He had made up his mind.
Aarav stood at the edge of the rooftop, five stories above the ground. The night didn't scream or cry it whispered. Quiet. Indifferent. The wind brushed against his face, soft and cold, like the world was saying goodbye without meaning it.
No tears. No anger. No hope. Just… silence. Inside and out.
His hoodie clung to him in the breeze, sleeves hiding the tremble in his fingers. Below, the street stretched out like a forgotten memory dark, empty, uncaring. There were no headlights. No horns. Just concrete, waiting.
This wasn't a movie. There was no sad violin, no note tucked beneath his pillow. He had stopped thinking about 'why' a long time ago. There was only one truth echoing in his skull: "No one is coming. No one ever did."
His phone buzzed once. He didn't check it. What could it possibly say that would matter now?
He took a breath. Not to live just to feel something real one last time. The air stabbed his lungs. Cold. Bitter. Honest.
And then he stepped forward.
The world dropped away.
For a moment, there was weightlessness. A terrifying calm as the wind screamed past his ears, louder than any thought. Time stretched thin. No fear. No second guesses. Just a strange, awful peace.
But then something cracked.
Not outside. Inside.
A sound, like a glitch in reality, echoed inside his skull.
"[System… error… detected…]"
His eyes snapped open, heart hammering.
A flash blinding , electric tore through him like lightning splitting the night. It wasn't death. It was something worse. Something… unnatural.
And then darkness.
No pain. No body. No falling. Just emptiness.
He gasped.
His ceiling. His room. His fan spinning slowly. The same torn wallpaper. The same faint stench of old books and dampness. It felt like being reborn inside a grave.
He sat up slowly, breathing hard. Not because he survived but because he hadn't meant to.
His hands shook. His pulse thundered in his ears. That fall he had felt it. The wind. The drop. The certainty. This wasn't a dream.
Then he saw it.
On the opposite wall, glowing faintly, as if written in smoke and fire…
[ Welcome to the Echo System.]
[Your death has been reversed.]
[Mission: Resolve Regret #1 — The Night She Forgot You.]
[You have 12 regrets. You must fix them all. Or die permanently ]
His breath froze.
He didn't need to guess which night it was.
He knew.
The night her eyes stopped seeing him. The night she said nothing but meant everything. The night her silence screamed louder than words.
He had buried that night. Locked it behind excuses and distractions. Told himself it didn't matter anymore.
But now it was back.
Not for revenge. For redemption.
He clenched his fists, jaw tight.
He had already tried to die.
But this…
this might break him even more.