I was Reborn?!
1892 Words
Kevin trembled as the hulking man stepped from the shadows. Thunder cracked overhead, making the ruined building shudder. Rain dripped from the broken roof, puddling around Kevin’s shoes.
He remembered their last encounter—the blood, the glowing purple eyes—and felt bile rise in his throat.
Oyin raised an arm across his chest, forcing him back.
“Stay close,” she hissed, eyes locked on the man. “He’s not alone. They always hunt in pairs.”
Kevin swallowed hard, pressing himself against her side. His voice quavered.
“How can I run? There’s nowhere safe. If I leave, they’ll just catch me again.”
He grabbed her shoulder, fingers digging in.
“Wait—I have a phone! I can call the police!”
Oyin shook her head, rainwater streaming from her hair.
“They won’t help. The school controls them. They control everyone. Your call would only alert them faster.”
Kevin’s mouth fell open in horror. “No way... Then what—”
Before he could finish, Oyin’s foot slammed into his chest, sending him skidding sideways into a collapsed wall just as another brute dropped from the roof. He crashed into the ground so hard the cracked concrete cratered beneath him.
Kevin choked on dust. “Ughhh!”
Lightning flashed, illuminating the two men. One grinned with glistening teeth, eyes glinting purple.
“We were told not to kill the boy, Oscar,” the man at the entrance said, voice like crushed gravel.
Oscar scoffed, cracking his neck. He watched Kevin crawl upright, clutching his shoulder.
“He’ll live,” Oscar said, smirking. Then his smile died. He pointed at Oyin. “But she won’t.”
He charged with a roar, fists raised. Oyin ducked low, dodging like liquid shadow. She flipped over Oscar’s back, landing next to Kevin.
“Can you walk?” she demanded, barely glancing at him.
Kevin forced himself upright, groaning. His back scraped the wall as he staggered.
“After what I’ve seen tonight? Yeah—I can move.”
Oyin didn’t wait. “Good. Don’t forget the plan.”
Kevin nodded shakily. Then he blinked in shock as a blade seemed to slide out of her palm—metal merging from her flesh with a wet sound.
“Did you just... pull that from your hand?” he whispered hoarsely.
Oscar’s partner—Hogan—watched her warily.
“Oscar, don’t underestimate her.”
“I know, Hogan,” Oscar spat. He slashed the air. Twin axes materialized in his hands, their edges crackling with energy.
Kevin’s eyes widened. He pressed himself tighter to the wall.
“I’m not even surprised anymore,” he mumbled in horror.
Oyin lunged, slicing Oscar across his arms and chest. Sparks flew as her blade met metal. Blood sprayed, hissing where it hit the rain-slick ground.
Oscar roared. “Hold still!”
She twisted, found an opening at his ribs, but before she could finish him, Hogan’s long staff intercepted her. He swung with monstrous force, shoving her back. She rolled, found her feet just in time to dodge another axe swing that split the floor with a deafening c***k.
She panted, dripping rain and blood. The two men stood shoulder to shoulder, scowling.
Kevin trembled. “Can we go now?”
Oyin didn’t look at him. “Not until they’re dead.”
She launched herself again, darting between them like a wraith, her dagger flickering in the stormlight.
“Kevin! MOVE!” she screamed.
Kevin lurched sideways, but Hogan’s staff smashed the wall next to his face, raining bricks.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Hogan growled.
Oyin struck Hogan’s side with a sharp kick, but Oscar was waiting. His axe swept in a blinding arc, slashing her back. Blood sprayed, steaming in the rain. She screamed through gritted teeth, twisting free, planting her elbow in Oscar’s face and sending him stumbling.
She leapt onto him, plunging her dagger into his chest. Oscar bellowed, his blood splattering her face.
But Hogan’s staff slammed into her ribs with bone-shattering force. She flew through the air, smashing through a wall in an explosion of debris.
Outside, the wind howled. Rain poured in sheets. Kevin scrambled over wreckage.
“Senior!” he shouted, voice cracking.
Oyin rose from the mud, soaked and shaking. She turned on him furiously.
“Why are you STILL HERE?!”
Oscar staggered out behind her, hand pressed to his bleeding chest. The wound knitted itself slowly.
Hogan approached with measured steps.
“Now you’re serious, Oscar,” Hogan taunted.
Oscar’s eyes blazed. He roared, axes raised.
“I don’t care if you’re his daughter—I’ll split you in two!”
They charged.
---
Meanwhile, at the school
Silent halls dripped blood. The floor was slick with it.
In the director’s office, the old woman crawled, shredded by claws or blades. She clawed at the door.
“Lord...”
Inside, the boss slammed the door shut, his breath ragged.
He turned to Kolade, who was frantically tapping at his phone.
“Who are you calling?” the boss demanded, yanking off his tie.
Kolade didn’t answer.
“The vessel inside the boy—it’s too strong. He’s killing everyone,” Kolade whispered.
“The shadows?” the boss snapped.
“They weren’t even close to stopping him.”
The boss closed in slowly. “Who. Are. You. Calling?”
Kolade turned, pale and shaking. “No one. Just... getting satellite access.”
The boss grabbed him by the collar. “Satellites?! You’re trying to BLOW THIS PLACE UP while we’re still here?!”
Kolade raised his phone desperately.
