This morning when you awoke, An was nowhere to be found. The last time you saw her was yesterday when she caught you off guard with the strangest question...

What is up with girlfriends and their random hypothetical questions? Would I still love her if she was a worm?! Why is that something I should ever think about, let alone have a satisfactory answer for, when nothing like that could ever happen?

What did you even respond with when she asked you? You hesitated for a long time, sheepishly looked away and muttered that you didn't know. You could tell immediately that she wasn't too happy with that, but you didn't expect that she would stay upset for this long.

You get up and look over at her side of the bed, empty save for a small worm plushie sitting beside her pillow. Has that always been there? You rummage a bit through some of her belongings, hoping to find any kind of clue to her whereabouts, but all you find are more worms—doodles of worms on sheets of paper, packs of gummy worms (some empty), and even more worm plushies and plastic toys.

This has to be some kind of sick joke. Where are all of these worms coming from all of a sudden? You still hear her disappointed voice echoing in your head from that last conversation.

"I can't believe you, Drew."

"But An—" you started, but your sentence was cut off by a slammed door.

You wash your face, clearing your head, and go over to An's desk, relieved to see that at least her laptop is still sitting open there. At least she hasn't packed up and run off for good.

On top of the keys, taking center stage in the middle row, an earthworm taunts you. It squirms and wriggles as you recoil, shivers running down your spine. But you realize what's going on. There's absolutely no other possible explanation. The events of this morning are divine punishment for the irredeemable crime of incorrectly answering your girlfriend's question.

Indeed, An has been turned into a worm, and she sits before your very eyes, stuck in this state until you figure out an answer to this impossible question that pleases the forces that be. Fate may be testing you, but you love your girlfriend—the hum-An—and you are determined to find a way through this.

Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves and jump to conclusions. "Are you really my girlfriend, An?" you ask. For a moment, the earthworm continues wriggling as if it didn't hear, but then you see its tail hovering for a few seconds over the Y key.

Certain now that your girlfriend needs help, you shake off the heebie-jeebies, transfer some dirt from a potted plant into a mug, and guide your worm girlfriend into a temporary seating arrangement that hopefully provides more comfort.

You have no idea where to start looking for ways to break this curse, but it's okay. You're sure that it will turn out fine. After all, you do enjoy solving puzzles, don't you?

You decide to begin by looking through An's laptop, and it opens to her inbox, where you find an email from a name that you recognize as An's manager, whom she often complains about being overly demanding.

[STRICT DEADLINE] WORMY THE WORM SERIES MUST BE COMPLETED WITHIN THE NEXT TWO DAYS!!

The first six books that you wrote for Wormy: The Series are very promising. Kids everywhere will love this series, and I can see them flying off the shelf. But this is no time for you to rest. While the first six manuscripts are being edited, we need you working on the remaining installments, so they're all ready to go when we get to the release stage.

We need to take advantage of this unique time, while worms are still very culturally relevant. I want to see pitches for three more books as soon as possible. Once they're approved, you will write them, and if they go over well with the team, we'll extend your contract to one final book.

You take a moment to process all of this information. Glancing at your bookshelf, you see the manuscripts for the first six Wormy books that her agent was talking about, along with a myriad of other books about worms, heavily annotated with An's handwriting.

She's clearly put in so much passion and effort into her work that you can't possibly let her down by causing her to miss this deadline. On top of that, these books are the final traces of An's human existence. You have to finish this series to cement her legacy and keep her memory alive for generations to come.

But before you get to pitching anything, you'll first need to analyze the books that An has already written, or there will be plot holes and retconning which readers will complain about.

Better get to reading!