I woke up suddenly, breathing heavily.as I sat up too fast I started feeling dizzy, like I was waking from a nightmare. The room around me spun, everything still blurry and wrong. I wiped my face, my hands were shaking, and it took a moment before I realized the sweat on my skin wasn’t from the nightmare—it was real.

  What the hell...?

  I blinked, trying to make sense of where I was. The room was familiar, but not like it should’ve been. It was too quiet. Too still. My heart hammered in my chest. This wasn’t right.

  I looked down at my hands, and that’s when it hit me. They were small. I WAS A KID.

  A ten-year-old kid. But I had died. I remembered it. I had been… gone. For good.

  My breath caught in my throat. No way. This can’t be real.

  I stumbled out of bed, my legs unsteady as I walked down the hallway, my mind racing. I knew this house—every creak in the floorboards, the faint smell of wood and dust in the air. But this felt wrong. I felt wrong.

  I reached the kitchen, and the smell of food hit me, but instead of comfort, it made my stomach twist. What is happening?

  And then I heard it. Her voice.

  “Tae-hyun?”

  My body froze. My heart stuttered in my chest. I didn’t need to turn around to know who it was. I just… didn’t want to. But my body did it anyway, slowly, almost like I was scared of what I’d see.

  There she was.

  My mother.

  She was standing by the stove, stirring something in a pot, as if everything was just normal. Just like it had been before. Before everything fell apart.

  I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. My head was spinning, and I felt like I was going to pass out. She was… alive. She shouldn’t be.

  She looked up, her eyes meeting mine, softening in surprise. “Tae-hyun? Are you okay? You look pale.”

  My mouth opened, but no words came out. I didn’t know what to say. My throat felt like it was closing up. I just stared at her. My mother. Alive.

  “I... I thought you were dead,” I finally managed, the words slipping out before I could stop them. My voice was shaky, almost unrecognizable.

  She frowned, walking over to me, concern on her face. “Dead? Tae-hyun, what are you talking about? I’m right here. You’re not feeling well, are you? You’ve been working yourself too hard.”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  I felt the floor under me shift, my legs going weak. I sank to the ground without thinking, my body giving out. The tears came then—unexpected, uncontrollable. I didn’t even know I was crying until I felt them wetting my face.

  I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t control it.

  I thought I lost her. I thought I would never feel this again. Never hear her voice, never see her smile, never feel the warmth of her hands. She was gone.

  And now, she wasn’t.

  She knelt beside me, her arms pulling me into a hug, holding me close like she always had. Her hands were warm, and it felt so real. So impossibly real. I buried my face in her shoulder, clinging to her like I was a child again, and for a second, it felt like nothing had changed.

  “Mom... I thought you were gone,” I mumbled into her shirt, my voice muffled.

  She kissed the top of my head, rocking me slightly, like she had when I was little. “Shh, Tae-hyun. It’s okay. I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”

  But as she held me, I felt the truth weighing on me. She was alive, but I wasn’t the same. I wasn’t that little boy anymore.

  “I thought I was the one who... I thought I...,” I couldn’t even finish the thought, choking on the words.

  She pulled back, looking at me with confusion in her eyes. “Tae-hyun, what’s going on? you had a nightmare.”

  I took a deep breath, trying to steady myself, but it didn’t help. My whole world had just turned upside down, and I had no idea why or how.

  She cupped my face, her touch gentle, the worry still in her eyes. “Whatever you’re going through, we’ll figure it out, okay? You’re not alone.”

  Her words were comforting, but they couldn’t erase the truth.

  I looked at her, really looked at her for the first time. She wasn’t the frail woman I had watched slip away. She was the woman who had raised me, who had always been there for me.

  I turned away towards the mirror, my fists clenched. I wouldn’t waste this chance. This time, I wouldn’t let them get away with it.

  They thought they could kill me? Kill her? No. This time, I would destroy them all.

  And this time, I knew every secret. Every lie. Every name.