Voices. People whispering, laughing, just talking to each other. That was the first thing I heard.

Then I opened my eyes. I was on a flight.

For the first time in a long time, I was actually happy. Finally, I was going home.

I sat there listening to the people around me. I didn't understand everything, but some were speaking English, talking about how beautiful their country was.

One guy said, "I'm going back to my home after 20 years."

That made me freeze. 20 years? How the hell can anyone stay away from home for 20 years? Are they even human?

The air hostess started telling everyone to sit down. "Sir, please take your seats."

It took a while for everyone to settle. When the plane was finally ready for takeoff, I looked around. Everyone was sitting quietly, but the vibe was just... off.

It was taking too long. Usually, flights don't take this much time to move. And there was so much stuff stored everywhere.

"Miss," I asked the hostess. "We are like 20 minutes late, right?"

The second I asked, it was like I pulled a trigger. Everyone started shouting the same thing. My head started spinning—why is everyone screaming so much?

"Sir, there was a problem. Please sit, we are taking off now," she said. She had to explain a lot before they finally shut up.

I sat by the window. My reflection was staring back at me.

Blue eyes. Deep blue hair.

People call this face "beautiful," but for me, beauty means something else entirely. Cold air seemed to leak from my eyes, like they were made of ice.

"Today," I whispered to myself. "Today, my mission ends."

It's been 5 years since I was home. This face, this body... it's all become so strange. I feel like some weird animal that just attracts bad luck.

My name is Rio Isanami. I'm 23. And my life has never been normal.

The plane roared into the sky. I'm not used to this, so I started feeling dizzy. I covered my eyes and tried to take deep breaths.

That's when I saw them. Strange colors floating in the air.

Glowing light was bleeding out from those colors. Nobody else saw it. Only me. Why me? Why always me?

I pulled out my phone. A message from my sister, Sara.

"Bhai, it's been so many years. You don't even reply to me. But I know you are okay. Since we were kids, weird things happened to you. You saw things, talked about things, but you never got scared. You never gave up. People called you wrong, but you stayed true. I'm happy I have a brother like you."

"You said you'd come back last year, but you didn't. This time, just come to me. I'll hug you so tight and never let go. I hope you stopped seeing those 'weird things.' I pray to God for you every day."

God. If He exists, He has nothing to do with me. He wasn't there in my happy times, and He definitely wasn't there in my pain.

Ever since I was a kid, I only got this weird power. It never gave me anything but darkness.

I closed my eyes and tried to fake sleep. Seconds, minutes, hours—I was counting them all. My brain was working way too fast.

Then, the flight attendant came with chocolates. "Sir, would you like one?"

I just grabbed a handful. She went to the guy next to me. He said no, but she kept forcing him. "Sir, please, just try one."

Suddenly, he just... agreed. It was so weird.

The colors in the air started getting darker. The "smell" of those colors became heavy. My head felt like it was going to burst. A voice screamed in my skull:

"You are going to die! Run! Your true self is calling you!"

What are you talking about?! I shouted back in my mind.

Suddenly, a man came running and fell on his knees right in front of me. I reached out to help, and—BOOM. I felt a jolt. Everything turned red. Blood splattered all over me.

"He's dead," the voice said.

My hands started shaking. I couldn't move.

"What happened? Help him!" someone yelled. A man rushed to pick him up, but the next second, a bullet hit the fallen man's head.

Exactly like my vision.

I couldn't breathe. My head was pounding: "Everyone is going to die! Everyone is going to die!"

I grabbed my head with both hands. Men with masks and guns stormed in. "Nobody move or I'll kill you!"

Someone screamed. Another jolt hit me.

Then... time stopped.

The world was frozen. Blood was hanging in the air like red mist.

A woman appeared. Her clothes were covered in blood. Her face was hidden. She walked up to me and said:

"I want to give you an identity. Will you accept me?"

Her voice was so heavy, like it was crushing my chest. The air smelled like rot and burnt blood.

"In your words," she whispered. "I am the Goddess of Death. I have been looking for you for thousands of years."

Everything in front of me stopped. I couldn't move My breath was stuck, and a weird sound

was ringing in my ears.

Then, I heard footsteps.

Thud... Thud... Thud. Someone was walking towards me, getting faster. I could feel it—

someone had stopped time. People were frozen, blood drops were hanging in the air, and the smell was making my head heavy.

Then I saw a woman. She was walking slowly towards me. She smelled like rotting nerves, like someone had burnt blood.

She came and sat right next to me.

"In your language," she said, "I am the Goddess of Death. I have been looking for you for thousands of years."

