Death is a strange thing. It comes softly for some, like a whisper in the night. For others, it roars in with fury, tearing them away from life with merciless hands. For me, it was neither.
I died in a hospital bed, staring up at a ceiling I had memorized for years. A young man, barely out of his twenties, fading away from an incurable illness. My body had long since betrayed me, and in my final moments, all I felt was exhaustion. I wasn't afraid. If anything, I was relieved. My last thought: "Is Heaven real? If it is, I wonder if Rei made it too."
But then… I woke up.
Not in a hospital. Not in some afterlife.
I woke up in a world I knew very well—because I had read about it before.
And the person staring back at me in the mirror wasn't the frail, dying man I had once been. No, I was someone else entirely.
I was Xavier 'X' Leclair—the childhood friend of Rae Taylor.
And just like that, my story began anew. I just hope this world is prepared for the hell I'm about to release.