Chapter 1: Just an Author
It was a late Friday night as Wyatt finally closed down his laptop. He walked into his bathroom and peered into the mirror with a tired smile. His eyes were bloodshot and the bags under his eyes looked like they had children and his facial hair was unkept...his whole face looked like "nightmare fuel".It had been another tough week for him and he was beginning to question whether his job was worth it anymore. When he first started as an author and paired with Dagashi Co. he thought it would be fun and gainful until his first book blew up and became a popular web-novel series. Despite suggestions from the company, he refused to get an editing staff to make the process quicker.
He felt that others wouldn't understand his thinking and would only hinder or dilute the quality of the story with changes. It was a lonely and quiet life which he didn't mind, in fact, he embraced it and loved being able to escape this depressing and evil world. He didn't suffer from depression but rather he despised what society had become and how rude people were and he felt rather disconnected from reality as if he was the last of his kind.
He preferred the simple and sweet world that he wrote about in his romance novels. Despite being a very handsome slender guy, he was constantly picked on throughout school because of his tendency to write stories when he was stressed, which was all the time due to his severe social anxiety. Many would see him and pick them up and read them just to laugh at him which annoyed him rather than demoralizing him like they had intended. After high school, he had studied the proper courses in college and had now become an up-and-coming Author for a web novel with possible talks for a manga serialization.
All of his hard work paid off and he was nearing where he wanted to be but for others such as his family who were looking in, it looked like he needed help. They didn't want him to be lonely, not knowing that this was actually his doing, he pushed all his friends away and chose this life and was content with it. Wyatt washed his face and made some dinner, before falling asleep on his sofa since he was too lazy to walk upstairs. He was startled awake by his phone ringing; as he looked over he saw it was his editor Larry. Larry's tone was different from usual, it was a bit worried with a hint of relief which prompted Wyatt to ask " What's up".
Larry sighed and said"resigning as your editor because I'm being promoted to head of the Manga division so you'll be receiving a new editor and a whole team to assist you with writing". Wyatt said"What! I didn't agree to this...yet" and Larry said, "The company's sales on your story are high but they feel that you aren't being as efficient as possible with quality and time consumption so it was either this or lose your job". Wyatt sighed and said"Ugh fine!!, who's my new editor?" and Larry said, "All I can say is she's a beautiful Redhead woman, around your age and she's absolutely the highest performing editor in our department and she's reasonable". Wyatt said"Can you at least give me a name or something?" and Larry said, "No, um I'll let them explain so wait for their call, uh bye and good luck sir".
After Larry hung up, Wyatt sat his phone down and went upstairs to get cleaned up and changed. Afterward, he headed out back to his office trailer he had built in back of his house so he could write distraction-free. It was a typical trailer from the outside but inside it was comprised of one giant area with 3 computers against the wall and one giant conference table in the middle of the room. Down a hallway on the opposite end of the room was a bedroom, office, and a bathroom. The entire place had chocolate milk-colored walls and oak wood laminated floors and furniture for an old-style feel and it indeed was comfy, so comfy that some nights he'd be too lazy to go back into the house itself.
The place looked relatively new because it was hardly used except for once a week when he had his editor and a few proofreaders visit. But now, he'd have a team over at least almost every day now and they would annoyingly tell him to defile his work for the sake of sales. The thought of that annoyed him but he knew he wasn't built for a 9 to 5 so he was willing to bite his tongue and hear them out. As if on cue, his phone rang and he answered "hello" which was met with a woman's Voice. She said in a happy tone" Hey it's Ms. Reiss here, I'm at your place but no one was answering". He said, "Go through the side gate and follow the path to the studio in the back, the door's already unlocked".
After a few more minutes of waiting, the door opened and the redheaded woman walked in. As he turned from his desk to greet her, he froze...he remembered this woman, and it wasn't good memories. He said"Hell no...I remember you, you're Kimberly Reiss; that popular bitch from school!. He slammed his fists on the table and said"Turn the hell around, walk out that door and never come back! I hate you, you made my life a living hell and I'll have no part of you being here again...drop dead just like you told me!"
