Sleep should have been easy after a long day.
A normal person would collapse on the bed and drift off without a problem.
But normal and I were not friends.
I lay on my mattress staring at the ceiling of my tiny rented room, replaying the same thought:
He's alive. Or someone who looks exactly like him.
Atlas Aldridge.
Chairman.
Cold, controlled, unreadable.
But the resemblance was too perfect, too precise, too haunting for coincidence.
My chest tightened just remembering the way he'd said my name.
Like he had said it before in another world.
I closed my eyes.
I should sleep.
I had work tomorrow—if I even got the job.
I needed to at least try.
But the moment darkness swallowed my vision…
The past clawed its way back.
---
THE NIGHTMARE
At first, everything was quiet.
Then the siren wailed—a high, piercing sound that sliced through the air.
I stood in the old school hallway again.
Dim lights.
Empty lockers.
Cold tile under my feet.
This place always came back the same way:
silent, too still, like the world was holding its breath.
"Aria."
The voice echoed behind me.
I turned, heart racing.
There he was.
Not Atlas.
Not the cold chairman in a suit.
But him—the boy from my ninth life.
Soft eyes.
Warm smile.
The boy who used to walk me home after evening classes.
The boy who held my hand when the lights went out.
"Why did you come back?" I whispered.
He didn't answer.
Instead, he reached toward me…
And the hallway flickered.
The floor trembled.
A faint orange glow crept along the walls.
Not again.
"Run!" he shouted.
But my legs refused to move.
Heat surged around us.
Not sharp flames—my nightmare never showed them.
Just light, smoke, shadows, and the overwhelming terror of losing him again.
The boy grabbed my hand.
"Stay with me, Aria!"
His voice cracked, full of fear.
I tried—God, I tried—but the world warped.
His hand slipped.
His face blurred.
"No—no, don't go!"
I reached for him.
The smoke thickened.
The glow brightened.
And then—
A silhouette stepped through the haze.
Not the boy from the fire.
But Atlas.
Tall. Cold. Sharp.
His expression unreadable as he looked straight at me.
"Why did you come back?" I whispered again.
This time, Atlas answered.
"You shouldn't have survived."
My breath hitched.
"What do you mean?"
He stepped closer.
"You weren't supposed to meet me again."
I staggered backward.
"Who… who are you really?"
His form flickered—like two versions of him were layered on top of each other.
The chairman and the boy.
The past and the present.
He reached out his hand.
And everything collapsed into darkness.
---
WAKING UP
I shot up with a gasp.
My room swirled dizzily in the dim morning light.
My shirt clung to my skin with cold sweat.
My heart felt like it was trying to burst out of my chest.
I pressed a hand over it, trying to breathe.
"Just a dream," I whispered.
But it wasn't.
Not really.
I'd had this nightmare for years, but tonight… tonight was different.
Atlas appeared.
He had never appeared before.
Which meant something inside me had recognized him—even if I refused to admit it.
I stood up shakily and splashed cold water on my face.
I needed to pull myself together.
Whatever connection I thought I had with Atlas…
Whatever memories my heart insisted on mixing…
They were dangerous.
This was my tenth life.
And in this life, Atlas Aldridge was my boss.
A powerful CEO, not a boy from a school tragedy.
I had to focus.
I had to survive.
I had to stop letting dreams dictate reality.
But reality wasn't done with me.
Because five minutes later, my phone buzzed.
Aldridge Corporation: Congratulations. You have been selected as the new assistant trainee. Report by 8 AM.
I stared at the screen.
Out of thousands of applicants…
He chose me.
My stomach twisted.
My tenth life was about to collide with memories I had tried so hard to bury.
---
ARRIVING AT ALDRIDGE CORPORATION
By 7:50 AM, I was standing in front of the glass building again.
Employees rushed past me.
Security scanned cards.
Executives strode in with confidence.
And me?
I stood there staring at the revolving doors, trying not to panic.
I entered, trying to blend into the crowd.
But the moment I stepped inside, the receptionist looked up sharply.
"You're Aria Vale, right?" she asked.
"Yes?"
"The Chairman said you should go straight to the top floor."
My heart jumped.
Straight to him?
I forced a smile. "Okay, thank you."
The elevator became my coffin for the next thirty seconds.
When the doors opened, I stepped into a quiet hallway lined with glass offices. Everything here looked expensive, serious, and intimidating.
I knocked on the big door.
"Enter," came the voice that had chased me even into my nightmares.
I stepped in.
Atlas was standing by the window, one hand in his pocket, the morning sun outlining his frame like he was carved from marble.
He turned.
Our eyes met.
And for a moment, the room felt too small for both of us.
"Good morning," I whispered.
He studied me slowly.
"You look tired."
My breath stopped.
How could he notice something like that?
"I didn't sleep well," I admitted before thinking.
He nodded once, as if that meant something.
"Nightmares?" he asked.
My blood ran cold.
"W-why do you ask?"
"Your eyes," he said simply. "They look… haunted."
Haunted.
The same word the boy from my ninth life used the night before the fire.
I swallowed hard. "It's nothing serious."
He didn't reply.
Instead, he walked toward his desk and lifted a file.
"This is your orientation schedule," he said. "Assistant training starts today."
"Okay."
He handed it to me, but as my fingers brushed his, something electric shot through my body.
A pull.
A memory.
A feeling of familiarity so strong I nearly gasped.
He felt it too.
I saw it—the way his eyes widened for half a second.
The way his hand froze.
The way his breath hitched quietly.
He dropped the file.
We both stared at it on the floor.
"…Strange," he murmured.
"What is?" I asked softly.
He looked at me again.
Not cold.
Not distant.
Confused.
Searching.
Like he was trying to remember something impossible.
"I've only felt this once," he said quietly.
My chest tightened.
"When?" I whispered.
He hesitated.
"In a dream I had years ago."
My world tilted.
A dream.
Of me?
Of us?
But before I could speak, there was a knock on the door.
Atlas straightened instantly, mask snapping back into place.
"Come in," he said.
A woman entered—immaculate suit, perfectly tied bun, confident stride.
"This is Mira, your department supervisor," Atlas said.
Mira smiled. "Welcome to the team."
I tried to return the smile.
But my heart was still trapped in the moment before.
When Atlas confessed the thing he wasn't supposed to feel.
The thing that tied us together even across lifetimes.
And as I followed Mira out of the office, I heard his voice behind me—so soft I wasn't sure it was real.
"…Why do I feel like I've met you before?"
I didn't dare turn around.
Because the truth was too heavy.
We had met before.
In a burning school.
In another lifetime.
In a world that ended too soon.
But he didn't know that.
And I didn't know if I could survive losing him again.