took a red glitter gel pen from her nightstand’s pen holder, and started to write on her bed:
“NOVEL N. 11 - WHISPERS IN THE DARK - Chapter 1”
Satisfied with the title, Susie swapped the gel pen with a hot pink one:
“My name is Luna Salem Snowmoon, the beautiful and powerful vampire countess of Darkmond Castle. I have pale skin, long white hair with light purple and pink streaks, and hot pink eyes. I can fly, transform myself in a bat, cast curses on my enemies, and channel the power of the Moon into a powerful, all-consuming blast.”
Susie then stopped, and stared at the wardrobe in front of her bed. Now what? The pink-haired delinquent was at a crossroads: she could’ve continued by describing her self-insert’s outfit and makeup… Or by describing her makeup and outfit. Man, in which order should have she continued her fascinating novel? The first chapter is everything, after all! But then… She remembered one of her last inspirations before the Fog took her: Ebony. Grinning with satisfaction as her problem was solved, she resumed writing:
“Like every well-mannered noble vampire, I am a goth. Only peasant vampires dress like normies, the worst of them dress like… PREPPY FAIRIES. So how does a noble vampire dress? Let me tell you my outfit for today as an example: today I wore a black and purple dress with lace at the bottom and at the end of the sleeves, a black velvet corset on top of it, royal purple heels, a black ladies’ hat and a collier made out of pearls and moonstones. As for makeup, only white foundation, purple eyeshadow, black eyeliner to contour the eyes and draw a pair of crescent moons on the cheeks, and plum purple lipstick. Only preppy fairies put on any kind of “blush” and fake eyelashes.”
Clothes, and then makeup: that was the acceptable order if you want a story that hooks the reader from chapter 1. As her head was being flooded by self-compliments and various “omg” and “It’s perfect,” Susie briefly stopped to flail her legs and giggle: the story she was creating was the best she’s ever written! For sure, that was going to be her Magnum Opus, and it was a pity she couldn’t access her FanFiction.net account to share it with all the cool kids of the Internet (besides catching up on any My Immortal updates, after all)
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Soon, it had been an hour since Susie returned to Mount Ormond: her writing flow arrived at Chapter 3 of her fanfiction, where her self-insert Luna Salem Snowmoon was finally meeting the love interest:
“She was no ordinary girl. She was Camilla Deepwoods, a warlock serving The Deep Dark. As part of her oath, her blond and black hair was butchered in a pixie bob and her arms were covered in symbols of darkness. She was seen around Darkmond for quite a while, causing trouble to my vampire subjects, and now she was in front of me. She smirked with disrespect in her eyes: “Greetings, Countess Snowmoon.” “Good evening, Miss Deepwoods,” I replied coldly.”
Susie was indeed going for the “enemies to lovers” trope, even if she had already employed it in several other fanfictions of hers. It was, however, the first time the love interest was someone she didn’t have the courage to write about until now. The someone in question was her current crush, a Survivor that caught her heart amidst the horrors and perils of the Fog: Cheryl Mason, the girl with a weird connection to the Entity.
If Cheryl was a Killer, maybe Susie wouldn’t be that hesitant to confess her feelings. But with her as a Survivor? The pink-haired girl believed the Entity wouldn’t approve of it. What if the Entity herself found the journal? That was a question that held Susie back from writing about Cheryl at all. But today, she decided to let her fears go: Cheryl was going to appear in her “novel”, and she was going to finish it. Swallowing her self-doubt, Susie continued writing:
“Camilla took a couple of steps closer to me: “We finally meet face to face, Your Grace.” “You’re going to tell me now what the hell are you scheming in my county,” I hissed, “And you’re going to do that in front of the Judge.” THUMP! THUMP! “Get behind me!” screamed Camilla. Not even the time to turn around that the warlock dashed past me and-”
“Susie! Frank and I are back!” The pink-haired girl let out a small scream of surprise, and immediately she covered her mouth in embarrassment: “I need to hide my journal!” She hurriedly grabbed the box under her bed, put the journal and the pen in it, and quickly shove her precious belongings back to safety.
As she got up to go greet her friends, Julie opened the door: “There you are! We saw your mask downstairs, but couldn’t find you.” Smiling to hide her nervousness, Susie scrambled for an excuse: “Sorry Julie, I was… Taking a nap. Yeah, I was taking a nap, that’s all.” “Alright. Tonight we’re having pizzas, but I don’t know when they’re arriving. Joey promised to bring them… and he’s farming bloodpoints with the Survivors.” “Oh well, I don’t mind waiting a little!” Susie felt more reassured, as she realized that her white lie seemed convincing. Her secret was safe, and all she had to do now was enjoy the evening with her friends and rest all weekend long.
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It was late at night, only Julie and Frank were still awake in the resort. As the young man finished the last shot of his drink, he heard possibly one of the worst phrases ever: “Susie’s hiding something from us, Frank.” “What!? You’re joking, right?” “No Frank, I’m serious.” Julie then sat on the chair in front of him and continued: “She told me she was “taking a nap” when I went upstairs earlier, but I recall hearing some noises as I walked up the stairs. I pretended to believe her to not make her panic.”
Frank sighed, and rubbed his eyes: “Goddamit Susie… I’m going to confront her tomorrow.” “Do not. We should first make sure it isn’t that serious.” “Julie, you know well that you don’t keep secrets from the rest of the Legion!” exclaimed the young man: “What if the secret in question will put us in danger?” “Calm down, Frank! Trying to question Susie too early might make it impossible for us to find out. Even if we don’t like it, we must act carefully.” Frank gave up: exasperated: “Fine, but this plan of yours better work or we’re all doomed.” He then got up: “Tomorrow I’m telling her to go borrow some stuff far away from here, then we’ll search her belongings.”