Everything went back to normal the moment I merged with the newborn. I was forcefully yet carefully taken away from the old woman and was passed to the old man wearing the butler uniform.

“Urgh!” I heard a thud as she fell hard on the ground after the prince kicked her hard in the chest.

“Vhar! Mhuye hastep unat ten dre kuman ten-i?!” [Trans: You! What do you think you are doing?!]

The old woman paled and immediately kowtowed in front of the prince. I heard thuds as countless knees made contact with the carpeted floor, probably from the other uniformed women present.

“This impudent one tried to kill the princess in front of me.” Although not having any idea of what he’s saying, one could feel how venomous his voice was. ‘This man is scary. I shouldn’t get on his bad side.’ 

She trembled. “I dare not Hwan! I tripped-”

“Guards! Seize this midwife at once!”

The double-doors opened and four guards rushed inside the room to hold the crying, hyperventilating midwife. “Heed my orders: everyone present, from servants to nobles, currently in the royal city must gather at the Punishment Hall and witness the execution of this impudent woman who tried to harm the princess. Make it so that everyone would know what would happen to them if they tried to do harm to my daughter.” 

“Hadidi, Hwan!” the four replied in unison.

“Noooo! Hwan! Please believe me! I dare not harm the princess!”

“Did you think that I would believe you? How dare you pretend to trip just so you could choke my child? There’s nothing to trip yourself off, I made sure of that ever since I got to know Luna’s pregnancy. If you’re truly protecting the princess, then why are you squeezing her neck and pushing her onto your chest? You could clearly feel her thrashing about because she cannot breathe, not only did you not release her, you also tighten your grip around her.” The prince looked back at the person holding me. Without saying a word, he gave me to the former before giving a bow.

The old man left the room first, followed by all uniformed women except the two women standing by the bed. The midwife was forced to stand up and was dragged out of the room, her pleas echoed as the mahogany doors closed: “I was only protecting Dayang-dayang! Nooooo! Hwan! Please forgive this servant for what she has done! Please!”

It was quiet for a moment when a woman wearing a very beautiful grandiose yellow ball gown talked: “My King, maybe she was just really protecting the princess. No one would dare to harm the princess as she is the hope of our kingdom. Not to mention that it is still broad daylight and that you are here in person, no one would dare commit treason in this situation.”

“Are you saying I lied, Alicia?”

“E? N-no, My King… of course not. It’s just that it’s absurd that she would just kill the princess right in front of you.”

He glared at her, making her tremble. “Are you saying that I overreacted then? This child is the hope of the kingdom; the answer to all our hardships. If you think that this matter is only small and what I did was too much, then I don’t see any reason for you to be by my side any longer since you failed to see how important this princess is to the kingdom’s future.”

Upon hearing this, the woman immediately kneeled and asked for forgiveness however he no longer paid her attention and instead walked towards the woman lying in the bed. He sat down on the edge of the bed and handed me to her. He moved some strands of hair stuck on her forehead and kissed her gently. She kissed my head and hummed. 

“You’ve done well. Thank you for giving birth to a healthy daughter. Rest. Don’t worry about anything. I’ll make sure that nothing of this sort will ever happen again.” He then addressed the three women who were still inside the room. “Haven’t you heard what I said earlier? I instructed everyone to be present in that midwife’s execution so why are you still here?” 

Sensing that the king is still furious with what just happened, the three hurriedly exited the room.

His attention went back to us, bent down and kissed me on my forehead. He held my woman’s hand and massaged it a little. “I need to go now.” The rest also withdrew from the room after he left, leaving only the two of us in the bed.

The woman adjusted herself and patted my back gently; she started to sing a lullaby that I’m not familiar with but still made me relax. Listening to her soft voice, I soon fell asleep however, I felt myself drifting away from reality again.

I soon found myself standing in the middle of a vast ocean, with lotuses and daffodils of different sizes resting on the top of the glittering water. At a distance, I could see a ginormous castle made of reflective glass. I gulped before I started to walk towards its gigantic doors. It slowly opened when I reached the front so I just went inside. “Mariana?” I called.

A naked figure emerged from atop the stairs. Just like the way I pictured her to be: a red head with a Coca-cola body with non-existent udders and body hair. I followed her as she walked down the stairs. “You… this… looks like Elsa’s castle.”

“Really? I think so too.” She commented. “Welcome.” She hugged me.

“I’m dead, right? I died.” I told her the moment we parted but she didn’t respond. “Is this what… judgment hall? Is this where people get judged whether to go to heaven or hell?”

She laughed. “Silly.”

“Then… then where am I? What is this place?”

