Ch 1: The Creator's Sentence

Alle's POV

"Arise."

The voice pulled me out of my confusion.

My knees lifted from the cold floor before I could understand why I was obeying.

I looked up.

A man stood before me, tall and dressed in black. His deep blue eyes met mine, and for a moment, I forgot the pain in my knees and the unfamiliar place around me.

Then a hand struck the back of my head.

"Lower your head!" the man beside me whispered. "Alpha Lowell is looking, and you dare stare at him?"

Alpha Lowell… ?

The name stopped me.

There was only one Alpha Lowell I knew, but that was impossible. He was a character I had created, a man who existed only inside the pages of my novel.

I lowered my gaze and looked around again, trying to find an explanation for what I was seeing. The gray clothes worn by the servants, the black stone beneath my feet, and the red banners hanging from the walls were not unfamiliar.

I knew this place because I had created every detail of it.

My eyes slowly returned to the man standing before us. Lowell Theron, the male lead of the novel I had spent three years writing, was no longer a name on a page or an image in my imagination.

He was standing in front of me. And the scene happening around me was one I knew too well.

Chapter 399 — The servant execution.

The last chapter I had written before falling asleep.

Except I was no longer watching the story unfold from behind my laptop. I was inside it, standing among the servants who were supposed to die.

A sharp pain spread through my right wrist before I could think any further. I grabbed my arm as a black vein appeared beneath my skin and slowly crept toward my elbow. The burning lasted only a few seconds before it faded, leaving behind a single thought.

If I changed the story, the story would take something from me.

I didn't know where the thought came from. I simply knew it was true.

"Lift your heads." His deep voice filled the room once again and everyone obeyed at once.

So did I while still holding my arm.

Lowell's eyes moved from one servant to another until they stopped on me again. He walked forward without saying a word, and the sound of his boots echoed across the room.

He stopped in front of me.

"You looked at me," he said quietly. "Do you know how long it has been since someone stood before me without fear?”

His eyes remained on mine, studying me as if he was trying to understand something he couldn't name.

"Why aren't you afraid?”

The question caught me off guard, and for a moment, I didn't know what to say.

*Because I knew you before I ever met you?*

The thought sounded ridiculous even inside my own head. If I actually said those words aloud, he would probably think I had lost my mind.

“Leave that,” He waved his hand. “Do you in your pathetic life know the spy who kept exposing our defenses to the rival pack?”

“Yes, yes, I know.” That would have been my response, but I felt the urge that if I ever say anything, something bad would happen.

“Aren't you going to answer? You want to be thrown into the wolf's den?”

Sadly for me, in this chapter, Lowell killed all the servants in this room because he couldn't find the spy.

And I don't want to die, I don't know what would happen if I die. Will I go back to reality? Or that's the end of my existence?

Before I knew it, Lowell had closed the gap between us. “I guess you know something since you're fidgeting.”

I closed my eyes, trying not to force it out, but I did. "The spy..." My voice shook. "The spy… isn't here."

A murmur spread through the servants before the room became quiet again.

Lowell didn't move. "What do you mean?" He asked.

I looked up to him. "Beta Vance accepted thirty thousand silver coins from the Silvermoon Pack."

I paused… And continued.

"The money is hidden behind the portrait you gave him on his last birthday," I continued. "The one hanging in his room."

The silence that followed was heavier than before. Still, I continued.

"If you don't believe me," I said, "send someone to check."

The burning in my arm returned even more painful. I held it tight as I watched it spread from my wrist to my elbow so quickly that I lost my balance.

Suddenly, blood slipped from the corner of my mouth and fell onto the floor.

Then something disappeared. I subconsciously reached for the memory of my apartment, but it was gone.

I tried to remember my mother's face, but I couldn't anymore — Not even the recent memory of me visiting her in the hospital.

Not even the recent memory where I had told her even though she is in coma, that I would be rich, and pay for her medical bills when I start earning from my book.

It was as though someone had erased it.

"No..." The word escaped before I could stop it.

Lowell crouched in front of me. His eyes moved from the blood at the corner of my mouth back to my face.

"Are you being dramatic? Or are you a possessed witch?” he asked, grabbing my chin to stare him in the face directly.

I tried to answer, but nothing came out as Lowell watched me in silence.

"No maid should know what you just told me," he said. "Who are you?”

I couldn't answer that either. I looked sideways as the candles flickered without warning.

One by one, they went out until darkness swallowed the room — Nobody moved.

Lowell let go of my chin and I sensed as he rose to his feet. "Light the torches and take her."

The guards looked at one another. "My Lord?"

When one torch had been lit, he looked down at me one last time. "Lock her up."

Then, with one long stare, he said, "If Vance is innocent, you’ll wish I had killed you today."

He turned and started walking away.

“And if I’m telling the truth?” I asked.

He stopped.

For a second the room stayed completely still. Then he turned around fully and began walking back toward me.