*Unedited Version

Without anyone to share their plight with, One would continue sinking when they are down even if they didn’t want to, even if they tried to think positively. Telling themselves that everything would be alright wouldn’t actually work; unless they saw that hope—a hope that wouldn’t betray and hurt them. 

I went through a nightmare and felt the same, having no destination. But now, it was different.

Dad was alive.

A burst of happiness had completely engulfed me. My hand was trembling as I fiddled on my phone. I so wanted to hear his voice at that time. But, I stopped myself.

Closing my eyes and taking a few deep breaths, I tried to calm myself down. And in no time, I was comparatively fine.

“I have started to like the same ability I was cursing a moment ago. Guess I am still a human.” I muttered.

I exhaled out once again and dialed his number. After a few seconds, which felt so much more, he picked it up.

“Hello.” When I heard his familiar voice, a tear slid down my face. At the same time, my lips curved up in a joyous smile.

“Erik?”

Taking another deep breath, I spoke in a natural voice, or so I tried to.

 “Hello, dad.”

I didn’t want him to worry about me, but I failed. As soon after, I heard him ask, “Erik, what happened? You sound a bit off.”

‘You sure know me,’ my lips curled up even further. 

“Dad, I want to hug you,” I told him honestly and waited for his reply in anticipation. And as expected, I heard him say after a brief dramatic pause, “Son, now you are scaring me. No, wait, are you really my son?”

“Old man, you sure know how to overreact,” I burst out laughing while another tear slid down.

“There is something wrong. Tell me,” he paused and then said thoughtfully, “Alright, I am coming home as soon as possible.”

I shook my head and said, “There is no need. It’s fine.” 

I still hadn’t completely cleared up my mind, so for now, I felt that it was better not to see him. I didn’t know why Amelia had killed him and what was even that black corpse. Was it Amelia’s father? There were so many questions but no answers. 

It was safe to assume that he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But, I still felt uncertainty and fear. 

“You are clearly not fine!” He exclaimed, bringing me out of my thoughts.

“Alright, alright. I am telling you.” I laid back down on the bed and continued, “It is not something serious. It was just a dream about mom.”

He became silent for a few seconds. Then he asked, his tone somber. “What did you see in the dream?”

My stomach grumbled, and I felt pangs of hunger. But, I ignored it and started telling him the truth, well, at least the dream part.

After that, we talked for some more minutes, and I insisted that I was fine and he should focus on his work. At the same time, someone called him from behind. As such, he had to end the call.

Then I went to the kitchen with comparably simple steps. I was starving and felt as if I hadn’t eaten for weeks. 

With a pen, notebook, and a lot of food on the dining table, I sat on the chair and looked at the time. And then picked up a fruit and started eating it while thinking, ‘Twenty minutes to six; almost an hour before the sky gets dark. I have already asked dad to come back before that. And as for me….’

My eyebrows creased together. This was a complete mess, and I suspected that things would soon get more complicated—just a hunch of mine.

‘I need to think through everything slowly. First, the changes in my body. Do I have any more ability?’

I tried to focus ahead, thinking that my eyesight would also have improved. After seeing all those shows and movies, I couldn’t help but feel like this.

But, I didn’t feel any physical changes besides side effects like hunger.

My hand and mouth didn’t stop moving as I contemplated, ‘So, I only have mental changes? Wait, is this really what Amelia or whoever it was wanted? Let's call it X for now. And that translucent figure was my soul? Now, I have started to assume things. Ugh, damn!’

Having no information about this and no means to explore it, I decided not to think about my changes but instead think about the world around me.

I was confused. I clearly went back in time. So logically speaking, everything on this day should be the same, right? Unless I changed something that created a butterfly effect, I didn’t do anything. Uncle Drew shouldn’t have received a call at that moment, but he did! 

It was also related to his business. I frowned and chose to drop this matter aside.

Then I tried not to think and speculate things and just focused on eating. After that, I picked up the notebook and scribbled down everything I had experienced.

Though I could think faster than before, I decided to note everything down. 

After a while, I was seriously looking at the page filled with many question marks and circles.

Reading everything once again, I closed my eyes and thought, ‘In the end, I am sure of only two things: I went back in time, and Amelia will come to see me. She talked about and even hinted at many things. Though I will slowly get to know them, still I don’t want to be controlled and experience that again. Daring or stupid might it sound but I will not wait for Amelia, and instead go and see her.’

I opened my eyes and stood up. I planned to observe her and all other changes in the surroundings, if there were any. After all, she gave me this power, so she must have some use of me. 

Honestly, I was terrified even to see her. But much more than that, I didn’t want to stay in the passive state, to stay in the dark and wait. 

'What if she is also a victim? I don't want to antagonize her with just one thing. Even when that one thing was killing my father and torturing me? But that was not her, right…? She herself said this.' 

 I heaved a sigh of resignation and decided just to be practical.

Looking at the clock, it was six-seventeen. Amelia should be with her martial arts teacher, Fay Wurter. I might be wrong about this, considering some things might have changed, but I still decided to go out and at least clear some of my doubts.

I went to the washroom and washed my face. Then I stepped out of the house. After locking the door, I began to move at a quick pace while pondering, 'Speaking of this, she was always different from the start.'

Amelia was naturally more robust than her peers. But, she had no control over it. This resulted in unintentional verbal bullying by the naive kids. 

As such, she was alone, irritable, always on the verge of crying. If not for a few understanding adults, it would have been worse.

I clicked my tongue and considered thinking more about the present matter.

After some time, I found out that not much had changed in the town. And having no time to focus on other minor details, I walked faster towards the end of the town. Fortunately, Miss Wurter didn't live too far away from my house. Otherwise, I would have dropped my plan.

At six-twenty-six, I finally reached my destination.

