The school bell rang with its usual sharp buzz, echoing down the corridors of Ironvale High. Kai Arven stared out the window of his classroom, eyes vacant, lost in the clouds as they drifted lazily across the sky. Behind him, the hum of the teacher's voice faded into static.
His hand hovered above his notebook. Words were there, half-written. His thoughts weren't.
"Kai," a voice snapped him out of his haze. His best friend, Ren, nudged him with a grin. "Zoning out again? You'll be late for the test."
Kai blinked. "Right. The test…"
But something felt wrong. The sunlight dimmed for just a second, as if the world had blinked.
He shook the feeling.
Later, as Kai headed to the library after school, a sudden, deafening roar shook the ground. Windows shattered. Heat and fire surged from the west wing of the school.
BOOM!
Screams. Sirens. Smoke.
Kai's vision blurred as dust filled the air. He stumbled forward through the wreckage. Bodies. Blood. He couldn't think — just move.
Through the smoke, he saw Ren, crushed beneath a fallen beam, hand outstretched.
"Kai…" he coughed. "Run…"
"No," Kai whispered, rushing toward him.
It felt like falling through glass. The world froze — no, glitched — like a broken screen. The heat stopped. The screaming stopped. Kai hovered in a void of stillness.
A blue shimmer coiled around his fingers, and suddenly —
he was back.
In his classroom. Thirty minutes earlier.
Panting. Sweating.
"What the hell…?" he gasped, looking around. Everything was normal. No explosion. Ren alive. The sun shining again.
He gripped the desk. "That wasn't a dream…"
A sharp pain flared in his temple. He reached up — blood.
And in his notebook… the words had changed:
> "You rewound. But at a cost."
That night, Kai sat alone in his room, trembling. His thoughts raced.
"What happened to me?"
Then— a flicker at the window. A girl stood on the fire escape, her silver hair glowing in the moonlight, her eyes burning like stars.
She stepped through the glass like it wasn't there.
"You used the power, didn't you?" she asked softly.
Kai stood, shocked. "Who—who are you?"
"My name is Lyra. And you've just made your first Rewind."
She tossed him a coin engraved with an hourglass symbol. "Now they'll come for you."
Fade to black.
Thank you for reading