Chapter 3 — The Voices Beyond the Rain

Silence.

That’s what I notice first.

No rain. No cars. No pain. Just… quiet.

The kind of quiet that feels too still to be real.

Am I dead?

I try to open my eyes, but there’s nothing to open. No eyelids, no light. Just blackness stretching endlessly, soft and cold. My body — or whatever’s left of it — floats weightlessly. For the first time in my life, nothing hurts. I should feel relief, but instead, I feel small.

Is this what peace feels like?

It’s strange. Empty. Lonely.

Then I hear it — faint at first, like a whisper through fog.

“Did you hear about the kind heroine?”

A girl’s voice. Young, cheerful. I turn — or think I do — toward the sound.

“The one who saved the kingdom from the dark curse!” another voice chimes in, bright with awe

Their words echo strangely, bouncing around the dark. It’s like standing in a dream where the world builds itself from someone else’s story.

“They said she was just a commoner,” the first voice giggles.

“But she became the Golden Mage after saving the royal twins! Isn’t that amazing?”

Golden Mage.

Kingdom.

Royal twins.

It sounds like the kind of story my classmates used to talk about — the kind I’d never fit into. They’d always gather in circles, chatting excitedly about fantasy novels and games, while I sat in the corner pretending not to listen

I recognize the words now. This is that story.

The one they mentioned the day I…

The day I died.

“The heroine was so kind,” someone says, softer this time.

“She saved everyone, even the ones who hated her.”

Kind.

The word hits me somewhere deep. Kind people were always far away from me — like stars in the sky. Pretty to look at, impossible to reach.

I wonder what it’s like… to be someone who saves others.

To matter. Even once.

The voices shift, like waves moving through the dark. More people join in, their tones a mix of awe and gossip.

“She was the only one with a Golden Rank since the war.”

“They say the slave she owned disappeared after the coronation.”

“Maybe he betrayed her.”

“Or maybe she killed him. You know how nobles are.”

Slave? Betrayal? Death?

The tone changes, turning colder, heavier.

Their laughter sounds distant, cruel — too much like the ones that used to echo down my school hallway.

My chest tightens — even here, where I shouldn’t have a chest.

I thought dying would erase fear. But fear, it seems, follows everywhere.

Then the light comes

At first, it’s faint — a soft shimmer at the edge of the darkness. Warm, golden. Like sunlight bleeding through curtains after a long night. The voices fade as it grows brighter, too bright to look at, too heavy to escape.

I don’t understand.

Am I being reborn?

Or punished?

My breath — or what feels like breath — catches in my throat as the light swallows everything. It’s not peaceful anymore. It’s pulling me, dragging me forward. My thoughts scatter. The only sound left is my own heartbeat, weak but present.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump

It’s so fast. Too real

The light burns hotter, until I can’t tell if I’m falling or flying.

And somewhere through the noise, I hear something faint — a voice, trembling and soft:

“S–Samuel… please wake up…”

The world tilts. The light shatters into color.

Pain rushes back into my limbs, too sharp, too sudden.

Something cold and rough digs into my wrists. Metal?

Chains.

I gasp — a real sound, raw and broken — as my eyes finally open to blinding daylight

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