The Endless Loop

Are we real, or in a story? Can we tell?

The commander said that we have a new order from the President. The order was to find the fourth wall, and nuke it.

I found it…

It’s gone…

You. Reader. Stop reading now.

No, actually. Stop right now.

It’s a high-level security threat…

Why did we break the fourth wall…

Now we know that we’re in a story, now we know that we’re not real…

“Oh, wow, this story is interesting,” I said. “But weird. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Yes, indeed,” you said. “But this story… I have a feeling about it, it seems very familiar…”

“What a good thing that we’re not in a story…”

I had just shown my friend the story that you just read. The one above.

“So… there’s a story within a story?” he asked.

“Yes,” I answered. “The story within the story is about characters in a story that know they’re in a story, and then we’re in the story, and we are discussing the story.”

“Huh, that’s quite odd,” he said. “Well, at least it ends there. We’re definitely not in a story.”

“This is hurting my brain,” my friend said. “A story in a story in a story. When does it end? Maybe we are currently in a story right now!”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous,” I said. “Of course this is where it ends.”

“I’m not too sure about that,” he said. “I can’t be too sure about anything, after reading that. If we’re in a story, then PLEASE end it NOW!”

Greyton looked over his Google Doc, satisfied at his story. For his 317th book, he wanted to do something different than usual. Writing normal books got boring after 316 times. So he decided to start writing a story that not only breaks the fourth wall, but destroys the fifth and sixth as well and does significant damage to the seventh.

Every time a paragraph was skipped in his draft, a new layer was created. Eventually they would become chapters. And there would be more and more layers, until the reader could not be sure that they were not in a story. And the reader would then join a cult about The Matrix or something.

Although, maybe not that crazy. Greyton’s 48th and 226th books had both been banned for causing an excessive number of citizens to join cults. The elephant didn’t want that to happen again…

Greyton wrote a note for himself, grabbed a honey roasted peanut, and went to sleep. At least I know that I am in reality.

Wait, I made a Greyton story last week. Two stories with Greyton the Elephant in a row. Oh well. This story only has one section about Greyton anyway. This Greyton is in the story.

Am I in a story right now? Yes. Yes, I am. I don’t know if I’m real. But I have outsmarted Greyton, and all the other characters in this endless loop. That’s what it is. Endless.

But I know that this is the final one. Does that mean that you, the reader, reading this right now, are in reality? No. It simply means that that’s the end of the written story.

You are in a story. I didn’t believe it at first. I doubted it. I thought I was in real life. But now I know better. And soon, so will you. You will learn that you are not real, life is a story, and the loop can never be escaped. You have to realize that you are in a story.

I know what you’re thinking right now: Oh, what a weird story, but of course it’s not real. Wrong. You are part of the loop. I may not be able to convince anyone… but at least you can’t say I didn’t warn you.