Chapter 5: I Won’t Die Again

Raviah remained standing in the middle of her dimly lit bedroom, staring at the patch of empty floorboards where the shimmering portal had vanished.

Her heart hammered against her ribs as she stretched out a trembling hand, feeling only cool air where a massive spatial domain had existed seconds before. It was a seamless storage space, an impossible gift that had never awakened during her brutal first life.

Could everything else in this world have shifted too? She lunged for her desk and snatched her smartphone, her knuckles white against the glass. There was only one way to know if her second chance was a cruel illusion.

Raviah spent the next several hours huddled over the glowing screen, systematically verifying every detail her trauma had burned into her mind. She checked international news feeds first, scrolling past political disputes unfolding exactly as she remembered.

Several nations were actively negotiating trade agreements that she knew would collapse the moment the sky turned dark.

Satellite images confirmed a violent storm forming over the southern ocean, swelling in the exact grid coordinates where it had brewed in her past.

Next, her shaking fingers navigated to the financial markets. The same mega-corporations were surging, while identical stocks plummeted into ruin.

Quarterly economic reports matched her memories down to the precise decimal point and release dates. Even the minor hourly market fluctuations mirrored the history she had already lived through.

Raviah’s expression hardened into a grim mask as she opened clinical medical databases. Experimental trial phases were proceeding along the exact same schedules she had studied years ago.

Newly released pharmaceutical drugs bore the same commercial names, and local hospitals reported identical localized virus outbreaks.

She swept through official government announcements, but found no emergency warnings. She checked military movement registries, but encountered only routine patrols.

Weather archives, satellite tracking, and public social media feeds all painted the exact same picture. Every piece of digital evidence pointed toward one inescapable, terrifying reality.

The timeline had not strayed from its horrific track. Her fingers squeezed the phone so tightly the outer casing groaned. The world was still sliding directly into the abyss.

Six months from this very afternoon, human civilization would burn. Raviah set the device onto the wooden desk and stepped toward the window, looking down at the serene cityscape. Sunlight glinted off windshields as sleek sedans crawled through afternoon traffic.

Commuters carrying canvas bags hurried toward train stations, while outdoor cafes bustled with laughing crowds. Parents held the tiny hands of their children, completely unaware that their comfortable lives carried an abrupt expiration date.

Raviah rested her cold forehead against the glass as vivid memories tore through her mind. She saw the chaotic stampedes of screaming crowds trampling one another in dark alleyways.

She smelled the metallic tang of blood in abandoned, bio-contaminated hospital corridors. Ruined skyscrapers crumbled into ash while mutated beasts, monstrous Zergs, and terrifying awakened Elementals tore through the military defense lines.

Her throat tightened as she recalled the agonizing gnaw of hunger, the icy coat of winter frost, and the sheer desperation of human beings turned feral. Most of all, she remembered Zachary.

Her jaw set into a rigid line. In her past life, she had been a naive fool who believed her elite medical degree and soft heart would keep her safe.

She had believed that love was a shield, and that unconditional kindness would earn loyalty from those she protected. Instead, her valuable skills had turned her into a convenient tool for bloodsuckers.

Zachary Taylor had used her medical expertise until her utility ran dry, discarding her without a second thought. Carmela Bane had spun pathetic lies, turning the surviving sanctuary members against her with fake tears.

When the monsters smashed through the gates, the people she had nursed back to health locked the escape doors in her face.

Raviah squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the memory of her own screams. Then, another memory cut through the darkness.

A blood-drenched soldier clad in tactical armor stood between her fragile body and an advancing horde of chitinous Zergs. His terrifying elemental aura flared like a dying star as he barked harsh commands to his retreating squad.

"Evacuate the medical staff!" his voice had boomed over the artillery fire.

She remembered the fierce grip of his armored arm yanking her out of the path of a razor-sharp claw. She remembered his massive frame pinning her to the dirt, shielding her from a crushing avalanche of falling concrete.

"Live," he had rasped, his warm blood dripping onto her cheek right before a blinding explosion consumed everything.

Raviah snapped her eyes open, the memory burning hot in her chest. She would live. But mere survival was a pathetic goal.

She would build a fortress so strong that no monster or commander could ever dictate her fate again.

She would hoard mountains of grain, fresh water, and medical supplies long before the panic set in.

She would advance her medical research, prepare defenses for the mutated beasts, and master her spatial domain.

"Never again," she whispered to the empty room. "I will never put my life in another person’s hands."

Raviah marched back to her desk, pulled a fresh sheet of heavy paper from the drawer, and uncapped a black fountain pen. For a brief moment, her hand hovered over the pristine white surface. Then, with steady, aggressive strokes, she wrote the first name beneath today’s date.

Zachary Taylor.

Her fingers twitched against the plastic barrel. She could still hear his silky, remorseless voice echoing through the heavy steel door he had slammed shut in her face.

"There’s only enough food for useful people, Raviah," he had said through the reinforced glass. "Just not for you."

A cold smile touched her lips as she pressed the pen nib down again, pressing hard enough to score the paper. She wrote the second name.

Carmela Bane.

She pictured the third-rate actress cowering behind Zachary, dabbing dry eyes while whispering poison into the ears of the hungry mob. Raviah’s eyes narrowed into icy slits.

Her hand drifted toward the bottom of the page, where the ink sat dark and heavy. There was one final name that belonged to the stranger who had sacrificed his life so she could breathe. Her pen touched the paper, tracing elegant letters.

Rhyder Drakeheir.

Three names. Three people who had defined the bloody climax of her previous existence.

Raviah leaned back and stared at the ink in absolute silence. The timeline was moving forward unchanged, but this time, she held the pen. She would decide who lived, who bled, and who ruled the ash.