The abandoned house stood at the edge of the forest, hidden beneath towering pines that had long since swallowed the narrow path leading to its door.

Its broken windows stared into the darkness like empty eyes. Rain seeped through the shattered roof, dripping steadily onto warped wooden floors. Dust drifted through the stale air, dancing whenever thunder shook the old walls.

Every creaking floorboard echoed through the silent halls.

Against one of those walls, a young woman slowly slid to the floor.

Her breathing came in shallow, uneven gasps. Blood stained the sleeve wrapped around her side, spreading a little farther with every heartbeat. She pressed trembling fingers against the wound, but the warmth continued slipping through them.

The cold reached her bones.

She closed her eyes for only a moment.

Silence answered her.

No voices.

No footsteps.

No rescue.

Only the relentless rain.

Every passing second stretched into eternity.

Every breath burned.

Every heartbeat felt like another step toward the end.

A faint smile touched her lips despite the pain.

"I only wanted to see you... one last time."

The whisper disappeared beneath the rumble of thunder.

It was a foolish wish.

She had known that from the beginning.

Still...

Somewhere deep inside her heart, she had never stopped believing.

She had loved him more deeply than she had ever loved herself.

That had been her greatest weakness.

Or perhaps...

Her greatest strength.

Years earlier, she had convinced herself that loving him meant letting him go.

She believed that if she stayed, the darkness chasing her would eventually swallow him too. So she made the only decision she thought she could live with.

She left.

Without explanations.

Without giving him the chance to stop her.

Without allowing him to fight beside her.

She shattered his heart with lies because she believed the truth would destroy him even more.

She carried every burden alone, telling herself that if one heart had to break, it should be hers.

For years she wondered whether she had made the wrong choice.

Eventually, she realized something strange.

She regretted every lie.

Every secret.

Every sleepless night spent wondering whether another path had existed.

She mourned the future they would never have.

The family they would never build.

The dreams they would never chase together.

But she never regretted leaving him.

Not once.

Because she truly believed staying beside him would have condemned him to a fate far crueler than loneliness.

How naïve she had been.

She had mistaken sacrifice for salvation.

She believed she could outrun fate simply by disappearing from his life.

She couldn't.

Some tragedies are untouched by love.

Some destinies refuse to change.

No matter how desperately a person fights...

Fate always collects its debt.

Nothing she did could have saved him.

That truth hurt far more than saying goodbye ever had.

The memory crashed into her without warning.

She saw him again.

Bound.

Bleeding.

Forced to his knees while cruel laughter echoed through the room.

She struggled against the hands restraining her.

"No!"

Her scream tore through her throat.

"Please... stop..."

No one listened.

She begged until her knees gave out beneath her.

She screamed until her voice became nothing more than broken whispers.

Still...

They smiled.

They treated his suffering like entertainment.

Every blow they struck against him landed inside her own chest.

She could only watch.

Powerless.

Broken.

Helpless.

His breathing became weaker.

His body trembled.

Then...

Slowly...

He lifted his head.

Through swollen eyes, he searched the room.

Until he found her.

For one impossible moment...

Everything else disappeared.

The screams.

The blood.

The laughter.

There was only him.

His lips curved into the faintest smile.

As though he wanted to tell her it wasn't her fault.

Then the light slowly faded from his eyes.

His head fell forward.

And the world ended.

She didn't cry.

She couldn't.

Her soul had already followed him.

After his death, they came for her.

Without him standing between them, no one remained to protect her.

Days blurred into weeks.

Weeks disappeared into months.

Bruises covered her body.

Scars marked her skin.

The invisible wounds ran much deeper.

They mistook her silence for fear.

Her grief for surrender.

They believed they were breaking her.

But they never understood.

There was nothing left to break.

The woman they tortured had died beside the man she loved.

What remained was something colder.

Something empty.

Something that no longer feared pain.

She buried every scream.

She stitched every wound into her soul.

She transformed every scar into a promise.

One by one...

She found them.

Not because revenge could return the dead.

Not because vengeance could heal her heart.

But because they deserved to understand the terror they had inflicted upon others.

She watched hope disappear from their eyes exactly as it had disappeared from hers.

She offered no mercy.

They had buried mercy the day they chose cruelty.

When the last of them finally fell...

Silence returned.

She stood alone among the ruins of her revenge.

Blood stained her trembling hands.

Yet even then...

The weight of grief remained heavier.

Justice had been served.

Vengeance had been fulfilled.

But the emptiness inside her refused to fade.

Because the only thing she had ever wanted...

The only thing she had ever needed...

Was the one thing revenge could never return.

You.

A violent cough shook her body.

Warm blood spilled onto the dusty floorboards.

The abandoned house fell silent once more.

Outside, thunder rolled across the dark sky.

Inside, she waited.

Alone.

For the end.

You.

A name I no longer dared to whisper.

Even after every enemy had fallen, I still found myself searching for you in crowded streets, in the wind that brushed past my face, in every dream that slipped through my fingers before dawn.

How laughable.

If only I had let you stand beside me instead of forcing you away.

Perhaps...

No...

Fate had already written our ending long ago.

My body, already battered by years of torture and endless battles, finally reached its limit.

