Piper had grown used to the rhythm of the hospital, with nurses showing up at regular intervals to give her medicine, and groups of doctors stopping by to murmur about her condition in concerned tones. Meanwhile, in the background was the ever-present sound of medical equipment with its whirs and beeps.

  But when she woke up today, something was different. As she cracked her eyes open, she saw that her room was crammed full of doctors and nurses. In fact, there were so many of them, she wasn’t sure how they weren’t stepping on each other’s toes.

  And the usual steady beep of the machines at her side had become shriller, more insistent. At her bedside, her parents stood close together, holding hands with pinched expressions on their faces.

  How the heck am I supposed to get any sleep with all this noise?

  To Piper’s surprise, when she opened her mouth to ask what was going on, no sound came out. Then she slowly became aware of a crushing weight bearing down on her chest, making it almost impossible to breathe.

  Her face drained of color as she clutched at her chest. Why couldn’t she breathe? She searched the room for her wheelchair. If she could just get out of bed, she knew that she’d feel better. While she’d been sleeping, the pillow propping her up must have slid into an awkward position where she couldn’t inhale properly. That was the only explanation.

  After a brief scan, she spotted her wheelchair in the corner, far out of reach for her. Who the heck had put it over there? And since she couldn’t speak, she couldn’t tell anyone that she needed to get out of bed. A surge of panic made her gaze dart around the room.

  Her dad must have noticed her expression, and he stepped forward to take her hand.

  “It will be alright, Pip,” he said softly, blinking his eyes rapidly. “Everything will be alright.”

  Piper’s eyes widened with shock as she realized her dad was crying. She’d never seen him cry before. This, more than the doctors rushing around the room, made her realize that she was in serious trouble.

  She gave her dad’s hand a little squeeze before angling her head slightly in an attempt to smile at her mom. Her lips barely twitched, but her mother gave a warm smile in return. As she opened her mouth to try to speak again, the doctor gently pushed her father out of the way and grabbed the IV bag. He held up a needle and injected something directly into the line.

  The weight was becoming unbearable on her chest, and the edges of her vision were fraying. A weariness she’d never experienced before descended over her like a leaden blanket, followed by an intense desire to sleep.

  Piper blinked once, twice, and then closed her eyes. The last thing she heard was her mother sobbing, and then the darkness took her away.

  When she reopened her eyes, she found herself floating in a void. She tried to move, but her body was formless. She squinted in an attempt to see anything, but there was nothing out there except for the inky darkness. Then, without warning, writing appeared in her vision.

  You have died.

  “What?” she exclaimed, her voice seemingly coming from nowhere. “How could I die? I was getting better. The doctors said so!”

  The news stunned her, almost more than finding herself floating in a void. This wasn’t how her life was supposed to go. Girls weren’t supposed to die before their 13th birthdays. She hadn’t even gone to high school yet. She’d never been on a date. She’d never travelled. There was so much she wanted to see and do.

  Before she could spiral further, more writing appeared.

  A god wishes to reincarnate your soul in another realm.

  Would you like to accept? (Yes/No?)

  Piper had no idea what any of that meant, so she mentally selected ‘No.’ More text flashed in her vision.

  Failure to accept will result in your soul continuing to the afterlife.

  “Huh.” She mentally blinked at the news that there was life after death. But the whole ‘god trying to reincarnate you’ probably should have tipped her off. After she’d become sick, her dad had become super religious, but she was never convinced that a higher power existed. If she ever got the chance to see him again, she’d have to tell him he was right.

  The thought of her parents nearly overwhelmed her with grief. If she selected ‘Yes’, would she ever see them again? Would she give up the chance to reunite with them someday in the afterlife, whatever that meant?

  But then again, there was no way she could give up another chance at life. And the prompt had said she was going to be reincarnated. That meant a new body, right? If that was true, then this time her body might actually work. If she were really lucky, she might even be able to eat normal food. The thought of having ice cream again almost made her mentally salivate.

  After a brief pause, she selected [Yes].

  At first, nothing happened, but after what felt like an eternity, she began to move. The motion was barely perceptible at first, but then she quickly picked up speed. As she moved, stars burst to life around her, like mini supernovas. Her mouth would have dropped open with amazement if she still had one.

  Do I even have a body?

  Piper’s thoughts faded away as she marveled at the galaxies spinning past her vision. She zoomed past a red dwarf sun, feeling the searing heat as she neared its burning surface. Then she sped past a frozen world, its surface covered in craters and vast sheets of ice.

  After a few minutes, everything blurred until it felt like she was going light speed from a sci-fi show. The stars became lines of light shooting past her vision. She was barely able to catch glimpses of planets before they disappeared behind her.

