The Beginning

Kayla Turi POV

“Is everyone in this damn book insane?!”

I slammed the four-hundred-page book onto the floor. The thud echoed in my tiny apartment, making the glass of water on my desk tremble. I stomped toward the dispenser, filled my cup, and hissed, “Aaaah!” as the hot water stung my index finger.

I blew on it furiously. “Don’t tell me her bad luck is rubbing off on me now?”

I just couldn’t wrap my head around how an author could enjoy torturing her main character with an army of side characters who lived only to crush her.

The last chapter had been the breaking point. The female lead, pregnant and already battered by life, ended up dead.

So, the whole story was basically a manual of suffering. A rich girl wasting her life on the wrong man.

Her name was Helena Turi. She had everything. Money, comfort, and choices. But she tossed it all aside for Oscar, a gorgeous man who she believed could give her the comfort she’d been missing since childhood, when her parents were always too busy working.

As a broke woman grinding under a corporate umbrella in New York City, I couldn’t stomach Helena’s choices. I yanked the curtains shut against the gray drizzle outside.

Tonight, I just wanted to unwind with a novel, fill my lonely life and try to trick myself into believing life wasn’t so empty. Instead, I’d chosen the worst book I’d ever laid eyes on.

“Seriously, if I were her, I’d just enjoy my father’s wealth and forget about a love that only hurts.”

I leaned back against the wall, letting out a laugh that sounded bitter. To me, there was nothing wrong with being lonely as long as you were rich enough to drown it out with shiny things.

I could imagine it now. Shopping sprees at the mall, have a jewelry glinting on my fingers, cabinets stocked with enough groceries to last a year, all without once worrying about the credit card bill. And the freedom to running across a wide, empty field, screaming my lungs out without a soul to stop me, because the land is mine.

But reality cut me down quick.

“Too bad I’m just a broke girl,” I muttered, anger slicing through me.

BANG!

The lightning bolt rattled the windowpanes, making me jump.

The curtains rustled, though the windows were closed. The abandoned book on the floor began to flip its own pages as if an invisible hand were skimming through. My first thought was, 'It’s just the wind.'

Except the wind wasn’t coming from outside, it was pulsing from the book itself.

A golden glow spilled out between its pages. My jaw dropped as my hair whipped around my face, tugged by a force that wasn’t natural. Then my whole body lifted off the floor.

“What the hell?!” My scream tore from my throat as I was dragged into the blinding light.

And then..

“Hello, Kayla Turi. I am Ety. You have spoken the password to the story portal. Prepare yourself. It begins now.”

Portal? What do you mean by portal?!

“Wait—hey! Where are you taking me?!”

I spun in a whirlwind like being swallowed by a tornado, though strangely, nothing hurt. It was chaos deafening, dizzying but painless.

“You will become Helena Turi. Find the source of her happiness, and you will return safely. Good luck.”

My brows furrowed. “Are you serious?! I can’t even find my own happiness! Why the hell should I fix someone else’s?!”

SPLASH!

Ice-cold water smacked my face, burning my nose and shocking me awake. I gasped and sputtering.

“Who the hell?!”

Blinking water out of my eyes, I saw them. Two plump women stood in front of me, their expressions sour enough to curdle milk.

“You…” My voice cracked as I pointed at them.

“How dare you point at us, you insolent girl!”

SMACK.

The sting of a slap set my cheek on fire.

“What did I even do?!” Rage flared in me. I grabbed one woman’s wrist, twisting it until she cried out, “Please! Don’t do it again!”

I wasn’t convinced, so I shot a glare at the older one beside her. “You try it, and I’ll do the same to you.”

Instead of backing down, the older woman sneered, a dark mole glaring on her face. “You’re only a daughter-in-law here! Don’t act so high and mighty!”

I froze.

Daughter-in-law?

The distraction cost me because an another slap harder than the first.

Reflexively, I snapped back.

SMACK.

Her eyes widened, stunned that I’d dared hit her.

“Did you just slap me?”

I squared my shoulders. “Damn right I did.”

“Helena…”

My head whipped around at the sound of the name.

Helena? Wait. Did he just call me Helena?

A man sat in a wheelchair not far away. His face was striking–like a masterpiece carved from marble. But his eyes… they didn’t move. Not once.

Is he blind? And i'm sorry, he's paralyzed too?

The image clawed at my memory. He was exactly as described in that cursed book I had thrown earlier.

My steps carried me toward him without my permission. Tears spilled from my eyes, and I didn’t even know why.

'Why am I crying?'

His hand reached out blindly, searching my hand. And My body betrayed me again, kneeling before him as if it already belonged here.

“I heard you fought with my mother and Magda again.”

I shook my head quickly. “No!” The lie slipped out before I even thought.

“I won’t judge you, but… you need to understand their nature.”

For a second, his voice softened something in me. Until he mentioned those two women. My blood boiled again.

“You didn’t see a damn thing! Don’t make assumptions!” I snapped, forcing myself upright, wrestling against this strange script my body was following.

And then it hit me.

Had I… actually fallen into that book?

“Where’s a mirror?” I demanded, scanning the room.

Silence. The two women only smirked.

Frustrated, I yanked the younger woman’s hair. “Tell me where the mirror is!”

“Look at her, Oscar! This is your precious wife’s behavior!” the older one shrieked.

My chest seized at the name.

Oscar.

I staggered back.

No way. This can’t be real.