the moment that became my doom

Evelyn’s P.O.V.

I looked at the boy with a red rose bouquet in his hands, beaming widely with those radiant, sparkling eyes that kept me captivated for so many years in a daze.

“Say, yes….. say, yes…… say, yes.” The crowd around us was cheering aloud.

My head was fuzzy, and I didn’t register what actually was happening around me.

The chill of the winter winds still had wrapped itself around my body.

The suffocation, the helplessness, and the coldness of the metal around my limbs were still fresh on my skin.

Among the claps, cheers, and those wide grins, I heard filthy laughter and curses.

Their cameras pointed towards me.

“Say yes.”

“Say yes.”

“Evelyn”

I jolted hard when the voice of my worst nightmare called me affectionately.

My heart was now thudding hard against my ribcage.

My hand shot to my chest.

I felt the thud against my chest under my palm.

My eyes darted everywhere in panic, trying to grasp whether I was hallucinating or I was really here.

My breath hitched when my gaze landed on Evan Sterling.

Zack’s strongest competitor.

His gaze was still cold, but he had narrowed his eyes as if he were trying to see through my soul.

My head snapped towards the voice that called me affectionately one more time.

The familiar face of the person whom I loved the most, and the one who pushed me to my death, appeared in front of me.

I trembled hard in fear when I saw him smiling.

Once, this smile was enough to melt me down, and now all I could feel was fear and coldness.

I slowly looked down, still trying to catch my breath and to figure out whether it was real or an endless dream after I died.

My eyes widened when I registered the jersey on his body.

The same jersey that they wore to play in the inter-college hockey championship five years ago.

I looked at his face again and then at his jersey.

Did…. Did I go back in time?

The person standing in front of me was Zack Hayes.

My long-term crush and the center forward of the university’s ice-hockey team.

If… if what’s happening was real, then I was back in the time when he proposed to me before the final match of the state championship.

The match that changed both of our lives.

Him in a good way and mine in the worst way.

I blinked harder, clearing my eyes of tears, and tried to breathe properly first.

“Evelyn?” Zack Hayes called me softly after some time.

I looked at his handsome face and then at the bouquet in his hand.

Yes.

I was back at that very cruel time.

My head was still spinning, but I remembered my last wish before I was brought back here.

“If I get a second chance, I will make you pay for everything that you did to me, Zack. I will make you experience what real despair is.”

My head was still spinning. I grabbed my head and jerked it to clear my head.

“Evelyn, hey! What’s wrong?” Zack asked me worriedly, his right hand approaching me.

“Don’t touch me,” I yelled louder than I should have, moving away from him instantly, my body trembling hard in panic.

A scene of so many hands approaching me popped up in front of my eyes at once.

Filthy laughter

Curses

Hands roaming all over my body.

The memories of everything that I suffered in that damp and dark cell hit my brain so hard that I felt everything in my stomach churn violently.

I covered my mouth to stop myself from vomiting in front of Zack.

I pressed my other hand hard against my stomach but felt something hard pressed against my stomach.

I looked down at my hand and almost stopped breathing.

The tablet..

My tablet…

The one with months of hard work and information that helped Zack rise as a rising centre forward.

“Evelyn.” He called me softly again, but this time, I couldn’t control the nausea.

So, I ran away.

“Evelyn.” I heard so many people yelling in panic, but I ran for my life.

I was back to the day when Zack Hayes proposed to me, and as a hopeless romantic I was, I said yes.

Fate really gave me a second chance….

I stormed into the restroom and leaned over the sink, heaving heavily, but nothing came out of my mouth.

The tablet was still pressed hard against my stomach, but I couldn’t loosen my grip on it.

After a few seconds of dry heaving, I looked up.

A pale face of my younger self looked back at me.

The face was still spotless, but the eyes were filled with tears.

I smiled through tears.

This wasn’t a dream but a chance for me to make their lives a living hell.

“Evelyn Croft,” I called myself softly.

“You threw your life away as the third daughter of the Croft family for a jerk like Zack Hayes, a nobody in comparison to you.”

“And what did you get?”

The bile rose in my throat again, but I knew that it was just a feeling.

Zack Hayes, the second son of the Hayes family, the centre forward of the ice hockey team since middle school, and the one who became my doom.

For him, I became the team strategist and went extra lengths before every match to gather information so that he could rise.

And what he did.

He used me, betrayed me, and sent me to hell.

“Evelyn.” I looked in the mirror again in panic when I heard a worried voice coming from the door.

My vision blurred when my best friend, the only one who loved me the most and who died miserably because of me in the past life, entered the restroom.

Without thinking, I spun on my heel and threw myself on her, wrapping my hands around her neck, and buried my face into the crook of her neck.

“Hey!” she exclaimed in shock, but wrapped her hands around my torso tightly.

“What’s wrong with you? Are you not feeling well? Shall I take you to the hospital?” She asked me worriedly, but I just cried, shaking my head.

“You are shaking, Eve. I am taking you to the hospital,” she continued, but I tightened my grip on her neck.

“I … I am okay. Ju.. just… let me hold you,” I replied in a choked, muffled voice, inhaling sharply to make sure she was still alive.

The warmth of her body and the fall and rise of her chest were like a lifeline to me.

Zack Hayes….

My hatred was at its peak.

I could kill him right now, but this would be an easy death for him.

“Let’s go. I am taking you to the hospital,” Cathy insisted while pushing me away from her.

“No.” I refused instantly, my voice hoarse but firm.

“We need to go back. This is a crucial match,” I said to her with a firm gaze.

Her anger flared, but she just pursed her lips into a thin line.

I grabbed her hand and walked towards the door.

I know what is going to happen in this match, and if I want to rewrite my fate, Cathy’s fate…

I needed to change the outcome of this match.

We both stopped abruptly outside the restroom when Zack suddenly popped up in front of us.

“Are you okay?” he asked me worriedly, raising his hand towards my face, but I stepped away, avoiding his touch.

He looked at me with a stunned expression; his hand froze mid-air.