Prologue – Who Owns the Story?

I was a reader.

So I read. 

Page after page, word after word...

But the more I read, the more a question consumed me, 

A question so tangled that the more I tried to solve it, the more I lost myself.

I searched for answers, read countless books, only to find more questions waiting for me.

'I tried my best, I truly did. But no answer came.'

So I would like to ask you...

Can you answer the question that eats me daily?

'If an author created a world with words, but it came alive only in the reader's mind, who truly owned the story?

The one who wrote it?

Or the one who believed in it?'

…Those were my thoughts.

I rambled a lot, didn't I?

But what else could I do here?

This pitch-black abyss around me was endless.

I twisted my head once more, confirming what I already knew: I was still trapped in darkness.

'Where am I?'

I had no clue.

There was no signal, no food, just existential monologues here. And they were probably the only reason I hadn't gone mad.

I'd been floating aimlessly in this murky place, where the flow of time seemed to have stopped. 

How long had I been here?

I have no idea...

I felt no sensation. It was as if I existed... but didn't exist at the same time.

The last thing I remember before getting here was... nothing.

'I don't, I don't remember a thing.'

I tried my best to remember how I got here, but it just made my memory hazier. 

The harder I tried to grasp it, the further I felt it slip away.

'How strange.'

A thought popped up in my head.

Swish~!!

But before I could think further, blinding light engulfed the darkness around me, making me squint and cover my eyes.

When the lights faded, a new scene unfolded before my eyes.

A boundless white stretched in every direction. It looked pristine and perfect. There was no sky above, no earth below, only endless light without a source wherever I looked. 

Silence reigned everywhere. Not the peaceful kind, but absolute. Too quiet.

It felt louder than any scream.

Ba-dump! Ba-dump!

My heartbeat rang in my head like drums. It had never sounded so clear, as if it was the only sound in this place.

SKREECH!

But soon, the silence broke. 

A screeching sound, like glass grinding against steel, tore through the silence. I tilted my head around searching for its source, but I could find none. 

When I looked ahead, it came from behind, and when I looked behind, it flew past my ears from the front.

Then, finally, a crack appeared.

A tiny one, the size of my thumb.

'What is that?' 

I wondered. The very fabric of the world seemed to be tearing apart slowly but surely, making wriggling noises. With each passing second, the tear seemed to get bigger. 

It looked like the world was trying to contain it... but failing.

Soon, the tear split open, and someone walked into this white-world.

Not one, but two.

A man and a woman. 

The man stood tall and walked forward with eyes brimming with determination. His all-black outfit reminded me of the dark night, while his flowing white overcoat shimmered like the moonlight brightening a starless sky. 

The woman, on the other hand, felt his complete opposite. She wore white beneath a jet-black overcoat that fluttered with every step. The fluttering of her small black hairs seemed to symbolize the flow of time itself.

Tap! Tap!

Every step that they took resonated with the world, causing small ripples throughout the space. The world seemed to bend beneath their resolve. 

And where was I amidst all of this?

Still stuck.

'They felt familiar... especially the man.'

That was the only thought that came into my mind. I felt a connection I never felt before.

Who was he, and where was I?

'Maybe I could ask him. Maybe he had answers?'

I stretched my legs, trying to reach him, to ask him questions, but I couldn't. My legs didn't budge at all.

'Dammit!'

They walked past me like I wasn't even there, which felt kind of fair.

To be honest, I, myself, was beginning to doubt whether I was here or not.

Then, the woman stopped. Her voice cut through the silence, sharp and venomous.

"We are here, stop hiding and come out, you damn bastard." 

'What?'

'Was she talking to me?'

…No. She couldn't be.

I hadn't done anything bastard-worthy. At least… not lately.

Turned out my guess was correct. Something in the white-world seemed to be changing. The light started to condense rapidly, pulling itself together like clouds gathering into a singular point.

SHWAAA!

Something was forming.

Something tainted.

The dense energy twisted and wrapped, taking the shape of a humanoid. Just watching it come to life caused my stomach to churn.

Ba… Thump! Ba… Thump!

Whatever it was, it didn't feel humane. 

His legs formed. Then the torso. Then arms and finally, a head.

He was the size of a child, barely tall enough to reach a grown man's waist. 

He stood at the center of the world, blank and pale like a mannequin. 

Seeing the two individuals, his expression twisted into a childish grin, yet there was nothing behind it.

No features.

No soul.

Just a white canvas pretending to be human.

"La la la, heads go pop and hearts go plop, in my game we never stop~"

He sang, forming a mouth out of thin air.

Ba... Thump! Ba... Thump!

The sound of his voice twisted something in my gut.

Then his eyes went to the two individuals.

"Yay! My new toys have arrived! Yay!"

He hopped, giggled, and danced around while looking at them.

"You will entel-twain me, right?"

He asked in a childish voice, hoping for an answer, yet no answer came. They just stared at him with eyes full of hatred.

"...Right?" He asked again, his voice cold now. 

Ba... Thump! Ba... Thump!

His antics made my heart pound more and more, and every hair on the back of my hand stood on end.

Bzzz~

My head rang with a sharp buzzing sound, making me feel dizzy.

'Aghh.'

I covered my ears and clutched my head tightly, yet the sound rang louder. 

While I was busy figuring out my condition, he slowly turned his head towards me. His lips slowly curled up, and a sinister smile appeared on his face. 

"You have arrived as well? But aren't you a bit too soon?" 

He spoke to me with an exaggerated gasp. Everything about it felt fake. 

Even though he had no eyes, I felt his gaze piercing through me, stripping me bare. I felt seen in a way I never wanted to be.

It creeped me out in every sense. 

"Hmm."

Suddenly, the figure stood still and started wondering about something. But the two at the back didn't seem to humour his thoughts.

They seemed to have a score to settle.

"Haa~"

They lunged at him without any hesitation, only to be stopped by a swift movement of his hand. He stopped them mid-air, effortlessly, with a look of disinterest. 

"Aww. Wait for your turn, my toys~"

I could tell, to him, they weren't even a threat. Just insects crawling around his feet.

Then his eerie voice came again.

"It's not your time yet to come, my playmate."

But this time, the words weren't meant for them.

They were for me.

I could feel his oppressive pressure on me as he spoke those words. His presence wrapped around me like chains binding me down.

Tap! Tap!

Then he skipped forward, step by step, jumping around, closing the distance between me and him, until he was at an arm's length from me. 

"La, la, la~"

Slowly, almost gently, he lifted his hand…

…and flicked my forehead, stretching his arm.

Flick!

'What?'

I was caught off-guard and yanked backward, like a thread pulled through a needle. My surroundings blurred, and my consciousness began to fade slowly but surely. 

I tried to hold on, but I couldn't.

Everything went dark.

Then, in the void, I heard it.

A voice—not male or female. Not loud or soft. It felt like everything at once.

Divine and demonic.

Distant and intimate.

As if the universe itself was whispering directly into my ears.

It spoke:

"It started with a simple line, a whisper on the page,

But stories live, and once awake, they burn beyond the cage.

She wrote the world, she named the stars, she painted gods in flame,

Yet now she runs from all she made, from death that bears her name.

He read in silence, knowing more than any tale should show,

Until the world he loved so much refused to let him go.

Now side by side they break the verse, rewrite what once was fate,

A Reader wielding memory, an Author bound too late.

So let them fail or let them rise—what matters is the scar,

For every tale that dares to breathe must know who its gods are."

And then... nothing.

Darkness took me whole.