...
While I was sleeping peacefully, I suddenly woke up. As I looked around, I realized this wasn't my room in the mansion—it was my old room on Earth. But everything was cloaked in darkness.
I felt a little disoriented from waking up so abruptly.
"How… did I come back to Earth?" I muttered, scanning the pitch-black room.
I walked slowly toward the door and stepped out. The hallway was just as dark. I carefully descended the stairs, holding onto the railing.
"Mom… Dad…?" I called out into the void.
As I reached the living room, I looked around, confused and uneasy.
"What happened to me? How did I return from the other world to this place?"
Suddenly, I heard a voice from the kitchen. I turned toward it and saw something that froze me in place—my mother… scolding someone who looked exactly like me.
I slowly walked closer. I could hear every word.
"Why do you never study? Always such low marks… always at the bottom of the class!" she scolded him—no, me.
"Mom… I just don't like it," the other me replied, voice trembling.
I stood to the side, watching.
"How… how is that boy exactly like me? And why can't she see me?" I whispered.
"Mom! Mom, I'm here! Look at me!" I shouted.
But no one reacted. Not her, not him.
Then I heard another voice from the living room.
I walked slowly and found my father standing there.
"Again, only 27% this time?" he said harshly, then slapped the boy across the face. "Why do you never try harder?!"
That moment hit me like a bolt of lightning.
These… these were my memories. The painful ones I had buried deep down. The ones that haunted me in silence.
"No… No, please…" I whispered, my voice cracking. "Why… why did studying become my nightmare…?"
Before I could take another breath, the scene changed again.
I was now in a classroom.
I looked around and saw myself, younger, sitting at the last desk. Trembling.
The teacher stood at the front, calling out marks.
"Roll number 1 scored 70 out of 80 in English. Everyone, give a clap."
And just like that, I knew what was coming.
I watched my other self clench the table, sweating in fear.
"Roll number 34… Kelvin scored 10 out of 80."
The classroom went silent.
I stood at the side, helpless, watching it unfold. Watching me break apart again.
"Why… why am I here again? Why am I seeing these scenes I tried so hard to forget?" I said, almost choking.
After the teacher finished announcing everyone's marks and left the classroom, something shifted.
Suddenly, all my friends approached the version of me sitting at the desk, still trembling.
I watched them from the side, helpless.
One of them leaned over and smirked.
"Oh, so Kelvin… ready for the retest, huh?" he said, laughing cruelly.
Another friend—who was just like me, someone who never studied—but somehow passed this time, chimed in.
"Of course he'll give the retest. But hey, don't forget—you have to rank at least 10th, or else you'll be stuck in 9th grade again," he sneered. "And you know… we don't hang out with kids from lower classes."
I turned my eyes to myself—sitting there, silently, fists clenched under the desk, fighting back tears.
"Why… why am I seeing these memories again?" I whispered, my heart pounding hard in my chest.
Suddenly, the classroom dissolved around me. The scene changed again.
This time, I was on the school playground.
It was a football match.
I spotted myself, standing near the goalpost, preparing to take a penalty shot. My teammates surrounded me, cheering.
"Kelvin, you can do it! Score the goal!" they shouted with hope.
I stood in the distance, watching as I raised my leg and kicked.
The ball rolled… but too slow.
The goalkeeper easily caught it.
"Yooo! Team B wins!" the opponents roared in victory.
My teammates walked over to me—well, to him, the younger Kelvin—and one of them gave him a light shove.
"Damn it. We lost again because of you," he snapped. "We thought you were a failure in studies, but at least you'd have some talent in sports. But no—you're just plain talentless."
I stared in silence.
Everything I buried… everything I tried to forget… was coming back.
That day…
The day I was called a failure.
A talentless nobody.
Suddenly, everything went dark again.
I looked around—once more, I was surrounded by that vast, empty void.
But then—
I saw them.
Countless versions of myself.
Copies of me scattered across the darkness, each one trapped in their own timeline. Each one reliving a different nightmare.
One version of me was kneeling, eyes swollen from crying.
"Please… I'm sorry!" he sobbed, reaching out to someone unseen.
Another version sat in a corner, trembling.
"Why is everyone calling me a failure…? Why does everyone say I'm talentless?" he whispered in pain.
I turned and saw another copy of me, standing in front of my mom.
"Please, Mom… I want to do something else—something other than studies," he begged, his voice shaking.
But his mother only laughed—a cold, cruel laugh.
"You? You can't do anything. You have no talents."
