Inside A Novel

Through the thickness of the dark forest a confused figure ran until his breath hurt. Closely behind him, a vicious beast growled as it neared its prey, the hungry eyes never leaving the figure's silhouette, not even for a second.

The figure was a man, a man not from the world which he currently was in. His wavy chestnut hair blew in the wind as his heart beat faster than it had ever done before. Legs shaking and breath short, Liam Ahearn ran as if his life depended on it, because it did.

In the corner of his eye, he saw the shadowy build of the beast running on all fours. Its claws were sharp and fangs out for blood, if he had to describe it as something from his own world, the creature probably resembled a very large wolf or bear.

When he first woke up on the cold ground of an unknown forest, he had been utterly confused and tried to figure out where he was. He couldn’t remember anything from his life before and therefore his only option was to wander around.

However, when the large, black monster emerged from the shadows of a cave he found, his mind instantly conjured up the picture of a novel cover, and within it a description that fit the yellow-eyed hound staring into his soul.

Now his situation looked like this, being chased, probably towards his death, but he still held on to a glimmer of hope that by some magical miracle, he would manage to escape the beast. Just as he thought about how much he did want to live, he felt the ground underneath his feet disappear and he plummeted down a smaller cliff.

There was no time for him to think, Liam quickly shuffled his body to be pressed against the cliff as he glanced upward. He could see the beast’s jaw and part of its smokey body. He prayed the creature wouldn’t smell him or, at the least, bother to come all the way down.

He held his breath until the faint steps eventually no longer could be heard, but he still felt his legs completely numb from the exhaustion. How the hell did I end up in a situation like this?

Liam shook his head and slapped both his cheeks to “toughen up” as he tried to make sense of what was happening. He could accept the fact that this was a novel, he’d read plenty of them to recognise the circumstances.

But right now, his biggest concern landed on what kind of role he had. Perhaps I’m just a side character? Or even just a background one? That would definitely make things easier… I could start a new life!

His optimism was the only thing getting him through the fact that there was a lot to digest, the novel also featured a foreign world, completely different from his own. To survive he needed to learn more, but his memory could only vaguely remember the plot.

As far as he knew, this world had magic and creatures alongside different races, however, he could only recall Magic users, Vampires and Elves, as they were quite basic. But he had to watch out for others too, there were kinds with names he couldn’t pronounce and whether they were meant to be good or not was impossible to say.

Although memory didn’t serve him as well as he’d hoped, he did remember parts of the plot. It was a romance novel for one, very generic, a prince and a fair lady fall in love, but she is without magic and thus rejected by the royal family as a potential queen for the prince.

There’s also a villain, as all stories have, who is out to reign over the kingdom and, obviously, take the girl from the protagonist. Liam tried to recall what the villain was, a demon perhaps? He faintly remembered imagining a demon-like man as the villain, while the prince was heroic and helped people in need out of the goodness of his heart.

One crucial question still remained though; what role did he have?

Liam looked around him, all he could see were thick trees, dark bushes and when he looked down on his own clothes, they had been dirtied by mud and almost resembled rags. The sunlight had been hidden above the tree crowns earlier but the thickness of the forest was sparser and he could see streams of light fighting to reach the ground. After a long rest, and making sure nothing was creeping around, he decided to look for a town.

Without a path to follow, his wandering soon felt hopeless, as hours went by, he suddenly heard a growling once more and flinched. He held a branch in the hopes of using it as a weapon if push comes to shove. Though he lowered his arms when he realised the growling wasn’t a ferocious monster out to eat him, but his own stomach begging for food!

He scouted his surroundings until he caught sight of a glorious red apple hanging from a tree, the sun bounced off its surface as if trying to tempt him to grab it. Liam approached it with caution; it looked like a regular apple so he reached out for it.

Crunch. As he took the first bite, an overwhelming flavour washed over him. It was sweet, but bitterness tried to take over, before he could spit it out, darkness engulfed his vision and he fell to the ground. A scene opened before him, slightly hazy and when he tried to touch the vision, it blurred.

He saw a figure grabbed by the throat, as he neared that figure turned out to be him!

It was like he saw his past, like he saw it from the guidelines but he couldn’t recall a scene like this ever happening. The vision of him pleaded for his life but the person holding him didn’t budge, he was trying to loosen the grip with his hands as tears streamed down.

Eventually the arms dropped and the body was thrown to the side. Liam realised that this wasn’t a scene from the past but from the future, and when he saw it, he also knew what role he had… he was the second male lead.

A role which was destined to die at the hands of the protagonist when he betrayed his childhood friend, the prince, after falling in love with the same woman. Startled down to his core at the sight of his own lifeless body on the ground, Liam hurried to the vision of the prince. He wanted to know what they looked like, if the protagonist was to kill him, then his only choice was to change the story!

But as he ran after the blurred character, the only thing he felt was disappointment when the face wasn’t visible and a strong aura hit him. Suddenly everything was falling apart around him, he didn’t manage to see the face but now he was determined to stay on the prince’s good side.

It turned dark again and when Liam slowly opened his eyes, he opened them to a person looking at him. He sprung up trying to back away, but his hands were unable to find something to take a hold on. Nearly falling back, Liam grabbed the person by the shoulders. He noticed that he was on a horse, in the arms of a stranger, riding somewhere unknown.

The man holding him around the back and and under the legs flinched at his sudden movement, and both of them watched each other in silence. Liam’s mind raced as thoughts started piling up.

The man was wearing a black mask, hiding half his face, but despite that, Liam could tell he had a strong presence. Wait… Could this be the protagonist? The prince that I need to make sure doesn’t kill me? He saved me, didn’t he? I collapsed after eating an apple, and I also saw my death… Novel logic tells me a hero like this must be the protagonist!

Liam’s silence made the man carrying him unsure. His black, shoulder-length hair almost fully covered a hidden, menacing face. However, Liam figured that novels nowadays had all kinds of princes, and a good looking guy like this, one going out of his way to save him, had to be an important character.

He quickly met the other’s grey eyes, smiling brightly as he said, “Thank you for saving me,”

The man stayed quiet, his piercing eyes rarely left Liam. He’s so considerate! Making sure I’m fine, even though he’s not much of a talker.

Finally a deep voice asked, “You’re not afraid of me?”

Liam turned back to the man after petting the horse, he raised an eyebrow, confused at the question. “Why would I be afraid?” Is he self-conscious? Didn’t peg the protagonist for that but I can’t remember anyways.

“Do you know who I am?” The man inquired with an interested expression.

Do royalty get offended if someone doesn’t know who they are? Liam contemplated whether to be truthful and admit he wasn’t completely sure or to just say he did know. He was fairly confident about the man’s identity.

“Of course I know who you are!” He eventually said, choosing to please his saviour.

“Really..?” The man said, he coughed once then continued, “I found you passed out earlier, why did you eat a poisoned fruit when your resistance is so low?”

“My resistance?” Liam asked, confused. “What do you mean?”

He suddenly felt slightly worried about eating a poisoned apple but he was more curious about the resistance part. Was he allergic to apples now?

“You’re not aware?”

“Aware of what?!” He spoke harsher, but the stranger didn’t seem to take it to heart.

“You’re strangely weak to magic…” The stranger said as he harkled and looked away. The tip of his ears became red. “To help restrain the effects I had to kiss you.”

“You did what?! You, you, Pervert!” Liam shouted without thinking. He put his hands over his mouth as he sat frozen in fear. Why did he yell that out to the person meant to kill him?!