CHAPTER ONE:The Life I Was Given Back
1604 Words
Darkness swallowed everything.
The rain.
The pain.
The warmth of Ethan's arms.
Even the sound of her own heartbeat slowly faded into silence.
Lena couldn't feel the cold anymore.
She couldn't feel the rain soaking through her clothes or the sharp pain spreading across her chest. Everything around her seemed distant, as if she were sinking beneath deep water.
She tried to breathe.
Nothing.
She tried to move.
Her body wouldn't respond.
There was something she needed to remember.
Something important.
Something she had forgotten just moments before.
A face.
A pair of eyes.
A voice.
Someone was standing in front of her.
Someone she knew.
Someone she trusted.
Someone she loved.
But who?
Her mind struggled desperately to hold on to the memory.
Rain poured around them.
A gunshot echoed through the alley.
Someone screamed.
Then—
A smile.
Lena's eyes widened.
That smile.
She knew it.
She had seen it before.
Countless times.
But now, there was something terrifying about it.
Something wrong.
"You..."
The word escaped her lips like a dying whisper.
Then everything disappeared.
The darkness became complete.
And Lena died.
Lena gasped.
Air rushed violently into her lungs.
Her eyes flew open.
She sat upright, clutching her chest as she struggled to breathe.
Her heart pounded against her ribs.
Once.
Twice.
Again and again.
She looked around.
Sunlight streamed through the curtains.
Birds chirped outside her window.
A gentle breeze moved the curtains beside her bed.
No rain.
No darkness.
No blood.
No alley.
Lena stared at the room in confusion.
Her breathing remained uneven.
"What..."
Her voice was barely audible.
She looked down at herself.
Her shirt was completely dry.
Her hands were clean.
There wasn't a single drop of blood.
Slowly, her trembling fingers moved toward her chest.
She pressed against the spot where the bullet had entered.
Nothing.
No wound.
No pain.
No scar.
Nothing.
Lena's eyes filled with panic.
She remembered it.
She remembered the gunshot.
She remembered falling.
She remembered the unbearable pain.
She remembered Ethan catching her before she hit the ground.
And then—
His face.
Lena froze.
Something about that memory made her stomach twist.
She closed her eyes, trying to see it again.
Rain.
An alley.
A gun.
Ethan.
Then nothing.
The memory disappeared.
"No..."
She opened her eyes.
Her hands began to shake.
"It was real."
She threw the blanket aside and stumbled out of bed.
Her legs nearly gave out beneath her.
She grabbed the edge of the desk to steady herself and looked around her bedroom.
Everything was familiar.
Her books were stacked beside her lamp.
Her school uniform hung from the back of the chair.
Photographs covered part of the wall.
The little plant Ethan had given her sat near the window.
She stared at it.
He had given it to her.
She remembered that.
At least, she thought she did.
Lena quickly reached for her phone on the bedside table.
The screen lit up.
August 14.
She stared at the date.
Her blood ran cold.
"No..."
She checked it again.
August 14.
She looked at the year.
Her hands began trembling harder.
"No, no, no..."
Two months.
She was two months in the past.
The night she died had been in October.
She remembered that.
She remembered the rain.
She remembered running.
She remembered someone chasing them.
She remembered the gun.
She remembered Ethan.
But if today was August 14...
Then none of it had happened yet.
Lena slowly sat on the edge of her bed.
"This isn't possible."
Maybe she was dreaming.
Maybe she had never died.
Maybe the whole thing had been a nightmare.
But nightmares didn't feel like that.
She could still remember the sensation of the bullet entering her chest.
She could still remember the warmth of blood beneath her fingers.
She could still remember Ethan's arms around her.
And that smile.
That strange smile.
Lena swallowed.
Why couldn't she remember what happened immediately before the gunshot?
Why couldn't she remember who pulled the trigger?
And most importantly...
Why couldn't she remember what Ethan had said to her?
A knock suddenly came from downstairs.
"Lena!"
She jumped.
"Lena, you're going to be late!"
Her mother's voice.
Lena's eyes widened.
For a moment, she couldn't move.
Her mother.
Alive.
The realization struck her harder than anything else.
She rushed toward the bedroom door.
"Mom?"
"What?" her mother called from downstairs. "Are you awake?"
Lena opened the door.
Her mother appeared at the bottom of the stairs, holding a cup of coffee.
The sight nearly broke her.
She hadn't realized how much she had missed that face.
Lena ran down the stairs and hugged her.
Her mother froze.
"What happened to you?"
Lena buried her face against her shoulder.
"Nothing."
"You're acting strange."
"I'm just..."
