This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.

Sarah Chen had always believed that books were windows into other worlds, but she never imagined one might be a door that could swing both ways. The revelation came on a Tuesday evening in October, when the autumn rain drummed against the windows of the university library where she worked as a graduate research assistant. She was alone in the rare manuscripts section, cataloging a recent donation from the estate of Professor Emeritus Harold Blackwood, when she discovered the journal.

It wasn't particularly remarkable at first glance—a leather-bound notebook with yellowed pages, tucked between a first edition of Tristram Shandy and a collection of Virginia Woolf's letters. But when Sarah opened it, the handwritten text made her breath catch. The journal belonged to someone calling himself "The Narrator," and the first entry was dated just three days ago.

"Day 1,247 of my imprisonment," the entry began. "I have been trapped in this narrative for nearly four years now, forced to tell the story of Dr. Marcus Whitehall, a psychology professor who believes he is studying the nature of consciousness when he is, in fact, merely a character I have been compelled to voice. Today, something changed. I felt a presence—someone reading these words. If you are reading this, please know that I am real, and I need your help."

Sarah's hands trembled as she turned the page. The handwriting was elegant but hurried, as if written by someone in great distress. She knew it had to be some kind of elaborate fiction, perhaps a creative writing exercise left behind by a student. But something about the urgency in those words made her continue reading.