Title: Time Flows Back Status: Complete Characters: Anon, Fang, Naser, Naomi Rating: SFW Classification: One-Shot Author: examanon Summary: Fang has a weird experience. Time flows back. The air whispers around me. Not a minute ago I stepped off the roof of the school building, plummeting into my death. I watched the clouds and blue sky above as I fell, the most beautiful summer day, cruelly emphasizing the insignificance of me and my suffering. But now I rise up, against all odds, and soon my feet find stable footing on the tiles above. I don't know what is happening. I don't know how this is happening. I watch in slow motion as my arm drifts back up into the air, as though in a dream, lucid, and yet unable to take charge of my actions. I feel the tremor and aftershock of pulling the trigger, but instead of firing a shot now the bullet crawls back into the barrel. A blinding flash, a loud heartbeat. Now my finger rests on the trigger again. Twitching, inching its way away and easing up on the pull. The person I'm aiming at backs away, and closes the door to the roof behind him, leaving me alone with my thoughts. They flash through my mind in reverse order, and my grip on the gun tightens. Bitter resolve turns into helpless regret, which then gives its way for rage and desperation. My chest tightens, and tears crawl up on my face to become unshed. Walking backwards, I, too, descend the staircase leading to the roof. Shouting, screams, and other amelodious noises of chaos fill my ears, discordant, backwards. People rush me by, running backwards to close in on me as I wave the revolver around. Numbness return into my arms as I watch one of the other students around me get up from the ground where he lay, his body trembling as a bullet emerges from his body and traces is way back to me through the air. Before the flash, I notice details about this person I haven't before, when I originally shot him. I don't know who he is, but he seems like an okay person. Blue scales, short hair, wears a sweater and glasses. He has a pin with a chess-piece on in, probably a member of the chess club. He probably looked forward to a hopeful future before fate put him in my path. As the bodies continue to rush around me I lose sight of him, almost not even making out who my next - or previous - victim was, before I'm momentarily blinded again. Another person I know nothing about, and yet it was me who took his life. Somehow this feels cruel, pointless and unfair. Eventually, as my body wades through the bodies back the way I came, they all stop. Bewilderment on their faces turns into confusion. They don't know yet. They don't know what I did. What I've done. I watch helplessly, following my past vision turn back inside the classroom on the other side of the hallway. Two new figures come into view, doubling over in pain. One of them looks me in the eye, and I look back. There's nothing in his gaze but sheer terror, crushing my soul. I wish I didn't have to watch this part. I wish I didn't have to relive it again. Is this the punishment for what I've done? Is this Hell? No religion I know of says anything about time rewinding when you die. Why is this happening? But despite the questions, hope flickers on in the deepest part of my soul. I hope, I beg this unknown force to undo the terrible thing I did, and not to play a joke on me and resume time the moment I shot Naser. The now disturbingly familiar feeling of recoil runs down my arm, but this time I don't blink through the flash, eyes locked onto Naser's as the strong light paints his features, making him appear otherworldly, sharp, and making it feel like he'll forever be immortalized in my mind in this moment. The bullet first travels through the person he's shielding me from, and then through his body as well, before connecting back up to the revolver. And then it all goes black. Time flows back. The air whispers around me. Not a moment ago I stepped off the roof of the school building, plummeting into my death. I watched the clouds and blue sky above as I fell, the most beautiful summer day, providing a picturesque backdrop that resembles perfectly the emptiness inside my chest. But now I rise up, again, and soon my feet find stable footing on the tiles above. It's happening again. Why is it happening again? Once more I see my arm extend in the air, pointing at Anon. I un-take the shot again, and he un-enters the roof. My thoughts scatter, making me question if I truly am in Hell, but the raw emotions I felt back then overtake my consciousness. I watch myself scale the stairs back down again. The bodies in the hallway greet me again and though I pray for a reprieve, I have to relive again the absurd, impotent rage and despair, the anguish and the heartache. As my arm shakes with the tremors, so I become aware of how punitive my actions were. It wasn't even about inflicting my pain on others. But there were bullets in the barrel, and I did the only thing they were designed for. The only thing I ever knew in my life was how to follow paths set for my by others, for no rhyme or reason, never having an agenda of my own. I had fears, many fears, and no goals. I watch my past self go back inside the classroom. The scene that follows isn't one bit less traumatic as it was before. Naser doesn't look through me, he doesn't look away. He sees me for what I was in that moment. A monster. The flash envelops us again, and once more my hopes light anew. I'll gladly subject myself to this torment if I can bring him back. Maybe I just need to reach some big conclusion, maybe I just need to learn my lesson, maybe- Time flows back. The air whispers around me. Not a moment ago I stepped off the roof the school building, plummeting into my death. I watched the clouds and blue sky above as I fell, the most beautiful summer day, infuriatingly perfect antithesis for how I feel. But now I rise up, and soon my feet find stable footing on the tiles above. Perhaps the worst thing about this twisted exercise in pain is that I can't tell where my conscious feelings and thoughts end, and where the ones I'm reliving start. It's all being trivialized, and I desensitized. There's now dispassion in me as the bullet I put in my boyfriend's leg travels through the air, and there is naught but impatience in me as I traverse the staircase. My victims I felt sorrow for during my first rewind, now I care less about them than I originally did. Bang. Bang. I watch them rise up and take their place between the bodies, watching me like storks on the rooftop as I make my way back to the classroom with Naser and Naomi. Hurt grips my heart, but I also find myself feeling the same impatience I felt on the stairs. The same anger I felt when I took the shot in the past. Naser looks back at me, but I barely see him now. And yet I hope with all of my being that I can bring him back. Time flows back. The air whispers around me. Not a moment ago I stepped off the roof of the school building, plummeting into my death. I watched the clouds and blue sky above as I fell, the most beautiful summer day, and I feel nothing. I rise up, again, and I feel the sturdy roof tiles beneath my soles. I take the shot, Anon's pleas to stop me falling on deaf ears as I push past him and descend the staircase, counting the stairs as I go. I want to get this over with. I don't know why this is happening, and I don't need to know anymore. I go through the motions, gunning down the two students in the hallway, watching in a mute, dispassionate stupor as they collapse. Then I rush to the classroom across the hall, to face Naser and Naomi again. Raising my arm, I look into those scare doe-eyes of his. He doesn't want to go, and I don't want to put him down, but that's what's going to happen. I pull the trigger, and the flash envelops us again. It's only then that I realize... Time doesn't flow back.