Chapter 3

She died…and transmigrated to that shitty novel.

Why her?!

Calista, took her trembling self and weakly walked to the behind her, slumping down in defeat at her situation. 'My anatomy professor would be failing me right now' it was laughable that it was the first thought that came over her. That her college professor would be failing her for probably not submitting the report that was due that day. All because she was inside the novel that she didn't even like and had no attachment to. Her friend would probably be more ecstatic at the thought of being inside 'A Heart's Enchantment'. After all, she liked the story so much.

She didn't linger on those thoughts, however. Her mind, at the moment, was filled with her past memories with her parents, when they saved up money and first took her to the amusement park when she was a child. When her parents cried and told her they wouldn't be able to pay for her tuition in college (she had to work part-time and apply for various scholarships), and the times when they came home from work, exhausted yet still brought her the fruits she liked so much.

Calista feels the tears stinging her eyes. What would they say now that she's dead? What would happen to them now? Her parents would be heartbroken. They wouldn't be able to take that kind of pain, not when Calista was their only child. Who would take care of her parents now? Her poor, and kind parents who had done nothing but support her.

They would be devastated when they see her body…she could already imagine their expressions of horror and grief when they see her. Her mom would probably collapse at even the thought. Calista wipes her falling tears harshly from her eyes, not used to ever feeling so weak in her life. But could she even call it 'her life' anymore? She was in a stranger's body, a fictional character she hadn't even thought could be someone real. Would that mean Phyllis would be in her body? Would that mean that the real heroine is dead?

Fuck (she's not even going to censor it for the kids). There was no other word that could express it better than that. She was fucked.

Calista sniffed, her eyes blazing with anger and frustration which, if she could see in the mirror at that moment, was a sight to behold, the raging expression proving to be disharmonious, clashed with the heroine's serene face. If she could have seen it, she would have described it as 'a devil wearing the mask of an angel'.

But Calista had other things in mind. She was feeling the loss of her parents, just as they were probably feeling the loss of their daughter. It was not fair that she died at the ripe age of 20, not when she was about to apply for the internship at that hospital. Not when she was going to make her dream come true. Her life wasn't full of rainbows and unicorns, sure, but she had many things to look forward to, and she had many people that she loved and cared for.

Still, she could never have guessed that the afterlife was like this (she was still considering that maybe it is hell). Calista had always imagined resting forever after she died. But she could never have imagined that she would be sent to another universe, with all her past memories, as one of the worst heroines known to literature.

'Take a deep breath' she told herself, her feelings of grief slowly easing away into a dull and uncomfortable feeling in her chest. Calista's mind was already running to other things (some of her professors always praised her for adapting quickly). She got up, made her way to the desk where Phyllis most likely spent most of her time. She pulled out the journal containing Phyllis's memories and feelings and decided it would be the place where she would write everything that she remembers of the novel.

The key points of the story, if she was to use technical words.

And if it was possible, Calista would ask the parents to transfer her to another school instead. It would be a plausible argument, and would make more sense than Phyllis's desire to transfer at the last year of her high school. Even if it was her dream school, there really was no use transferring when she was already about to graduate.

Calista's attention was caught by a knock from the door. She turns her head and says, "come in," and the door opens to reveal the father, his face decorated with a pleasing smile and pure kindness.

"Phyllis, are you alright? The maids said you hadn't been out of your room the whole day" He paced to her and placed a device in her ear. It gave a small beep before being pulled out. Calista could hear the father setting down the thermometer on her desk, although her gaze was now drawn on the floor.

"You don't have a fever," he bent down to one knee and took his daughter's delicate hands. "Where are you not feeling well? Do we need to go to the hospital?" he couldn't clearly see her daughter's face as he was looking from over his glasses. The father pushes his glasses up before taking his daughter's hand again. Though when he was finally able, he could see Calista's face all scrunched up, as if attempting not to cry, an expression that he hadn't ever seen on his daughter's face since she was a little girl and she had a particularly nasty wound on her knee from playing too rough with the neighbourhood kids.

He smiled. "I haven't seen you with that expression since you were a little girl" he started and chuckled at the memory of her wrestling with other kids at a nearby playground where they used to live. He looks to see his daughter gazing up at him through her thick lashes with a curious look in her eyes.

"You were always naughty when you were a child. Your mom and I had trouble taming you" the father laughs when he sees a small twitch on her lips.

"I was?" she asked quietly, and he didn't sense the disbelief in her tone.

"You very much were" he laughs again at the memory before settling into a small smile. "You used to wrestle with other kids, and you'd come back home full of scratches…" he stops to place his index finger on her nose for a childish boop.

"And you'd have that same look on your face as you tell us the reason why you fought with other kids" Calista had an unreadable expression on her face. The things that the father was telling her sounded exactly like the things she had done when she was a child. Although, she couldn't imagine the frail and delicate girl, the soft-spoken and patient heroine, to have been an unruly child.

"Really?" she ended up blurting without thinking after her surprise.

The father didn't seem to find anything strange about her words. "Yes, you were so young back then, it's no wonder you forgot about it" he smiles again and Calista wonders how his cheeks hadn't hurt yet with how much he was smiling.

"Do you have a problem? You wanna share it with your dad?" Calista bit the insides of her cheek when she looked at the kind smile of Phyllis's father that was now directed to her. It was…so much similar to how her father smiles (no matter how rarely) to her. How it was filled with the same warmth and affection that her own father so rarely shows to his family.

This is it.

This was gonna be her life from now on.

Calista would wear a different face, a different name, and have a different background.

Her lips quivered and she could sense the growing worry of the dad who was still kneeling before her. There were remnants of tears threatening to fall from her eyes and she couldn't hold them back anymore.

Still, the silence of the room prompted her to ask something she had been thinking about earlier.

"Dad…" she trails, the once familiar word finding itself rolling uncomfortably unfamiliar to her. She thinks to herself that 'he' wasn't her dad. But she was now occupying someone else's body, so should she still think the same?

"Yes, honey?" the dad replies, with another worried smile.

Calista swallows and prepares herself. "Could I, is there any chance for me to transfer schools?" she finally asks.

Phyllis's father blinks, and his eyes turn shaded, like there were swirls of a misty fog covering them. Calista gasped upon seeing them, and she moved a hand to place on the dad's shoulder, only for her to flinch away when he spoke.

"No" he says, though his voice was cold and so unlike the father that Calista was seeing just a few seconds earlier. "You can't," he added stiffly.

'What?' Calista thought, confused at the way the dad was now acting.

She flinches when the dad blinks again, and the misty fog covering his eyes were now gone just as a smile returns on his face.

"What were you going to say again, sweetheart?" he asked, as if the earlier interaction he had with her had not happened at all. Like he doesn't remember it.

"What?" Calista whispers, her voice quaky. What did that mean? What did that mean for her? Does that mean she had no way to escape the fate of the body she was now occupying? That she doesn't have any choice? That she'd have to play a part in that awful webnovel?

"Nothing" Calista says instead, forcing herself to calm her quivering hands.

"Okay, honey. We'll wait for you downstairs, alright? It's almost time for dinner" the dad stands up and walks towards the door, leaving Calista all by herself in the darkness of the room.