A B-Movie Ending

The creature began to growl, its eyes locked on the paper cup of "holy water" in my hand.

It must ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠be feeling an instinctive terror.

Given its low intelligence, it couldn't resist the sheer power of the genre cliché playing out right before its eyes.

It was time to raise the curtain on the final act of this play.

"Begone, foul fiend!"

I shouted, charging forward like the protagonist of some cheesy, low-budget exorcist flick.

Then, with all my might, I splashed the stale, musty water from the water purifier right into the demon's face.

Splash!

"Aaargh! Graaaah!"

Only a few drops of water had actually touched it, yet the demon thrashed on the floor, screaming in agony as if it had been doused in sulfuric acid. Black smoke began to billow from its body. It was the textbook cliché of a standard exorcism movie. Perhaps that was why my mind played tricks on me, making it look as though its flesh was literally melting away.

Of course, it was nothing but an illusion. In reality, nothing was happening to it.

But to a creature bound by the cliché-ridden rules of the story I had scribbled down, holy water was an absolute, lethal weapon.

The demon writhed in agony, stumbling backward.

Now's my chance!

I tore my eyes away from the demon and shouted toward the surviving student who was cowering in hiding.

"Over here! Hurry!"

Though paralyzed with fear, the student seemed to snap out of it at my desperate shout and scrambled to move.

Half-crawling on all fours, he squeezed through the gap in the drywall the demon had smashed open and made his way toward me.

"You're okay! You're almost there!"

I reached out to him. The moment he was close enough, I grabbed his arm and hauled him to his feet.

"Pull yourself together! Don't look back—just run to the emergency stairs at the end of the hall! Now!"

Sniffling, the student nodded and bolted down the hallway on trembling legs. Now, I was the only human left on this hellish stage.

Once I saw him disappear past the emergency exit, I immediately turned my attention back to the beast. The demon was still rolling on the floor, writhing from the phantom pain of the holy water.

Stupid beast...

I quickly circled behind it and picked up the thick grimoire lying near the magic circle.

Bizarre, incomprehensible glyphs were embossed on the cover.

Its true name must be in here...

I began flipping through the pages frantically. Every page was filled with grotesque illustrations of demons and squiggly, worm-like script. There was no time to decipher it. I scanned for words that looked like proper nouns appearing repeatedly and started reading them aloud.

"Asmodeus! Belphegor!"

Nothing happened.

The demon was still thrashing, but that was clearly from the holy water I'd splashed, not because I had called its name.

Not those? Then how about this?

I shouted a name written beneath the illustration of a horned serpent on another page.

"Leviathan!"

Still no response.

The demon was slowly pushing its upper body off the floor. I was running out of time. I frantically flipped the pages until I reached the very last one.

...Belial's third son, Zoal?

What an incredibly pathetic, B-movie name.

There's no way it's this...

Suddenly, the demon fully stood up, its red eyes flashing with rage.

"Graaaah!"

Just as it was about to charge at me again—

No choice.

I held up the paper cup containing the last of the "holy water" and yelled.

"I know your true name!"

It flinched.

A classic B-movie line from my B-movie script.

God, no matter how many times I think about it, this is so cringe...

But I had to play the part.

"Foul demon, Ball-al! Ah, no—Zoal! Your story ends here! Take this holy water and return to hell!"

It was then.

Perhaps because its true name, "Zoal," had been spoken, the demon's movements instantly froze.

It worked! Alright, now!

I splashed the remaining water in the cup onto its face.

Obviously, it was just plain water from a purifier.

But this world operated under the rules of my B-movie scenario.

The ending of the original script I wrote was: The protagonist defeats the demon by splashing holy water.

Now that I had personally stepped into the role of the protagonist, called the demon's true name, and used the "holy water" item to recreate the exact conditions of the original ending—

Drenched in water, the demon Zoal writhed, letting out a bloodcurdling shriek.

Then, its body began to glow, looking exactly like a cheap CGI effect.

A massive flash of light erupted.

It was over. Everything had played out exactly as written in my incredibly childish script.

Just like that, the demon vanished from the club room. A heavy silence settled over the space, as if the chaos had never happened.

We managed to rescue the rest of the students who had been hiding in terror. Naturally, due to the severe shock, they were completely out of it, babbling incoherently about how "some crazy guy in a goat mask went wild with a knife."

Soon after, the police and paramedics arrived on the scene.