  Without warning, she came to a shuddering stop, and in a rush all of her senses returned. She drew in a shuddering breath, and then another one, her lungs screaming for air. Her heart pounded in her chest, and she felt jolts of pain shooting through her limbs.

  Piper hesitantly opened her eye a slit and found herself staring up at a stone ceiling. It took her a moment to accept that she wasn’t in the hospital any longer. A small part of her thought this might have all been a hallucination brought on by the drugs they were pumping into her system.

  After a second, both eyes shot open as she realized she could feel her limbs again. Not the faint phantom memory of them that so often tortured her. No, she could feel her arms! She could feel her legs!

  Without hesitation, she sat up, only for the surrounding world to upend. She grabbed onto the stone surface beneath her and held herself steady until the spinning stopped. When the vertigo finally passed, she inspected her surroundings.

  There was no question she wasn’t in the hospital anymore. Unless they had some sort of ancient ruins hidden deep beneath the building. No, whatever had happened to her in the void had been real. She’d been reincarnated on another world.

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  Taking in her surroundings, she realized this place reminded her of the tombs she’d seen on the history shows her dad used to watch. There were paintings on the stone walls depicting an enormous black dragon surrounded by all kinds of people.

  Not people, she corrected herself after examining the paintings. Most of them didn’t look anywhere close to human. Some of them had animal heads, while others looked like monsters from fairy tales. Glowing red gems had been placed at regular intervals around the room, their light casting an eerie blood-red shade over everything.

  If she weren’t so freaked out about waking up here, she probably would have thought his place was cool. Plus, her dad would have loved it. He was always wheeling her around the local museums on the weekends, geeking out about all the exhibits. Her dad enjoyed it more than she did, but she just enjoyed spending time with him. And she loved when he gushed like a dork over some old sword or something.

  Piper swung her legs over the side of the rock table and noticed that she was wearing a plain black dress. Had someone dressed her while she was unconscious? She didn’t like that idea one bit. But before she could dwell on someone undressing her, she became aware of another sensation—something was slithering around behind her back.

  Leaping up with a scream, she whirled around to see what was on the stone slab. It had to be a snake. But when she spun around, there was nothing there. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught something swishing around in the air behind her. She slowly craned her head over her shoulder and was shocked to see that she had grown a tail. The skin on it was almost bone white, with the tip ending in an armored spade shape.

  Alarmed, she quickly inspected the rest of her body, touching each limb in turn. But aside from her terribly pale skin, everything else seemed normal. At least until she reached her head. There she found tiny lumps protruding from just beneath her hairline. Were they horns or something else? Based on her tail, she was willing to bet they were horns. Also, she noted that her hair had changed from blond to a shiny silver color.

  “Alright, I guess I’m not human,” she said, her voice sounding different to her ears. “So, what the heck am I?”

  The skin color she could deal with, since it wasn’t far off from her original skin tone. She hadn’t exactly spent a lot of time in the sun with her condition. But she wasn’t sure how she felt about the tail and horns. What would people think of her? To be honest, she’d had more than her fill of people staring at her in her previous life.

  “Focus on the positive,” she repeated to herself, almost like a mantra. It was something her dad had always said when things got bad. While she wasn’t too happy to learn she had maybe-horns along with a tail, at least she could walk again. More importantly, she wasn’t sick anymore.

  Piper’s forehead crinkled at that thought. At least she didn’t feel sick. Her disease couldn’t have followed her to a new world, right? The fact that she didn’t know scared her a little. But she doubted her disease would return. It wouldn’t make sense to be reincarnated only to get saddled with a rare disease a second time.

  She forced her thoughts back to her current situation. She had a second chance at life, and based on the prompt she’d received, magic probably existed here. The very idea of that thrilled her. Back home, she’d devoured countless fantasy and anime series. If magic were real here, then this was like a dream come true.

  “Hello?” she called out, her voice echoing in the chamber. When no one replied, she moved to examine the room.

  Walking over to the nearest wall, she poked at one of the gems. If they were real, then they must be worth a fortune. But who in their right mind would use a precious gem to light a room? Unless that was how magic worked here?

  Piper moved to the far side of the room, noting a weird lantern-like device perched at the end of the stone slab where she’d awoken. It sat on a golden base, and the middle part was flared glass. At the top sat a heavily inscribed golden lid.

  She took a few minutes to inspect the inscriptions, impressed by the flowing lines and intricate details. Something about the inscriptions called out to her, but she didn’t understand what they meant. Maybe she just appreciated the artwork. Before her muscles had become too weak to use her hands, she’d spent hours everyday drawing by her bedroom window. But she couldn’t possibly come close to replicating what she saw here. Whoever had made this was an amazing artist.

