Li Jiefan woke up with a jolt, she frantically looked around for the zombie she fell with. Insted of the zombie she found herself in her university dormroom in her bed. She was sitting in the darkness of this familiar room once again with her three roomates in their respective beds. She got up quicky but was immediately hit with a wave of nausea and a stabbing headache. She felt feverish and weak. She fell back onto the bed too dizzy to stand.
Okay, she need to keep a clear head and think this through. Li Jiefan knew she was no longer in the mall but she did not knnow how she got here. Li Jiefan took a deep breath and gathered her mind. She needed to identify what she knew before she made a guess on what she didn't know.
She knew:
Number 1: She was in her university dormroom with her roomates and it was five in the morning.
Number 2:She felt awful, she was most likely sick and her symptoms were reminiscent of the symptoms an awakened person felt.
Number 3:She knew Chen Leichu and Chi Muyang were not here with her.
Now she could try to come up with hypothesise.
Hypothesis 1:She died falling off that ledge with the zombie and Clover gave her another chance, this was the best option but if this was true she woud not feel this terrible.
Hypothesis 2: She was dead and this was her weird afterlife. But that didn't make sense beacuse what afterlife would put her in her university dorms. This is not were she experienced the best or worst parts of her life so it couldn't be hell or heaven and she was in her body so it couldn't be any form of reincarnation.
Hypothesis 2: The apocalypse wasn't real, and she had woken up from a weird dream about the end of the world. This was the scariest option but the one that made the most sense regarding her current situation. Li Jiefan continued with her-truthfully-scary thoughts when she heard a scream.
She knew that scream, it was the scream that had haunted her dreams for years, it was high-pitched and long and was filed with fear. It was the scream of the beginning. Two of Li Jiefan's three roommates woke up confused. " What the fuck was that?" Yu Qingxian who slept on Li Jiefan's top bunk asked. Yu Qingxian had a potty mouth, was abrasive and confrontational but she was Li Jiefan's favourite roomate. Li Jiefan felt her mouth open, " I don't know."
Yu Qingxian in her usual bad-tempered way jumped down from the bunk and walked to the door," It's probably Chen Xinya trying to go famous again with her shitty prank videos."
Li Jiefna wanted to scream, to tell Yu Qingxian to not open that door but her body would not listen to her. The grumbling girl opened the door and a blur shot at her. A zombie shot at her and latched onto her sholder.The other two girls immediately ran to help Yu Qingxian who was screaming on the floor.
Li Jiefan's body just sat there watching the blood pool around Yu Qingxian as she yelled in pain and struggled under the creature tearing her throat apart. Everthing was playing out exactly like she remebered, and it wasn't hard to remember this scene as it was burned into her mind. The other two girls gripping the creature by its shoulders trying to rip it off Yu Qingxian but it was stronger, they were yelling at it, trying to reason with it but it wasn't human anymore and couldn't be reasoned with.
" Li Jiefan, help us!" Liang Yanbei, the roomamte on the left of Yu Qingxian called.
Li Jiefan's body moved running over to her doormates side. She grabbed the creature, her hands wrapping around it's torso and lifted it up with ease, throwing it out of the room. Liang Yanbei shoved the door close before the zombie could enter again. Gao Lin, the forth girl who was in pre-med, studying medical toxicology, checked the girl on the floor. Yu Qingxian was delirious and wasn't speaking intelligible words. She had lost a lot of blood and was groaning in pain.
" She has lost a lot of blood. We need to get her to a hospital now." Gao Lin said grabbing a towel and holding it to the pale girls neck, trying to stop the blood.
Li Jiefan wanted to tell the other girls not to get too close to Yu Qingxian, that it was night so she would turn soon but her body refused to listen instead it said," I will call an ambulance." Her body walked to her phone on her nightstand and tried to dial an ambulance but her call wouldn't get through. Li Jiefan's body turned to the other girls and said, " The calls are not going through, I'll go call the dorm Mother."
" Be careful, that crazy person could still be outside." Liang Yanbei said helping Gao Lin.
Li Jiefan felt like an observer in her own body, watching herself make the same mistakes in the same tragedy.' I guess this disproves hupothesis 3' Li Jiefan thought. If the apocalypse was a dream and she woke up from it why was she reliving her past? Why was she reliving the Red Night she experienced in her past life?
Li Jiefan tried to regain control of her body by slowing down. It worked. So she did have some control over her body in this place, she then tried to turn around. That she couldn't do. She kept experimenting with what she could, and could not control.
After some tests she figured out that she could make some small movements but she could not change the core objective of the body. She could speak but maybe she couldn't stop the body from speaking or speak when it spoke.
Just as Li Jiefan got to the door for the dorm mother's room, everything around her blured and a bright light appeared behind her. Slowly turning she realises; she had control of her body again and saw the glowing ball she made a deal with months ago.
" You have been doing well regressor." Clover said.
Li Jiefan's head tilted acknowledging the fact that it was a statement, not a question," I was well, until I found myself in my past."
Clover giggled, " This place is where you will be able to analyse your past from a different perspective, did you think I was expecting you to find your killer through your memories alone?"
" Yes, I did. You did not make yourself that clear." Li Jiefan answered.
" You will have this opportunity to investigate your past with a new perspective and solve your own murder." Clover says with a very upbeat voice, " Now I was kind enough to give you this time get comfortable here so I don't expect to be disappointed."
Li Jiefan felt herself get sucked away," Wait, I have questions!"
" Goodluck!" Clover said with sing-song voice pretending not to hear her.