She was speaking slowly.

Every word felt like it belonged to someone who had lived for ages. She was calling out to me, her face hidden.

"Please save me... please save me."

She sounded like a child crying for something. Her presence was making me feel like I was

disappearing, like I wasn't even there. I got scared and tried to push her away.

The moment I touched her, time started again.

Suddenly, everything was moving. Blood was

splashing on me. People were screaming. Some men with masks were just shooting everyone. They didn't care who was in front of them.

I felt a jolt. I saw that everyone was dead.

Then the terrorists started shouting. "What's happening?! I can't control my hands!"

One of them turned and shot the other one. The world felt like it was breaking like glass. I saw my own dead body for a second, and then a terrorist shot me in the head.

My eyes started closing. I could hear people screaming and crying, but this time I didn't feel pain. I felt peace.

Then a voice came into my ears. "Do you really hate them that much?"

It was my mother's voice.

"Maybe I don't hate anyone," I said. "And maybe I don't love anyone either

. I think I'm just a character... someone that a strange being created just so I could live.

That being always makes me feel its presence, but it never shows itself. But maybe today, it finally appeared."

"I was given this weird power,

but I can't save anyone. I'm no hero. I don't want to kill, but the one I wanted to save... they were already taken."

Suddenly, my eyes closed.

"Let's see what you really want," a heavy voice said.

Light hit my eyes. When I opened them, I was falling into the deep sea. It felt like time had slowed down.

Is this what happens after death? I wondered

. Why was that Goddess crying? Why am I crying? Why does she feel like a part of me?

I saw a blue light above me.

A ship was there, and I was going down. The sun's light was getting dim. I was crying, but the ocean didn't even feel me. Like I didn't exist.

Then the water started taking a shape. It turned into a mermaid, and she had

my mother's face. She smiled and hugged me tight. I still didn't feel anything.

"I don't want to die," she whispered.

Tears started flowing. I couldn't stop them. "I want to live! I don't want to die!" I had always wanted to live.

She let go of me and drifted away with a smile. That smile broke my heart. She looked exactly like my mother.

I reached out, trying to speak, but I couldn't. "Why?" I screamed. "Why does everyone leave me?!"

I kept sinking. But this time, it felt like space, not water. I was falling deeper.

The mermaid was above me, and the sun's light was fading. She was smiling. I tried to tell her not to go.

"Let's find out together... what you want," a voice said.

My eyes closed. I felt a jolt, like someone pulled me.

Then I heard car noises.

I opened my eyes and I was in the middle of a road. A car was coming, but it passed right through me. I was confused. This was 2016.

I was dead, so how was I in the past?

Then I saw a kid crossing the road. He was about 8 years old, wearing headphones. A truck was rushing towards him. My heart started beating fast.

I ran towards him, but I passed through him. Then another boy jumped and saved the kid. The truck swerved and crashed into a shop.

The boy who saved him was gasping for air. He was counting seconds. "44... 45 seconds..."

"Why did the seconds decrease?" he muttered.

People gathered around him. I saw his face. Blue eyes, blue hair, ice-cold air coming from his skin.

That was me.

My younger self was scared. He was 17 then, and he had just saved that 8-year-old kid. Why was I remembering this?

My younger self stood up and started running towards my old house.

"Mom! I'm coming!"

I felt something and ran after him. I went through walls and reached my house.

My younger self stopped and looked right at me.

"Who are you?" he asked.

My head became heavy. Who am I?

"Are you dead?" he asked.

"Maybe you're a ghost. I could hear things, but I've never seen a human soul before."

I remembered this.

Six years ago, I had said these same words to a ghost. I had already seen myself back then.

"What's the date today?"

I asked.

The kid started laughing. "I see a ghost for the first time and he asks for the date? That's funny."

He told me to go away. Then the door opened. A little girl with pink hair and eyes came out. Sara.

"Big brother, did you do something weird again?" she asked.

I said, "I just wanted to help people,"

and my younger self said it at the same time.

He looked at me with deep eyes.

"Brother, what are you looking at? Is there

something weird there?" Sara asked.

"Nothing," we both said together.

My hands started turning into smoke. I was fading.

Then I heard the voice I had waited years for. My mother's voice.

I ran inside the kitchen. "Mom!"

My body was disappearing fast. A voice said, "Humans are so strange. Maybe it's not them, but their desires that never end."

My mother looked at me and smiled. Then I vanished completely.

I was back in the deep ocean.

.I was back in the depths of the ocean. This time, I could feel the water. I could feel the weight of my own body. Am I alive? I

wondered.

