"The past is never dead. It's not even past." — William Faulkner
1. Rainfall and Ruins
The night was quiet—too quiet for a city that never slept. Rain bled from the sky, washing the streets of Veyruhn City in grim reflections. Neon signs flickered. The puddles shimmered in red and blue hues. Thunder echoed like the growl of gods watching from above.
Seventeen-year-old Lucas Virel sat at the edge of an abandoned rooftop, drenched, unmoving, soaked to the bone. His school uniform clung to his skin, but he didn't care. The cold wasn't what numbed him.
It was the blood on his hands.
Real blood. Fresh blood. Not his.
His eyes, wide and hollow, stared at the crimson stain that had soaked through his shirt, trailing from the fresh cut above his eyebrow. His fingers trembled, not from fear, but from something deeper—disbelief. His breathing was shallow, but steady.
Behind him, sirens wailed faintly in the distance. Below, the world moved on.
2. Four Hours Earlier
"Lucas!" called out Elian, his best friend, slapping him on the back. "You look like a corpse. Again."
Lucas blinked. He was sitting at the back of class, notebook untouched, pen between his fingers but unmoving.
"Did you even sleep?" Elian raised a brow.
"No," Lucas said flatly. "Not after what I saw last night."
Elian smirked. "You and your nightmares again?"
Lucas didn't respond. Because it hadn't been a nightmare.
3. That Broken Day
Lucas had always been different—quiet, observant, and haunted. Most thought he was just strange. A loner.
But for as long as he could remember, Lucas had these visions. They weren't dreams. They were snapshots of things that hadn't happened. Not yet. And every time he tried to ignore them, they came true.
Last night had been the worst of them all.
A vision of a fire.A friend bleeding.A betrayal.A scream—his own.And then... nothing but silence.
4. Something's Off
By mid-afternoon, Lucas felt it. That same sick pressure behind his eyes. The sky had turned a strange grey. Shadows bent oddly. Time seemed to stretch like rubber.
As the school bell rang and students poured out, Lucas stood in place.
Then he saw it.
The girl.
She wasn't part of this world. Silver hair, soaked in moonlight. Eyes glowing faintly violet, like galaxies. She wore a uniform he didn't recognize.
And she was staring directly at him.
"Lucas Virel," she said aloud.
He froze.
"How—?"
"You're not supposed to be here yet."
5. The Message
The girl handed him something: a small, silver device with a flickering red button. Before Lucas could speak again, she whispered:
"Press this when you want to run. But remember—time doesn't forgive. It remembers everything."
And then she vanished—no footsteps, no sound. Just gone.
Lucas stared at the device in his hand, heart racing.
6. The Fall
That night, it happened.
Lucas's foster brother, Daryl, found him in the alley behind the school. Drunk. Angry.
"You think you're better than us?" Daryl growled, fist clenched. "After everything we gave you?!"
Lucas backed away. "What are you talking about?"
But Daryl was already pulling something from his jacket. A knife.
"Stay away from me—" Lucas warned, voice shaking.
"YOU RUINED MY LIFE!" Daryl screamed and lunged.
The struggle was fast. Messy. Brutal.
A flash of pain. A scream. Blood everywhere.
When Lucas opened his eyes, Daryl lay still.
Very still.
And Lucas's hands were soaked in red.
7. The Trigger
That's when Lucas ran.
He didn't remember pressing the red button, but the device glowed.
Reality bent.
The air cracked.
The sky split.
And then—
He wasn't in the alley anymore.
He was standing in front of the school. The same day. Morning.
Time had reset.
8. Realization
He stared at the morning sky, untouched and blue. Birds chirped. The pain was gone. The blood, vanished. But his hands still trembled. His eyes still burned.
Had he gone back? Or forward? Was this a second chance... or a curse?
9. The Price of Time
The girl appeared again after school.
"You activated it," she said, solemnly.
"What the hell did I do?" Lucas asked, trembling.
"You bent a fixed point in time," she said. "There will be consequences."
"What consequences?"
She looked down.
"You'll see them in the people you love."
10. The Echo
That night, Elian didn't text back. He didn't show up to school the next day.
Lucas went to his house.
Police were there.
Elian had died.
In this timeline.
Not in the last one.
Lucas screamed into the void of the night.
He had saved himself...But someone else had taken his place.
Standing once again on the rooftop where the chapter began, Lucas looked at the silver device.
Was this fate?Punishment?Or the beginning of something darker?
He clutched it tightly.
From behind him, a voice whispered—calm, cold, and familiar.
"You thought you could change fate?"
He turned.
Daryl stood there. Smiling.
But his eyes were black.
Dead black.
TO BE CONTINUED...