𝖂hat hurt the most wasn't that I found no point in my life itself, but the fact that my mother had no idea how or why she caused it to collapse. Going through my own emotions silently had been my worst torture for the rest of my life, but I have no other choice. After all, if not my mother, then who would be present for me?

I functioned through life the only way I had known from then on. The only path I had left. Though it seemed to have cursed me to walk through with blood flooding all the way up to my ankles, I had to keep walking, for myself. 

I guess that's why I had been so relieved when the world finally began to fall apart at the seams. A few years had passed by now, but they all blurred together and I couldn't bother to tell the difference. Maybe things could finally change for the better, I thought. But it was much worse than I first hoped it would be. 

News channels' reports escalated into frantic calls for help, live breakdowns, and on more than a few occasions, recorded suicides. It had been enough for the average person to panic. And the public did become paranoid. Everyone remained silent, but they all thought the same thing as a society. 

'What the hell is going on?'

The answer would be in front of all of their faces. Their downfall was not figuring out sooner. The impostors in their rooms, their crowds, even in their conversations. The changes in their death records, the confusion in those patients as they wake back up. The gasp and terror their murderers let out when they see them once more, breathing. Alive. 

The combined shock and relief when family members and friends find them at their door. The happiness across their faces as they see the person, all recovered from an illness with a high mortality rate. No one expected them to live.

But did they really live? Are they truly alive? 

Of course, humanity erupts into absolute chaos. The number of all possible deaths worldwide have decreased, while more humans keep creating as normal. Less jobs were available. More people became homeless in the blink of an eye, worldwide. We were overpopulated. No government had thought fast enough to even believe that they had to eradicate the problem. Logically, this led to a complete worldwide crisis. 

Governments being the governments they are, they take the publicity route and ensure the public that everything is okay, though there is hell underneath their feet. They assure the public that everything is under control, though the ice under their feet begins to crack and melt. After all, no amount of money could mend this issue. 

No amount of mortal input could mend this issue.

They didn't realise this, however. Predictable. Instead, they spent their money on propaganda, hoping and praying for the public to believe in their words while the Earth rots and screams for their aid. That was, until the humans finally scoped out a crucial detail that could delay the end of their world that was set in stone. 

Many reports have caught the attention of the police services, most of them outlining vague crimes of "supernaturally violent" attacks on certain members of the public. Investigations began, and there were suspicious findings. Findings that not even the news could keep to themselves. Criminals were found dead in alleyways, outside of shops, and even in their own homes. Most were wanted for murder, some for manslaughter, assault, and the list goes on. But where it got truly bizarre was when the police found cases of random people, dead in their homes with no commonalities. All of the wounds causing their deaths were different. There were no possible leads onto their respective murderers, until DNA tests were traced and thoroughly analysed.

The traces they received absolutely bewildered them. They sent the extractions to laboratories to be analysed further. When asked to comment on them, a forensic biologist seemed extremely fascinated, but the veil could not hide her underlying reaction of horror.

"Whatever it is in those extractions, it's not created from any human DNA. It bears similarities in its structure, but... it's unrecognisable. It can regenerate up to four times faster than any cell in our bodies. It moves quicker, too. It's like... a human DNA cell amplified to its maximum capability."

This information was locked down from the public. I guess it was to prevent the public from losing their minds, but the damage had already been done. One news branch couldn't keep the information in, even with the bribe money waved in their faces. After a few weeks, they single handedly started the end of the world as we knew it with a breaking news report. 

It went into detail about the upcoming 'Our Humanity' project, and how it would prioritise the 'preservation' and 'quality of life' for everyone. But then it got worse, and only hearing it from the small TV made me hold my breath. 

"There are outsiders within human society, outsiders that should not exist. This project, created by the government, encourages the public to report anyone who has been discharged from the hospital within the past five to six years from lethal injuries or life-threatening diseases such as cancer, heart disease, strokes and diabetes. This project also encourages the public to have their weapons close by, and eradicate these beings if absolutely necessary. Our Humanity aims to keep our society alive, and is a worldwide project across all seven continents. Please, keep yourselves safe, and I hope God blesses all of you in this crisis." 

God left me a long time ago, but one thing was for sure. The humans needed a hell of a miracle for this to work, and God didn't respond to them when they needed it. 

I mean, come on.

They endangered themselves, no?

Just like that, the hourglass flipped and started the timer. None of us had much time at all. Soon, the world that we once knew would go extinct. As with most humans. Mass homicides rendered them useless, to the point where a worldwide lockdown was initiated. Nobody was allowed outside, all flights were cancelled, imports and exports suffered. There were no restaurants or any sign of recreation that hadn't been abandoned. Seoul never looked so empty. Any regular person would be terrified by the silence, by the liminal spaces created by human error. 

My mother was horrified by the circumstances. She lost her job due to the catastrophe and had been quickly running out of rations for both of us. She was damn near paranoid–more than enough for both of us combined. On the other hand, I kept my cool. With my head on my shoulders, and already having no faith in humanity (much less any care in my body left for it), the irrationality was starting to annoy me.