“Yes! To protect everyone. My students. I can’t—”
The boss punched him savagely. Kolade crashed into the wall, phone clattering across the floor.
“You’d die for these children?” the boss snarled.
Kolade wiped blood from his mouth, trembling.
“Better than watching you turn them into monsters,” he spat.
The boss zoomed forward in a blur, hand stabbing into Kolade’s gut. Kolade’s eyes went wide. Blood bubbled on his lips.
“You die here.”
Suddenly, the door exploded inward.
Kevin’s friend floated in the air, eyes glowing pure purple, dragging one of the boss’s men by the hair. He flung the man like a ragdoll.
The boss snarled, conjuring a sword from thin air, its blade humming with energy.
“Come on then,” he whispered.
---
Outside the ruins
Rain pounded the shattered world. Oyin battled Oscar and Hogan in the mud, each clash ringing with steel and magic. Kevin cowered, watching, trembling so hard his teeth chattered.
“Why is she fighting for me? Why would anyone fight for me?”
Oyin screamed in pain as Oscar’s axe bit into her shoulder. Hogan’s staff cracked her across the jaw, sending her skidding through mud and water.
Kevin gagged on the metallic smell of blood in the rain.
“I have to go,” he whispered hoarsely. “I’m done.”
He turned and ran, boots splashing.
Oyin watched him go, face contorting in heartbreak. She struggled upright, blood pouring, wounds slowly closing.
Then an earth-shaking BOOM came from the school.
They all looked up. A plume of black smoke billowed into the stormy sky. Sirens wailed in the distance. Through the haze, two figures rocketed into the sky—Kevin’s friend and the boss, colliding in midair in a shower of sparks.
Oscar and Hogan stared in shock.
“That’s the boss... and the boy. They’re fighting!”
Oyin’s eyes narrowed. She lowered her gaze to Oscar and Hogan, who were both distracted.
She lunged.
Hogan barely moved, swinging his staff in a desperate block. It smashed her face, sending her flying. Oscar’s axe came down with a roar, carving a crater in the ground.
Oyin rolled, bloody and gasping. She looked up at the glowing axes descending again.
Suddenly—
Flash.
Lightning lit the world in white.
Someone grabbed her, yanking her out of the way.
Rain streamed across her face as she blinked up. Blood pooled under the stranger’s feet.
Her eyes widened.
“Kevin?” she whispered.
He dropped her gently, swaying.
“Yeah,” he rasped. “Guess I ran away... then remembered my friend. My body just... moved.”
He glanced at the massive axe buried in his back.
“Oh. Right. Forgot about that.”
Blood ran freely down his sides.
Oscar and Hogan stared, eyes wide.
Kevin coughed, red bubbling on his lips. He slumped, Oyin catching him.
“Sorry for the intrusion...” he wheezed. He glanced up at the duel in the sky.
“I wish I could turn back time... stop this...”
---
Inside the ruined school
Rain poured through a gaping hole in the roof.
Kolade blinked. Blood blurred his vision. He lay in a spreading puddle, the cold shocking him awake.
He saw his phone, half-buried under rubble.
He crawled.
“I can still...”
Blood spattered the screen as his fingers brushed it.
“I can still...”
He pressed Launch.
On the screen:
> 1...5...10...30...70...200...1000...All.
Alert: 60 seconds to launch.
---
In orbit
Satellites broke apart, splitting into countless smaller units, forming a net around Earth.
> 56...55...54...
---
On Earth
The dark clouds turned red.
Kevin’s friend and the boss froze mid-battle.
The boss stared at the sky in horror.
“Don’t tell me...” He tore back toward the school.
Kevin’s friend shot forward, intercepting him, kicking him through buildings in a thunderous crash.
---
Kevin lay dying in the mud. He laughed weakly.
“Is the world ending?”
Oyin held him close.
“If it does, warn us. Save us from ourselves.”
Kevin smiled sadly.
“I can’t believe you actually think I could do that.”
He looked at the sky.
“Look at them. Scared. Even they know it’s over...”
All over the world, people emerged from homes, pointing at the red sky, recording it, screaming.
Kevin shivered.
“If it’s real... tell me what to do.”
“Be strong,” Oyin whispered.
He laughed, bitter and broken.
“That’s it? God... we’re crazy.”
> 4...3...2...1...0.
A red beam lanced down, cracking the sky.
“It’s begun...” Kevin breathed, closing his eyes.
Oyin cried out as the world exploded in white.
---
Then silence.
---
> “Kevin!!”
He jerked awake at his school desk, heart racing.
His uniform was clean. His hair was dry.
Sunlight streamed through the windows.
Classmates stared at him.
He looked wildly at the date on the board.
“September 13th... 2020.”
He staggered to his feet, sending his chair clattering.
“I’m... ten years back?”
He fled the room, crashing into the restroom.
He gripped the sink, staring at the mirror.
Rain didn’t fall here.
He was dry. Whole.
He touched his face, shaking.
“I’m... back...”
He collapsed sobbing.
Outside, muffled voices:
“Why’s he acting like that?”
“You felt it too? Like... déjà vu?”
“Yeah. My parents did too. Everyone’s saying it online.”
Kevin’s eyes went wide in horror.
“What’s going on?!”
From the mirror, a pale woman in white slid out as if the glass were water.
“Kevin.”
He screamed—and blacked out.
- Writer
