PROLOGUE
836 Words
Rain poured heavily over the empty streets that night, washing everything in sight with a cold, gray blur. It felt like even the sky knew something terrible was about to happen.
Lena ran through the narrow alley, her fingers tightly wrapped around Ethan’s hand.
“Don’t stop!” Ethan gasped.
“I’m trying!” she managed to say between breaths.
Her lungs were burning. Her legs were already shaking, but she refused to let go of him.
Not now.
Not when someone had been following them for weeks.
Not when that person had already hurt people.
And not when Ethan was clearly the one they wanted dead.
Behind them came the sound of footsteps.
Slow.
Heavy.
Getting closer.
Lena glanced over her shoulder, but the rain made it almost impossible to see.
“Ethan…” Her voice trembled. “Why are they after you?”
He didn't answer.
Instead, he tightened his grip around her hand and pulled her farther into the alley.
That scared her more than the footsteps did.
“What are you hiding from me?”
Still nothing.
“Ethan!”
He kept running.
Then she heard it.
**Click.**
Her entire body froze.
She knew that sound.
A gun.
Lena turned around.
At the far end of the alley stood a figure beneath the pouring rain. Their face was hidden by the darkness, making it impossible for her to see who they were.
The figure slowly raised the gun.
And pointed it directly at Ethan.
“Ethan!”
She didn't think.
She didn't hesitate.
Lena stepped in front of him.
**Bang!**
A sharp pain exploded through her chest.
For a second, she couldn't understand what had happened.
Then she looked down.
Blood was slowly spreading across her clothes.
“Lena!”
Ethan caught her before she could fall.
His arms wrapped tightly around her, holding her against his chest.
“Lena, stay with me.”
She could hear him calling her name, but his voice sounded far away—almost drowned out by the heavy rain.
Her eyes drifted toward the end of the alley.
The figure was gone.
Just like that.
Who were they?
Why did they want Ethan dead?
And why did it feel like there was something about this night that Ethan wasn't telling her?
She tried to speak.
“Ethan…”
“I’m here.”
His voice cracked.
Lena looked up at him.
She wanted to tell him she was scared.
She wanted to tell him she didn't want to die.
Most of all, she wanted to tell him that she loved him.
But the words wouldn't come.
Her body was getting heavier.
Her vision slowly blurred.
And then she noticed something in Ethan's expression.
Something that didn't belong there.
He wasn't looking at her with fear.
He wasn't angry.
He wasn't even crying.
He was just… looking at her.
Then, slowly—
he smiled.
A small, almost peaceful smile.
Lena stared at him, confused.
Why was he smiling?
Why did that smile feel so wrong?
She wanted to ask him.
But before she could, darkness began to pull her under.
The last thing she felt was Ethan's arms around her.
The last thing she heard was the rain.
And the last thing she saw—
was his smile.
---
Lena opened her eyes.
She gasped and immediately sat up.
Her chest rose and fell rapidly as she looked around the room.
Her bedroom.
Her bed.
Her familiar curtains.
Everything was exactly where it should be.
She looked down at herself.
No blood.
No wound.
Nothing.
Her hands immediately flew to her chest.
She was alive.
But that was impossible.
She remembered dying.
She remembered the gunshot.
She remembered Ethan holding her.
She remembered—
His smile.
Lena slowly turned toward the calendar beside her bed.
**October 14.**
Her heart stopped.
Two months.
Two months before the night she died.
“No…” she whispered.
She stared at the date, unable to process what she was seeing.
Somehow, she had gone back.
Back before everything happened.
Back before the night that ended her life.
And if this was really a second chance…
then maybe she could save Ethan.
Maybe she could find the person who was hunting him.
Maybe she could stop everything before it happened.
But there was one problem.
Lena couldn't remember the killer's face.
She couldn't remember why Ethan was being hunted.
And she couldn't explain the one thing that kept haunting her.
That smile.
Maybe it meant nothing.
Maybe it was simply a strange expression she remembered because she was dying.
Or maybe…
it was the only clue she had.
Lena wiped the tears from her face and took a shaky breath.
This time, she wasn't going to sit back and wait for fate to decide what happened.
She would find the killer.
She would save Ethan.
And she would make sure she never ended up in that alley again.
Because if time had really given her another chance.
She wasn't going to die twice.
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