When Audrey found the old, rusted typewriter in her grandfather’s attic, there was one emotion racing through her mind: excitement.
She’d been trying to find it ever since she was a little girl, for it was no ordinary typewriter. Her grandfather made sure to hide it well, fearing the consequences it could bring to the family, or the greater world should someone find it.
According to him, anything written using it would come to fruition, but with unpredictable, and often unfavourable consequences.
He’d told her it’s story a thousand times;
First he found out by accident. The start of a small story had included a brass trawler lamp crashing to the ground. Only moments later, the same trawler lamp appeared before him and nearly lit his study ablaze as it smashed into to the floor.
Then, he’d written about the family acquiring a fortune. In the next few hours, the government had arrived at his door, offering an enormous sum for him and her grandmother to move so the new highway could be built there.
After moving houses, he’d hidden it away, fearing severe consequences should he continue using the typewriter.
And now, after checking under a loose floorboard, Audrey had managed to find what neither her mother, her many aunts and uncles, nor siblings could ever find. The typewriter of family legend, the one which could change fate to her whims.
She scooped it up in her arms, and began carefully taking it downstairs and to her room. After setting it down on her desk next to her laptop, she studied it from a distance, contemplating what to do next.
Naturally, she had many ideas. Winning the lottery, becoming famous, finding her soulmate, world peace, all of the above at the same time, etc, etc. The possibilities were truly endless with such a thing, and her grandfather had hardly scratched the surface!
But... she wasn’t stupid either. She knew how horribly all that could go, she’d seen the monkey’s paw, she’d heard of the genie who takes wishes literally.
Get too ambitious, and she could send the world into a dark age. Get too personal, and it could cost her her life for all she knew. Play it too safe, then what’s the point?
She scratched at the back of her neck staring at it, and her eyes began to wander around her room.
Meet her favourite band? No, what if they turn out to be criminals? See that movie for the first time again? No, that’d definitely result in one way time travel. Give herself that one figurine she always seemed to be missing from her collection…? Maybe, but that seemed a bit boring for what she was faced with.
Then her eyes locked on her laptop. More precisely, what was open on it. It was her current project- her first attempt at writing a story.
Right now, it was almost done, but she was desperately stuck. She’d gotten to a point in the plot that required her to come up with a bunch of new ideas, and that’s what kept her stumped. She felt like giving up, but was far too attached to the protagonist Jay to do such a thing.
She smiled, getting an idea. A couple of ideas for a book's ending surely can’t cause that much harm, can they?
She sat down, and slid a piece of paper into the typewriter.
"Audrey gets ideas for her book."
Just like clockwork, an idea for how to finish her story appeared in her head. Though… it wasn’t exactly what she wanted, and involved killing off Jay in a big final battle with the main antagonist.
She sighed, maybe she expected that. Oh well, it was an easy fix. She’d just change it up a bit and make it so Jay instead survives within an inch of his life. As rushed as it was, she'd polish it up later.
After that, much of her evening was spent writing away, jotting down ideas before she forgot them in the morning. By the third hour, she’d gotten a summary of the new ideas written down in the document she’d made for her notes.
She leaned back, and stared up at the ceiling. Her room was dark now, it was getting around the time she’d usually go to bed, and she was tired.
She marvelled at her predicament. A simple sentence had saved her possibly months of work in only a couple seconds, and the only consequence was just having to change it up a bit.
She looked over at the typewriter still sitting on her desk. It’s surface had rust in spots, but it still shone brilliantly as it was hit by a beam of moonlight from outside. Now that she thought of it, those ‘consequences’ her grandfather always went on about never really seemed that severe, did they? Nobody died, no lives were ruined, just a small inconvenience.
What could she really get away with?
Her eyes wandered around her room again, and the same ideas about the band, the movie, and the figurine went through her head. All those felt boring now that she knew what she knew. Even though part of her still screamed ‘CAREFUL!’ she couldn’t help but think bigger and bigger.
If the result outweighed the consequence by this much, then why should she even worry about it at all?
She could just undo anything bad that did happen, couldn’t she? Even if it was just three wishes, she still had two left. Worst come to worst, she could just undo her previous wish entirely.
At last, her eyes paused on her bed. On top of it laid a plush of Jay she’d gotten commissioned.
An idea crawled it’s way into her sleep drunken mind.
Yes. That’s what she’d do next. That's exactly it.
Something she wished almost every night holding that plush, every time she drew Jay, every time she wrote him.
She turned around, faced the typewriter, and stared at it’s keys.
She took a few deep breaths, trying to slow her heart, which was suddenly pounding.
Oh what the hell. Worst come to worst, he’d probably just appear dead or something. She could just undo it when it got too much.
"Jay becomes a real person"
Jay blinked. He was suddenly in an entirely different house, away from his friends.
He looked around frantically, but found not even a trace of where he was before.
Trying to calm himself down and assess the situation, he noticed a typewriter and laptop sitting next to each other on a nearby desk. His confusion helped distract him- why would someone need both?
He first picked up the typewriter, it was easily the strangest out of the two. Though it held a piece of paper, not even a letter was written on it. In a way it made sense, the laptop would be infinitely easier to write on. ...But why was it here to begin with?
He set it back down, and looked at the laptop next. There was a document open, it looked to be a story of sorts. Curious, he picked it up.
It was a story about a girl named Audrey, and it was almost finished by the looks of things, just missing the ending. There was also a few notes open about the story and the ending whoever was writing it had planned.
It looked like the original ending had involved Audrey being killed off, but had been changed in a very rushed, sloppily written way. Strange. He wasn't the best writer, but he knew bad writing when he saw it.
He took another look at the document, then back at the notes.
He shrugged. Might as well finish it. Whoever was before clearly didn't know what they were doing.
Jay sat down and began to write.

WarningSensitive Topics