Lena struggled to find the words.
"I had a bad dream."
Her mother gently rubbed her back.
"Just a dream."
Lena closed her eyes.
She wanted to believe that.
She desperately wanted to.
But somewhere inside her, a quiet voice told her—
It wasn't a dream.
The entire morning passed strangely.
Lena barely touched her breakfast.
She kept looking at the clock.
Every minute felt important.
Every sound made her nervous.
She watched her mother move around the kitchen, and the familiarity of everything almost convinced her that nothing was wrong.
Almost.
At school, things became even stranger.
The hallway was filled with voices.
Students laughed.
Teachers hurried between classrooms.
Someone complained about an upcoming exam.
Someone else was running because they were late.
It was ordinary.
Normal.
Perfectly normal.
But Lena couldn't stop staring.
These people were alive.
The school looked exactly the way she remembered it.
The same classroom.
The same desks.
The same posters on the walls.
Even the crack near the window was still there.
She walked slowly through the hallway.
A friend suddenly grabbed her arm.
"Where have you been?"
Lena jumped.
Her friend laughed.
"Why are you so jumpy today?"
"I didn't sleep well."
"Clearly."
They continued walking together.
Lena listened to her friend's voice, but her mind remained somewhere else.
She was remembering the future.
Or what she thought was the future.
Two months from now, she will be dead.
Unless she could stop it.
The thought made her stomach tighten.
She needed answers.
She needed to know who had killed her.
She needed to know why.
And she needed to remember what happened that night.
Most of all, she needed to know why Ethan had been there.
After classes ended, Lena stayed behind for a few minutes.
She sat alone in the classroom, staring through the window.
The sun was beginning to disappear behind the buildings.
For some reason, the sight made her uneasy.
She remembered rain.
Darkness.
An alley.
She closed her eyes.
Come on.
Remember.
She pictured the scene again.
She was running.
Someone was behind her.
Ethan was beside her.
She was afraid.
Then the gunshot.
Lena opened her eyes.
Her breathing became heavy.
There was another image.
Ethan looking at her.
His arms around her.
His face is close to hers.
And then
That smile.
Lena's stomach dropped.
She couldn't understand why.
It wasn't a cruel smile.
It wasn't angry.
It was gentle.
Almost loving.
But something about it frightened her.
"Lena."
She nearly screamed.
She turned around.
Ethan stood in the doorway.
Her heart stopped.
For several seconds, she simply stared at him.
He looked exactly the same.
Dark hair.
Familiar eyes.
That soft expression she had fallen in love with.
The same person who had held her while she died.
Except now...
He was alive.
And smiling.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
Lena couldn't answer.
Ethan stepped closer.
"You look pale."
"I'm fine."
He studied her face.
"Are you sure?"
Lena nodded.
"Yeah."
He smiled.
"You're acting strange today."
"I didn't sleep well."
"Bad dream?"
Her eyes immediately moved toward him.
"How did you know?"
Ethan shrugged.
"You look like someone who had one."
Lena forced a small laugh.
"Maybe."
He walked closer.
For a moment, she thought he was going to touch her.
Instead, he simply smiled.
"We're still meeting after class, remember?"
Lena frowned.
"Meeting?"
Ethan laughed softly.
"You forgot already?"
She stared at him.
He looked amused.
"You promised we'd go somewhere after school."
"When did I promise that?"
"Yesterday."
Yesterday.
Lena's mind searched for the memory.
Nothing.
She couldn't remember.
Not even a little.
Ethan noticed her silence.
"It's okay," he said gently. "You must be tired."
He reached for her hand.
Lena instinctively pulled it back.
The movement surprised both of them.
Ethan looked at her.
For just a second, something unreadable crossed his face.
Then it disappeared.
"Sorry," Lena whispered.
"It's fine."
He smiled again.
That smile.
Lena felt the same chill she had felt when she woke up.
She looked into his eyes.
For one strange moment, she felt like she was standing at the edge of something.
A memory.
A warning.
A truth buried deep inside her mind.
She wanted to ask him what happened on the night she died.
She wanted to ask if he remembered the alley.
She wanted to ask who had the gun.
But the words wouldn't come.
Instead, she whispered,
"Did something happen to me?"
Ethan's expression changed.
Only slightly.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know."
She looked down.
"I just feel like something happened."
Ethan was quiet.
Then he gently smiled.
"Nothing happened, Lena."
Nothing.
The word echoed inside her head.
Nothing.
But her heart disagreed.
Because somewhere inside her memory was a night filled with rain.
A gunshot.
Blood.
And Ethan's face.
Lena looked at him again.
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