The Beginning

He put down the book, his face flushed and heart beating rapidly.

"Holy shit, I cannot believe that the author did that..." he whispered. His friend looked over, barely managing to catch what he said.

"Kyler, what are talking about?"

"Dude. The author.... he put a plot twist. In a plot twist. Then turns out none of that was important, and the main story was happening like in an entire other dimension, and there were these space trolls, and they almost died-"

Kyler's friend cut him off. "Kyler. My friend. My best friend, even. Please, shut the fuck up. I'm trying to study for my exam at the moment, and you constantly interrupting me is causing me to lose my focus. Like, the stuff isn't even real!"

Kyler, who was looking calm for the first part, jumped up after hearing the second part. "And? Sam, who cares if it isn't real? They are real enough, aren't they? And they're a hell of a lot more interesting than you are lately. All you're doing is studying, studying, and then more studying. I know you are trying to be a biology teacher, but does it really take this much of your time?"

Sam looked tired. "Yes, it does take this much of my time. Actually, I should be putting in more time, but for some reason I still say yes whenever you ask me to hang out." He flashed a quick smile and turned his head back to his textbook. "Just give me like 2 more hours, and I'll go do something with you then."

Kyler shrugged. "Aight. I guess I'm going to find a new book...." He jumped off the chair, grabbing the sci-fi book he just finished before walking away. He walked down the aisle back to where he found the book to put it back.

After putting it back, he started browsing the aisles in library in order to find something interesting. Of course, he could always find something online, but he vastly preferred the feeling of a book in his hands over a feeling of a smartphone. He looked through the aisles, seeing all of the books he had read through. Each one he glanced at brought back memories of the worlds he had created in his head while reading each book, the characters and their stories feeling so very lifelike to him.

But one book... it was unfamiliar. "Huh, that's weird." Kyler reached down to pick up the book. He was surprised by the weight of it. His arms that were strengthened by years of lugging around piles of books actually struggled a bit lifting up just this one book.

He lugged the book to a nearby desk before starting to truly investigate it. He was a naturally curious person, and something this mysterious would grab his attention like nothing else.

The book seemed old, first off. The cover didn't have any words of any kind, just a loose blank paper sleeve over a hard cover. The paper was tattered in places, completely yellow, but when touching or trying to tear a tiny corner of the paper it remained unharmed. The material the hard cover was made of seemed to be wood, but wood that was black as night, even blacker than that. When seeing glimpses of it through the paper, he saw a black so dark it seemed to suck in light, but he was able to touch it and confirm the texture of wood.

He finally opened the book, hoping to at least gain some clues from anything written inside. The first page was blank, but the next page just had one word written on it in capital letters; STORYFORGE.

He turned the page again, only to start reading about some weird things that didn't make sense to him. The book wasn't written in any logical order, didn't have a plot or any dialogue or anything. But for some reason he kept turning the pages, reading on.

He kept reading for an unknown amount of time. The library had closed up, everyone had left, but no one had noticed him before leaving. That's not to say they didn't try, or at least one did. Sam had spent an hour or so looking around the library for him after he finished studying, but for some reason was unable to see Kyler. Kyler seemed to not even be in the library.

Kyler finally turned the last page of the book. Some lines seemed to dance around in his head, something about a "Forge, Unknown for Eons, Forever Burning" and "Infinite Stories Unfolding", but those terms were completely unknown to him. There were a few other terms, but they didn't stick in his mind as much as those two did. He mumbled the two terms outloud, trying to get a feel for how they sounded. Maybe that would help him understand it?

The moment he the word "Unfolding" left his lips, though, something happened. The books started to heat up, and the paper started to smolder.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" He exclaimed while scrambling out of the chair he was sitting on. He pulled off his shirt, trying his best to smother the fire that seemed to be starting. "Oh my god, I am going to be in so much trouble. I don't wanna get kicked out... " He said under his breath, still trying his best to make sure there was no air circulation for the fire.

