A dining room.
Warm light spilled through a window, making the polished wood shine faintly.
A long table stretched before me, filled with plates and bowls, steam rising gently from the food.
Metal clinked.
Chairs scraped.
The table felt crowded and warm.
A woman laughed, brushing her hands on her apron, while asking if anyone wanted more.
The man sitting across the table shook his head, pointing his fork at me.
"Lukas."
My hands, which moved busily, brushing off the crumbs of food on a young girl's cheeks, stopped.
The girl complained loudly, saying she could do it herself.
She waved her hands as she spoke, nearly knocking over her glass.
A warmth began to spread in my chest.
For a moment, nothing hurt.
But—
It was only a moment.
The vision shattered.
My hands clutched my head.
"AGGHHH!"
I fell.
Thud.
My skull hit stone.
Then—
Like a flood.
Flashes.
Faster than before.
Without pause.
A strange room.
A soft floor that was hard at the same time.
It smelled like sweat.
A heavy metal bar pressed dangerously close to my chest as my muscles screamed.
Someone counted each time I pushed the weight off my chest.
Swoosh.
The training yard again.
"Cut. Recover!"
I felt the weight of steel in my hands and the rough leather of the handle.
Swoosh.
Another strange place.
My fists struck a bag that hung from a chain.
The smell of sweat and leather.
Knuckles wrapped in white cloth.
My chest heaved as if I'd been running, sweat flowing down my face.
Swoosh.
A long field of green grass.
People stood around it, shouting.
Short clothes and shoes that dug into the ground.
My body turned.
Thud.
A ball slammed into my foot, stopping right in front of me.
I sprinted forward with it.
Swoosh.
The dining hall.
The long cherrywood table.
Silverware laid out in lines.
Theodora's laughter echoed through the room as I searched for the right spoon.
My chest warmed up and ached at the same time.
Swoosh.
I clawed at my hair while screaming.
"Stop it—!"
My fist slammed into the floor, blood running down my knuckles.
Again.
Bam.
Nothing.
The visions only turned faster.
In a hall of polished wood.
I sat on a cushioned bench.
A glowing metal square hung on the wall. Images flashed on it one after the other like a theater.
"Shoot!"
A crowd in uniforms.
A field stretched ahead.
I stood, posture straight with cold metal in my hands. Fire spat from the end of the metal rod.
The recoil pushed my body back.
Ring.
Music came out of nowhere. Metal pressed to my ear.
A voice whispered.
Thump-thump.
Darkness.
Light.
Then darkness again.
Again and again.
Music loud enough to hear nothing.
Everything seemed slow and fast at the same time.
Sweat clung to my body while I moved left and right, dancing. My lips curved into a smile as I drank another glass.
Thud.
My head smashed against the wall, blood flowing down my nose.
"STOP!"
My voice rang, but it didn't stop.
A long metal carriage rattled forward.
I sat among strangers, metal glowing in my hand.
The smell of perfume.
A girl's lips touching mine.
A desk.
A teacher pointed at chalk marks on a green board.
The sound of a car. A street at night. Lisa's laughter.
A banquet hall.
Theodora feeding me pastries.
The library.
Lucien's quiet voice. Pen and paper on the table.
A garden.
I knelt beside my mother, helping her tend the flowers.
My body swayed, knees bending.
Thud.
I fell again.
The storm didn't stop.
Everything blurred.
Sound and color smashed into each other.
Lisa's smile.
Metal carriages.
Mother's embrace.
Typing on black wood.
A commander's shout.
Glowing squares.
My sister's ramblings.
Steel clashing.
Theodora's laugh.
THUD.
My head slammed down.
"Make it—"
Blood ran down my face.
"Make it stop…"
The storm slowed.
A horn.
BAAAMM.
The world spun in glass and metal.
Screams.
Lisa's pained expression, face covered in blood.
Her hand reaching for mine.
Swoosh.
The tribunal.
Favian's poisonous smile.
Anton's cold eyes.
Selene's soft voice.
Thud.
The hammer fell.
Then—
Silence.
And everything went dark.
Dim light filled my vision as I woke.