We underwent a brief questioning, but it didn't take long.

From the looks of it, the incident would ultimately be written off as a violent rampage by a deranged member of a cosplay club. After all, no ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one would believe in the existence of a demon, nor could they.

It was early morning by the time we finally returned to our hideout, and we literally collapsed onto ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the sofa.

"Is it really over?" Minhye asked, still looking incredulous.

"Yeah. It's over." I looked down at my arm. The scratch I'd gotten while dodging the demon was stark and clear.

"Since it's over, let's get rid of this too." I peeled the script off the wall and burned it over an ashtray. As another disaster turned into a handful of ash, Minhye spoke up.

"But Sunbae, I'm really curious..." Minhye tilted her head. "Did that holy water actually work? Wasn't it just water from the purifier?"

It was an innocent question. Deokhu and Seyeon turned their gazes toward me as well.

I chuckled and shook my head. "It was just water."

"Huh? Then how did you defeat the demon...?"

"The holy water wasn't the important part." I stood up and began to explain, gesturing like a film director giving instructions on set.

"What was the ending of that B-movie script I wrote?"

"Uh... the protagonist defeats the demon by splashing holy water they found by chance?"

"Exactly. I personally stepped into the shoes of the protagonist and recreated that ending."

"Recreated it?"

"Yeah. That thing is a character in a story I wrote. An actor can't reject the ending decided by the director. The moment I played the role of the protagonist, introduced the 'holy water' item, and satisfied all the conditions of the original ending, the narrative's 'compelling force' naturally kicked in. The creature had no choice but to accept the ending of the movie it was cast in."

At my explanation, looks of awe washed over my teammates' faces.

"So you basically forced it off the stage?" Deokhu said. Seyeon added,

"Even if there was a mistake in the settings like earlier, we can still resolve it by exploiting the loopholes in the given scenario..."

Minhye stared at me with wide eyes. "How did you come up with that in such a split second? You're seriously amazing."

I couldn't help but feel a swell of pride. I had realized something crucial through this ordeal.

Beyond my ability as an author to create new rules, if I understood the genre and clichés of a given story and acted them out myself, I could dominate any situation, no matter what.

Which meant that no matter what scenario lay ahead, I might be able to overcome any crisis simply by playing the protagonist suited to that story's genre.

Another wave of relief washed over me now that everything was finished. Just then, Deokhu spoke up, his expression grim.

"But Hyung, there's one thing I'm worried about. It's a bit complicated..." He pointed out the window toward the school. "The club room wall is completely destroyed, right? And there are the students we rescued, plus the injured ones... The police and paramedics were dispatched too. We might have to go back and get questioned again soon, right?"

At Deokhu's realistic concern, Minhye and Seyeon's faces stiffened once more. "True," I replied briefly.

Deokhu continued, "This kind of thing is going to keep happening. Next time, there might be actual casualties instead of just injuries, or buildings might get destroyed... If we're always spotted at the scene, people are going to get suspicious. Won't we get caught eventually?"

I bit my lip. What Deokhu was worrying about was actually something I had been agonizing over all night. We were saving the world, but at the same time, we were the only witnesses and prime suspects linked to every single incident.

He's right. Just as a sense of helplessness threatened to weigh me down again—

Buzz. A system notification chimed on my smartphone. What, already? I instinctively checked the screen. A black notification window. It was a message from the Judge.

A reward? Was there such a thing? I swallowed hard and tapped the [Confirm] button.

"Stage Curtain?"

"Oh!!"

As if reading my mind and addressing our exact concerns, more messages followed.

"Ah..." I read and re-read the message in a daze. Every single problem Deokhu had just been worrying about was solved in one fell swoop by this reward.

"W-what is it, Sunbae? What kind of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠reward is it?" Minhye asked anxiously.

I placed my smartphone in the center of the table so everyone could see. Upon reading the message, the faces of all three turned pale with shock.

"Is... is this for real?" Deokhu stammered. "So, to sum it up, the club room wall has already gone back to normal? And the students, the police, everyone...?"

I nodded silently.

The Judge. That mysterious entity had provided us with a bare-minimum safety net so we could continue this horrific challenge. It was like a game master fixing bugs and applying a new patch.

For a moment, none of us could speak. While the relief brought by this surreal reward was immense, the chilling warning that "casualties will not be restored" weighed heavily on our minds.

But more importantly: From now on, I only need to focus on the story unfolding before my eyes.