I didn't even realize I had died before waking up. It was a more than a little disorienting. The last thing I remember before that fateful encounter is resting on the hospital bed and talking to the nurse who came to check on me. The next thing I knew, I was opening my eyes to a bright morning sun, somewhere beyond space and time.

"Our guest has finally awoken, I see." The voice sounded feminine, with an accent that sounded archaic yet indeterminate. "Welcome to the afterlife. Well, your afterlife. How are you feeling?"

The afterlife? I was in the afterlife? That couldn't be right. I should be in a hospital room, recovering from my accident. Struggling to open my eyes despite the bright light, I slowly shifted my head and struggled to sit up. My gaze fell on a short girl with green hair in comically-large twintails, her red eyes piercing me with an expression that seemed to say, "You're my newest toy to play with." She was dressed in a simple red blouse and blue miniskirt, revealing a slim figure and dainty limbs which ought to convey weakness. Somehow, though, I felt the distinct notion that she was far more powerful than she appeared.

"...huh?" Somehow, the most I could do when confronted with such a drastic revelation was to give her the vacant stare of an imbecile confronted with an inconceivable circumstance. Her previous words had gone in one ear and flying out the other.

"Oh, I suppose you may be a bit disoriented," the girl said, placing her hand on her cheek. It was probably meant to be a cute, playful gesture, but somehow failed to convey said sentiments. I had the distinct notion that she wasn't trustworthy, though not due to malice. "Allow me to explain. You have died and entered the afterlife. Specifically, you have been summoned to my realm as a spirit."

"..."

"What, do you really not understand?" she grumpily snarled, hands on her hips. It would have been intimidating if she wasn't a foot shorter than my own relatively-low height.

"Easy there, Storyteller. You're only going to confuse the poor thing." The voice came as a shock, as I had assumed that I was alone with the green-haired girl. I turned my head, shifting my gaze towards-

Nothing, or rather, a void. It wasn't just that there was nobody else in the room, but there was a gap in my vision that stayed in one spot, and yet somehow it seemed personified.

"Wh-what are you two?" I stammered, backing away from the strange duo as I finally snapped fully awake.

"Well, this one is a spirit who has been summoned to my realm," the green-haired girl replied, pointing at me as she spoke to her other visitor. "So I don't see why I shouldn't do as I please, in accordance with our agreement. In other words, butt out."

The void seemed to turn its focus away from me and towards her. "Ah, but he isn't just any spirit, is he? After all, you don't waste time with just any sapience when crafting your stories, do you?"

"What is it to you?!" she snapped. "And since when do you actually care about my storytelling? You've never shown any interest in that before."

"Since always, actually. I'm always listening to, or rather, watching your tales, and I must say, you have quite a knack for spinning a yarn, even if these creatures are rather pathetic." Somehow, that last word sounded much more ominous than it should have.

"Well, this one is a bit special," the girl conceded. "He has a certain quality to him, even though he's so weak. He reminds me of..."

"Of whom, exactly?"

"..." The girl fell silent for a moment, her eyes drawing closed as she reflected on...something...before she turned away from the void. Somehow, the drastic seriousness of her manner seemed all wrong to me. "I suppose it doesn't matter. Just leave before I say something I regret."

The void sighed, or made what seemed like a crude, alien imitation of one, and shook its "head". "Very well. I'll leave you to it." It turned back to me, and I felt a sudden jolt of terror. "Don't worry, little spirit. You'll be in good hands. For now."

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

It left without another word, and I was alone with the girl, who still seemed lost in thought. Finally, she turned back to me and smiled, though there was a hint of sadness in her eyes that wasn't there before.

"Well, enough chit-chat. Let's get to work." She clapped her hands together, and the room seemed to shift and change, from a featureless white room to a small, cozy library with bookshelves stretching towards the ceiling, with musty tomes illuminated by candlelight.

"Who are you?" I asked, my head still spinning.

