Oh My, I Messed Up the Story

Al blinked at me for a moment, not comprehending what I had said. "Pardon?"

I repeated myself. "What if I wasn't from Annalaias? What would you think of me?"

He stared at me in silence for a few minutes. "…I would say it made sense. You are different than anyone else here. But I would also say it didn't make sense because you are definitely the daughter of the earl and countess of du Pont."

This was true. Unlike in Al's situation, the du Ponts treated me like family. I looked like them. There was no doubt I was a part of their family. Technically, I was, but only in body.

I was Schrödinger's girl. Dead and not dead. Catherine du Pont and not Catherine du Pont. Catherine in body and Katie in spirit. Would he believe me if I told him the truth? What could I say to convince him that I wasn't crazy?

"Would you believe me if I said both were true?" I asked lightly.

"Yes," Al said without hesitation. "But only because it is you. I would not believe anyone else. Can you tell me the truth about yourself, Katie? Or…is that not your name either?"

It was the second time someone had asked me that. But this time I wanted to tell the whole truth instead of part of it. Al trusted me so he might not think I'm completely insane…and it would explain all of my behavior up until this point.

"My name was Katrina Pullman but I had gone by Katie my entire life," I began. "I am not from Annalaias or any of the surrounding nations. I am from another world in a place called Arizona. Everything I ever said was from the country…was actually from my home.

"All of my knowledge came from things I learned back home. Jellyfish…politics…card games…hat looms….I want to be a librarian because that was my job before. I died in a carriage accident and somehow woke up in Catherine du Pont's body."

I took a deep breath before continuing shakily. "That isn't even the craziest part. In my world, Annalaias is fictional. I read about it in a novel. Catherine du Pont wasn't even a character! But you…Sigmund…Franz…Marcy…the duke…you all were.

"I was dead set on avoiding all of you and staying out of the plot so I could have a peaceful life but that didn't work. I ended up right in the middle of things, which was just my luck. But don't you see? That was why I was resistant to you for so long. I thought you were destined for someone else.

"The story has changed so much since I got here…I don't even know whether or not we're going to get our happy ending but I had to try. That's why I was so set on working with Franz. He has to become king in order to get at least part of the plot back on track.

"Once that's done, I don't care about anything anymore. I want to be with you and live a peaceful, normal life. You're the most like people from my world out of everyone I've met here. But I'm scared of Sigmund and what he might do. The plot has already changed so much and if he wins I don't know what will happen to us."

There. It was all out.

I sniffled and wiped my eyes, feeling rather emotional after getting that off my chest. I dared to peek up at Al and he looked shocked but also like he was thinking over what I had said. He didn't think I was crazy. Yet.

He didn't speak for a while and when he did it was simply to ask "You've been carrying all of this on your own ever since you got here?"

Yes. I had. Mariela knew about my world but didn't know we were inside a novel or how hard I had tried to make things go according to the author's wishes. Telling her about my home had been nice but I didn't feel as free then as I did now.

"Mariela knows about my world…but not about my knowledge of the future or this being a novel. She guessed I wasn't actually Catherine du Pont pretty early on because I don't act the way noblewomen are supposed to act," I admitted.

Al surprised me by smiling. "No, you do not. But that's part of what I love about you. Um…can you tell me what the original plot was? It might help having someone else know about it."

I could not believe he was taking me so seriously. The level of trust he had in me was astounding. But I supposed it was warranted, since I was the first person to ever show him kindness. If he couldn't believe in me, he couldn't believe in anything.

So I told him.

I told him about how he was supposed to end up with Marcy and everything that I had messed up by coming here. I told him all of the things I had discovered that didn't match up with the plot already, like his true identity and how Marcy was a spy.

As embarrassing as it was to admit, I also confessed that finding that out was why I finally abandoned sticking to the plot and decided to give him a chance. How I had felt indignant on his behalf that she hadn't even loved him.

I finished with what happened to Sigmund. "…he gets killed in the revolt and Franz becomes king. You marry Marcy and everybody lives happily ever after. It was why I wanted to get out of here as soon as the new bill was passed; to avoid the aftermath."

Al took a few minutes to process this. I watched him nervously but saw no signs of him thinking I was crazy now either. Maybe he was a little too trusting but I couldn't deny I was touched.

"Well that certainly explains your behavior when we were engaged a lot…I can't believe you were trying to push me off onto someone else the entire time," he said with a shake of his head. "But Sigmund dies? Really? What a fitting end for a tyrant like him."