Then I saw them again—colors floating in the water. But this time, they were golden, shining like pure gold. A soft voice came from the colors, whispering to me.

"Tell me, what do you really want? Have you made your choice?"

Usually, these colors only brought me pain. But today, they were asking a question. I closed my eyes.

"I don't want anything," I said. "I wanted to live, but maybe I don't anymore. I'm already dead. Even if you bring me back

, it won't change my life much. I've had my share of happy moments. Death is my final destination."

The voice sighed. "You are hard to understand. Is that really what you want? Go ahead, ask yourself one more time

."

Suddenly, a jolt hit me. I didn't wake up in my childhood this time. I opened my eyes inside a café. I was inside someone else's body.

"Let's see if you really want to live or die," the voice echoed.

In front of me, a woman was sitting with the man whose body I was inhabiting. They were talking.

"Let's get married," she said.

The man replied, "

I need to finish college first. Then I'll get a job, and then we can marry."

The woman got irritated. "Talking to you is useless. I'm leaving!"

I tried to talk to the man. Hello? Can you hear me?

But he couldn't. He just walked out of the café. I could feel everything he felt—the smell of the air,

the sound of people talking, the sun shining on the buildings. Everything looked so peaceful and happy.

Was this the world that voice wanted to show me? I wondered. But it didn't move me.

The man put on his headphones and started walking. Two kids passed by and waved

. "Hey, Uncle!" Everything was perfect. The air even smelled like roses.

Then, the jolt came again.

The sky turned into a nightmare. Dark, terrifying colors started swirling in the air. A heavy, scary voice screamed: "YOU ARE GOING TO DIE!"

Suddenly, I gained control of the man's body. My face went pale. My hands started shaking. I looked up and saw the sky shattering like glass.

A man was sitting on a chair nearby, and his own shadow rose up and started strangling him. I fell to my knees.

The air became thick and heavy. Within seconds, that man was dead, killed by his own shadow.

I ran. I ran as fast as I could, my breath hitching in my chest. Everywhere I looked, people's shadows were killing them. One shadow

turned and looked at me. It was pitch black with glowing red eyes that were literally dripping blood. It smiled at me.

My vision went blurry. I ran into an alley, but my own shadow crawled out and grabbed my throat. I fought with everything I had

.

"I don't want to die! I don't want to die!" I screamed.

Blood started leaking from my eyes, and then everything went black.

I woke up in an empty, void-like space. The voice returned.

"Humans are all the same. No matter what you give them, their desires never end. So, tell me... can we make a deal?"

I was exhausted. After everything I saw, my will to live had faded even more. Just set me free, I thought. I couldn't even speak;

I just thought it.

"You are difficult," the voice said. "I know you will keep changing your mind,

but I cannot lose you. Think carefully. Let me show you a secret, and then maybe we can strike a deal."

Suddenly, I heard a voice. It was my mother's.

I opened my eyes under a deep, starry sky. I

knew this place. It was a mountain. And right there, I saw my younger self. It was 2010

.

My mother, my sister, and I were there on a trip. I saw my younger self staring at the trees. The trees were whispering:

"Can you hug me?" The rocks were crying: "Please don't walk on us." The ground was begging: "Leave us alone."

Everything was crying, screaming, and begging for happiness. But my younger self just stood there, looking at them

, ignoring them all. I had seen and heard these things since I was a child.

Then, a little girl with pink hair and pink eyes ran up to him. Sara. She looked so beautiful.

"Big brother, come on! Mommy is calling!"

She grabbed his hand and they ran toward a woman.

When I saw that woman, my soul felt like it had been asleep for centuries and finally woke up. My heartbeat slowed down.

"Rio," she said softly. "You shouldn't talk to those strange things."

My mother always told me that, as if she knew me better than I knew myself. She pulled my younger self into her lap. "

Did you see anything weird today?"

"I saw a tree," my younger self said. "It wanted a hug."

"And what did you do?" she asked.

"I know everyone in this world is in pain," he replied.

"But I can't help everyone. So, I did nothing."

She smiled. "You did the right thing. It doesn't matter what others say.

Do what you feel is right. One day, you will be in a place where making a choice will be harder than death. In

that moment, do what your heart tells you."

I looked at her face. Her blue hair, her blue eyes... and that cold air coming from her. I

realized then—

the stories she told me weren't just stories. They were the truth.

I ran toward her, but the voice stopped me.

"Look, but do not touch.

That is the past. You cannot go back. If you want to enter that world again... you must make a deal with me."