"You can call me the Storyteller," she replied, leaning forward and resting her chin on her hands, elbows resting on the table between us. "Well, that's not my real name, but it's the title I've chosen for myself, for this tale, at least. You can think of me as the narrator, or the author. Perhaps even the muse, if you so fancy, though I would hope for your to become mine soon enough."

"...uh, right. And why am I here? Shouldn't I be in my bed, back at the hospital?" As the words left my lips, a sudden sense of dread filled me as the realization finally hit.

The Storyteller registered the change in my expression, and her own seemed to shift into a somewhat sad, yet mischievous smile. "Yes, that's right. You aren't really in your hospital bed anymore. You are dead, and this is the afterlife. Or rather, an afterlife. There's a couple of them out there, some more permanent than others. The temporary ones tend to be for those whose tickets are punched early, such as yourself. Your thread was cut short at the young age of twenty-two years, and now you're here."

"You really like mixing metaphors, huh..." I tried cracking a joke, but my words trailed off as my weak attempt failed to stave off the emotions coursing through me. I was really dead. Probably never going to see my family again, or my friends, not that I had many of those. My life had ended, and this was my fate.

"Ah, that's right, I haven't really introduced myself properly." The Storyteller reached across the table and extended her hand, probably trying to distract me before I could fully indulge in my own misery. "You see, I'm not just A storyteller. I'm THE Storyteller, the one responsible for all of the greatest tales. From Gilgamesh and Enkidu to Achilles and Hector, Arabian Nights to the Canterbury Tales, I'm the genius responsible for all of the long-lasting stories which have been written over millennia."

My brow furrowed as I took her hand and shook it. It felt somewhat warm, yet with a hidden strength behind her soft grip. "Okay, and you want me to become a character or something?"

She laughed, clearly expecting the question. "No, no, not exactly! It doesn't work like that, I'm afraid!" The Storyteller shifted and leaned back, kicking her legs up onto a table that had formed between us. "No, I tell my own tales from start to finish, and really prefer a tighter control over them. But I do have a purpose for you, of course!" With a flourish of her hand, she summoned a book and quickly flipped through its pages, evidently searching for something specific. "Let's see here...ah, here it is. This is where we are right now."

The mischievous girl sat back up again and set the tome on the table, placing it in front of me, and my eyes widened. There were words and phrases on it, describing the two of us sitting in the library, and even some of the dialogue.

"Wow, this is...amazing. So, what, you're like a narrating wizard or something?" The wonder of the scene around me staved off the oncoming depression, at least for the moment

"Not exactly," she giggled, clearly pleased with my awe. "But I am very powerful, and have a certain affinity for storytelling, admittedly using magic to do so. You're not going into one of my masterpieces, and from your end things probably won't seem much like a story, but you're going to be the trial run of a new type of story of mine. Like I hinted at before, you're going to become my latest muse. Well, I suppose that does make you a character, but it's more than that."

I wasn't sure what to make of that, and evidently my uncertainty showed on my face, because she continued.

"It's a bit complicated, but essentially I want to bring a fresh story to life, starting from scratch. And you're going to be the foundation for it." A slightly devious smile appeared on her face. "Of course, I'll be borrowing some well-used tropes of mine, including some that usually don't get to interact, but I want to mix in a bit of...shall we say, organic novelty down the line. So, what do you say?"

My first instinct was to say no. Who would agree to be a guinea pig for some magical storyteller? But something about her demeanor, and the fact that she had already brought me to her world, made me reconsider. During her conversation with the void-entity from before, or whatever it was, the Storyteller mentioned me being "special" for some reason. If I was more than a random chance subject, I probably had no real say in this from the start. And if she was as powerful as she appeared to be, I had no agency at all in this matter.

"I guess I have no choice," I finally muttered, defeated.

"Wonderful! Then let's begin!" She eagerly clapped her hands three times, and suddenly the room around us began to shift and warp once more.