It was February 8, 2033.
That meant there were only three weeks and two days left before the apocalypse would begin.
Only three weeks until the world collapsed.
Rosalie carried that countdown in her mind every second of every day.
Recently, Evelyn had been excelling in her self-defense classes. Her instructors even commented that she learned faster than most children her age.
Seeing her daughter improve made Rosalie feel both proud and guilty.
A few weeks ago, Rosalie had quietly taken things one step further and signed Evelyn up for lessons at a shooting range.
Evelyn had been absolutely thrilled.
She had always been more of a tomboy than a girly girl. She loved getting messy, running around outside, and doing anything active or adventurous. Learning to shoot felt like the coolest thing in the world to her.
Rosalie never told Dean about the shooting lessons.
Instead, she asked Evelyn to keep it a secret.
"Just something between mother and daughter," Rosalie told her with a smile.
Evelyn agreed immediately. She knew her father wouldn't approve anyway, so she never questioned it.
******************************************
Four weeks earlier, something else had happened.
Just like in her previous life, Rosalie had been ambushed.
Her parents, Lilith, and Dean had all confronted her together.
They wanted her inheritance.
More specifically, they wanted her to give it to Lilith.
In her past life, Rosalie had hesitated and eventually given in after weeks of pressure.
This time, she didn't even consider it.
Instead, she calmly lied and said the money had already been placed in a trust fund for the children that she couldn't access.
Her parents immediately started guilt-tripping her, calling her selfish for refusing to help her younger sister.
Lilith cried loudly, throwing a dramatic tantrum.
"It's not fair!" she sobbed. "You got all that money while I have nothing!"
Rosalie almost laughed.
Lilith had received plenty of money in the past. The difference was that Lilith spent everything the moment she got it.
Dean stood beside Lilith with a disappointed expression.
"You're being cruel to your sister," he said coldly. "I didn't think you were this kind of person, Rosalie."
His next words were even worse.
"I don't want to marry someone who can be so cruel."
Both Dean and Rosalie's parents insisted that Lilith needed the money more because she was a single mother raising two children.
At that moment, something inside Rosalie snapped.
She rolled her eyes before her temper finally exploded.
"If you're always going to defend my sister," she shouted at Dean, "then maybe I don't want to marry you either!"
Then she stormed out of the house.
******************************************
It wasn't her finest moment.
Rosalie knew that.
But the anger had been building inside her ever since she woke up in the past.
She had spent weeks pretending everything was normal. Smiling. Acting like the obedient daughter and fiancée everyone expected her to be.
But the hypocrisy, the lies, and the blatant disrespect had finally pushed her too far.
In that moment, Rosalie truly wanted to kill them.
She imagined snapping their necks and dumping their bodies in the river.
The thought brought her a terrifying amount of satisfaction.
Still, she restrained herself.
She couldn't kill them yet.
Not before the apocalypse.
Rosalie was counting down the days.
Once the world collapsed, laws and consequences would no longer matter.
And this time, she would make sure they suffered.
She wasn't planning to kill them immediately.
No.
She wanted them to experience the same nightmare she had endured in her previous life.
Without her there to protect them, they would struggle to survive even a single week.
Only after they had truly suffered would Rosalie end their lives.
******************************************
Outside, the weather was wrong.
It was supposed to be the middle of winter.
Instead, the sun blazed brightly in the sky, and the air felt hot and dry.
All around the world, extreme temperature changes were beginning to occur.
But nobody was paying attention.
Most people simply blamed global warming.
News reporters reassured everyone that the climate was just going through temporary changes and that things would return to normal soon.
Many people were even happy.
Especially the elderly.
They didn't like snow, so a warm winter felt like a blessing.
They had no idea what was really coming.
While people celebrated the strange weather and the absence of snow…
The apocalypse was quietly approaching.
And when it arrived—
No one would be celebrating anything.