My body ached all over, but the pain was nothing compared to before.
Haah.
I drew a shaky breath, pressing my palms against the floor, steadying myself.
The pain was bearable.
Slowly, I pushed myself up.
My head still throbbed, and a dull pressure lingered behind my eyes, but with every breath, it weakened.
Haah.
I closed my eyes in relief.
But—
They snapped open right after, fearing another vision.
Nothing.
A sigh left me, I was still in the cell.
The tension left my body, and I leaned back, pressing myself against the wall.
Now, calmer but still confused, my thoughts drifted back.
The visions.
...Or were they even visions?
I frowned.
They didn't feel like visions or dreams.
They didn't feel imagined.
They felt...real.
Like something which I had already experienced.
Like—
Memories.
The strange things I had seen.
They weren't foreign anymore.
I didn't know why, but I knew them now.
They felt familiar even.
The glowing square was a computer.
The wooden board, a keyboard.
The box that showed images, a television.
The carriage with lights, a car.
It all slid into place like pieces of a puzzle.
And slowly, as the memories began to settle—
Another question rose.
My hands rose to my head, fingers pressing against my skin as my voice slipped out, hoarse.
"Who...am I?"
The question echoed in the cell.
But—
There was no answer.
My mind drifted back, sorting through memory after memory.
I was Adonis Ashspire.
But now?
My hands pressed against my head, firmer, until it ached.
Who am I now?
I didn't know.
Am I Adonis Ashspire?
The boy betrayed by his family and sold into slavery.
Or—
Am I Lukas Wane?
The office worker who loved Lisa.
My hands trembled, nails scratching faintly against skin.
I had both.
The memories of two lives replayed in my mind, overlapping, like two movies played at the same time.
Both of them felt like strangers.
Then who am I?
Not knowing who I am but having enough memories for two lives?
A third stranger?
My mind raced at the thought.
A question rose.
If memories shape who we are, then which memories define me?
Am I both?
Or—
Neither of them?
There was no answer.
Only more questions.
Were these even my memories?
My chest tightened.
Was I just a blank page all along?
Was I only half of myself, waiting to be complete again?
My breath grew shallow.
If I lost every memory, would I still be me?
Or would I simply become someone else?
And what if these memories weren't even mine?
What if they belong to someone else?
My hands shook.
If I can remember another person's life.
Their choices, their love, their pain.
Does that make me them?
I remember so I am?
But…what happens when they fade?
Do I become someone else again?
The thought unsettled me, my heart clenched.
Are memories truly what define who we are?
If they are...
Then why do we forget?
Why can't we remember the moment we were born? The first time we cried or the first step we took?
My jaw clenched, teeth pressing against my lips.
The mind forgets, yet we remain.
Maybe—
Memory doesn't define us.
But it reminds us of how we became?
My hands let go of my head, falling limply to my sides.
Who am I becoming then?
A noble child with a sword.
Or—
A man with a phone in his hand?
I didn't know.
The questions gnawed at me.
My eyes closed, a breath left me before memories resurfaced.
Rowena's embrace.
Lisa's laugh.
Theodora's tears.
The crash.
Lucien's hand on my shoulder.
Her hand reaching for mine.
I couldn't separate them anymore.
Lukas.
Adonis.
Memories of two lives.
Both familiar.
Both felt like mine.
Different names.
Different worlds.
Different memories.
But—
The same habits.
The same choices.
The same heart.
My breathing slowed.
The chaos in my mind began to align, memories fitting together instead of colliding.
One's end.
To—
Another's beginning.
They completed each other.
Becoming one, not two.
I raised one trembling hand to my chest, pressing it against the faintly warm brand.
Slowly.
Breath by breath, the truth took shape, my lips parted as I spoke it.
"I was Lukas Wane."
My voice was barely above a whisper.
"I died in a car crash."
Not strangers.
My throat tightened, eyes opening.
"And I was reborn as Adonis Ashspire."
For a moment...
Just a moment...
The pain.
The thoughts.
The questions.
Everything stopped.
Like the last piece of a puzzle being set.
Then—
Pain exploded through my skull.