Of course you're going to free the princess. You only picked up the dagger to help get her free. You keep telling yourself this. But then I, the narrator, make sure your grip moves to threaten the Princess.

"No, I'm not going to kill the Princess!" you shout, worthlessly.

She jerks back, away from your dagger. "Are you all right?"

"I can't control myself. I'm sorry. Voices in my head--"

"Oh!"

"I wish, I wish you were giving me... advice--please, Princess."

She frowns a bit, then nods. "I can do that. Here's what I would do.... I'd put down the dagger."

You put down the dagger.

You put down the dagger! No!

"Then I'll just pick it up," she smiles and picks up the dagger.

She picks up the dagger!

You fool, she picked up your best method of defense. We are now fully and truly ruined.

Thank you.

"You're welcome," you say, as though you didn't realize it was sarcastic and as though you thought it came from the Princess.

Actually it did.

She's narrating for you too.

She's narrating! But I'm the narrator!

This better not happen too much or you're going to get really confused.

"Don't worry," she says. "I just need to find my way around your head to get rid of all sorts of nasty unfriendly urges. Excise hate: breathe in, breathe out."

You breathe in and out and she uses the dagger to slash her chains. She giggles. "It's really sharp!" Then she stabs it into the wall, cracking a stone.

"Let's get out of here," she says, leading you up the stairs.

Dumbly, in all ways--without speaking and without thinking things through--you follow her up and out.

"I'm so glad I made you my friend. I'm thankful for your wish. Would you kindly open the door?"

You open the door and you're on the cabin's main floor. There's only one more door before you escape to the world. And when the Princess walks outside, that world will end.

This would be so much better if this narrator would be my friend too.

The narrator will never be your friend.

She bats her eyelids. "It's not a big problem. I can just make you my friend."

"No!" The narrator says, inside your head.

"Yes," she smiles. "You wish for that, right?"

You nod.

And then you let me outside and it's a blinding flash of white light and--

GoTo:
A. You're on a path in the woods... again

Author's Note

It isn't over!

Would you kindly select/click on the red hyperlink in the story above?