Ephraim Silver was born the youngest of four brothers to a farming family in a small town in the Midwest. Due to the stark contrast between the meek and scrawny young man and his hale siblings, Ephraim always felt that his lesser ability to help maintain the farmstead had made him a disappointment to his parents; too shy to deal with this problem directly, he instead immersed himself in books, spending whatever money and time he had available on any literature he could find. By the time he had grown to adulthood, Ephraim was well-versed in the linguistic arts, and he had developed a deep desire to share his voice with the general populace.
Although he never received a formal education on the topic, the sheer volume of texts consumed by Ephraim's voracious reading habits had imparted an understanding of the finer points of writing to the man. Armed with this knowledge and what charisma he could muster, Silver left his hometown for the crowded environment of New York City, as he naïvely believed that the more densely populated area provided him with an easier time achieving his goals. After several fruitless days searching for a job, Ephraim finally got his start writing articles for a small tabloid; it wasn't glamorous work, and it wasn't quite what he had expected when he made his trip, but Ephraim was, at least, able to claim a fairly steady paycheck while waiting for better opportunities to arise.
As time went on, Ephraim proved himself a capable writer and one of the tabloid's best employees, giving himself the chance to leave for a position at a more prestigious paper; however, Silver found himself oddly uncomfortable with the idea of seeing his name in print, prompting him to start publishing his work under the pseudonym "Argos Cherry." He began assisting his coworkers' writing and, with the assistance of one particularly optimistic colleague, Silver took a gamble and started offering his services as a ghostwriter; finding that such work fit much better with his inclination to avoid the spotlight, Silver chose to pursue the field as his primary career, beginning a slow yet consistent growth in prestige that lead to a reputation as an industrious and erudite writer worth every penny he charged for his services.
After tasting success as a ghostwriter, Ephraim grew increasingly reclusive and developed an irrational fear of somehow being recognized for his achievements by the general public. Becoming more and more paranoid, Silver went so far as to take steps to alter his appearance whenever he intended to leave his house so as to ensure that he could remain anonymous. Finally, after completing a particularly profitable contract, Silver earned enough money to purchase a secluded cabin in his homelands that he originally intended for use in sequestering himself while working, but whose walls eventually became his permanent home, as Ephraim found great solace in the building's remoteness.
Silver stayed active in his career for the rest of his life; though his body wizened and his social presence rapidly dwindled, Ephraim kept enough cognitive ability to maintain the high quality of his works. However, one frigid night in January, an octogenarian Ephraim retired to his bed after an honest day's labor for what would be his final rest, as he died in his sleep before the sun broke the horizon the next morning; nevertheless, Ephraim awoke the next day and found himself in thoroughly unfamiliar surroundings. Silver was greatly confused by this turn of events, as he possessed no memory of his death yet knew that, somehow, something had happened to him while he slept.
Unsure what to make of this situation, Silver wondered if it he was experiencing a particularly vivid dream, if his advanced age had interfered with his medication schedule, or—though Silver was reluctant to consider such a possibility—if he had passed on to some bizarre afterlife. After much contemplation, though, Ephraim decided that he would be best served by investigating this new realm, reluctant to risk exposing his identity but oddly reassured by an unusual, newly arising thought that he would be truly unknown.
