John Lee opened his eyes and said, “I’m in hell?”

 

The burning flame of purgatory was nowhere in sight. Rather than hot, the temperature was rather nice. John propped his torso up and looked around.

 

“My bedroom?” from the old desk he once used to the outdated PC on top of the desk. Everything felt the same like back when he was in high school.

 

Bam.

 

The door suddenly opened and a middle-aged woman stood at the doorway. From the look of her face, John definitely knew who she was.

 

“Mom?” he said. He was baffled but at the same time felt emotional. John’s eyes started to glisten a bit.

 

He got up from his bed and went to his mother with open arms. John was going for a hug yet something unexpected happen.

 

“Ow,” he said. A smack right at his head. His advance was stopped as his hand rubbed his head.

 

“You’re late for school!” shouted the mother.

 

“School?” John was confused. He was thirty years old and had a job, the word ‘school’ didn’t make much sense to him.

 

Then another slap at the head.

 

“Ow,” he groaned in pain.

 

“Get ready, your father is waiting for you in the car,” said the mother.

 

She left leaving John behind. His emotion was jumbled up as he didn’t know how to respond to the situation. Then he saw the mirror.

 

His eyes blinked, enough to confirmed that what he saw was definitely him.

 

“I’m young?” John saw his reflection and recognized that face and that long shaggy hair. A time when he was rebellious during his junior high school year.

 

“What the heck is going on here?” he said.

 

Then an alarm caught his interest, a jingle long forgotten in the past. He picked up the phone and remembered his old PickleBerry phone.

 

He stopped the alarm and checked the date and time and seeing it made his whole body numbed.

 

“2008? No, it can’t be,” the phone dropped on the floor as he stood there in a daze.

 

Then a mild headache came.

 

“Ugh,” he grabbed his head and a few seconds later the pain went away. Then he remembered.

 

“I’m dead,” John said. The headache brought his memories back, a memory that he wished he wouldn’t remember.

 

Just a while ago, he was driving back from his job working at a big brand company. It was raining heavily and he was driving like normal paying attention to his side and back mirrors but then it happened. Out of nowhere, a truck came crashing at him from the side and the last thing he remembered was him upside down before a rush of flame exploded the whole car.

 

Now here he was, standing in his old bedroom in his seventeen-year-old body, thirteen years in the past.

 

“I don’t understand,” John said staring at his trembling hands.

 

Then a shout came from downstairs.

 

“John Lee, come down right now!”

 

His mom’s shout broke him away from his stupor. From instinct, he dressed himself up and fetched his backpack before leaving for school.

 

He sat in the passenger seat as his father was driving him to school. There only silence in the car as John was deep in his own thought. He looked out of the window reminiscing the time when he once lived in this neighborhood.

 

Is this a dream? Or am I just in a coma?

 

He was thinking about a plausible reason for what was happening but nothing made sense. His father dropped him off and John stood there staring at the school from afar.

 

High school huh? Here we go again.

 

John Lee wasn’t fond of school. He could barely remember any good memories he had in high school.

 

He sat in homeroom class as his eyes wandered around the students inside. Some he was familiar with while some didn’t ring a bell. He had probably forgotten their faces considering he wasn’t that close with most of them.

 

Then out of nowhere, something appeared in front of him floating in the air.

 

Incoming attack.

 

He jumped back in surprise seeing the notification and a second later, bang.

 

“Ugh,” John felt pain at the back of his head.

 

He turned around and saw these three teenagers standing behind him. Those smirks on their faces showcased their arrogance.

 

“The hell man,” said John as he glared at these teenagers.

 

“Woah,” one of them exclaimed with an amuse looked on his face

 

“The nerd is glaring at us,” said another.

 

“You really got balls slit-eyes,” said the one in the middle as he came closer to John standing taller than John by a foot. He looked down on John with a smirk.

 

Hmm, bullies? I didn’t remember any bullies back in my day in high school. Do I have repressed memories or something? And besides, this ‘chad’ like kid is really pissing me off. Don’t he has a better cuss than slit-eyes? To begin with, my eyes are rather big for a half-Asian.

 

“What are you looking at you nerd?” said the chad-like teenager.

 

John wasn’t going to let himself be a target but right before he was about to take action, the homeroom teacher entered the classroom.

 

“Knock it off the both of you, and get back to your seats,” said the teacher.

 

John took his seat and those three teenagers separated and took their seats. Both sides didn’t stop glaring at each other, the chad-like teenager taunted John with a punch in the air. It was quite laughable for him to see this act.

 

But as he turned away his head from them, he cast his eyes on the floating text window as a question popped up.

 

And what the hell are you?