A dull ache spread through my chest.

Then came warmth.

I lowered my gaze.

A crimson stain slowly spread across my dress.

So...

This is how it ends.

I smiled faintly.

Not because I welcomed death.

But because I was finally too tired to keep living.

I closed my eyes.

"If there is another life..."

My voice was barely louder than the wind.

"...let me meet you again."

"...This time..."

"...I'll tell you the truth."

The last tear slipped down my cheek.

Darkness swallowed everything.

...

Warmth.

It wasn't the warmth of blood.

Nor the burning pain of another wound.

It was gentle.

Comforting.

Sunlight.

My brows furrowed.

How strange.

Had the afterlife become so peaceful?

Slowly, my consciousness surfaced.

The softness beneath my fingertips startled me.

Silk?

A faint fragrance of fresh flowers lingered in the air.

The agony that had accompanied every breath for years...

Was gone.

I opened my eyes.

Bright morning light streamed through the curtains, forcing me to blink.

For several seconds, I simply stared at the ceiling.

Alive?

No...

That wasn't possible.

I remembered dying.

I remembered my final breath.

I remembered the darkness.

My heartbeat quickened.

Almost instinctively, my hand flew to my chest.

No wound.

No blood.

Nothing.

I sat up abruptly.

The sudden movement sent a wave of dizziness through me.

My gaze swept across the room before freezing.

This place...

Why...

Why did it feel so familiar?

A strange uneasiness crept into my heart.

Slowly, I climbed out of bed and walked toward the dressing mirror.

Every step felt unreal.

As though I were walking through someone else's dream.

When my reflection came into view...

My breath caught.

The woman staring back at me was not the broken shell who had survived years of torment.

She looked no older than nineteen.

Her long hair fell untouched over slender shoulders.

Her skin was smooth.

The countless scars that had covered her body had vanished without a trace.

"...No."

My trembling fingers reached for the mirror.

The cold glass met my fingertips.

This wasn't an illusion.

This wasn't a dream.

A memory suddenly surfaced.

The date.

The room.

The dress laid neatly across the chair.

Recognition crashed over me like a tidal wave.

This was my bedroom.

The estate I had left behind five years ago.

Five years...

Before I forced the man I loved to hate me.

Five years...

Before I watched him die in front of my eyes.

Five years...

Before my life became nothing but grief and vengeance.

A choked laugh escaped my lips before tears followed.

I had returned.

Not after everything.

But before it all began.

I slowly clenched my trembling hands into fists.

This time...

I would not push him away in the name of love.

If fate wished to take him from me once again...

Then fate would have to kill me first.

Several miles away, in the heart of the city

"...No."

The word escaped his lips as little more than a broken whisper.

Then came the nightmare.

He saw her again.

Standing in the pouring rain.

Covered in blood.

Smiling through her tears as she reached out toward him.

"I'm sorry..."

Her voice was so soft he could barely hear it.

"I couldn't keep my promise."

"No...!"

He lunged forward, desperate to reach her.

But invisible chains held him in place.

No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't move.

She grew farther away with every passing second.

"Wait!"

He screamed until his throat burned.

"Don't leave me!"

She only smiled.

The same bittersweet smile that had haunted him every night for the past five years.

Then...

She disappeared into the darkness.

His eyes flew open.

He drew a ragged breath, his heart pounding violently against his ribs.

For several moments, he simply sat there, trying to steady his breathing.

His shirt clung to his back, soaked with cold sweat.

"...A dream."

No.

Not a dream.

A memory.

His trembling hand rose to his face.

He could still hear her voice.

Still see the blood staining her clothes.

Still feel the helplessness that had consumed him when he failed to save her.

A dull ache settled in his chest.

It felt so real.

Too real.

He lowered his head, only to realize it had been resting on folded arms.

Paperwork.

Contracts.

Financial reports.

A cold cup of coffee sat beside his hand.

"...I fell asleep?"

His brows knit together.

Slowly, he looked around.

The luxurious study was bathed in warm morning sunlight.

Rows of books lined the walls.

A polished mahogany desk stood beneath the tall windows.

Everything looked strangely familiar.

His gaze drifted toward the calendar resting on the corner of the desk.

The moment he saw the date...

His world stopped.

"...Impossible."

He snatched up the calendar with trembling hands.

His eyes read the date again.

And again.

Five years ago.

His breathing became uneven.

The memories rushed back without mercy.

The years spent searching for her.

The endless regrets.

The betrayal that had cost him everything.

The gunshot.

The darkness.

He remembered dying.

He remembered accepting that he would never see her again.

Yet...

Here he was.

Alive.

His fingers slowly tightened around the edge of the desk.

A quiet laugh escaped his lips.

Disbelieving.

Shaking.

"So..."

"It wasn't the end."

He closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again.

The grief that had weighed on him for years remained.

But now...

It was joined by something else.

Hope.

If fate had truly sent him back...

Then this time...

He would find her.

Before she disappeared.

Before she sacrificed everything.

Before tragedy stole the future they were meant to have.

No matter what it took...

He would never lose her again.

...They had returned....

...Returned Five years ago....

...Will they able to rewrite their fate this time?...