CHAPTER TWO

Am I still alive?

The question surfaced in my mind before I could even open my eyes.

I remembered the pain, the blood, and the fangs sinking into my shoulder. I remembered begging for help from people who had already decided I wasn't worth saving.

So why could I still think? Had someone found me? Had they managed to pull me away from the rogues before they tore me apart completely?

I tried to move, but my body felt strangely heavy. For a moment, I couldn't tell whether I was lying on cold ground or trapped somewhere inside my own mind.

A car horn blared outside, making me flinch. Engines rumbled along the street, footsteps echoed in the corridor, and a street vendor called out to customers. Somewhere nearby, a woman laughed.

I lay perfectly still. Those sounds didn't belong in the world I remembered. During the final days, the streets had been filled with screams, gunshots, and the thunder of creatures tearing through anything in their path. Ordinary life had disappeared beneath the chaos. Yet everything outside sounded normal.

Memories rushed back: the ruined city beneath a blood-red moon, Mika clinging to my back, and the werewolf rogues racing over the wreckage.

They had once been human, but their bodies had twisted into furred, wolf-like monsters with sharp fangs, curved claws, and glowing amber eyes. Some ran upright; others dropped to all fours to hunt. Their strength and heightened senses made hiding from them almost impossible.

I remembered the creature that had seized me, its breath foul against my face, its teeth biting into my shoulder.

I remembered the gates closing in front of me and Ethan's voice on the other side. “Close it.”

My stomach twisted and I sat up abruptly, my hands flying to my throat. I expected torn skin, dried blood, and the awful ache of teeth sinking into my flesh.

But there was nothing. My fingers brushed smooth skin. I stared at my hands, turning them over as though the evidence of my death might appear if I looked closely enough. They were clean and uninjured.

For several seconds, I couldn't move. Pale curtains framed the window, books sat on the bedside table, and the wardrobe still bore the small scratch near its handle.

I knew this room. It was the bedroom Ethan and I had shared after we got married, the place where I had once believed I was building a happy life with the man I loved.

But the apocalypse had destroyed this room long ago. There was no way I could be here again.

My gaze drifted toward the mirror. A woman stared back at me. She looked too young, too untouched by the suffering I had endured. Her skin was smooth, her cheeks fuller, and her eyes lacked the hollowness that years of surviving the apocalypse had left behind.

Slowly, she lifted a trembling hand, and I did the same. It was me. A broken sound escaped my throat, somewhere between a laugh and a sob.

“No.”

I swung my legs over the side of the bed, but my knees weakened as soon as my feet touched the floor. I caught the mattress and waited for the dizziness to pass.

Perhaps I was dreaming, my mind creating one final illusion to protect me from death. I pinched my arm. Pain shot through me.

My eyes widened. “No, no, no…”

I pressed my hands against my face, struggling to steady my breathing. The rogues had surrounded us. I had felt their hunger and rage, something ancient stirring beneath my skin. Then the mark on my neck had begun to burn, and a voice had thundered through my mind.

BOW.

For one impossible moment, the creatures had obeyed. The werewolf rogues had stopped advancing, their clawed hands lowering and their heads bowing as though an unseen force had pressed them down.

Then pain had ripped through me, shattering whatever connection I had made with them. Their snarls returned, their fangs bared, and they attacked again. I remembered Mika's small body beside mine, the coldness spreading through my limbs, and the darkness closing over my vision.

I had died. The certainty made me bend forward, covering my mouth as a sob threatened to escape. It hadn't been a dream. I could still hear Ethan's voice and see Lily's smile as she left me to die. But if I had died, why was I here?

My eyes fell on the bedside table. My phone lay beside a half-empty glass of water. I snatched it up and pressed the power button with shaking fingers.

The screen lit up, and I saw the date.

July 15, 2050.

I stared at the numbers, reading them again and again. It was two months before the apocalypse.

My phone slipped from my fingers and landed on the mattress. For two years, the world had been a nightmare. Cities had fallen, survivors had been slaughtered, and eventually even the government had abandoned the people it could no longer protect. We had been left to survive the rogues on our own.

I had endured hunger, fear, and loss, only to die outside a shelter gate. And now I was looking at a date from before it had all begun.

Outside, someone laughed. A car passed with music playing through its open windows, and the street vendor continued calling out to customers. Nobody was running or screaming. The world hadn't ended. At least not yet.

I opened the calendar, checked the date again, then scrolled through my messages and photographs, searching for proof that I was mistaken.

Even the silly argument I had once had with Lily over a dress she wanted to borrow was still there. Everything was exactly as it should have been.

Except I knew what was coming. I had returned to July 15, 2050, two months before the apocalypse. Somehow, I had been given another chance.

Tears blurred the screen. I had no explanation for how someone who had died could wake up in the past with her memories intact.

There was only the date on my phone and the knowledge of what lay ahead. Ethan and Lily were still alive. Mika was alive, too, somewhere in this world, unaware of the fate that awaited her.

The cities were standing, and people made plans for futures they believed were guaranteed. They had no idea that soon the infected would transform into wolf-like monsters and hunt them through these same streets.

