In Pursuit

Chapter 3: Deus Ex Machina

For weeks, Karin continued going to the pubs, to the raves, to the dance clubs, but not once did she find another Mary Sue. Perhaps she'd been lucky when she'd found Hatter? Airbourne didn't think so. No, something was wrong, because there was no way a Mary Sue could hold themselves for so long. It seemed they were sticking a lot closer to home, wherever that was. It was quiet. Too quiet.

***

Meanwhile, far far away, things were definitely not quiet. Sure, it may have seemed normal at first. Amanda Mancini sat typing away at her computer, which she sometimes did hours every day. Writing, preferably Harry Potter fanfiction, was something she loved to do, and she rarely had the time.

What a time to get writer's block. In a vain last resort, she began playing music from a program called 'Napster' and spun around in her chair, hoping for inspiration. But still nothing came, it was just one of those days.

How strange, she thought again. Before, she had been so gung-ho about writing that chapter, just because the perspective would be so different. Why would she blank out, now of all times? The blue-eyed brunette heaved a sigh as she heard front door open and close. It seemed that her mother had come back with enough groceries to stock their family for a while.

But things aren't always as they seem, and what Amanda Mancini saw at the front door was most certainly not her mother.

It was Amanda Mancini.

"You!" Amanda cried in surprise, actually recognizing the strange intruder who looked... well, who looked a lot like a beautified version of herself. Deep and mystifying blue eyes glared back at her.

"Is there something wrong, Morgana le Fay? Oh wait, is it Amanda now? Decided a pen name wasn't good enough - you had to use your real name?" she asked as entered closed the door behind her. "What's the matter? Never expected one of your characters to arrive on your doorstep?" The Mary Sue gave a sadistic grin.

"This wasn't supposed to happen," the Writer answered faintly. "I-I was going to write this part. You- you- you're not real! You can't be here!"

"Oh, can't I?" Amanda began her way down the stairs, locking the front door behind her.

"No..." The other Amanda stumbled backwards, and ran further into the basement. The Mary Sue just clucked her tongue and continued forwards.

"You can run but you can't hide," she laughed, and then on a second thought- "Actually, you can't run either." Taking a quick look around, and grinning from ear to ear as she did, the Mary Sue ran to the basement bathroom where she found the young Writer crouching on the counter, trying to pry open the window. "Oh come now," Amanda (the Mary Sue) laughed, pointing her wand, and the hysterical girl before her began levitating away from her only hope of escape. "It's not the time, m'dear."

"Please, no... no..." Amanda, the Writer, sobbed. "Why? Why?"

"Why?!" Amanda, the Mary Sue, asked ferociously as she magically threw her writer against the wall. "Do I have to spell it out for you?" The madwoman continued with a sinister laugh. "You are so stupid! Obviously, you Writers aren't too bright. How much intelligence does one need to know NOT to make their characters all powerful? I mean, if they were all powerful, would they do something like... oh I don't know... LIVE?! Didn't you think that maybe they'd actually use all that power?"

"You can't!" Amanda hollered tearfully, her back pinned against the wall. " You're not real!"

"That is obviously not the case!" Amanda shouted back at her, grabbing her arm and twisting it sharply until the girl screamed. "Did that feel like it was just a story? Did it? I don't think so." She stopped for a moment, and smiled at her prey. "Be proud of me, Amanda. You tried so hard to make a self-insertion into the Wizarding World, only without actually being accused of being a Mary Sue. I could have been named 'Purity Malfoy' or 'Filia Astrum Black', but no. You couldn't make me Lucius' sister or Sirius Black's daughter because you would have been flamed. No, instead you gave me the last name in the world you would have chosen for yourself. The one that was chosen for you. Amanda Mancini." She sneered as she began pacing.

"For a while, I hated my life, dear writer. I hated you, and the way you tried to please all the others... You were such an amateur. Your stories were worthless. You couldn't even develop me to be the type of person you wanted to be. You didn't. I made myself, and I'm just as evil, just as wicked as you would have liked to be." She laughed and spat on the floor. "You disgust me. A Writer that can't even control their own character... To think that most original characters actually look up to their Wri-"

"No, it can't be... You're only a story..." Amanda whimpered weakly, with her eyes closed tight. However, it looked like she was only trying to convince herself that...

Suddenly, the Mary Sue was overcome with a wave of dizziness and crumpled to the floor. Amanda knew that even if she said The Writer had no power, that she was only deluding herself. The Writer always had power... It was just a matter of whether or not she used it...

"I am not just a story," the Mary Sue said steadily as she pulled herself up to her full height. "Not when you think of something day and night, when you spend over year continually pondering and planning plot-schemes and characterization details, when you spend more time fantasizing about your made-up world than actually focusing on your real one. No, suddenly it becomes much more than just a story." Amanda franticly wiped away the tears that were streaming down her face as she begged Amanda to stop coming closer, but to no avail.

Amanda just smirked menacingly at her. "Oh no you don't. Let me tell you something, Writer. All this time you've been working on me, your perfect little creation, pouring in so much thought and consideration. It seems you've just poured in a little too much."

Thunder roared and lightning flashed, illuminating the excitement in Amanda's eyes as she threw back her head and cackled. Regardless that it had been mid-afternoon only moments before, it had seemingly in an instant become a night sky that had clouded over and turned into a raging thunderstorm!

But that's impossible?!

Amanda thought to herself as she cowered on the floor. Things like this never happen - they can't! Not in real life! No... she realized. It was the kind of thing that happened only....

Only in pathetic fanfics filled with gaping plot holes written by authors that had no talent or skill in the English language whatsoever! Definitely not the kind of writing she did. Of course not! She was an amazing, exceptional wri-

With a shriek of maddened joy, Amanda pulled a giant opal encrusted machete from out of nowhere. And by out of nowhere, I mean that literally. She didn't even have a sheath or anything, it just kind of appeared out of thin air.

Just like in those Mary Sue fanfics that she loved to criticize in her LiveJournal review column! she realised. "Nooooooo!" she cried out in complete and total fear, as the lighting reflected off of the silver blade.

"Oh- YES!" Amanda answered her, her face radiating with excitement. Oh, she'd been waiting this for a long time! She'd been planning it secretly for so long and now it was finally going to be put into action!

But wait! Freeze-frame for a moment... Can a character-particularly a Mary Sue- really come up with an idea that the Writer hadn't pre-conceived? Amanda frowned a moment. It's true- hadn't her Writer even admitted about how she was just going to write this part? Had the Writer actually planned on being attacked? No, surely not, Amanda thought. Afterall, Amanda hadn't even been able to grasp that her Mary Sue had come alive, let alone hurt her. It didn't make sense at all - it was far too confusing and surely reviewers were going to flame it.

No, wait! What reviewers? This hasn't been written! The Writer was occupied the whole time- fighting for her life, remember?! No matter. It's a plot-hole, Amanda decided finally, a Mary Sue way of life.

With that final thought, the scene resumed, Amanda raised the great, big, wicked cool knife-thing above her head and laughed cruelly, eyes glinting with something her Writer recognised all too well. Amanda screamed in terror as the blade came rushing down.