Chapter 2: Is this the universe’s idea of a joke?

🖱️Victor 🖱️

I died…

The thought echoed over and over inside my head as I remained on the cold bathroom floor, my entire body shaking violently.

Fire…. Blood… A palace… Golden eyes.

“…I love you, J…”

The memories kept coming in broken pieces, each one crashing into the next before I could make sense of them. Every time I thought they had stopped, another one slammed into me, making my skull feel like it was splitting apart.

I gripped my hair.

“What the hell…”

My breathing refused to slow.

I wasn’t crazy, dreaming neither was I imagining any of it. I had lived another life. No…

I had been another man. A vampire king half dragon. Then I had died.

“So why am I here?”

The stranger in the mirror stared back at me. The same face I’d spent ten years trying to accept and never once felt like mine. Now I finally understood why. Because it wasn’t.

…

I had no idea how long I remained inside that bathroom before I finally forced myself back onto my feet.

My legs still felt weak. Every sound around me seemed distant.

Employees hurried past the restroom, laughing and celebrating the king’s visit while my entire existence had just been turned upside down.

No one knew or had the slightest idea that the pathetic fairy from the production department had apparently died ten years ago… and somehow remembered it today.

I walked back toward my desk in a daze. Jack looked up the moment he saw me.

“Dude, where the hell did you disappear to?”

“I wasn’t feeling well.”

“You look like death.”

If only you knew.

I dropped into my chair and turned on my computer. My hands moved on their own.

Searching for everything related Supreme King Jayden.

Thousands of results appeared. Images, articles, videos and Interviews.

I clicked the first one. A photograph filled the screen.

Jayden stood beside another man with silver hair and piercing blue eyes.

Both of them were smiling. Below the picture was a headline.

The Supreme King and His Mate, The Second Supreme King Attend the Northern Summit.

Mate… I frowned. The silver-haired man. Sammy. The name came back almost instantly.

More memories followed. Not enough to understand everything. Just enough to know he mattered and that I hated him with every drop of my blood.

I kept scrolling.

There were hundreds of photographs.

Jayden and Sammy attending banquets.

Jayden and Sammy opening hospitals.

Jayden and Sammy visiting orphanages.

Jayden and Sammy smiling.

Always smiling.

I leaned back in my chair.

“I still can’t understand why the hell I gave up my life for this middle ugly human.”

My monster laughed.

“You loved him.”

I snorted. “And how in hell am I not feeling the fucking love you’re talking about?”

“Because you’re angry.”

“I’m confused.”

“You’re both.”

I looked at another picture. Jayden was laughing with his arm rested comfortably around Sammy’s shoulder while the photographers captured every perfect moment.

The hell?

The obstacle between them died and they found their happy ever after?

Are these motherfuckers for real?

I died. Burned into ashes literally and these two looked like they hadn’t cried a single day in the last ten years. Something ugly twisted inside my chest.

Jealousy… Bitterness… or…Maybe both.

“They moved on,” I muttered.

“You asked them to.”

My monster’s voice was calm.

“We left them.”

“I died.”

“You still left.”

I clenched my jaw. “Shut up.”

“They honored your last wish.”

“I said shut up.”

“Victor.”

Jack’s voice pulled me back to reality.

I looked up.

He was leaning halfway over the divider between our desks with an expression somewhere between concern and annoyance.

“I’ve been calling you forever. What the heck, man? Are you sure you’re good?”

I stared at him.

This loser wouldn’t have dared call my name like that if he knew who the hell I really was.

A strange smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. Not because I found anything funny. Because the thought itself sounded insane.

A few hours ago I had been the pathetic Victor with criminal records.

Now…

Now I remembered another name, life and a throne I gave out on a platter.

“I’m anything but good.”

The words never left my mouth. Instead, I stood.

“Victor?”

Jack called again I ignored him. The only reason I had stayed was because I needed the internet. I needed answers to understand what the hell had happened to me and how I ended up in this body for ten whole years.

Every step toward the exit felt lighter. Not because I was happy rather the fairy named Victor suddenly felt like someone else.

“Victor!”

Jack called one last time. I didn’t even look back. The Victor he knew was dead.

The man walking out of the factory wasn’t a forgotten fairy with a criminal record.

He wasn’t some pathetic loser struggling to pay rent and child support.

He was…

The Vampire King… half vampire and half dragon. Or at least… he used to be.

I glanced down at my hands, small and slender fairy hands. No claws or power and any familiar strength flowing beneath my skin. I let out a bitter laugh.

“Seriously?”

I shook my head and walked toward my bike.

“So tell me…”

“How the hell does a half-dragon and vampire king get reborn into the body of a loser fairy?”

Silence answered me. I laughed again.

“Is this the universe’s idea of a joke?”