A second chance.
That was what I wished for.
The one thing I prayed for every night before I sleep. The one thing I prayed for, at the very night before I woke up in an entirely different life.
A new life.
My second chance.
❈❈❈
I was 30 years old wh...
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—West Valley Apartment, year 2026—
I was falling.
Everything was dark and I could feel myself falling from heights. I saw a light from the corner of my eyes and I tried to reach out for it with my hands. But I just kept on falling and drifting away from it. I called out for the face that appeared from the center of the light; he who only stared at me in silence as I fell. But nothing came out from my lips. I could feel myself falling further away into the darkness which felt like an eternity. A fall that would never stop.
It's over.
I woke up with a loud gasp, desperately inhaling air to relieve my tight chest. It took me a while before I was finally able to gain control over my body, until I could finally feel the warm breeze of the morning, and the warm sheets beneath me. But it was only when I blinked away the sleep in my eyes and breathed in the mixture of musky scent of cologne and cigarettes that I was finally reminded of where I was.
But my mind kept trailing back into the dream I had just woken up from.
Why do I keep having the same dream?
I adjusted my eyes against the light—which was not hard to do when the curtains were only half opened. I felt the foreign bed beneath me slightly dipping as I stretched out my hands, and my droopy eyes glanced towards the unfamiliar window across the room, gazing out absentmindedly before I realized I was not sleeping in my room. The memories from the previous night flashed through my mind as I sat there in silence, taking my time before I then stepped out of the bed and walked out past the bedroom door.
It took me a while to adjust myself to the sight I saw as I left the bedroom, to recognise my surroundings for it was only the second time I had ever set foot in this place. I looked around, still breathing the air that was filled with the scent of musky cologne and hints of cigarettes, before I finally saw him standing in the kitchen with his back facing me. I walked towards the man that was still unaware of my presence, too busy making food while humming random notes with his raspy voice.
"I didn't know that you can cook," I mused from behind him, and I watched as his shoulder subtly flinched, a sign that I had caught his attention when I accidentally startled him. He turned around to look at my face and gave me a shy grin, before going back to continue what he had been doing since before I came.
"Well, I do cook, although I usually don't make breakfasts. And I usually don't have guests sleeping on my bed either, so this morning will be the first of everything," he said while chuckling, expertly stirring and flipping the food he had burning on the pan.
I stood by the kitchen counter as I watched him work, laughing fondly at his confession. "Why do I have a feeling like there are some parts in that sentence that are consisted of lies?"
