Waking up dead was not something Scarlett had ever planned for.
The first thing she noticed was the dirt. It was in her mouth, up her nose, caked under her fingernails. The second thing was the darkness. Complete, suffocating darkness that pressed against her from all sides. The third thing was that she was six feet underground in what appeared to be her own coffin.
She should have been panicking. Should have been clawing at the wood above her head, screaming for help that would never come. Instead, she felt strangely calm as she pressed her palms against the coffin lid and pushed.
The wood splintered like it was made of paper.
Dirt cascaded down on her as she sat up, breaking through two years' worth of settled earth like it was nothing more than loose sand. Her lungs should have been full of soil. She should have been suffocating. But she was breathing just fine, even as more dirt rained down around her.
When she finally clawed her way to the surface, the first thing she saw was her own headstone. "Scarlett Elizabeth Blackwood. Beloved Wife and Friend. 1995-2022."
The dates made her stop and stare. If the headstone was right, she'd been dead for two years. Two entire years had passed since Sarah pulled that trigger in the warehouse. It was 2024 now, and she was sitting in a cemetery at three in the morning, covered in grave dirt and very much alive.
A soft chime echoed in her head, like a phone notification but somehow more personal.
*System activated. Welcome back, Scarlett.*
She looked around the empty cemetery, but there was no one else there. No hidden speakers, no smartphones, nothing that could have made that sound. The voice had come from inside her own head.
"What the hell?" she said out loud, and her voice sounded different. Rougher. Like she'd been screaming for hours.
*Blood Queen Protocol initiated. Mission parameters loading.*
Words appeared in her vision, floating in the air like a hologram that only she could see. A translucent blue screen that showed information she didn't understand.
NAME: Scarlett Blackwood
STATUS: Active
LEVEL: 1
TARGETS ELIMINATED: 0
REVENGE PROGRESS: 0%
*Primary mission: Eliminate all individuals responsible for your death. Secondary mission: Discover the truth about your resurrection. Failure to complete missions within 365 days will result in permanent termination.*
Scarlett blinked hard, trying to make the screen disappear, but it just flickered and settled into the corner of her vision like a permanent heads-up display.
"This isn't real," she said. "This is some kind of hallucination. Maybe I'm not actually dead. Maybe I'm in a coma somewhere, dreaming all of this."
*Resurrection successful. All biological functions restored. Enhanced capabilities unlocked.*
"Enhanced capabilities?" She looked down at her hands. They looked normal, except for the dirt caked under her nails. But when she'd pushed through the coffin lid, it had felt like breaking through cardboard instead of solid wood.
She stood up and brushed the worst of the dirt off her clothes. She was still wearing the same jeans and black sweater she'd died in, though they were now faded and torn in several places. Her boots were still on her feet, though the leather was cracked and stained.
*New skill unlocked: Enhanced Physical Strength. New skill unlocked: Damage Resistance.*
"Stop talking to me," she said.
The voice went quiet, but the screen in her vision remained. She could see a small blinking icon in one corner that looked like an envelope. Like she had unread messages.
Scarlett walked through the cemetery, trying to process what was happening to her. The logical part of her mind insisted this was impossible. People didn't just come back from the dead with mysterious voices in their heads and supernatural abilities. But the evidence was right there. She was walking around, breathing, thinking, when she should have been nothing but bones and decay.
As she reached the cemetery gates, she noticed something else that made her pause. There was a small plaque mounted on the stone archway that she'd never seen before: "Riverside Memorial Gardens. Established 1923. Managed by BlackRock Security Solutions since 2022."
BlackRock Security. That was the company that had hired her for the Montenegro job. The job that had gotten her killed.
*Incoming message. Priority: High.*
The envelope icon in her vision started flashing more rapidly.
"Fine," she said. "Show me the message."
New text appeared on her screen.
*Scarlett. If you're reading this, the resurrection protocol worked. You have exactly one year to complete your mission. Sarah Morrison is now Sarah Chen. She married Marcus six months after your funeral. They live at 1247 Oak Street, Suburban Heights. She's pregnant.*
Scarlett felt something cold and sharp twist in her chest. Not just anger, though there was plenty of that. Something else. Something that felt like hunger.
*Time remaining: 364 days, 21 hours, 17 minutes.*
She looked back at her grave one more time, then walked out of the cemetery and into the night. Sarah was pregnant with Marcus's child. They were living together, playing house, probably thinking they'd gotten away with murder.
They were about to learn how wrong they were.