I woke up gasping heart pounding, skin cold.
The room was quiet. Too quiet.
Even the monitors had been removed. No beeping. No blinking lights.
Just me. Alone. In a hospital bed. Breathing hard.
My fingers dug into the sheets as I tried to make sense of the dream no, the memory.
---
It had started in darkness.
A stage with no spotlight.
Then a boy stepped forward.
His face…
It was mine. Or rather, this body's.
He looked fragile. Hollow. But behind those tired eyes was something deeper.
Something sharp.
> "You're not me," he said softly, voice echoing through the void.
> "No," I whispered. "I'm not."
> "But you're the only one who can finish what I could not do."
I stared at him the original Elias Vale. The boy whose life I now wore.
> "They said it was an accident," he said, trembling. "But it wasn't. They killed her. And they killed me."
> "Who?"
> "I couldn't find out. I was too weak… too broken. But you…"
He stepped forward. The shadows curled around him like a curtain ready to fall.
> "This timeline is different. Here… my sister became my mother. The roles have changed."
> "Why me?" I asked.
> "Because you already lost everything once. Because you know what it's like to be unheard. Unseen. Because this world won't believe the truth not unless someone acts it out."
He looked up at me.
> "You were reborn in my body for a reason. So promise me."
> "Promise me you'll finish the scene."
I met his eyes. My voice cracked as I spoke. It felt like I was suffocating
>I muttered with a low voice "I-I promise."
---
The knock on the door jolted me fully awake.
It was Aunt Mira.
"Time to go, kid."
I sat up slowly, rubbing the last of the nightmare from my eyes. My body still ached from six months of stillness, but the weight in my chest felt heavier.
Eva was already dressed, her backpack slung over one shoulder. She gave me a shy smile tired, but real.
We left the hospital that day.
---
Aunt Mira lived in a penthouse high above the city modern, minimalist, and cold, like her personality. But it was safe. Clean. Stable.
She didn't hover. Didn't ask questions she didn't want the answers to.
"I'm not a mother," she said bluntly the first night. "But I'll keep you two alive. That's all I can promise." that is as much I can do for my best friend.
It was more than I expected.
Eva and I shared a room for now. It looks like she was still scared that I would go away and leave her behind. She always fell asleep first, curled into a tight ball. I stayed up, staring at the ceiling.
The dream still haunted me.
---
Therapy started the next week.
Dr. Linh was patient. Too patient. Always smiling behind her notebook.
"So, Eli… do you remember the car crash or anything related to the accident?"
I shook my head. I didn't lie not exactly.
But I wasn't telling the full truth either.
Some wounds were better hidden.
Especially when no one believed the truth anyway.
---
Two Weeks passed.
I visited Mom's grave.
Aunt Mira drove us in silence. Eva carried a small bouquet. I didn't carry anything.
The grave was simple.
Celestine Vale
A star that never faded
Eva knelt and cried.
I stared at the name, at the cold stone, and said nothing.
Because I knew.
The brakes didn't fail.
The car didn't slide.
Someone made it happen.
---
One afternoon, I found an old tablet tucked into one of Mom's locked drawers Mira must've missed it. Buried beneath awards, letters, and an old script.
I hacked it. I was good with passwords. [New Skill Acquired: Subversive Scriptwriter]
> "Your hands were trained for the stage… but now they write in code."
Effect:
Unlocks passive ability to decode encrypted files, bypass digital locks, and trace deleted or hidden data.
Enables the manipulation of digital "scripts" editing, erasing, or planting records like rewriting scenes in a play.
Stage Bonus:
Grants heightened awareness of digital footprints and hidden data trails connected to key figures or buried truths.
"Oh I got a new skill.
On the tablet was a folder marked:
"NOT TO BE OPENED"
So, of course, I opened it.
Emails. Videos. Confidential reports. Photos of Celestine in meetings with unknown men. Threats. Blackmail.
One audio file chilled me.
> "Pull out of the film, Celestine. Or it won't just be your career that dies."
Her voice replied calmly:
> "If you think I'm scared of you, you haven't watched me act."
Three weeks later, she was dead.
---
I shut the tablet and hid it deep under my bed.
I didn't tell Mira. I didn't tell Eva.
Because I remembered what happened when I told the truth before.
They laughed.
Called me delusional. A liar.
A traitor to the industry.
And then… they ruined my sister.
I wouldn't make the same mistake twice.
This time…
> I'd play the part until the world clapped.
---
Let them think I was quiet.
Let them think I was broken.
I would stay in the background.
For now.
But behind the silence…
I was already preparing my return to the stage.
Not as a prodigy.
Not as a victim.
But as the extra who would burn the truth into their memory.
---