Chapter 2The Only Girl Not Reborn

Their deeply unsettling reaction was making my skin crawl.

"What am I supposed to remember?!" I demanded, throwing my hands up. "I'm going to be late for work. Just tell me what's going on, stop with the cryptic nonsense!"

My dad stumbled backward. Two full steps.

My mom desperately tried to reach out to me, to say something, but my dad grabbed her arm and yanked her back. "Are you out of your mind? You can't talk to her!"

"You're the one who's out of your mind, she's our daughter! She just hasn't fully acclimated to the Return yet, her memories just haven't—"

My mom shoved him away and fiercely grabbed both of my hands.

"Jo, sweetheart, did you forget? We are all Returners. Three years from now, the end of the world happens. We all died. But we've been given a second chance. We've been sent back."

"Our only chance at survival is to pool every single resource we have and face this together!"

I stared at her. A beat of total silence passed before a sharp, incredulous laugh punched its way out of my chest.

"Did you guys really drive all the way over here at eight in the morning to pull this ridiculous prank on me?"

I glanced at my phone. 8:50 AM. If I didn't leave right now, I was actually going to be late. And Wallace never hesitated to dock pay for tardiness.

"Look, I have to go to work. Whatever this is, we can talk about it tonight."

I didn't believe a single word of their sci-fi doomsday pitch. I sidestepped them and hurried out the door.

They didn't try to stop me.

As I walked down the hall, I could faintly hear my mother's gut-wrenching wails echoing from inside my apartment. "Why did it have to be this way? God, why did it have to be our little girl?"

Her grief grated on my nerves. Part of me suspected this was some elaborate, manipulative theatrical performance to get me to agree to them selling the house. They had brought up liquidating their assets to play the stock market before. I had vehemently talked them down, terrified they would lose their entire nest egg.

Were they trying this angle again? But I wasn't a child. What was the point of using such an absurd, unbelievable lie?

"Jo!"

Gavin's voice shattered my racing thoughts.

He was standing by the entrance of my apartment complex, frantically waving at me from a distance.

"I already quit my job, Jo! Every single second I have left is going to be devoted to you. We are never spending a minute apart!"

Looking at Gavin's red-rimmed eyes and the desperate, manic devotion swimming in them, I suddenly remembered the text he had sent me.

He had said he wouldn't leave my side for the next three years.

My parents had just said the world ends in three years.

Was Gavin playing along with this "Returner" prank too?

No.

I froze in my tracks, my eyes locking onto his.

"Gavin, did my parents put you up to this? Did they tell you they want to sell the house, and you're helping them gaslight me?"

Gavin blinked, genuine bewilderment washing over his face.

I knew his expressions well enough to know he wasn't acting.

Ping—

His phone buzzed. From where I stood, I could see my father's contact photo pop up on his lock screen, though I couldn't read the text.

I took a step toward him.

"What did my dad just text you?"

Gavin didn't answer.

A second ago, he had looked like a man violently, desperately in love with me. Now, his eyes widened in sheer, abject horror. He pointed a trembling finger at me, stumbling backward as if I were holding a loaded gun.

"You... you..."

"You're not one of us!"

He let out a strangled, guttural noise and turned on his heel, sprinting away without once looking back.

I tried texting him. Message Not Delivered. You have been blocked.

I tried calling him. Straight to voicemail.

I opened my phone, intending to reach out to one of Gavin's friends, only to be met with something far more terrifying.

My social media feeds.

Almost everyone I knew, as if part of some massive, synchronized cult, had posted screenshots of digital receipts. They were entirely liquidating their bank accounts, their stocks, their properties, and transferring the funds to a newly formed Global Defense Coalition.