  With a sigh, she set about looking for a way out. The room had four walls, a ceiling, and a floor, but nothing that looked like a door. There was no obvious exit from the room. How the heck was she supposed to get out of here?

  And where exactly was here? The elation of waking up to find her limbs working was beginning to wear off, and fear was gnawing at the edge of her consciousness. For the first time in her life, she was alone. Someone had always been with her until now.

  The sound of grinding rocks interrupted her thoughts and made her spin around. She exhaled with relief to see an opening taking shape on the wall. The thick stone disappeared into a hidden slot, exposing a corridor beyond. Unlike this room, nothing lit the dark passageway.

  Piper frowned and crossed her arms. She wasn’t about to go walking down some dark corridor. There was nothing she hated more than horror movies, but even she knew you shouldn’t go explore a dark passageway without any light. If she did that, a monster was almost guaranteed to jump out and scare her.

  Pursing her lips, she turned her gaze toward the glowing gems. Maybe she could wiggle one free from the wall and use it like a flashlight. She walked over and gently touched the smooth surface of what looked like a ruby. The light flickered slightly at her touch but then grew in intensity as if it could sense her desire for illumination. She wanted to pry it out of the wall, but what if she got in trouble for damaging it? She still didn’t know who owned this place.

  After mulling over her situation for a minute, she decided to go ahead with her plan. If she somehow cracked the gem and someone got angry, she could always find a way to pay them back. Right now, she just needed to find her way out of here. That was the most important thing.

  Piper grabbed the blood-red gem with both hands and wriggled it back and forth. Surprisingly, it popped right out of the depression in the wall. It came free in a cascade of dust. Coughing, she covered her mouth with the sleeve of her dress.

  The drifting dust made her frown. It looked like no one had been down here for a very long time. Everything was covered in a film of dust, including the stone slab where she’d awoken. Glancing down at the floor, she realized hers were the only footprints. At least the only ones she could see. Why had a god summoned her here?

  Walking over to the door, she lifted the gem to light the passageway. She peered down the tunnel, the light disappearing into the distance. Like the other room, the walls here were constructed of carefully fitted stone and were covered in painted images.

  With a deep breath, she picked a direction and plunged into the darkness. She kept walking for what felt like an hour, increasing her pace as she went. Before long, she was running, praying to anyone who would listen to get her out of this place. But if anyone heard her prayers, they didn’t answer. The tunnel just kept going and going with no end in sight.

  Exhausted, she slowed to a stop before sinking down against the wall. Her muscles burned, and her throat was parched. While it felt like she’d been walking for hours, there was no way to tell in this world. Without a watch or phone, she had no idea how much time had passed. This place existed in a timeless void.

  After she’d rested for a short while, she heaved herself back to her feet and continued to lurch down the never-ending tunnel. Finally, a shaft of light in the distance made her break into a sprint. If there was light, it might mean a way out.

  Piper raced down the hall, only stopping when she reached a cave-in. The ceiling had collapsed here and blocked the corridor. But at the top of the pile of rubble, a narrow hole was letting in a beam of golden light. That must be the sun. And if she could squeeze through the hole, then she’d be free of this terrible place.

  Scrambling up the rocks, she ignored the sharp edges that sliced her knees and hands. And she barely felt her shins banging against the rocks. At the end of her climb, she’d be bloodied and bruised, but she didn’t care. She was almost free.

  The shaft leading to the surface was far narrower than it had looked, and she had to wedge herself into the rocky passageway. After a few metres, she could barely move, but she kept squirming forward. This was the only way out she’d seen. She had no choice but to keep going.

  When her arms became trapped at her sides, she doggedly pushed herself forward with her toes. When the shaft narrowed until she couldn’t expand her chest properly, she nearly had a panic attack. The sensation felt far too similar to what she’d experienced in the hospital.

  After a few seconds to calm herself, she kept inching forward. She moved only a few centimetres at a time, but she was making progress. However, she was rapidly losing strength, not having eaten or drunk anything in what felt like hours. Each breath burned in her chest, and sweat poured down her body. Still, she had to keep going.

  “I won’t give up,” she muttered to herself. “This is my chance at a real life. I can’t give up. I won’t.” She must be near the surface as the light had grown blindingly bright.

  Reaching deep down inside of herself, she drew upon the last of her reserves and gave one big push. At the end of the push, her head popped out of a hole, and brilliant sunlight bathed her face. Her next movement freed her arms, and then she dragged the rest of her body out of the hole.

  Finally free, she plopped down in the tall grass beside the opening, breathing hard. She knew she should look around, but she didn’t even have the strength to sit up. And right now, she was content to stare up at the beautiful blue sky of her new home.