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It's mid September & just a few minutes before 8 am. Bus #3708 was driving over the Englelhart Bridge into the Snyder hallow area of Parrodipolis. It's following Route #1265: the Parrodipolis - Goth Haven Express. There was that many people on the bus. There was never that much this early in the morning. The passengers were scatter about. None of them sitting next to each other & most of them still look half asleep.

Near the front of the bus was a young woman. She was dressed in, starting from the ground up, a pair of navy-blue Chuck Taylor All-Star high-tops, on her feet were a pair of argyle socks. Her pants were a well-worn, and ripped in places, pair of blue jeans. Moving up her body, she was wearing an unzipped graying black hoodie, and under that was a black T-shirt. The shirt was advertising the band Girl Parts. On her wrists were a few too many bracelets and a couple of wrist bands. On her left was an old calculator watch. A few of her fingers had some rings on them, one of the rings was a Waffle. Her black nail polish was cracked and chipped in places. She had short, sandy blond hair which was pulled back and into two small ponytails, one on each side of the back of her head. She had somewhat pale skin was wearing a pair of black plastic glasses. Her blue eyes were half glazed over.

She was starring out the window blankly. She unlike the others on the bus was not heading to work but home from work. She had just completed a nights work of being a part-time morgue attendant. Catherine was tired. She just wanted to go home & sleep.

As the bus made it's route through the city, as it approached the first of it's four stops along Off-Central Park, Catherine pulled the "stop requested" cord.

It was now only a few more blocks to her apartment & only few more blocks to her slumber.

Once in her apartment, she quickly started to unload. Off with the shoes, jacket & bag. All now sat in a pile by the door. She makes her way to the bedroom. Out of the corner of her eye she see the red blinking light on her answering machine. She pauses for a moment to think about checking the messages. But the thought of sleep overrides that thought. She enters the bedroom. Not even bothering to take off her glasses, she flops down on the bed. After a few moments, she has fallen asleep.

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Catherine is awakened a few hours later. This did not please her. Without even opening her eyes she can still tell that it's some time during the middle part of the day & she can't get to mad at people making noise during the day but these people are really loud. It's almost like they are in apartment.

Then Catherine hears something glass break & that sound was way too close to not be in her apartment. This deserved some investigation. Catherine sits ups, slides off the bed & walks over to bedroom door. As she does this all the noises get louder & as she opens the door there are small group of burly gentlemen in orange jumpsuits. Two of them are huddle down cleaning up broken glass off the floor. The glasses came from a picture frame that Catherine had hanging on the wall. Two other men were taking the other framed photos off the wall & placing them into brown cardboard boxes. Catherine just stood there for a moment stunned. What were they doing? Why were they there?

"Uh… excuse me." Catherine asked. She didn't get a response.

"What are you doing?"

"Why are you taking my stuff off the wall?"

Still no response. It was almost like they couldn't hear her.

Catherine exited her room & managed to slip by the large men crowding the small hallway. He didn't even look at her as she did that. She was starting to thing that they didn't even notice she was even there. She went to the end of the hallway & turned to enter her living room to find yet more burly men in orange jumpsuits emptying out her living room & kitchen. Her front door was wide open. It didn't looked forced open. Catherine began to wonder if she being robbed by some extremely organized thieved because she had forgotten to lock her front door.

Standing in the mid of all the commotion was a man. He wasn't dressed like the others. He was taller them & dressed in a neatly tailored metallic silver grey suit. His dress shirt was a light pink. His tie was a dark red. The handkerchief in his coat pocket was the same color of his shirt. His skin color was a pale & he looked quite gaunt. His balding silver grey hair was cut short & slicked back. He wore rimless glass part of the way down his nose. In his hands was tablet PC. Every so often he would touch the screen with his index finger & move it across the screen. Catherine thought that he might be the man in charge. She made her way over to him. She had to narrowly avoid not being run off by the men in the jumpsuits a few times before she got to him.

"Uh… Excuse me?" Catherine asked.