Neither had I, the first time. But now I know. A fragile hope stirred inside me. I could prepare, protect myself, and perhaps save others from the coming disaster.

Then I remembered Ethan's face behind the gates. He had looked straight at me and ordered the gates closed. Lily had stood beside him, smiling as though my death were a long-awaited relief.

They had watched me beg for my life and left me outside to be torn apart. My fingers tightened around the phone. I will never forget their faces.

A knock sounded at the door, and I flinched.

“Evie?” a familiar voice called. “Are you awake?”

My entire body went rigid. I knew that voice from quiet mornings, late-night conversations, and promises I had once believed with all my heart.

It was Ethan, my husband.

For a moment, I couldn't bring myself to answer. The door opened, and he stepped inside.

He looked exactly as I remembered him, from the familiar crease between his eyebrows to the easy confidence in his expression. He wore a casual shirt and jeans, his hair slightly untidy, his phone resting in one hand.

There were no scars or signs of exhaustion, no trace of the man who had condemned me to die behind the shelter gates. He looked like the man I had loved. That was what made it so difficult to breathe.

“What's wrong with you?” he asked, studying my face. “You look like you've seen a ghost.”

I almost told him that I had. Instead, I searched his face for guilt, but he showed none. As far as he was concerned, it was an ordinary day.

He glanced at the phone in my hand before shrugging. “Anyway, I need to ask you for a favor.”

A chill crept down my spine. I knew what was coming. In my first life, I had agreed to his request without imagining what it would cost us.

“Lily is trying to launch her business,” he continued. “She's found an opportunity, but she's short on funding. I told her I'd help, so I was wondering if you could lend me some money.”

I could only stare at him. There it was; the same request, delivered with the same casual confidence, as though my agreement were already guaranteed.

I had given him the money without hesitation because Lily was my best friend, and I wanted her to succeed. I hadn't considered what would happen if we needed that money ourselves.

By the time the apocalypse began, we barely had enough money to replenish our supplies, and food and medicine grew harder to find each day.

I had helped Lily build a future while leaving myself unprepared. When I needed her most, she stood behind a locked gate and watched me die.

“How much?” I asked.

Ethan told me the amount. My stomach tightened. It was a substantial sum, enough to buy supplies that might one day mean the difference between life and death.

I shook my head. “I'm not giving you the money.”

His expression changed. “What?”

“You heard me.”

He stared at me as though he expected me to laugh and admit I was joking. When I didn't, his eyebrows drew together.

“Evie, it's for Lily's business. She has a chance to get something started, and she needs help.”

“Then she should find another way to fund it.”

Surprise gave way to irritation. “What's gotten into you? You've always helped her before.”

“I have other plans for my money.”

“Such as?”

I couldn't tell him the truth. How could I explain that in two months, people would transform into wolf-like predators, homes would become battlegrounds, and money might be worth more than anything else we owned? He would think I was insane.

So I said, “There's no point investing in a business that might not even matter a few months from now.”

Ethan went quiet. His eyes narrowed. “What does that mean?”

I realized my mistake too late. He stepped closer, studying me. “What do you mean, it won't matter? What happens in a few months?”

“Nothing. I just don't want to spend my money on it.”

“Nothing?” His voice rose. “Then why are you talking like that? Evie, what's wrong with you?”

I pressed my lips together. He let out an exasperated breath and ran a hand through his hair.

“Unbelievable. Lily is your best friend. She's trying to build something for herself, and you can't even help her when she needs you? Why can't you do this one thing for her?”

The words were familiar. Ethan knew how to make me feel guilty, and in my first life I would have transferred the money just to end the argument. Now I knew what my kindness was worth to them.

I lifted my eyes to him. “If Lily's business is worth starting, she'll find a way to do it without my money.”

His mouth fell open slightly. I didn't wait for his response. I stood, forcing myself to remain steady beneath his disbelieving stare.

For the first time, Ethan looked at me as though he didn't recognize the woman standing before him. Good. Let him wonder.

I had spent my first life trying to prove I was worthy of love, only to discover that the people I loved hadn't valued me enough to save me. I wasn't going to make that mistake again.

Ethan eventually left, muttering under his breath. The moment the door closed, I locked it and leaned against it, releasing a breath I hadn't realized I was holding.

My heart still raced, but beneath the fear, something else was beginning to take shape.

Resolve.

Two months. That was all the time I had before the world descended into hell.

I crossed the room, retrieved my phone, and opened a blank note. For several seconds, I stared at the empty screen, trying to decide where to begin.

Then I started typing. Food. Water. Medicine. Weapons. Shelter. It was a beginning.

I needed money, secure storage, and a way to protect myself when the streets became dangerous. There was so much to do and so little time.

Then my thoughts returned to the little girl who had died beside me.

Mika.

I didn't know where she was or whether changing the future would alter the circumstances that had brought us together.

But I couldn't forget her small hand in mine or the trust in her eyes when I promised to get her somewhere safe. This time, I would find her before it was too late.

I moved to the window and looked down at the busy street. People hurried past with shopping bags, talked on their phones, and laughed as a vendor called out to customers.

Life continued as though the world had all the time in the world. But I knew better.

In two months, the apocalypse would come, and everything would change.

This time, I intended to be ready.