I dreamed of a blurry girl.
She was the light in my darkness, whispering gently:
*"You're going to be okay... You are loved."*
Then I woke up.
The warmth faded.
The smile slipped from my face.
I got ready for work, like always.
The door opened silently.
"Well, time to get to work," I muttered with a forced, bright smile—my daily mask.
As I stepped outside the building, I noticed a woman standing across the road.
Something about her presence—it was familiar.
It was her. The girl from my dream.
A truck passed between us.
In that fleeting moment, time seemed to slow.
My eyes widened. My pupils sharpened.
The darkness that had long consumed me... lifted.
She was *real*. The light I had yearned for through endless years of loneliness.
"Uh... Hi. Are you new here?"
I asked, smiling—*truly* smiling—for the first time in years.
"Yeah," she replied softly. "I'm planning on staying in this apartment."
"Well... see you around," I said, hiding my pounding heart.
I boarded the bus, glancing back once more.
That blurry dream was clearer now.
Could she really be the one?
The girl who reminded me I was still human?
But reality struck again.
I was still a loser. A failure. A nobody.
If only I could turn back time, fix my mistakes—maybe I wouldn't be so broken, so empty.
The bus suddenly jolted.
"Shit—the brakes are gone!"
The driver screamed.
Passengers shouted, cried, begged.
"We don't want to die!"
I froze in fear.
And yet...
A strange calm fell over me.
A smile returned—not of joy, but of surrender.
*Finally... an end.*
Then—
CRASH.
Steel met steel.
Glass shattered.
Metal screamed.
Poles burst through the bus, impaling passengers.
Blood. Screams. Chaos.
One pole shot straight toward me.
Time slowed.
In that final moment, I whispered in my mind,
*"I'm... happy."*
Then, silence.
---
I jolted upright in bed.
*Huff. Huff. Huff.*
Sweat dripped down my brow.
My room—
It was different.
I stumbled toward the mirror...
A younger version of me stared back.
Eyes wide. Heart racing.
"This... is me?"
I stared at my arms. My face. My body.
"I... I regressed?"
Shock faded to euphoria.
"THAT'S... SO COOOOOL!! YAHOOOO!!"
I jumped with joy.
---
A headless body was discovered inside a totaled bus.
The aftermath was gruesome.
Fifty dead. Survivors barely breathing.
"This guy's a goner for real," muttered one officer.
The others nodded solemnly.
The wreckage of fate had taken its toll.
---
In the tapestry of the cosmos, some souls burn so deeply in despair that they leave echoes behind.
When a soul's death carries no hate, no rage—only peace, acceptance, and yearning—sometimes... fate listens.
This soul, marked by a longing for light, was not reborn by chance.
He was pulled back.
Back to a time before the mistakes.
Back to a body not yet broken.
By what force?
Some call it the **Thread of Return**, a divine thread woven only for those who, in death, find peace with their broken lives.
But not all threads lead to salvation.
Some unravel mysteries.
Others... awaken destinies.
And somewhere, the girl of light still waits.
Is she a dream?
A guide?
Or something far more powerful than he ever imagined?
---