Reborn Live Streaming Short Stories & Novels

On the day we finish our SATs, my snobbish deskmate, Ava Levine, insists that we film a graduation confession video together. I reluctantly agree out of courtesy, but to our surprise, the video goes viral overnight. Hooked on her newfound fame, she forces her way into my home and demands that I give up my spot at a top university to become an influencer with her. When I refuse, she starts a livestream at midnight, drawing an audience of a hundred thousand. With fake bruises painted on her body, she bursts into tears and accuses me of sexually assaulting her after I pretend to confess my feelings for her. She also claims that I hold her captive and abuse her. Her fanatical fans dox me overnight. They splatter red paint across my home and send me razor blades in the mail. In the ensuing chaos, one of her fans pushes my mom down the stairs, taking her life instantly. Before I can even clear my name, a speeding car runs me over on my way to the police station. A wave of excruciating pain tears through me. Then, my eyes snap open. I'm back on the day our exams are over, just as Ava holds up her phone and pleads, "Just pretend to say yes, please. I'm begging you."

After my nephew and niece finished high school, I took them to Hawaii. The moment we boarded the plane, the two of them put their heads together and started whispering. "You've got the stuff ready?" "Relax. The countdown's set. Five minutes after takeoff — it goes off first, then it burns." "A hundred and thirty-seven people going down with us. Worth it." The man in the next seat changed color. The flight attendant couldn't take her eyes off us. I clapped my hands over their mouths and apologized to everyone, and spent the whole flight making sure neither of them said another word. I ruined the graduation stunt they'd planned so carefully. Their dream of going viral overnight fell apart. At the beach, they held me under the water and grinned into the camera. "Hey, everybody — my aunt's going for the world record for holding her breath. Let's start the countdown. Thirty minutes!" Thirty minutes later, the two of them took a photo with my body, grinning into the lens. "Happy graduation!" When my brother and his wife found out I was dead, they waited for the middle of the night, tied stones to me and pushed me out into deep water. Back home, they told everyone I'd run off with some guy I met on the trip. My nephew and niece's vlog blew up, and they started college as celebrities. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the plane. This time, when the two of them started running their mouths, I simply pointed across the aisle at my brother and his wife. "Those are their guardians." If they want to lose everything and rot in a cell, why is it my business to stop them?

The captain of our college cheer squad was drowning. I fought to pull her ashore and performed mouth-to-mouth in front of the entire student body and faculty. But three days later, she went live, sobbing, and accused me. "Owen Ellis pushed me into the water... He's wanted to force himself on me for ages! "He threatened me, too. He said if I didn't sleep with him, he'd post photos of him kissing me on a porn site and ruin me!" Overnight, I went from a lifesaving hero to a would-be rapist reviled across the internet. The university expelled me. My parents were doxxed by online mobs, lost their jobs, and both sank into depression. In my darkest moment, I stood at the same lake where I'd saved her and jumped. As the water closed over my head, a notification lit up my phone. The cheer captain was smiling on her livestream as hundreds of thousands of fans flooded the chat. The stream title read: "A Strong Girl Rises from the Ashes." When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the moment she started drowning. She was thrashing in the water, those wet eyes locked on mine, and she cried out. "Owen... save me..."

I was only seven when my dad, Michael Carter, jumped into the river to save a drowning man. I was still playing in the sand on the riverbank. By the time a crowd had gathered and Dad was pulled from the water, his body had turned blue. He wasn't breathing. And the grown man Dad had risked his life to save? He swam back to shore on his own, shook off the water, muttered, "Just my luck," and walked away. Mom never smiled again after that. She worked three jobs to keep our family afloat. A year later, she collapsed from exhaustion at the textile mill and never woke up. Every spring, Grandma took me to visit their graves. She would cry and say the same thing every year. "If only I hadn't taken you to play by the river that day." Then I opened my eyes, and I was seven again. Dad was pulling off his jacket and tossing it to me. He pointed at the figure struggling in the river. "Stay right here, Mia. Dad's going to save him." The next second, I darted past him and jumped into the river. "Dad. "I can't swim."

Mom and Dad aren't bothered at all when I completely start slacking off. Kennedy Quinlan, my girlfriend's brother, who has established a reputation as a genius inventor, completely breaks down, while I slack off instead of conducting research in the lab. In my past life, Kennedy files an identical patent application just one day before I do, causing everyone to brand me as a fraud and accuse me of blatant plagiarism. I try to explain myself, but no one believes me. Kennedy eventually launches a live stream to blast me online, accusing me of trying to scam my way into their family's fortune. They run a massive cyberbullying campaign against my whole family. Mom and Dad only want to clear things up, but Kennedy's crazed fans push them off a high-rise building, leaving them to die in unresolved grief. Unable to handle the blow, I fall into a severe depression and end up slitting my wrists. I still can't wrap my head around the whole situation, even in my final moments. It is obviously the fruit of my own painstaking research, so why does someone else get to file the patent first? I suddenly open my eyes and find myself back on the day before my invention is stolen.