Cold water drenched his face, waking Jian up with a start. He shot up straight and crawled to the corner to hide from that rapist. 'I'm not dead yet… why... I don't want to be tortured... I don't...' his eyes fell on the familiar yet unfamiliar walls.
It was not the dark cell he was kept in.
It was his home.
His old home.
The home he lived in before the alien invaded.
'it….I must have really died...' he had heard that people get flashes of their past when their soul departs the world. All good memories will flood in.
But for him, he did not have many good ones.
They were just memories of his past.
'It feels real.' He touched the chipping that was on the verge of falling off. To his surprise, a small chip of paint fell onto his lap.
'It feels too real.' He picked it up and subtly sniffed it. the moldy and dusty smell filled his nostrils. 'Can someone smell after death? I don't think so...'
'Something was off,' he clenched his fist.
The paint chip crumbled into dust.
he tossed it to the side. But while doing so he noticed a difference in his hand. The scars he had acquired when he was hunting had disappeared. His nail tips which were always filled with grime and dirt were now clean and pink like a piece of jade.
He held his hand in front of his face and took a good look at it.
'Fleshy...' he pinched his pale flesh.
He had never been fat in the past but after the alien invasion he had lost too much weight that his hands were looking like a skeleton.
These pair of hands, though, looked clean and chubby.
"You parasite. Still loafing around! Go do the dishes." A cup flew to his head.
Jian instinctively dodged it. the steel cup hit the walls chipping the already collapsed layer.
Shocked, he gazed ahead to his right. A taller fifty or so aged lady stood there holding a spatula in hand.
Jian just blankly blinked at her. "g-grandma…."
"Are you not getting up! you fucking parasite!"
He was on his feet in a second and the next he hugged the tall lady tightly. "you're alive... you're alive…"
A sharp hit fell on his back, pulling Jian out of his overjoyed state.
Hissing, he touched his back.
"You... you how dare you touch me. You parasite. Don't come close!" the old lady looked at him like he was a disgusting worm.
Jian froze. this was the look he was very familiar with. His grandma never liked him and she had made it quite clear.
The joy he had after seeing her younger self disappeared in an instant.
What was he happy about… to have a family?
No, they were not his family. He was an alien.
A parasite.
He backed away hugging himself.
"What are you still doing standing there like a statue? Go do the dishes and cook. Bian is going to his early classes."
"I'll... I'll dry myself and start, grandma." He whispered meekly with his head lowered.
"Che, now I have to take a bath," the woman grumbled and walked away.
Jian who was finally alone, closed the door behind her and frantically searched his small closet-like bedroom. He finally stumbled upon a calendar in the corner.
Ever since he was young, he had always maintained a calendar and would write important homework schedules on it. so, no one can forge it.
With a trembling hand, he pulled it close to his face.
January 2023. That was the last month he had ended his homework schedule. He flipped the other months, but there was none.
'I... I came back in time…' he gently pinched his supple cheeks. 'I really came back in time!!'
Weakly, he sat on the ground.
Everything seemed so surreal.
One moment he was about to be assaulted and the next he was reborn back in time when he was just a sixteen-year-old high school student.
'Why... how…' he subtly touched his forehead.
Even now he could feel a small hard stuff in his forehead. In fact, he had noticed this ever since he was young. Back then he thought he might have had a lymphoma.
But after what happened in the cell, he knew...
It was not a lymphoma. It was a Jeda
An alien's source of power.
He had only heard rumors of it floating in the city. He did not know the real purpose of it or how to use it.
Right as he was thinking about this, the door opened with a bang. "brother~ is breakfast ready? I'm starving," a soft voice whispered, looking down at him.
Jian gazed up at Bian blankly. His younger brother, no, Bian wang had an innocent smile on his face. but when he looked at his face carefully, Jian was able to see the disdain in his eyes. 'His smiles were never innocent… he looks down on me just like grandma does…but why pretend?'
"Brother?" Bian walked close. "you're wet all over. Did you drop the water pot again? Don't worry, I'll talk to Grandma."
Jian blinked up at him.
Bian rue lost his patience. 'Why is this bozo looking at me like that? fuck why does his skin look so good…' he subtly clenched his fist. 'Hot water... maybe I should pour hot water over him. No, let's not destroy the bridge just yet...'
"Get up you're going to get cold." he held his arm.
To his surprise, Jian flung his arm.
"Brother…"
"I... I'm wet... you'll get cold." Jian softly whispered.
"Oh, it's okay." Bian stood up and looked at him coldly. 'For a second I thought he found out my purpose... he is still that silly fucker…' smiling he walked out. "I want to eat scallion pancakes today~"
Jian stood there frozen. 'Bian… you're well versed in acting…'