Chapter 3

Isabeau's POV

I became paralyzed, hanging low from the noose.

Tears poured down my cheeks and I gasped for breath as the lack of oxygen was making my lungs burn.

My vision was getting blurrier as I began to lose touch with reality. It was slow and agonizing. The faint sound of clapping and cheering was all I could hear as my life slowly slipped away from me.

"Goddess Selene please hear my prayer. Give me a second chance at life to make my enemies pay, to get that which is rightfully mine but this time, please make me the Villainess......." I prayed internally as everything suddenly faded to black.

*****

"Isa! Isa! Isa!"

I gasped as I rose up swiftly, my vision blurring due to the force and the tears in my eyes. I'm crying? Am I dead?

I touched my neck severally, trying to figure out if the noose was still around it.

"What is wrong with you? First you were crying in your sleep and now you're acting funny." 

I know that voice. It's the voice of my twin sister, no, my mortal enemy. I turned to face her and instinctively moved backwards in fear. She looked at me strangely, her hands akimbo as she stood beside my bed.

Wait. My bed? This looks like my room at my parents' house. Where am I? What am I doing here? Wasn't I being hanged a moment ago?

"Sweetie, are you alright? Do you want me to call the doctor?" My mother asked and I turned my attention to her. She was sitting beside me on the bed and she had a worried expression on her face. What the hell is going on here?

"It's probably the ton of sugar she ate before going to training. It must be messing with her brain." Leo said with a chuckle and my mother glared at her.

"Do you think now is the time for jokes, young lady?" My mother berated her.

"Sorry, I was just kidding." She said and I started getting deja vu.

Why do I feel like I've experienced this before?

"Mum, what's going on?" I turned to her for answers.

"You don't have to stress dear, everything will be fine. You went to training with the others and you accidentally got hurt and passed out but you're fine now. The doctor says it was just a small fall and you mainly passed out due to malnutrition. 

Working hard is good but you have to eat well too. You shouldn't only think about impressing others, try to take care of yourself as well." My mother said and I instantly realized what was going on.

This particular scene had happened before when I was 17. I had been training with some other warriors and got a little distracted so my sparring partner took advantage and threw me to the floor.

Mum was so worried and Leo was acting nonchalant as usual. Everything has happened before.

It all happened five years ago, precisely five years before my……..death.

If I remember vividly, Dad will walk in any second now.

As if on cue, my father walked into the room with a worried expression.

"I see you're awake. Are you OK?" He asked and I simply nodded, my brain going hard at work to figure what the hell could be going on.

I'm supposed to be dead so how am I here, five years in the past, reliving the same moment? Could this be a dream? Perhaps this is due to my transition to the afterlife.

I pinched myself hard, just to make sure I wasn't dreaming. It hurt but I realized that I'm still in my room, my family staring at me like I had gone nuts. I might have, none of this is making any sense.

"It seems you're not well, just to be sure, I'll call the doctor to come check up on you." My father said and left the room.

"Calm down Isabeau, it's alright." Aello, my wolf said and I stilled, surprised but excited to hear her voice. They had taken her away from me, I thought I had lost her.

"Aello! I'm so happy you're still here with me. What would I do without you?" I asked, trying hard to hold back the tears that were gathering in my eyes.

"You'd probably be a weak and insignificant human but the feeling is mutual. You must calm down Isa, everything is fine, at least for now. Thanks to the goddess that my memories were restored.

What's happening is simple. While dying, you made a last wish to the goddess which was sincere and thus, she granted it. She saw the great injustice that had been done against us so she gave us a second chance to fix everything. She rewrote time for us and brought the both of us back five years earlier but was merciful enough to keep our memories." Aello explained.

"So what you're saying is….."

"Yes, we only have five years before our death, that is, if we still make the same foolish mistakes as last time." She answered the question on my mind.

"So you mean this isn't a dream, I am alive and I'm 17 again. History is going to repeat itself if I don't do something about it." I repeated, still unable to believe it.

"Exactly."

"With the knowledge I have of the future, it should be easy to avoid my death. I know every move that Leo will make even before she makes them so it'll be easy to counter them. She made a huge mistake by telling me my errors and now I'll learn from my past mistakes." I spoke confidently and took a deep breath.

"It's not going to be as easy as it seems. There's a flip side to this. In case you might not realize, messing with time has serious consequences so we'll have to be careful as everything in this present might not play out as it did in our last life. One silly mistake could be the end of us.

Selene gave me a warning, to make sure that we're very careful because if we die in this life in five years time, she will consider us as ungrateful and our soul will be made to wander around in agony for eternity." She revealed and a chill ran down my spine. This is more serious than I could have expected.

I must be scrupulous and make sure to avoid my doom flags at all costs.

I have to be very careful about the changes that may be made to this reality and act cautiously.

I have five years to figure out how to avoid my gruesome end and get the happy ending that I deserve!