Reincarnated 1
A Second Chance
Emerald
The cold concrete pressed against my cheek, stained with my blood, and reeking of sweat, mold, and death. My body lay crumpled in the corner of the prison cell like a discarded rag doll. My ribs felt shattered. My vision blurred. Every breath clawed at my throat, shallow and painful.
They had left me to die.
Marcus, the man I had loved with all my heart,
stood there, stone-faced as Francesca, his true love and newly wedded wife, delivered the final kick to my ribs. There was no hesitation in either of them. No guilt. No remorse. Just hatred. And betrayal.
I was just a poor girl who wanted to make ends meet to satisfy my greedy family and get my parents to look at me with love, even if just once. It never happened. I know now that they would ever look at me with love. They hated me.
I was dying. I could feel my life slipping away, my blood soaking into the floor beneath me.
This couldn't be the end. Fear crept over my body as I thought of closing my eyes and giving in to the darkness alone.
"Please…" I whispered into the emptiness, tears mingling with blood on my cracked lips. "Give me another chance… Just one more chance… I'll make them pay."
The light dimmed.
The pain vanished.
And then, nothing.
⸻
Beep. Beep. Beep. The sound echoed in my ears.
Light burned my eyelids as I stirred and opened my eyes slowly, painfully. The world swam into view, too bright, too white and causing me to flinch. Was this it? The afterlife everyone talked about?
My gaze locked onto a smooth white ceiling, The scent of disinfectant clung to the air, a scent I'd never forget as I've had my fair share of staying in a hospital. Monitors beeped beside me. Machines hummed in the background.
A hospital?
I was… alive?
I tried to sit up but my limbs wouldn't move. My body felt like a heavy weight was on top of me. Only my fingers responded, weak and barely.
Who brought me here? Had a guard found me after I lost consciousness? Does Marcus and Francesca know about this? My heart began to pound and tears wells up in my eyes as I cursed whoever saved me. Why didn't they let me die? What shitty luck do I have that even death rejected me?
"Oh my God. Oh my God, she's awake!" a voice sobbed beside me and that was the first time I realized that I was it alone.
A chair scraped back as a woman rushed to my bedside and took my hands in hers. Her voice cracked as she cried openly, uncontrollably.
I blinked up at her, my expression giving way to shock as I recognized who she was.
Lilian? Francesca's old nanny and loyal lapdog.
The woman who always sneered at me like I was the filth that'd stained Francesca's white carpets. Lilian had hated me, loathed me even.
And now… she was crying for me? Why? Was I in another dimension? Did I make mistakes about being alive? Was Francesca my family here? The thought was enough to cause a bitter bile to rise to my throat.
I brow furrowed with confusion. My voice came out hoarse and weak as I asked. "W-who… who are you? Where… am I?"
Lilian gasped and looked stunned. "My dear, it's me. Lilian. Don't you remember?" she whispered, brushing a strand of hair from my forehead. I flinched her touch. "Oh, you poor thing… You've been through so much."
I blinked slowly. This couldn't be real at all. I was in a world where Lilian was talking to me in a gentle voice?
"I—I'll get the doctor," Lilian said quickly, wiping her face. "Relax and wait for me, I'll be right back."
Lilian rushed out of the room before I could ask her any more questions.
I continued to stare at the ceiling, confusion tightening in my chest as I waited for Lilian to return with the doctor. Maybe the doctor will tell me what was going one because something wasn't right. My body didn't feel like mine. The weight of my limbs, the way her skin felt against the sheets, it was all wrong.
The doctor came in a few moments later and I stared at the ceiling unblinking as he did a series of quick tests, and gave a soft smile but sympathetic smile.
"You've suffered some trauma to the head," he told me before turning to Lilian, "From what I have seen so far, she does not have amnesia so there is nothing to fear. She's just confused about why she's here. After all, she's been in coma for two years,"
My heart stopped beating for a moment as I tried to take everything in. A trauma to the head? Coma for two years? I could understand the two but nothing explains Lilian's presence here.
"All you have to do is remind Francesca of everything that happened before the accident but in tiny details,"
Everything Dr Yusuf was saying became a distant noise as my mind clung onto one thing.
Francesca. He called me Francesca!
What the hell does that even mean?
Then a memory surfaced. A distant one but I could remember Marcus talking about his real fiancé being involved in an accident and falling into coma. She woke up two years after the accident and that was when my suffering grew worse.
"Can…I…" my throat was dry but I forced the words out, "Can I get a mirror please,"
The director and Lilian were quickly at my side. While Lilian fussed over me and asked why I needed a mirror, the doctor said I could turn my head and look at the tray on the bedside table there. I guess he just wanted to check my mobility.
"You can look in the tray beside you. The surface should be reflective enough." Dr Yusuf said.
I turned my head slightly, and in the gleaming tray beside the bed, a distorted reflection stared back. One that didn't belong to me.
It was hers.
Francesca.
The woman who helped destroy me. The woman I hated. The woman I now was.
A silent scream echoed inside my head.
I'd asked the universe for revenge. And now… I was inside the body of my worst enemy.