"Mommy! Daddy!" Cal called to me...and Ava. "Help me! I am too puny and adorable to die!"

I stayed where I was and still as if my body had frozen, and Lean and Anti-Mary Sue got in fighting positions. Ava pulled out her gun from...somewhere and aimed it at Cindy's anti.

"You let that innocent boy go!" Cindy ordered as she gently squeezed my shoulder. "He has nothing to do with this!"

"That is where you are wrong," Anti-Cindy replied, thinking that she was correct. Cal has everything to do with this. He is Caleb's one and only child."

"He is my child too!" Ava shrieked at the top of her lungs. "I created him and a couple of other kids between books six and seven."

I glanced at the floor, and then back at Anti-Cindy. I decided to ask her permission to take a step forward, and she said that she was okay with it and added that be the only thing that I do. I did so and pleaded for her to release my son, and unknown to me, I was not afraid in the least.

"Please. My son has had a confusing life so far, and I only want to be a good and responsible father to him."

"Too bad. So sad." She raised the knife until the sharp end was touching Cal's flesh. "If I release him, you all will go. If I do not, it will show me dominance over you."

"I am guessing that you want us to meet your demands," Joan piped in.

"My, my. And I was convinced that your anti was smarter."

"What are your demands?" I asked.

Ava put her finger on the trigger. "I will shoot you, and trust me. You do not want me to shoot."

"I am not fearful of you," Anti-Cindy sneered at her. "If anything, you should be fearful of me and begging for mercy."

"As if. I have defeated even the most strongest villains of other fictional worlds."

"Oh, yeah? Name some of those so-called 'villains.'"

"I wish, but I cannot. Copyright has a hold on both the real and fictional worlds."

"You mean extreme copyright to the point where creativity is nonexistent. That should be fixed."

"It will never be fixed," Collin saddened us by the truth. "The real worlders hate creativity and being unique with a capital 'H.'"

"Oh my gosh. Can we please stop this chapter on copyright and those darn real worlders and focus on the problem that is in front of us?" Cindy brought us back to the now.

I asked Anti-Cindy again of her demands, and she promised that she would let go of Cal and allow him to come back to Forlot with us...if I stayed behind. And even though that my son spent time with me for a short period of time, he was devastated. No. More like outraged. He was so outraged that he tried to kick his captor where the sun does not shine.

"Stop it," Anti-Cindy hissed, keeping an excellent grip on him. "Or I will happily slice your throat, and your father can watch a real red waterfall."

"Slice my son, and there will be a bullet in you," Ava threatened. "And I will keep putting bullets into your flesh until you are unable to move."

The anti gently tapped her fingers on top of Cal's head. "Then the head will come off."

Excluding Ava, Anti-Mary, and Lean, we all gasped. I had to do something and do it fast before my son paid the price.

"No, no, no!" Cal was crying. "Mommy! Daddy! Do something!"

I took another step forward, and Anti-Cindy was unsurprisingly angry at that and began to slice him. Thankfully, she stopped when I was giving myself up.

"What?" my girlfriend said. "No, Caleb!"

"Release Cal...and I will stay in LotFor for however long you and Anti-Caleb want."

"You cannot do that!" Cameron piped up. "Think of your friends!"

Anti-Cindy raised an eyebrow. "How do I know that you do not have something up your sleeve?"

"Check my sleeves. Nothing is in them."

"She means if you are up to something that will trick her," Joan whispered to me.

"Oh. Well, you have my word."

"That is not good enough. Convince me that you will not go against your word."

My eyes darted to my shoes, and I was deep in thought. Then I remembered a key point that was brought up at the beginning of this book and darted my eyes back to her.

"I will prove to you that I am not a threat," I said. "I remember your scar. The one that is hiding behind your eyepatch."

She touched her eyepatch. "You idiot. I am not wearing this eyepatch to hide my scar."

"And I agree with you on that."

"No, I...wait, what?"

"You are not trying to hide the scar, but what it represents. Scars are a sign that you have fought through the difficult times and show that you are a survivor. The reason that you are ashamed of your own scar is because you have not stood up for yourself."

"You are bluffing!"

"That is what they always say when the truth comes out. Then they try to cover it up by simply saying that they are appalled by it, and it is they that are the most heard."

"I am fine, Caleb."

"Caleb, look!" Cindy instructed me.

Bright red blood was streaming from underneath the eyepatch, and the anti ran a finger across the bottom of it. Her face went pale, for she was terrified by the sight of her blood on her finger.

"It is happening...again..."

Concerned for her, I asked her permission to take off the eyepatch. She did not answer, and I gently pulled it off anyway.

"Oh, no," I said. "We have to bring you to Forlot right away!"