The Middle Ground

The Middle Ground

By Makayla Woods

The sunlight shined down onto the bed, illuminating a sleeping figure. With a groan, Danni

Robinson moved her hands in front of her face to shield her eyes from the bright light. With a

sigh, she rubbed her grey eyes and sat up, knowing she couldn't afford to sleep in late. For the

Past week Danni was hard at work finishing up her novel that was to be published in only a

matter of days. She stayed up late the night before finishing it and adding the final details. But

Today however, she needed to proofread it, just to make sure everything was okay. She stood

up and made her way to her kitchen. Already smelling the glorious smell of eggs and bacon.

When she arrived inside the kitchen she saw her wife setting down two plates of food for the

both of them. “Ah, I see your awake love. Just in time for breakfast. How’d you sleep?” Her

wife, Scarlett Danvers asked with a bright smile. Danni let out a small chuckle and kissed her

wife on the cheek, “Alright I suppose. And you?” She replied as she took a seat at the table to

begin eating. “Just splendid. How’d the writing go last night? Did you finish?” Scarlett asked,

taking a seat by her wife. Danni looked up and brushed away her dark blonde hair, “Speaking of

writing, I might as well proofread it while we eat breakfast.” She got up quickly and made her

way to the living room to grab her novel she had finished writing. But when she made her way to

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the spot her novel had been the night before, it was nowhere to be found. “Um, Love. Have you

seen my novel? It was here last night?” She asked in a worried tone. Scarlett made her way into

the living room with a look of concern. “No, I haven’t seen it. Maybe you misplaced it? Come

on, I’ll help you find it.” Scarlett replied. Danni hesitated for a moment, but nodded in

agreement. Danni knew the only way they were going to find it was by looking everywhere they

could. An hour flew by and neither of them could find the missing story. They were about to take

a break when they heard a frantic knock on the door. Danni and Scarlett looked over at one

another and then back at the door suspiciously. Scarlett made her way over to the door and

opened it gently. There was a young girl standing there, she had long black hair and wore a look

of paranoia on her face. Without even asking, Scarlett immediately knew who the girl was.

“Look, I know I sound crazy but my name is-” The girl was cut off by Danni, the front door

opening wider to reveal her standing there. “Constance?” The look of pure confusion and shock

were worn by the three girls.“Yeah. Hey, never thought this would actually happen.” Constance

said, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly. “Come in, explain exactly what happened.”

Scarlett said, letting Constance step Inside. Constance Constintine, the lead character for Dannis

book. Danni didn’t even need to ask, she knew the girl standing in front of her really was

Constance. She was the one who had written about her in the first place. And Scarlett was

already aware of this girl due to the fact that she always reads Dannis stories. The pen

Danni always used to write with, was a gift passed down from one writer to another. She had

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gotten the pen from her grandmother, who had told her the pen could do things no one could

comprehend. But Danni had never experienced anything out of the ordinary with it before. Until

now. Constance had explained to the two women, that the antagonist of her story, had found a

way to come into the real world, and that She followed him to try and stop him. “He must have

been the one to steal the story then.” Scarlett said, knowing that was the only possibility. “You’re

right. But luckily, he didn’t steal the pen, I still have it.” Danni said, pulling out a black and gold

pen from her pocket. “That’s great!” Constance said, “I thought he took the pen, but since he

didn’t I know how we can trap him and get him back to our world. All we have to do is find

him, since you still have the pen, all you have to do, is write that he got trapped in the middle

ground.” Constance explained. “Then on a separate sheet of paper, you can write that I returned

back to my story, and that should take me back home.” Danni thought for a moment and smiled

up at Constance. “It is the only way for me to get my story back and for you to make it back

home safe, so I say we go for it.” Scarlett agreed with a nod but looked over at Danni. “I agree,

but just one question. What is “The Middle Ground?” Scarlett asked. Danni was already putting

her coat and shoes on as she responded, “It’s where the characters that die go, once you’re there

you can’t leave unless the writer decides to bring you back to life.” She spoke quickly before

opening the front door to leave. Scarlett nodded and quickly put on her shoes before following

Danni and Constance out of the door. The antagonist was a man named Keith Marbrot. Danni

was his creator, so she had a good idea on where to find him. After about thirty minutes, the

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three girls managed to find him in an abandoned warehouse. He sat on the ground with the novel

in his hands. He was attempting to change the story by writing on it with a pencil, but it wasn’t

working no matter how hard he tried. He threw the novel down on the Small desk he was

previously sitting at. Before getting up and angrily walking into the back room, which gave

Danni time to quickly grab the novel from the desk. Before Keith was able to come back, she

quickly got out her pen and wrote that Keith had gotten trapped in the middle ground and was

never able to bother anyone again. She bid her goodbyes to Constance before writing on a

separate sheet of paper, with her special pen, ‘Constance returned home safely.’ And within the

blink of an eye, Constance had disappeared. Going back into her story where she belonged.

Danni let out a sigh of relief and looked up to her beloved wife. “Well that was, interesting, to

say the least.” She joked. Scarlett let out a small laugh and nodded in agreement. “Most

definitely interesting. But I’m glad it’s over now. Just in time for date night.” Danni laughed

softly. “You’re already thinking about date night?” She asked Scarlett. To which she responded

with a grin, “We have two things to go and celebrate. One, you finished your novel. And two,

you saved your novel.” Danni smiled and happily took Scarlett's hand in her own. “Yeah, I

suppose you're right, shall we Then?” Danni asked. “We shall.” Scarlett responded. And the two

the girls walked off into the sunset, happy and content.

Inspiration: The main thing that inspired me to write this story was that I was always so curious

what would happen if an author got to interact with their own characters.