THE FATE WE REWRITE

The first thing I felt was the rain It was cold, very cold. It hit my face so hard that I could barely keep my eyes open.My clothes were heavy with water, and every breath hurt my chest. I tried to stand, but my knees gave way, and I fell back into the mud. "Aurora!" I looked up “Lucian…?” He was running toward me. His clothes were soaked, his hair stuck to his face, and for once, he didn't look calm. He looked scared. I'd never seen him like that before. "Don't come any closer," I said. He stopped. "Aurora you're hurt." "I'm fine." My voice shook. I wasn't fine. I could barely move. Lucian took one slow step toward me. "I said don't!" He stopped again. For a few seconds, neither of us spoke. Only the rain filled the silence. Then Lucian looked behind me. His face changed. "What?" I asked. He didn't answer. "Lucian, what is it?" He looked back at me. "Get up." "What?" "Get up,Aurora. Now!!!" I tried. My arms shook as I pushed myself off the ground. Then I saw them….Threads. About thousands of them. They were floating in the air around us. Some were bright, some almost black. They moved like they were alive. My stomach turned. "They're breaking," I whispered. Lucian looked at me and said"I know." A thread snapped. The sound made me flinch. Another cut, then another. "What is happening?" Lucian didn't answer. "Lucian?" "Don't use your power." I stared at him. "What?" "Don't change anything." "But people are going to die." I argued. "I know." "Then why are you telling me to do nothing?" "Because this time, you don't know what you're changing." His voice sounded quite but I shook my head. "I can fix it." "No." "I can." "Aurora, listen to me." "I said I can fix it!" I raised my hand. The threads moved toward me. Lucian's eyes widened. "No!" He ran toward me. Too late. The moment my fingers touched the first thread, pain shot through my head. I gasped. Then everything changed. A river. A woman crying. A little girl wrapped in a white cloth. A house I had never seen. A voice calling my name. Then Lucian. I saw him standing somewhere else, somewhere I had never been. But the strange part was... I knew the place. I knew him. And I knew myself. "Stop!" Lucian's voice pulled me back. I opened my eyes. He was standing right in front of me now, his hand stretched toward mine. "Let it go," he said. I shook my head. "I can't." "You have to." "I don't want to." "If you keep going, you'll lose yourself." His voice broke on the last word. I looked at him. For some reason, that scared me more than the pain. "Why do you care so much?" He didn't answer. "Lucian?." He looked away. "Because I've watched you die before." My heart stopped. "Excuse me…What?" He looked back at me. His eyes were wet. "I can't watch it happen again." Again? Before I could ask what he meant, the threads around us started pulling apart. The ground shook. I lost my balance. Lucian grabbed my arm. "Hold on!" I held onto him. Everything around us became a blur—the trees, the rain, the sky, even Lucian. I could barely see his face. Then I heard him shout my name. "AURORA!!" I reached for him. But my hand passed through his. And everything went black. — I woke up with a scream. I sat straight up in bed. My heart was beating so fast that it hurt. I looked around. My room, my bed, my curtains. The morning light coming through the window. I was home. I stared at my hands. They were shaking. I touched my face and it was…..dry? No rain, no blood, no mud. I slowly looked down at my clothes, my normal night clothes, nothing was wrong. I let out a shaky breath. "It was a dream." I said it quietly. Then again. "It was just a dream." I wanted to believe it. I really did. I got out of bed and walked toward the mirror. My face looked tired. I pushed my hair away from my forehead. "You're okay." I said it to my reflection. "You're okay, Aurora." Then I noticed something. A thin red line was wrapped around my wrist. I froze, then touched it. The mark was real. My stomach dropped. I had seen that mark before, in my dream. It had been around my wrist when the threads pulled me away from Lucian. I stared at it for a long time. Then a voice whispered inside my head. Not Lucian's, not mine. “You've seen this before”, it said. I stepped away from the mirror. My back hit the wall. "No." I shook my head. "No, I haven't." But deep down... I knew that wasn't true.