Chapter 1

I stood in the little kiosk and looked out towards the other shops, wondering how my life had narrowed down to such a bleak outlook. It was a Tuesday morning, and I had just opened up. I hadn’t seen a single shopper yet. It was half past nine on a cold November day, so I hadn’t really expected anything else.

Torn from his own world and stuffed into the body of a villainess, facing the end of a doomed route he himself wrote, "Amelia" must navigate a world she really should know - too bad she was never great at worldbuilding.

Stuck in a world she (maybe) created, Amelia quickly finds that reality has filled in the details she failed to describe. The characters who were so flat when she wrote them now have nuance, and motives. The kingdom she wrote into existence is experiencing internal strife she never even thought about. And let's not even get into the complexities of the magic system, or the demon that forced her into this situation to begin with...

Oh, and then there's the fact that she's about to be arrested and executed... but surely she can come up with a way to write herself out of that, right?

...Right?

I sit in the Target parking lot for four minutes before I go in.

The calculation happens here, in the car, engine off. I'm going to walk into the store and go to the women's section and stand in front of a wall of sports bras and buy one. More than one, ideally. I know what I'm looking for in general terms. I don't know my chest measurement. I know I take a large men's shirt. I don't know if that translates to anything in the women's activewear section of a Target.

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Torn from his own world and stuffed into the body of a villainess, facing the end of a doomed route he himself wrote, "Amelia" must navigate a world she really should know - too bad she was never great at worldbuilding.

Stuck in a world she (maybe) created, Amelia quickly finds that reality has filled in the details she failed to describe. The characters who were so flat when she wrote them now have nuance, and motives. The kingdom she wrote into existence is experiencing internal strife she never even thought about. And let's not even get into the complexities of the magic system, or the demon that forced her into this situation to begin with...

Oh, and then there's the fact that she's about to be arrested and executed... but surely she can come up with a way to write herself out of that, right?

...Right?

Chapter 9

When we went to school on the Sunday, we took both cars. Now that I was independent, I wanted to visit my own parents when I could. Our room was now totally redecorated, with neutral walls and a red, white, and blue cornice at the ceiling join.

CHRISSY
This was getting more and more like one of the more difficult clubs, and I was beginning to feel very much out of my depth, for I had nothing I could bring to that evening’s table. The stuff about ‘Pat’ had blindsided me, and then Red stepped in with even more.

It was indeed like one of those clubs, where a succession of devious sods did their party pieces and challenged me, in effect, to outdo them. That place with the guitarist who seemed to worship Nick Drake, for example. I just about had to beat him to death with the smallpipes.

When a subject or subjects are charged with crimes in most of the world, the process of investigation does not stop. Efforts are made to make sure that the case is as ‘beyond all reasonable doubt’ as possible.

Maggie, A Little More Cleavage

It was a mid afternoon appointment, two-thirty for a body waxing and the addition of breasts. Mary, the stylist at Turnabout Gurl Salon had everything set up for me.

All I had to do is show-up and the deed would be done. Since Mary is a friend of Melody’s, I had been squeezed in, a dinner date for me with my wife at our favorite restaurant the reason for the appointment.

It may sound strange but I recommend you not to read parts 3 and 4 of this story.
Part 3 is only half decent while part 4 is way too confusing for readers. I had great fun writing these parts though. A classic example of self-indulgence.
I did consider pulling these parts but decided to let them stay as a reminder that I should stick to short stories.
So once again. Unless you actually like to be confused, don’t read parts 3 and 4.

After a man is stabbed in the back and dies, he wakes up in the Labyrinth with a new body, new power, and another chance.

This story takes place in the same universe as my story Invoker.