I'd Give Up The World For You

Juliet hated that she had to wait until her next day off to warn Veronica about her husband but there was nothing she could do about it. She needed her job if she was going to make it to Ripore Academy to recruit her protagonists. 

She thought she might go insane being stuck in the stuffy laundry room unable to breathe so much as a word of what she had found out to anyone. The only person she could potentially talk to about the villain of her novel advancing his plans was said villain's wife. Who loved him very much. 

She needed to approach this delicately while still managing to get how urgent the situation was across. How she was going to do that…she wasn't entirely sure. 

Juliet had spent the better part of the last several days trying to figure it out and had yet to reach a satisfactory conclusion. She had run a variety of scenarios through her head and each was worse than the last. 

Would Veronica even believe her? This would be so much easier if she had read the book!

Obviously, she hadn't since she would have recognized the name of the country she was living in and her husband's true appearance when she treated his wounds. Rukelion Blaze was a very distinctive-looking villain. 

Not entirely sure what she was going to do but knowing she had to do something, Juliet headed straight to the flower shop the moment her socks sold out for the day. It was a miracle she even made any sales with how out of it she was. She was too worried about how things were going to go with Veronica. 

"Nia, can I go speak to Veronica out in the greenhouse? I need to have a private conversation with her about a rather delicate topic," she said once she arrived. 

Nia seemed to think it was a womanly problem that wasn't appropriate for customers to overhear because she shot her a conspiratorial wink. "Not a problem! I'll lead you there. Go ahead and follow me."

Juliet followed her through a storage room and out behind the flower shop where an enormous greenhouse stood. She could see Veronica bending over to snip a rose off a bush. No one else was around, which was exactly what she needed. 

Her friend was rather popular these days. It was difficult to find her alone, which was why she had bothered coming all the way here during work hours. 

She thanked Nia, who headed back inside, and hesitated at the greenhouse door. She took a deep breath, steeling herself for what she had to do, and opened the door. Veronica didn't seem to hear her since she continued singing "Hello" by Adele as if she was alone. She had been the mystery singer!

With her suspicions confirmed, Juliet thought this would be as good a segue as any. She had wondered how she was going to bring the topic up and here was an opportunity ripe for the taking. 

"It's been a while since I've heard an Adele song," she said mildly. 

Veronica answered without thinking at first. "Same. I used to listen to the radio a lot when I drove to work and it seemed like I heard something of hers at least twice a day but music isn't really a thing here—"

Immediately, she stiffened so the clippers fell out of her hands and she turned around wide-eyed. "Juliet! You…you're from earth too?!"

"Yep. Pennsylvania, USA. What about you?"

"Ohio but how are you being so calm about this? Did you already know?!" 

"I had my suspicions but you just confirmed them for me. I heard someone singing Grenade a while back near your house but I didn't think it was you at first because you seemed like you belonged here. How did you adjust so well?"

Veronica still seemed thunderstruck. "I have been here a long time. Eight years now. But how did you—when did you—who did you inhabit?" 

Juliet frowned in confusion. "Inhabit?"

"You know, the body your soul is in now. Who was it? Or do you not know?"

Oh. Right. She had nearly forgotten that however Veronica got here was different than what happened to her. Her soul had taken over the body of a nameless character in the prequel rather than being transported here through a computer screen. 

"Uh…this is my real body. I think I got here differently than you. How did you get here, anyway?" Juliet asked. 

Veronica furrowed her brow. "I got into a car accident and ended up here. At first I thought it was the afterlife but after a while I changed to thinking it was the past. It isn't though. This is an entirely different world. So how did you get here?"

This is where things got dicey. She couldn't screw up and say the wrong thing. 

Believing you were in another world was hard enough but believing you were inside a novel? And married to said novel's villain? An entirely different ballgame. 

"This may be hard to believe but I'm a novelist. I created this world and while I was working on the rough draft for a prequel to my one and only novel my computer spazzed and changed my draft. When I tried to edit it everything froze and a strange light brought me here," Juliet said honestly. 

Veronica was every bit as shocked as Juliet expected her to be. "A novel?! No way! What novel?"

"It's called Down in Flames and it got pretty popular but I don't know if you've ever heard of it. They're making a movie of it, which is why my agent got on my case about writing another one but that's beside the point." 

"Hang on…I've seen that book! There was a bookstore near my work that had huge posters advertising it for a while. I don't know anything about it because I don't read fantasy but that's pretty wild. Geez, what are the odds? That's totally crazy. 

"But what even is the plot of the book? Things are pretty boring and peaceful around here discounting some minor skirmishes with border countries now and then. That's pretty normal for a place like this though, isn't it?" Veronica asked in confusion. 

Juliet's ego was stroked that she had at least heard of the book but it was frustrating that she knew nothing about the plot. She was also vaguely offended at Veronica's use of the word 'boring.'

"This isn't the plot! That's the whole point. Somehow you got here before the plot of my novel even starts and changed things. I don't think I would be here right now if not for you."

Alarm registered on Veronica's face. "Me?! What did I do?"

"This is all speculation but the change I noticed involved a character who was supposed to be dead. I never gave any members of the May family names. Somehow you ended up in the timeline of my prequel before I wrote it," Juliet explained. 

"My theory is that since this world exists outside of the stories I've written your arrival screwed things up. For some reason I couldn't write the prequel I wanted to write because you had already physically changed things. My trying to change it has to be what landed me here."

Veronica's entire face was scrunched up now as she thought this over. "But that doesn't make any sense! What could I have possibly changed just by being here?"

Juliet sighed. This was where her explanation would make or break her. She had to make sure she did it right. 

"Veronica…or whoever you are—"

"My name is Daisy."

Huh. It fit her. Juliet had no idea what her old body looked like but someone with as sunny a soul as hers definitely seemed daisy-like. They were rather friendly flowers and she was the friendliest person Juliet knew. 

"Daisy then. I'm not sure how to tell you this…but you changed things by saving your husband when he was a child," she said gently. 

Daisy was immediately defensive. "How would you even know about that? What else do you know?"

"I know almost everything there is to know about him. I wrote him! He's a character in my book. Meeting you completely ruined his character arc and I think that might be why I was sent here…though I'm not sure if it was to ensure the plot remained on track or to save this world from destruction."

"Save it? What would you need to save it from?"

Juliet bit her lip before forcing it out. "Your husband. He's…well, he's the villain of Down in Flames." 

Daisy let out a disbelieving snort that turned into full on hysterical laughter. Not the scared kind either. The 'that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard' kind. Juliet should have known it would be like this but at least laughing was better than anger. 

She still had a chance to try and convince her of the truth.. All she needed to do was give more details. Daisy had been onboard with her crazy story up until this point so if she provided more evidence…