“I don’t know. I swear. All I know is one day, when I opened my eyes I was sleeping on this castle’s very floor. Then as if possessed, I started doing things that made this world how you see it now.”

“I don’t understand.”

She started roaming the empty floor. “I, too, didn’t at first. But I came to understand what was happening and accept my fate. People call me Kismet: The Creator of All. And you, you are this Creator’s creator.” She looked me in the eye.

“What?!” I looked at her as if she grew three heads.

“It may be hard to believe but you need to listen.”

“Wear clothes first.” I blurted out. “I-I mean… you’re… nude…”

She smiled. “Haay… it’s not my fault you see. My creator was so young and innocent that it made her feel like she committed a crime when creating me. So, she made sure to remove all my private parts, I don’t even have nipples nor vagina.” 

I gasped. “Sorry! I-I…” memories of that day flashed on my mind. My family was pretty conservative when I was a kid so when I was doing my sketch for my novel, I didn’t put her in clothes because her body is so seductive that I thought Mom and Dad would punish me for drawing a slut. But now that I’m thinking of it, seeing her now made me feel stupid. She’s become more exposed and more alluring than my young self intended her to be.

“Anyways,” she continued. “I was your imaginary friend. As you grew older, you didn’t forget about me. You drew my body, you named me, you gave me a back story. You gave me everything and when you died, I was still in your mind. After you died, I woke up in this world; built everything the way you imagined and all events played just the same. Welcome to Imaginan.” She spread her arms wide, proud of her creation.

I flopped to the ground. “Do you expect me to believe that?”

“Do you have any other explanation?”

Not knowing what to say, I just stared at her. “So you snatched my soul and kept it here? Is that what you did? Because the only possible explanation why I wasn’t where I think I should be is because you stole my soul and dragged it here and stuck it in that child’s body who, by the way, got almost killed the moment she was born, so not a good decision there.” 

“But you wanted to live here! Why else can’t you let go of this? You had this in mind since you were a child and you brought this until you grew old. I watched you grow up, I was there with you throughout your life. You played imagining this place; you drew concepts after concepts of this world as you grew. You even made this place the settings of your novel!” 

“That’s because I was already familiar with this place! I didn’t want to spend years of world building when I already had one available for me. I’m not obsessed with this place, you are!”

“B-but… how about me? You didn’t forget about me…”

“I didn’t think of it the way you do. I just connected both me and my dead sister’s name so that I could spend my time with her. That’s why you’re called Mariana, Mari and Ana. You’re like an alter ego, a guardian angel I used to believe in.”

“But you still called me even though you're already old enough. You made me live, you made me believe that you love me so I devoted my life to you. I defied the heavens and created this world for you because I thought… I thought…” she became hysterical. She kept talking to herself, asking where it went wrong and how did it turn out this way.

I didn’t waste time and ran out of the castle. However, I caught her attention so she slammed the door in my face. “Kyah!” 

“Where- why?” Her bloodshot eyes looked straight at me. 

I scrambled until my back hit the door, without breaking eye contact, I tried pushing the door but to no avail. “W-what do you want?”

“Where are you going? We’re not yet finished. We were still talking-”

“Please stop. No more. I wanna go home.”

“But you can’t.”

“Please let me go! I want to go home! I don’t know you!”

“I am Mariana! We even cried on each other’s shoulders just a little while ago.”

“You’re a monster! You’re derailed… please… let me go… let me go…”

She observed as I bawled my eyes out, trembling and on alert if she ever did anything. She sighed, her eyes went back to normal. “You can’t.” I could see pity in her eyes. She walked towards me but I pushed myself more on the door so she halted. She tried to show me how calm and harmless she was. “I’m sorry, but I’m telling the truth.”

“Let me go. I wanna go back.” I pleaded.

“You can’t. You won’t be able to go back. Your soul has reincarnated already and the only way to go back is for you to die again. I don’t even know if you’ll be able to go back since this is an entirely different universe now. God doesn’t exist here, there’s only Kismet. There’s no heaven here, just a spirit world.”

“Why… Why me? Why me?” I continuously asked her. She didn’t do anything and only watched me as I weep on the floor, clutching the door handle.

“Forgive me, I thought you wanted this. I was so desperate to give back all the love you gave me that I wallowed in delusion.”

“Hik! I-I never wanted this. I was just- hik! Hik!” I sobbed.

“Please don’t cry, it pains me to see you cry.” She tried approaching me again, this time, I let her. “I’ll help you. I’ll do everything I can to give you the life you want. I’ll create more miracles just for you, I’ll make you a queen, or an empress, a saintess even! Just- just don’t leave me. I did this for you, I want you… I did this for you… please?”