No response.

"Hello!" She said as she waved her hands back & forth a few times trying to get his attention.

No response.

"Excuse me!" She said loudly.

This got a response. He looked up from his tablet & over his glasses at Catherine.

"Can I help you?"

"Yes. Yes, you can tell me what is going on?"

"Oh. We are moving these belonging out for the next tenant."

"You can't do that!"

"Why not?" He said with a mildly puzzled look on his face. His right eyebrow went up as the left one went down. He was still looking at her over his glasses.

"I live here, that's my stuff & my lease isn't up for another few months."

He still looked at his mildly puzzled.

"You can't just kick me out. I know my rights!"

"And you are?"

"Catherine Gillespie."

"Hmmm…."

He looked back at the tablet PC in his hand. He swiped his index finger across the screen a few times. He took a quick look up at Catherine & then back at the tablet again.

"And so you are!" He said with a happy smile. He turned his tablet around to show Catherine her picture on the screen. It was one of dozen screens open. Catherine didn't quite like the picture he had of her. She wasn't sure why he had one anyways.

"Where are you taking my stuff?"

"away." He said with almost no feeling. He then followed that up with a bit a more feeling to his voice. "Nowhere you need to concern yourself with."

"But it's my stuff!" Catherine said with a hint of sadness to her voice. She thought back on all the time & energy she spent on getting her stuff. She also thought of some of the other memories she had connected to her stuff.

"It won't be in a few moments. In fact you won't exist in a few moments yourself."

"what?"

That comment snapped herself out her thoughts.

"What do you mean?"

"Didn't you get our message? We called you."

"no."

The man started to look around for something & then he found it. He walked over to the where Catherine had her phone & answering machine. The light was still blinking from earlier. He pressed the button & the message played. She heard him tell her that as part of the upcoming alteration of in space & time that she would no longer be Catherine Gillespie. He also said that when he & his moving crew would be at her apartment. He wished her a good day & hung up.

Catherine was still confused. He could see that.

"Every so often the Universe goes through minor alterations here & there. Sometimes there are major changes but this is a one of those small alteration. At …" He paused. He took a picket watch out of her vest pocket, checked the time & then put it. he continued. "At midnight tonight the change over is scheduled to happen. As part of that, you don't fit into the new order. Well… a Catherine Gillespie does fit in, just not you."

"I'm being replaced?"

"Yes. One a lot less nerdy & a bit more slutty."

He began to do something on his tablet PC. He then showed her a headshot of a woman with pale skin that look vaguely like her but had black hair with light blue highlights. Her bangs almost obscured her green eyes. She had a ring in her left nostril & one on the right side of her lower lip. Another change was her arms were covered in tattoos. She wore a low cut, ripped black tank top. Under that tank top, one could see her leopard print bra. She was also quite more busty then Catherine was.

He look over that photo once more & then at Catherine. He then said with a chuckle. "Actually quite a bit more slutty."

"Who are you?"

He rolled his eyes a bit & let out a sigh. "Not that it'll matter to you in a few minutes but I'm the Tailor of Stories."

"Who?"

He sighed again. "The universe as you know it is upheld by a various cosmic office holders."

"and your one of those?"

"Yes. At the top is the Triumvirate. The Shaper of Stories initiates new narrative strands. The Chronicler of Stories monitors and keeps track of those strands. The Destroyer of Stories brings those strands to an end."

"So… where are you in all this?"

"I'm of a lower triumvirate. I help make sure the stories look like something."

"ok." Catherine said, still not exactly believing him but given what she's seen she wasn't going to no believe him.

"Who are your other two people in your triumvirate?"

The Tailor sighed. "Look. I don't have time for this. As I said it won't matter in a few moments & I have a lot to do. For the new version of Catherine Gillespie: not only do I have to clear you out, I have to insert her in & make it seem like she has always been here. Now it's not that I'm starting from scratch, There are a few things that will be borrowed from youth use for her since your essential the same person. But she is a different person with different tastes, hobbies & the like. I have to have her all set up by the Midnight deadline."

