Astherin's POV
I stood beyond the skies, looking at the ruins of the realms. Everything was shattered, most beings were dead and some looking for the scraps of what remained from their world.
"You've seen the chaos you keep causing" Seraphis said eyes cold and demeaning.
"For every time you live the multiverse suffers for it. All for what? A love that can't be accepted" She spat.
"If you all never abused the mortals we won't be here. But I guess all gods are selfish. Isn't that what we are? Selfish in nature?" I spat back looking at every one of them dead in the eye.
And they all laughed like I cracked some joke.
"For every time you live, you die and for every time you die. The universe ends. Unfortunately, we can't risk you dying again after this. So, this would be your last death, we have decided to lock you up in the in Between" that's when I saw Neratheon stand.
"Any final words? Before you and solon share the same fate?"
"I'll be back."
I woke up like I hadn't just died.
My body jolted forward and I looked up, the ceiling above me was cracked in the same corner it always had been. I slowly stood up from my bed and I looked around, picked up my phone and it was the day after my eighteenth birthday. That's when it dawned on me…
"I was eighteen again"
But I remembered dying.
Not metaphorically but literally. I remembered the split like something cracked inside my ribcage and my soul got yanked backward. I remembered the silence and the blank look of people I can't seem to remember. The memory tasted like metal and forgetting.
And then… I woke up here.
My room looked the same, but something was off and I couldn't explain it. I couldn't even feel scared about it. My brain was foggy, and yet I was hyperaware like I was being watched, not through my window, but from inside the air. I walked up to my window; I look outside and everything is the same.
I looked at myself in the mirror, I still looked the same. I've always had unnatural long curly blonde hair, grey eyes and a pale skin. That's when I saw it, the glowing mark on my chest….
"Nope, nope, nope. I'm not having this" I said out loud
Maybe it was just a dream. Maybe I just needed to see a therapist or take a shower and pretend the world hadn't just reset.
For the third time.
I decided on going to school, living life the way it seemed to be and hope I was imagining things.
By the time I got to school, I was convinced I'd imagined everything.
The morning had been too normal. My neighbor shouting at the pets for pissing on her porch. My uniform still missing one sock. The same damn Uber driver with the coffee breath. If I hadn't known better, I'd call it a Monday. Well, it was a Monday.
But I did know better.
"Lex," I whispered during math, passing her my notebook under the table. "This is the third time we're 18 again. I swear."
She looked at the note. Then looked at me. And then mouthed something that made me want to slam my head into the desk:
"You need sleep."
She didn't remember, nobody did. I didn't know whether to feel relief or panic. The bell rang. The class shifted. The world kept turning like I hadn't said something that should've gotten me locked up.
"Alexis, I'm not kidding. Fine what did I do on my birthday?" I said as I put my books in my locker.
"We went to the food court because you blatantly refused to throw a party for your 18th. We planned on having a sleepover…" She stopped
"And then what happened?" because my birthday was yesterday. So, if we had a sleepover, she would have been in my house this morning. She didn't reply and I was about to smack her until I saw who she was looking at.
And damnit he was fineeee.
The announcement came in homeroom.
"Please welcome our new student," Mrs. Kendi chirped like we weren't in a cold institutional hallway with flickering lights. My school has this weird thing of introducing new students during breaks. "Taryn…?"
He stepped in and the atmosphere had this weird feel to it, that's the only way I can really explain it.
Taryn looked like he walked off a page of a graphic novel. Sharp jaw, copper-toned skin, silver eyes that glinted unnaturally under fluorescent lighting. Heck that's one beautiful man. Everyone was staring. Of course, they were.
Alexis nearly dropped her juice box. "God, I'd sell my soul for that smile."
He didn't look at anyone. Not at the other girls giggling. Not at the boys whispering.
He looked straight at me.
And then… he smiled and walked away.
"Girl, do you know him?" Alexis looked at him with a knowing smile on her face.
"No, I don't and I don't want to" And we started heading to our next class.
"Relax don't get your panties in a twist and besides loosen up. Ever since he left you've never been the same" she adjusted the book in her hand.
Who left? But I didn't say that out loud, I already sounded mad enough.
By lunch, I was already planning on avoiding him.
I and Alexis sat together as usual and she was talking about random things as usual.
"Mr. new boy is staring at you in case you didn't notice" she pointed out and I snapped out of my daze and locked eyes with him. Alexis resumed her talking but my focus was on him now.
He sat across from me. Alone and calm. Quietly munching on his lunch and acting like he belonged there. He walked up to my table making the whole cafeteria stare at him.
"Can I steal her for a second?" he asked Alexis without even looking at me and she happily let me go. I gave her a stink eye, she just blew me kisses and continued munching her food.
"What are you lot talking about can't you mind your business!" I heard her shout.
"Typical Alexis" I thought to myself
We got outside of the caf and he started
"You don't remember yet," he said.
I blinked. "Excuse me?"
"You called me," he said. "Your awakening pulled me through the veil."
And then
The world snapped sideways. My head tilted, my chest compressed, and I fell.