Devin had labeled the steps before she started working publicly.

First came the preparation. She pulled up her Wattpad profile, erasing the about section. It wasn't about her anymore. She changed her username, profile picture, everything. The change felt refreshing.

Second came the learning process. Devin had no idea what she was supposed to do. How she would do it. The interviewer had assured her that they would teach her.

They did.

Well, they must have. Devin never remembered what exactly they said. It didn't matter much. All that mattered was the glasses on her bedside table that helped her see the problem, all that mattered was that even if she had no idea what she was doing, she was doing it on autopilot and it was working. It freaked her out, knowing how to do something that she didn't remember learning, touching something that shouldn't exist. But whether the work she was doing was real, the salary certainly was. Her first paycheck came at the end of the first week of training. She knew what it meant without them telling her. She had passed training.

Devin still didn't know who they were.

Step three. The demo.

She started working. Not publicly. She did nothing to make people notice her. It felt like a test run. Like they were just checking to see if she could survive the actual job. And then it was over, and someone was congratulating her for passing, and she had no idea who it was or why they were important. She thought it might be the boss, maybe a coworker, but she didn't have the guts to ask. The uneasy feeling in her stomach never left, even as she started commenting on Wattpad, even as her follower count started to go up, even as her notifications started to fill up with people tagging her to fix the fourth wall.

Her boss somehow managed to make their presence know without ever interacting with her. They were there every time she got tagged, every time she got paid, every time she glanced at the glasses. She felt watched somehow. She started hiding the glasses in her small red chest when she wasn't using them. That helped a bit.

Maybe what got to her was being known.

It's not like Devin didn't have friends. This was different. It was being known without knowing the other person, and it made her feel almost uncomfortable.

She started to interact with her followers.
They were surprisingly nice. Devin didn't have the best history with people on the internet, so it surprised her how many people were playing along with her, laughing and talking and offering internet dollars for her to fix the fourth wall. They were really nice, and Devin found herself growing slightly attached to the job. Just a bit. Just enough for her to hesitate when the message came.

Devin had gotten used to not understanding what was going on in the short weeks she had had the job. She had gotten used to not knowing what she was doing but still knowing if she was doing it right. She had dropped some of the disbelief she had held. Playing with reality did that to a person.

But she only did one thing. Fix the fourth wall. Put it back together. Never the opposite.

Devin had to read the request three times before the possible consequences sunk in. Someone wanted her to break the fourth wall.

They never told her what to do in this situation.
She wished it wasn't about them. She wished she could say she didn't consider telling them, asking them what she should do. It was obvious what they'd say. Ignore, reject. She was being paid to fix the fourth wall. She didn't want to think about what they would say about this.

But then again... Devin had taken the job because she was bored. And now here she was, bored again.

Maybe, just once...

Devin thought through her options quickly. She could just tell them it was a mistake. She could claim ignorance, just this once.

Risk getting fired or ignore the request? Well, was that even a question anymore?
She felt like she had just chosen the wrong route in a choose your own adventure book.

Still, Devin slowly typed out a response, tapping her thigh anxiously.

I guess I could make one exception for a good cause. Just don't let my boss know.

Devin stared as her reply went though, still not sure she had made the right decision.

She grabbed the glasses, stretching before putting them on, greeted with the familiar weightless feeling. She looked back at her body, frozen in her seat, before moving towards her screen, reaching out.

Huh, she thought, this is the first time I remember looking back.  

***

I refuse to comment on my upload schedule. 

Yeah so I decided to add things to the story that feel like they'd be cool because I'm bored.

See you in ten years when I upload again!