I stood frozen in the center of this nightmarish space, surrounded by echoes of my past. Every memory. Every wound. Every judgment. Replaying all at once, like a broken film on repeat.
I clenched my fists, my breathing getting heavy. My heart pounding like a war drum.
Why… why am I being forced to relive this?
Around me, the voices grew louder.
Failure...
Worthless...
Talentless...
The darkness closed in. The memories screamed.
And then—
I couldn't take it anymore.
"PLEASE STOP IT!!!" I screamed with everything inside me, my voice shattering the silence like thunder.
Suddenly, a cruel laugh echoed through the vast, dark void.
A deep, mocking male voice followed—
"Why is a failure trying to stop this?"
I flinched, spinning around in the darkness, trying to find the source of the voice.
But all I could feel was my heartbeat racing, and a chill creeping down my spine.
"Hahaha~ The weakest... the failure... the talentless one now wants it all to end?"
His voice dripped with venom, echoing from every direction.
I swallowed hard. My lips trembled.
"I… I'm not weak," I said, but my voice shook with fear.
Another wave of that cold, cruel laugh hit me.
I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to push away the fear, and took a deep breath.
Then I shouted, "Alita!"
Silence.
No response.
"W-What? Why isn't she answering?" I whispered, panic rising in my throat.
"You really thought she'd save you from this?" the voice growled.
"No one's coming, Kelvin. This is your judgment day."
"No… I don't want this! Don't force me to do things I never wanted!" I cried, desperation rising.
Then—
A thought struck me.
This… this has to be a dream.
"Yes… yes, this isn't real. Just a nightmare. You're nothing but a shadow in my mind!" I said, my voice gaining a hint of strength.
"You really think that?"
Suddenly, a towering figure materialized before me, rising from the shadows like a demon of despair.
My eyes widened in horror as I stepped back instinctively—but I couldn't move any farther.
My legs… were frozen in place.
"Why are you stepping back?" the figure mocked, its voice shaking the void.
"Didn't you say it's just a dream? Then fight, Kelvin. Fight!"
He leaned closer, and his words hit me like thunder—
"Fight, or admit the truth…
You are weak."
The towering shadow figure stepped closer, his presence suffocating, like the weight of every nightmare pressing against my chest.
Without warning, he reached out.
His cold, pitch-black fingers tilted my chin upward, forcing me to look directly into his glowing crimson eyes.
They burned with cruelty—like he was staring into my very soul.
"You can't do anything," he whispered, his voice sharp as blades.
"Weaklings like you always lose."
He leaned in closer, a sinister grin spreading across his face.
"And you… you're special. A rare mix—
A perfect blend of failure and talentless filth."
Then he laughed. A laugh so cruel, so venomous, it echoed through the void and stabbed at my heart.
My lips trembled. I felt like collapsing right there.
Suddenly, the void shook violently—like the entire space was about to shatter into pieces.
Then, everything vanished.
I opened my eyes with a gasp, staring blankly at the ceiling above me. I was lying on a bed, drenched in sweat, my chest rising and falling in panic.
Beside me, Evelyn was sitting, gently shaking me.
Her eyes widened the moment I looked at her and spoke.
"Where Am I?"
"Hey, you finally woke up!" she cried out, immediately pulling me into a hug.
"You idiot… You're in your room. At the mansion."
I blinked a few times, still disoriented. But that hug—it grounded me. After everything I had just seen, after being drowned in that nightmare, her warmth felt like salvation.
I didn't pull away.
Instead, I slowly wrapped my arms around her, returning the hug.
"What… happened to me?"
She held me tighter.
"You were sweating a lot, your body was burning hot… and you were twitching like crazy," she said with concern in her soft voice.
"Did you have a bad dream?"
I gave her a slow nod.
"Yeah… It was bad. Really bad."
"Was it that scary?" she asked, tilting her head with that innocent look.
I looked into her eyes while still in the hug, and gently patted her head.
"Yes, it was very scary… but now, thanks to you, I escaped it."
She brightened up.
"Yay! I helped you!"
Then, her voice softened.
"You know… I really love you. I just want to make sure you're always okay."
Damn… she really inherited all those sweet traits from Sophia.
I gave a small smile.
"Okay okay, but tell me—why did you come to my room so early in the morning? Did you need something?"
"Yes yes!" she nodded quickly.
"My mommy said to call you. She wants you to come to her room."
"Your mommy?" I raised an eyebrow.
Evelyn nodded with a mischievous little grin.
I sighed internally.
Why in the world does Sophia want to see me this early…?