The End before the Beginning
869 Words
The evening sky burned with fading orange as Luke walked down the sidewalk with his hands buried deep inside his hoodie pockets. A cold breeze drifted through the quiet street, carrying the distant sounds of traffic and chatter from nearby stores.
The grocery store was only a few minutes away.
Yet every step felt heavier than the last.At twenty-four, Luke had imagined his life would be different.
Not extraordinary. Just... something.
A decent job. Friends he could call without hesitation. Maybe someone waiting for him at home. Instead, his days blurred together into an endless cycle of waking up late, scrolling through his phone, taking temporary jobs, and convincing himself tomorrow would somehow change everything.
But tomorrow never came.
He let out a quiet laugh to himself.“What a joke...”
A group of students passed by him, laughing loudly amongst themselves. Their energy felt painfully distant, like something from another world. Luke looked away.
Back then, during high school, he used to think life would naturally fall into place as long as he kept moving forward.
He was wrong.
Somewhere along the way, he stopped trying.Stopped dreaming.
Stopped caring.
Now all he had were regrets that followed him like shadows.
The pedestrian light turned green.
Without thinking, Luke stepped onto the road.
His mind remained trapped in the past.
If only I had tried harder...
If only I spoke up more...If only I changed...
A sudden gust of wind swept past him.
Then—
A pair of eyes met his.
Standing on the opposite side of the street was a little girl clutching a small stuffed rabbit against her chest. She wasn’t moving.
She was staring directly at him.At him.Not passed him.
Her wide eyes trembled with fear.
Luke frowned slightly.
Why is she looking at me like that—
The deafening scream of tires tore through the air.
His eyes widened.
Light flooded his vision.
For a split second, Luke finally noticed the speeding car rushing toward him.
Too late.
The little girl’s terrified face became the last thing he saw before the world went black
....Tick.
...Tick.
...Tick.
A soft sound echoed through the darkness.
Luke’s consciousness slowly surfaced, his thoughts heavy and numb, as though he were waking from an endless sleep.
The first thing he noticed was the smell.
Paper.
Dust.
Chalk.
Then came the noise.
Students talking.
Chairs scraping against the floor.
Someone laughing near the windows.
Luke’s eyes slowly opened.
Sunlight streamed across wooden desks bathed in the warm glow of afternoon light. The ceiling fan above spun lazily with a faint creaking sound he hadn’t heard in years.He blinked.
Once.
Twice.
“What...?”
The words escaped his lips weakly.
He was sitting at a desk.
A classroom desk.
Confused, Luke looked around slowly, his heartbeat beginning to quicken.
Rows of students wearing familiar uniforms.White walls covered in faded educational posters.
The old blackboard with scratches near the corner.
Even the cracked window near the back of the room—
His breath caught in his throat.
“No way…”
This classroom...
He knew this classroom.
A cold chill crawled down his spine.
It was impossible.
Luke immediately stood up, nearly knocking his chair over in the process.Several students turned toward him with annoyed expressions.
“Oi, Luke, what’s your problem?” one boy muttered.
Luke ignored him completely.
His eyes darted wildly around the room before landing on the calendar hanging beside the board.
April 14th.
His mind went blank.
“That’s…” he whispered.
No.
No, no, no.
That was impossible.This was his former high school classroom.
The exact classroom he sat in during his second year.
Luke staggered backward slightly.
He could still remember the car.
The headlights.
The sound of tires screaming across the road.
He remembered dying.
Didn’t he?His breathing became uneven as panic slowly tightened around his chest.
“This has to be a dream…”
Or maybe a flashback.
Yeah.
That had to be it.
Some kind of memory before death.
People always said your life flashes before your eyes, right?Luke squeezed his eyes shut tightly.
Wake up.
Wake up already.
But the warmth of the sunlight still touched his skin.
The classroom chatter still buzzed in his ears.
Even the rough wooden edge of the desk beneath his fingers felt painfully real.
Too real.A piece of chalk suddenly struck his forehead.
“Luke!”
He flinched.
At the front of the room stood Mr. Takahashi with an irritated expression.
“If you’re going to daydream, at least do it quietly.”
A wave of laughter spread through the classroom.
Luke froze.Mr. Takahashi.
Even his voice was exactly the same.
The teacher sighed before turning back toward the board.
Luke slowly lowered himself into his seat, his heart pounding violently against his chest.
This wasn’t a dream.
And it definitely didn’t feel like a flashback.
It felt real.
Terrifyingly real.Luke stared down at his trembling hands.
Young hands.
Smaller.
Without the faint scars he got years later from part-time construction work.
His throat went dry.
Then a horrifying thought surfaced in his mind.
“What if…”
His voice barely came out as a whisper.
“What if I really came back?”
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