But the book kept getting hotter. The heat started to seep through the thin fabric of the shirt, making it so all he wanted to do then was drop the book, but he couldn't. He tried to force his hands to open, but they just wouldn't listen to him. The heat kept growing even faster, but strangely there wasn't any fire. The only thing that was there was just heat, but that heat was now at an immense level. He should've been dead, he knew it, this kind of heat is one someone would feel standing in a volcano. He kept trying to get away, but for some reason, his feet weren't listening to him either.

His surroundings started to melt away around him until the only thing that was left was just the book (his shirt was long gone by this point) and him. He was floating in an infinite expanse, and the origin of the destruction was this mysterious book titled Storyforge.

He wanted to look around and take in his surroundings, but the melting book kept his eyes in one place. The only thing that mattered was the book.

The melting process finally completed, leaving a puddle of this molten liquid floating in midair. Of course, Kyler wondered why wood and paper would melt into something metal would melt into, but nothing would give him any answers at this time.

The puddle slowly moved closer to Kyler. It reached his hands, and then immediately split into two, each part attaching itself to his hands. The molten liquid then started to drill its way into his skin, allowing Kyler to feel extreme pain. Before, even with the blistering heat, he felt nothing. But this.... this was a pain that dove straight to the soul. There was no escaping this kind of pain, no matter what kind of mysticisms were at play.

Finally, the molten liquid all went inside him. Kyler was finally able to move. He looked around, only to find nothing had changed. He was still in the library, the desk right in front of him, the only difference being he was now standing up with the chair fallen behind him, and he was shirtless.

"What. The. Fuck. Just happened." Those were his first words that he could think of to say. That event didn't seem fake, what he saw looked as real as the world around him. But... books heating up out of nowhere, the universe being melted by pure heat, a book melting into his hands, that unbearable pain.... that all felt so real. Especially the pain. There was little to no chance of him forgetting that anytime soon. But... how was everything around him fine?

He looked at his hands to see if everything was the same as before, and it was. His hands didn't feel any pain, nor did any other part of his body. But wait, there was a difference, a rather large one. His calloused fingers, built up from years of turning countless pages, all those little paper cuts and small bruises and scars, they were gone. All that was left were these long narrow fingers, but not long enough to look weird. It's more like his fingers, which were too short for his body before, grew to the perfect length for his average height body. The cuts and bruises had disappeared as well.

Again, the only words he could say were, "What. The. Fuck." He flexed his hands a few times to get the feel of them, and they felt like his normal hands. They just had slightly longer, better looking fingers on them.

He was shook. 'Ok, so it was all real,' he thought. 'There is literally no other way I could manage to grow new body parts if it wasn't for... I don't know what that was, but it seemed magical.' Kyler wanted to know more about what happened right then, but he had no idea where to even start. Everyone that he knew of thought of magic as fiction. And the people that didn't think of magic as fiction were, well... not the brightest, per se. At least, that was what Kyler heard for years from everyone around him.

Everyone looked down on him for even thinking that fiction stories had a basis in reality. They thought that fiction stayed in the imagination, and non-fiction stayed in the real world. But now that magic did seem to be in the real world, he needed some answers.

His first idea for somewhere to go to was a shop that sold crystals. He had seen a few people talk about crystals and magic spells together in the same sentence and had read more than a few books that said that crystals had some sort of magical properties. And besides, there was one close to his apartment.

He checked his pockets for his phone and pulled it out, but the screen wouldn't turn on. 'This magic book now owes me a new phone' he thought while throwing the phone back into his pocket. He would turn it in for some cash later, or maybe see if his phone plan would let him upgrade it without it working.

He looked around the library and finally noticed that no one was around. But for some reason, he didn't notice until now that the lights had gone out. He assumed his being able to see clearly in the dark was something the book had done.

His first order of business was to get a new shirt. He looked around the library for a bit before finding a jacket someone had left behind. He put it on and then spent a while looking for an unlocked door, which took him longer than he expected. He eventually found a door that was unlocked from the inside and left into the night, hoping to search for some answers to what the hell happened. He still brought a few books along that looked interesting though.