Chapter One
The Day I Died
Rain.
Heavy. Cold. Relentless.
It lashed against the hospital windows like a thousand regrets, each drop a cruel reminder that time had run out. Thunder rolled in the distance, low and guttural, like the growl of some ancient beast awakened by sorrow. The sky had cracked open hours ago, and the storm showed no sign of mercy.
Inside Room 613, the fluorescent lights buzzed with faint indifference. They cast a sterile glow that failed to warm the corners, leaving shadows to stretch long and quiet across the walls.
On the bed lay a girl,still, fragile, unnaturally pale. Her lips were the color of silence. Her skin, waxen beneath the thin sheet that covered her now weightless body. The only sound was the heart monitor beside her…
Flatline.
A single note of finality.
Ryn Vale.
Seventeen. Beautiful. Dead.
They called it a suicide.
The whispers spread like ivy through the hallways, wrapping around every student, every teacher, every headline.
"She was always too quiet."
"She didn't have many friends…"
"You know how much pressure girls like her are under."
Whispers, none of them true.
Because Ryn remembered everything.
Not the lies. Not the pitying glances. The truth.
The betrayal. The gaslighting.
The venom wrapped in smiles and polished nails.
The laughter that echoed behind closed lockers, when they thought she couldn't hear.
The bruises no one saw.
The silence that screamed.
Clarissa Vale, her stepmother, cried beautifully. Just enough mascara smeared to be convincing.
Alina Vale, her stepsister, posted a black-and-white picture of them together with a single tear emoji,and sent winking ones to her group chat right after.
Selene, always dressed in pastels, with claws hidden behind soft hands.
Mori, cruel for sport.
Kai, charming with a poison tongue.
Even the teachers,those supposed protectors,had chosen to turn away.
And Jace Wren…
He just watched.
And literally did nothing,just stared, and stared , and stared,for no apparent reason.
And was always around when something happened.
She left the world with no dignity. No justice. Just emptiness.
One Year Earlier.
The scream came first.
Raw. Instinctual.
It tore from her throat like a wild animal escaping a cage.
Ryn Vale shot upright in bed, drenched in sweat, her silk nightgown clinging to trembling limbs. Her heart beat like a war drum, each thud loud in the stillness. Her breathing came in shallow gasps, lungs struggling as if they hadn't tasted air in years.
The scent of jasmine clung to the curtains, the one her mother loved before the world fell apart. It hit her like a memory and a wound.
Sunlight spilled into the room, golden and soft. A sharp contrast to the cold, clinical white of the hospital where she had taken her final breath.
Her gaze swept across the room, wide and disbelieving.
Ivory walls. The gold-trimmed vanity. The pink armchair near the window where she used to read fairytales and wonder if someone would rescue her.
Her room.
Exactly as she remembered it.
Exactly as it was before it all went wrong.
"No," she whispered, voice hoarse and broken.
She staggered out of bed, her legs weak and unsure, crashing into the bathroom with a thud that echoed too loud. The mirror greeted her with a face she hadn't seen in a year.
No blood. No bruises. No brokenness.
Just her.
Seventeen again.
Younger. Softer. Still whole.
Her fingers trembled as they reached for the engraved calendar by the sink.
September 6th.
The first day of her final year at Wren Academy.
One year before her death.
Her knees buckled.
She didn't cry.
Not even when the realization sank in like ice in her veins.
Not even when her legs gave out and she sank to the cold tiles.
Not even when the wave of memories crashed over her,every humiliation, every betrayal, every scream swallowed into silence.
Instead, she laughed.
A small, breathless sound. Disbelieving. Detached.
She had been sent back.
A second chance.
But not to rewrite the past.
To burn it down.
Vale Mansion – Morning
The soft tap of her shoes on the marble staircase echoed like ghost steps.
Ryn walked slowly, deliberately, absorbing the house she once called a prison. The chandelier still glittered overhead like it had something to prove. The walls were too pristine, too polished,hiding rot behind the gloss.
In the kitchen, Clarissa Vale was already performing her favorite role: Perfect Wife and Concerned Mother.
Tailored rose suit. Lips painted a subtle mauve. Earrings too delicate to match the sharpness in her eyes.
She stirred her tea without looking up. "Ryn, sweetheart," she purred. "You're up early. Excited for school?"
Ryn's expression didn't flicker.
She approached slowly, the ghost of her former self walking beside her.
"Excited enough," Ryn murmured, her voice light, unreadable. "So excited I could die."
Clarissa's hand paused mid-stir.
Just for a second.
Ryn tilted her head, savoring the silence that followed. There it was,the first crack.
Then came Alina, bouncing in with all the self-importance of someone who had never known true consequences.
"Hey, sis!" she chirped. "Hope you don't mind, I borrowed your clutch for school. Hope that's okay!"
Ryn's eyes slid to the clutch in Alina's manicured hands. Designer. Limited edition. A gift from Ryn's late mother, one she had guarded in her first life like a fragile memory.
Now?
"You can keep it," Ryn said, voice cool and smooth. "Things I've used once don't interest me."
Alina blinked. "Excuse me?"
Ryn didn't answer. She turned without waiting for a reply.
Behind her, silence hung thick in the air, confusion and unease painting Clarissa and Alina's expressions like ghosts only Ryn could see.
The driver was already waiting.
Wren Academy – The Gates
The black Mercedes purred to a halt outside the ornate iron gates of Wren Academy.
Ryn stepped out into a world she once dreaded, now reborn as a battlefield.
The elite swarmed beyond the gates, children of power and politics, groomed to dominate, clothed in privilege. Their eyes tracked her like animals sensing a shift in the wind.
She didn't flinch.
Every step she took echoed on the pavement like a declaration:
I am not the same.
High above, on the school rooftop, two boys leaned against the railing.
Jace Wren stood motionless, the wind tugging at his dark hair. His icy blue eyes locked onto the girl below.
She walked like she was born from ruin. Cold elegance. Terrifying grace.
"She's different," Zayne said quietly beside him.
Jace didn't respond.
But his jaw tensed.
His hand curled around the metal rail, grip tightening until his knuckles went white.
Something in him stirred.
And it wasn't quiet.
Later That Day
The hallways of Wren Academy were the same polished lie they had always been. Gleaming floors. Marble walls. Secrets whispered behind manicured smiles.
Ryn walked through them like smoke.
Mori, Noah,Kai,Alina and her minions
Their laughter echoed down the corridor like a bad dream. Her eyes passed over them, expression blank.
They hadn't changed.
But she had.
When Alina let out a practiced, attention-seeking laugh nearby, Ryn didn't look away. She stared. Unflinching. Quiet.
Alina's smile faltered.
At the end of the day, Ryn slipped away to the old garden behind the school.
The wind rustled through the crimson leaves. The maple tree still stood tall, watching over the hidden bench where she had once cried into silence.
Now she sat again. But not broken.
Not this time.
She pulled a leather-bound journal from her bag. New. Untouched. Sacred.
With steady hands, she opened it to the first page.
She wrote just one name in ink that bit into the paper:
She would start with Samantha one of Alina's minions.
And beneath it, a single line:
"You smiled when I bled. Now smile when you burn."
Ryn closed the book. Her gaze turned skyward.
And she smiled.
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Omg ! what do you think ryn has in stored for Samantha,cause she seems to be first on her target.