I gazed ahead at the only buildings near the hill forest. It was a simple-looking house without any fences around it. Behind it was a garage-like structure which was a gym.

In front of the one-story building, Amelia and Miss Wurter sat comfortably. I just looked at them, frozen stiff, with my heart beating irregularly. I was clearly frightened. Then, I immediately moved and hid behind a tree if they saw me.

My hands were cold, and my breathing was ragged. I had overestimated myself. I was forcing myself to meet Amelia. Not only that, but I had highly underestimated fear.

Only after taking many deep breaths did I calm down.

Even though I had no confidence in meeting her, I still didn't give up. I would at least observe her from a distance. With this, I would be assured that dad was safe. This was one of the main reasons for coming here. 

Now that my mind was clear, I quickly made another plan. It surprised me that I could even think of something like that. Gulping, I peeked from behind the tree. 

 They were drinking something and talking leisurely. Miss Wurter, with her bob haircut, was wearing a tank top over military pants. Taking out my phone, I messaged a boy to share some pictures with me and then Amelia to meet me at one of our hangout places.

I saw her taking out her mobile and typing. In no time, I received her reply. She had agreed to meet me. 

She said something to Miss Wurter, who laughed and replied, making Amelia smile bashfully and shake her head. 

Amelia then stood up, and Miss Wurter said another thing to her, to which Amelia declined. 

Miss Wurter must have offered her a ride. I had already considered this. If it were X, they would not want someone to know where they were going. And if she were Amelia, she would also reject as I messaged her a nearby location. Amelia was someone who rarely troubled anyone else for small things like this.

Then I followed Amelia, who ambled her way to the set location. After a minute, we were walking through a nature trail. 

Except for a few aggressive animals found deep inside the forest, most were mild. And there were also not many around our location.

I had already received the message I wanted, but I was hesitating.

I couldn't think of anything else, but I felt that this was not something I should do.

No, it was better like this. With how Amelia would react, I would know who she was. 

And if she were my Amelia, then… then our relationship would be over.

'Yes, it will be better this way. I don't want to be emotionally unstable every time I make my decision. It’s alright. This is fine.'

With that thought, I hid in a location from where I could see Amelia. First, I made my phone silent and then shared the pictures.

Ting.

Amelia received the notification. She glanced at it and froze.

I looked at her message.

“What is this?! Erik, why do you have Miss Pashar's nudes?!”

That boy and one of our teachers were in a sexual relationship. He stupidly and proudly shared this with me. I advised him not to share something like this, but he didn't care as the teacher was dumb enough not to care. She had shared her nudes. The boy left the school after that. This was not related to me, so I also forgot about this. And now, I was using them to test Amelia as she didn't know about this. Now there was no turning back. I slowly typed, “I am sorry.”

Amelia: What??!!!

I glanced at her shocked expression and continued lying. I was soon going to know that it was a wrong decision.

"I am sorry. I was cheating on you."

I saw her shaking her head as she sent, "Dumbo, stop lying. I don't like this."

"Why do I have her pictures then?"

She stared blankly at the screen, and tears dripped down her face.

"You are telling me this now??!!"

 "I am sorry."

"Stop with this sorry!" I heard her cry out and then received the same message, followed by another one.

"I am coming to you, and we will talk face to face."

Ignoring the guilty feeling rising in me and not daring to look at her, I continued typing.

"I don't have the courage to see you now. I am scared."

"You will always hide from me?"

"Yes, until this is not clear."

"Then what about all the time we spent together?! Was it all fake?"

I looked up from my screen and saw her miserably falling to her knees. 

The tears that I thought had dried up once again fell from my eyes. 

"I also want to know the same. Was it all fake?"

"What are you even saying?"

"I don't know myself. I don't know why I did this. But, It all started because of you." 

I no longer had a semblance of rationality in me, and I felt worse with the passing moment. I felt like I no longer was typing. Instead, I was staring at her sorrowful state and sharing my despair with her. 

"Me?" She asked feebly.

"I don't know. I thought that now things will not be that bad. But… Why is it still like this? Why do I feel so ugly?" I took deep breaths, but that damned ability didn't work.

"We can still start everything again." 

She was still hoping for this, just like me back then. But I just turned around and started walking with unstable steps as I asked her, "You still don't hate me?"

"I still love you, Erik. Why do you have to do this to me?" She cried out pitifully.

"But, I hate myself," I mumbled.

I hate myself for being so weak. I hate myself for not doing anything, even when I could hear her crying loudly.

"We can still talk. I don't know anything. Please don't leave me like this. What will I even do? Please, Erik."

"I can't." 

That was my last reply to her. 

My head was spinning, and my feet felt heavy, but I still kept on walking.

At least, dad was still alive. I should go and see him. What if I had angered X? I felt stupid thinking about this. No, I was an idiot.

That's when I noticed that it was already dark. Everything was silent. An eerie breeze was blowing, making my spine tremble.

I gulped and looked around. I was lost. I turned on my mobile once again. But before I could do anything, the bush beside me rustled.

I stepped back warily and turned on the flashlight, and then everything changed once again.

An unfamiliar man stood there. His eyes were bloodshot, and his jaw was wide open. I stared at him in horror as pieces of flesh fell down his mouth.

Before I could even run, he gave out a loud growl and pounced on me. 

And then I experienced another nightmare. The monster opened his mouth even wider than before and bit down. Blood sprayed out like a fountain.

"Ahhhhh!" I shouted in pain as I felt the flesh on my neck being ripped apart.

I punched and kicked, but this made the monster even more excited.

Soon, I could no longer move. I no longer knew which part of my body was being eaten. I just felt despairing pain. 

My eyes were becoming hazy as I blankly gazed at the dark sky.

'I am dying just like this?'

That was my last thought before I stopped breathing.

***

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