“You’re not going to win,” the narrator said, a menacing tone in her voice. Bucket couldn’t tell why, but she seemed to have a nervousness about her. Almost like it was less than three hours out from a do-or-die final for her football team and their best player was only running at 80%, according to the senior coach. But it probably wasn’t that. It was probably something else.
“Oh, I accepted my defeat a long time ago,” Bucket said. “How could I possibly overthrow my creator? Especially with Harvey caught between us, there’s no chance things could work out well for either of us. But the truth is that I’ve come to respect you, and I’d like to believe that you are genuine about giving Harvey stories to do with working in a 2D animation company for corporate video. But the fact is that we both know times are changing. You can’t guarantee that the nature of these stories will stay the same.”
The narrator sighed. “You’re right. I hope that I can put Harvey in his dream job of working at a business for video production near Melbourne, but I can’t be certain it will work out. The best I can promise is that he could be a personal assistant to a video editor. But I’ll try.”
The woman turned around, temporarily not looking at Harvey or Bucket. Bucket could only hope that Harvey had come to the right decision. Now was their only chance, when her guard was completely down.
“Harvey, now!” said Bucket.
The thrill of victory being only seconds away filled Bucket – but Harvey did something odd. Bucket felt itself be lifted into the air again, and for a timeless moment, it thought Harvey had chosen the wrong side. Chosen to side with the creator, instead of his best friend.
And then Harvey lunged forward, wielding Bucket like some sort of flail. With both hands around Bucket, he brought the hard metal down to strike the narrator and end it all.
Instead, Bucket passed through the narrator as if she wasn’t even there.
She wasn’t even there.
Just a projection – nothing but an illusion the entire time.