Chapter 1
The day started normal.
That was the first mistake.
I remember crossing the road while checking my phone, half listening, half thinking about everything I still had to do tomorrow.
Or maybe I wasn’t crossing a road at all.
Maybe it was a path through a forest.
I don’t know why I can’t remember it properly.
But I remember the sound.
A horn. Or a roar.
Something sharp enough to cut through thought itself.
Too close.
I turned my head.
And I saw it.
A truck. Or maybe a wild boar.
My brain refused to choose.
It was already too late either way.
I froze.
My body wouldn’t move properly, like something was holding me in place, like I wasn’t meant to escape this moment at all.
For a second, I felt it.
Two versions of reality overlapping.
One where I was on a road.
One where I was somewhere else entirely.
And in both,
I was about to die.
That was when time stopped.
Not metaphorically. Not as fear.
But completely.
The world froze. Sound disappeared.
Even the air stopped moving.
Dust hung in the air like it had forgotten how to fall.
And in that silence I saw him.
He was standing between me and my death.
He didn’t run. He didn’t rush.
He just stood there like he already knew I would be here.
Like I had died here before.
Like this wasn’t new.
For a moment, I felt something strange.
Familiarity, Warmth.
Something almost like recognition.
He looked at me.
Not like a stranger. Not like a savior.
Like someone remembering me.
Then he raised his hand slightly.
And reality broke.
That’s all I remember.
When I opened my eyes again, I was standing on the other side of the road.
The truck passed through where I had been a second ago.
Or the boar did.
I still don’t know which one it was.
The world kept moving like nothing happened.
People walked past me.
No one screamed. No one stopped.
No one remembered anything at all.
Except me. Because on my wrist, there was a mark.
Burned into my skin.
A symbol I had never seen before.
And somehow, I knew.
This wasn’t the first time I should have died.
Just the first time I remembered.
