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> "I didn't die with a scream.
I died with a question—
Why?"
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🌧️ Scene 1 — The Betrayal
The rain didn't stop that night.
It didn't care that someone was dying.
Aric Vale limped down the alley, his feet dragging through puddles of dirty water. Blood soaked the back of his uniform, and the once-white shirt now clung to his skin, crimson and heavy. His body trembled, not from the cold, but from the betrayal still echoing in his chest louder than the gunshot wound in his side.
He pressed his palm against the wall to stay upright, leaving a bloody smear. His knees buckled. He collapsed into the mud.
Above him, lightning cracked across the sky.
So this was it?
This was how it ended?
Not in a war. Not in glory. But bleeding in an alley… alone.
No. Not alone.
Footsteps splashed behind him—three pairs, deliberate and unhurried.
Aric turned his head, barely able to lift his chin. The figures came into view one by one, emerging from the darkness like ghosts.
Darin.
His oldest friend. The one who called him "brother."
Now holding a dagger slick with Aric's blood.
Professor Hasker.
His mentor. His guardian. The man who raised him from the streets, trained him, believed in him.
Now standing with hands folded behind his back, face devoid of any emotion.
And finally—Lena.
The one person he had ever loved.
The one who now held the gun aimed at his heart.
"W-Why…?" Aric's voice broke as he asked the question he had been choking on for the last hour.
Lena's face remained blank. "Because you were never meant to live past tonight."
She stepped closer, her heels clicking against the wet pavement, her finger still curled around the trigger.
"We needed someone to take the fall," Darin said casually, wiping his blade on his sleeve. "You were perfect. Loyal. Gullible. Disposable."
"You were our mistake," Hasker said, not with cruelty, but with cold finality.
Aric's lip trembled.
He tried to speak again, but no words came.
He had loved them.
He had trusted them.
And they had gutted him like a dog.
"Go to hell…" he rasped.
Lena didn't hesitate. "Already there."
The last thing he saw was the muzzle flash.
And then—nothing.
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🌑 Scene 2 — In Between
He didn't dream.
He floated.
In a sea of black.
No body. No voice. No heart. Just… thought.
Regret clung to him like chains. Every lie they told. Every time he chose to believe. Every chance he ignored the warning signs. Every smile that had been a mask.
He had died a fool.
And yet…
A voice reached him.
Low. Male. But distorted.
> "Was that how you thought your story would end?"
He couldn't respond. But he wanted to.
> "You were played. But now you remember the game."
Pain surged through his formless soul.
> "What if I gave you another chance?"
> "To remember everything. To see through every lie. To walk back into their lives—not as the fool…"
> "…but as the monster they created?"
His answer was silent.
But the fire in his chest screamed louder than any words.
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📆 Scene 3 — September 1st, Five Years Earlier
Aric woke up with a scream.
He jolted upright, breath ragged, drenched in sweat.
He looked around, eyes wide in panic.
Small metal bed. Peeling walls. Buzzing fan. Rusted locker.
No blood.
No pain.
He ran to the broken mirror.
And froze.
His face—young. Clean. Unscarred. Hair shorter. Eyes wider. Hands… smaller.
The calendar beside his bed said it all:
September 1st, 2020.
The day everything began.
"No…" he whispered.
He fell to the ground, hands trembling, heart pounding.
It was real.
He was alive.
But not as the same person.
This time, he remembered everything.
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🧠 Scene 4 — The Voice Returns
As he tried to calm down, the whisper returned.
> "You remember their lies. Now you'll hear them too."
The sound didn't come from the room.
It came from inside his head.
He clutched his skull. "What are you?"
> "Truth. Vengeance. The part of you they buried."
Knock. Knock.
The door creaked.
"Still in bed, Vale?" a familiar gruff voice barked.
Headmaster Luthor. His voice hadn't changed in five years.
But something else had.
Aric's ears rang. And then—he heard something behind the man's voice.
> ["Poor kid. Won't last a semester. But he's useful enough."]
Aric's eyes widened.
"What… the hell was that?"
> "You'll hear it now. Every thought behind a lie. Every whisper beneath the mask."
His rebirth wasn't just a do-over.
It was a curse. A gift. A weapon.
And he would use it.
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🎓 Scene 5 — Return to Aegis Academy
The Aegis Academy hadn't changed.
Same marble gates.
Same golden banners.
Same whispers of glory and elite pride.
Aric stepped through the threshold again—but this time, not as the fool.
He passed the faces he once trusted.
Lena—still charming, still dangerous.
> ["Let's see how easy he is to bend this time."]
Darin—already pretending to be friendly.
> ["Use him again. Just until Phase 2."]
Hasker—calm, calculating.
> ["He returned. Unexpected. Watch closely."]
Every word was fake.
Every smile—poison.
Aric smiled back.
Let them think he was still the fool.
That would make their fall even sweeter.
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📓 Scene 6 — The Book of Names
That night, Aric sat at his old desk.
He opened a new notebook.
On the first page, he wrote in clean, deliberate letters:
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People Who Must Bleed
Lena Voss
Darin Sear
Hasker
Markus, the Red-Eyed Stranger
The Council of Serpents
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He tapped his pen.
Above all names, he drew one sentence:
> "You killed the fool. Now… meet the monster."
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🧨 Final Line – Hook for Chapter 2
As he closed the notebook, a smile touched his lips—cold and dangerous.
Tomorrow, he would speak to Lena again.
The first conversation of many.
And the first lie… she would ever regret telling.
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