"What happens if you don't?"

He didn't answer, he had gone back to doing something on his tablet PC. Catherine looked around the apartment was almost empty.

"Will the new Catherine live here?"

"Oh good god no. I think that a kindly old jewish woman is slated to live here & will have for decades. The new Catherine will live in the Hell's Bathroom part of the city. Fits in more with her personality. Plus, it's close to where she works."

"and that's where?"

"oh.. one of the bars in the area. Not sure what which. That wasn't one of my decisions. Most likely The Shaper decided that."

Catherine noticed that her shoes, hoodie & messenger bag were still in a pile by the door. She maneuvered over there, around the men in jumpsuits loading out some of the items from her bedroom. She wanted to pick them up before someone else did.

She then made her way back over to The Tailor.

"So.. what going to happen to me now?"

"What?" He said as he looked up at her.

"What happens to me now?"

"oh. With me & the moving men being here your already being taken out of the main narrative stream. As the day goes on, you will be less & less here, as the new Catherine will be here more & more. At midnight, you won't be here at all & she will be here like she had always been."

"Will I end up in Comic Book Limbo?" Catherine asked, remembering the year she had spent there.

"What?" He looked shocked that she even knew about that place.

"Comic Book Limbo. Where no longer used versions of people, places & other things end up."

"yes. You could end up there. Or there is another option. Before midnight you could meet up with one of my fellow members of my triumvirate. Trust me your better off spending the rest of your non-life in Limbo."

Catherine looked around the apartment & it was empty.

"So… now what?"

"You no longer live here. I'll now have my crew loading in the jewish woman's items then we'll head over & set up the new Catherine's place."

Just then one of the burly men walked into the apartment with a elderly jewish woman strapped to a hand truck.

"Who's that?"

"Mrs. Abramann. She lives her now."

"Why is she on that hand truck?"

"It was the safest way to transport her over here."

"From where?"

"In the old narrative stream, she was living in a nursing home. According to our records before you lived her she was this apartments' tenant. She moved because she could no longer live by herself to due to a broken hip. In this new narrative stream, she did still have her accident but she didn't break her hip so she never moved to that nursing home."

"So, the new Catherine never lived here."

"Exactly."

Catherine went over to look at Mrs. Abramann. She looked like she was sleep but Catherine couldn't see that she was breathing. It was like she was in stasis somehow.

"Is the new Catherine like this?"

"What?"

"Is the new Catherine on a hand truck somewhere?"

"No. Mrs. Abramann already existed, we just needed to move her. The new Catherine is a new character & won't fully exist until Midnight tonight. Now can you please stop asking me questions. I have a schedule to keep & your keeping me from doing that."

"Sorry."

"Thank you." The Tailor said & went back to his tablet PC."

"One more question…"

The Tailor rolled his eyes. "Yes?"

"Is there a way for me & the other Catherine to both exist?"

"no. You two cannot occupy the same spot in the narrative steam."

"But from what you've shown & told me we aren't the same person. So our stories would different."

"True. But you both Catherine Gillespie & in the narrative stream there can only be one."

Catherine thinks about making a Highlander reference but isn't sure he'd get it so she doesn't. But it does make her think of something.

"What if I stopped her from becoming a character fully?"

"I'm not sure. It's never happened before, at least not that I know of. You might be able supplant her position in the narrative stream but as you & I have said your not the same person. So, if did do that you most likely would have to live out their life. You would not be getting your life back."

"Could it be a mixture of both life or I might be able to over power her life with my own?'

"Hmmm…" The Tailor thought about that for a moment. "That is a possibility."

"Cool!" Catherine said as she ran out of the apartment with her hoodie, bag & shoes in hand.

The Tailor just stood there for a moment shocked. He then sighed.

"This won't end well."

He then went back to doing something on his tablet PC as the orange jumpsuited men continued to load in all of Mrs. Abramann's furniture.

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To Be Continued?

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