I swallow back the tears, try and slow my breathing. ‘So why am I here?’ I finally ask.
‘That’s the thing with a genetic super-race. We can solve most problems, given enough time. We devised a way to breach the layer between our universes. A way to reach her.’ He points to the portrait of Sally King.
‘But . . . Sally King is dead.’
‘She is now. But she wasn’t. You remember how she died?
‘She killed herself.’
‘Because of the voices in her head?’ He taps his temple with a long, elegant finger. ‘Sometimes the mad aren’t really mad.’
‘The voice was you?’
He nods. ‘I tried to convince Miss King to write a sequel and break the loop.’
I look at Sally’s face, the sadness behind those oversized glasses. ‘You killed her?’ I feel such anger, such hatred, towards this man. For Sally, for Nate, for Matthew, for all the Imps he’s killed. I lift my teacup to my lips to avoid speaking, afraid I might shout or scream or curse.
‘Not intentionally. She was our only hope. The problem was, when she started The Gallows Dance sequel, we had artistic differences.’ He smiles to himself. ‘She wanted the Imps to prevail. I did not. I’m afraid I may have pushed her too far.’
‘She died protecting the future of the Imps?’ I recall the pelican again – giving life with its own blood – and a brief smile touches my lips.
He ignores me. ‘But then a new hope emerged. A rising fanfic writer.’
A clear image forms in my mind’s eye. Bronzed legs wrapped around bronzed legs, almost like two stems twisted together, opening out into two separate blooms. The sleeping lovers – the two blooms – almost form the shape of a heart. I reach for my necklace then remember I broke it. My best friend, the fanfic writer, the beautiful Imp who loves a Gem. It almost hurts to say her name. ‘Alice.’
The President nods. ‘Anime Alice. Thanks to her, a new Fandom grew, holding the promise of a new story, an existence beyond this eternal loop. We could feel their presence, this new Fandom. We began noticing tiny changes in canon, new characters appearing, little glitches here and there. Alas, nothing dramatic enough to change our future, to break the loop. But imagine if this Alice returned to your world and wrote a sequel, a published story which reached a whole new audience. We would have a Fandom powerful enough to break the loop. We would have a future.’
‘You would have another book – another loop.’
He claps, long and slow. ‘You must be one of those clever monkeys that can sign and do tricks for peanuts. No. What we will have is an opportunity. Who knows what will occur once we are freed. Your A plus B equals C logic is rather antiquated.’
I feel my brow knot together, hear the rattle of porcelain against porcelain as my legs continue to shake. ‘So why am I here?’
‘We realized our mistake when Sally King died. Sally was pro-Imp, of course. She is an Imp, you all are in your universe. And telling her to be pro-Gem, it just didn’t work. We needed Alice to live like a Gem, to become a Gem, to learn what animals the Imps truly are. So now, when she returns to your world and writes us our sequel, she won’t remember her little adventure, but she will be Gem through and through. She will create a future in which we Gems would like to live.’
I begin to feel sick. ‘It was you? You brought us here from Comic-Con?’ The trill of the teacup crescendos and abruptly stops as the cup topples. Hot tea soaks into my thighs, but I barely register the pain.
The President just laughs. ‘Yes. Like I said, we have brilliant scientists. If you like I can bring one of them in. He will explain the quantum physics of transdimensional tunnelling, but I fear your primate brain may explode, and I’m wearing my favourite suit.’
I look at my cup, broken on the floor. Two perfect halves. ‘And does Alice know about this?’
‘No. Alice knows nothing. As far as she’s concerned, she’s having a lovely time living with the Gems. She still thinks so long as you don’t complete the canon, she gets to continue living here. If she knew the truth she would feel . . . manipulated.’
‘But why bring me? Katie?’ I have to swallow before I can say his name. ‘Nate.’
‘We only meant to transport Alice. But things never go quite as planned. And when you all arrived, my word, did it get interesting. Baba’s been keeping me posted.’
‘Rose wasn’t meant to die?’
He scoops up my teacup and pushes the halves together so the cup becomes whole. ‘Not then, no. She was supposed to hang at the Gallows Dance tomorrow, inciting a revolution, completing the cycle, and sending Alice home.’ A glimmer of pride offsets his usual look of disdain. ‘I must admit, Violet, you surpassed my expectations as an understudy. Baba told me you would.’
‘So I will hang in Rose’s place.’
He grins – his teeth remind me of those foam sweets I used to love as a kid. ‘That is correct. It is the only way the four of you will awaken in your world.’
‘So we are unconscious?’
He smiles his patronizing smile. ‘In your world, yes. And if you and your friends ever want to wake up, you will dance on those gallows as I ask.’ He laughs. ‘What a pickle you’ve found yourself in. To fear the thing you need the most – the hangman’s noose. Don’t worry, all good heroines find themselves in a double bind. It adds to the tension.’
I recall the paper chain, the grabbing hands, the Dupes, the crescent scythe, the Imps at the Meat House. Nate’s body dead on the concrete. I feel such fury. And then I think of Mum and Dad, Maltesers and Netflix and A levels and sleepovers. The President was right; I am in a double bind, he just got the wrong one.
‘I won’t do it,’ I hiss.
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘I won’t do it. I won’t play along. When Willow shouts out he loves me at the Gallows Dance, I’ll shout back that I hate him, that I used him. I won’t complete the canon and then Alice won’t be able to wake up to write her pro-Gem sequel. The Gems will never prevail.’
‘How interesting. Just as Alice has identified with the Gems, you’ve identified with the Imps.’
‘I am an Imp.’
He sneers. ‘As I said earlier, failing to complete the loop has consequences which we can’t determine. They may be dire. Not only will you fail to cross over, but this universe may just cease to be.’
‘Maybe that’s a risk I’m willing to take.’
‘We’re talking oblivion, Violet. Oblivion for you and that gutter-monkey boyfriend and all the Imps you love so much. You may gamble with your own life, but I seriously doubt you’ll gamble with theirs.’
He’s got me. I know it and he knows it. Deflated, beaten, I shake my head.
‘So when Willow Harper bursts forward at the Gallows Dance and shouts –’ he leaps from his chair and clasps his heart in a melodramatic pose – ‘“I love you, Rose,” you will say?’
‘I love you too.’
‘The Gems tear down the gallows, a revolution begins, the story completes and you can go home.’ He glances down at me, a sneer fixed across his plastic face. ‘Good little monkey.’