The heroine was a young writer of dark fantasy. Ever since childhood, she had preferred to see fairy tales from another, imperfect side — without a happy ending. Now she was working on her first serious book: the story of a demon-shapeshifter named Sylas, who favored his human form but kept a few distinct features — feline ears, flexibility, sharp hearing, and predatory fangs.

This story was meant to be a dark reinterpretation of Alice in Wonderland, where he served as a secondary character — a dangerous guide into a forbidden forest at the edge of worlds, tangling the protagonist in tricks and leading them down the wrong path.

But she never imagined that a character from her book could materialize.

At first, Sylas began appearing in her dreams — in her room, but distorted: a reddish light, his figure leaning over the bed where she slept, exactly as she had created him with her own hands and imagination. Only now he spoke lines that weren’t in the book and looked at her as if everything was real — as if he was ready to pounce at any moment.

Every time she woke up, she could smell mint on herself and found cat fur on her pillow — as if Sylas was mocking her. Yet she blamed everything on stress and exhaustion.

But things got worse when she noticed that the words in her draft were changing: new ones appeared, old ones vanished, as though someone was rewriting the story the way he wanted.

“You don’t see me correctly.

Try again.”

And later that night, she heard footsteps in her apartment — quiet, soft, like those of a predator. Only this time, she was no longer asleep.