"Can't you suffer a little quieter?" I rolled my eyes at her as she ran to switch off the TV. 

She turns back to me, and I can see her wavering expression of panic. Her dark eyebags really held the look of insanity together. I had to almost commend her for it by acknowledging her. 

"Unless you're willing to find me a job at a time like this, and get us the food we need, don't complain about me suffering." 

"I can complain all I want. We're in a crisis, after all."

"How can you be calm about this?" She pierces through my latter sentence, her hands hitting the coffee table with such force that the half-drunk glass of water jumped to the edge. 

It was painfully close to tipping over, but it remained still. She leaned over the table–her figure towering over me. Well, almost. I'm too tall for her to really do much, so she just barely meets me at eye-level instead. We have a small staring contest, and she opens her mouth, holding a sword between her teeth. 

"I don't think you understand. We're almost out of supplies. Your high school is closed down. My workplace is gone, Sunoo. Almost everything is gone."

I scoffed. "Then sell yourself, it shouldn't be that hard. You already look the part." 

She inched closer, walking past the table at this point. "Kim Sunoo-"

I stood right in front of her. "What? Why are you so shocked? I thought I made it clear that I don't give a damn." 

The sound of her hand against my cheek echoed through the walls. Painful silence followed, but I could make out what she murmured.

"I should have left you in that damn hospital."

I didn't say a word. I froze where I stood, but it wasn't out of fear. I tried to keep my expression still, but my breath shortened and blood rushed up to my cheeks. My chest tightened as I let out a small laugh, raising a hand to my cheek. She'd never hit me before. 

"Yeah. You really should have. You should've left me to die."

She raised her finger to me, and I realised how aggressive she was being. "I never said that and you know it."

"But you meant it, didn't you? Even back then, when I fought with you right in this same place, you used dad as an excuse!" 

She ignored me, walking past me like I was invisible, moving back to the kitchen. She moved to continue slicing the kimchi she had freshly prepared, and the chopping noises against the wooden cutting board pierced through the tension.

The silence was only sending me over the edge, and I grabbed her hand in the heat of the moment.

"Just say you want me dead. Just admit that you want nothing to do with me!" 

She scoffed, then laughed as she forced her hand out of mine. She raised her voice to overpower mine, then placed the knife beside the board. "Okay, fine. You want me to admit it?"

"Wait, what?" 

I didn't actually expect her to retaliate, not to this extent. I don't know if it's because of all the hatred I had built up for her, but I let it all out without being conscious of what I was actually saying to her. A sudden realisation made my heart drop, and her words hit like a needle to a balloon. 

"I wish you died in that hospital so I wouldn't be burdened and worried about someone fussing everyday of my life. I wish you weren't alive because maybe then I'd be happy again, maybe I wouldn't waste my resources and money on something that grew up to be un-fucking-grateful. Maybe if you weren't alive, I wouldn't have to worry about finding another fucking relationship then crying at night because they found out I have a kid!"

"Mom.."

"I wish he hadn't died. I wish he lived instead of you. I'd kill myself to have him than to stay another day with you." 

"I get it, that's enough, stop!" 

I panted heavily, lowering my hands from my ears. I didn't even remember when I raised them. 

I leaned on the kitchen counter, finally glancing back at my mother. But my eyes didn't falter from her. Because I wasn't staring at her. I stared at what used to be my mother, the kitchen knife she used to cut food lodged deeply in her chest. A red rope squeezed her neck tightly and hung solemnly from the ceiling. She swayed lifelessly, and I could only call out to her out of pure terror.

I didn't want this. I just wanted her to apologise. All she had to do was apologise to me. We didn't have to argue. We didn't have to fight at all. I didn't have to fight my own mother. Things didn't have to end this way.

Fighting the urge to vomit my guts out, I moved to untie the rope around her neck. But as I reached for it, the rope untied itself. It transformed into fluttering, black ashes as they swirled into each other, then faded in thin air. I panicked as soon as I realised, looking down at my trembling hands. 

But I didn't have much time. Someone must have heard me. Our neighbours were wall-to-wall, so it was easier for them to make out thuds and noises from our house. They'd even complained to my mom in the past about certain noises I'd make while she was gone for work. I had to get out of there.

Grabbing as many supplies as I could and stuffing them in my hoodie and backpack, I made a run for the door. I couldn't even glance at my mom's body. I couldn't afford to break down. 

"I'm sorry. You deserve to go to heaven, but I carried you to hell. I hope you meet Dad like you wanted to." 

So I left that night, and I didn't look back. I couldn't look back. If I took even a glance behind me, I would break down knowing that my mother is behind me. I would cry and scream knowing that my entire family is gone because of me. 

I resent humanity for this. For ostracising me, for making everything my problem when all I wanted to do as a kid was help everyone and anyone. Why was I chosen to be reborn again? I didn't ask to suffer twice. I just wanted everything to go well for us. How did it get this bad? 

Is it because I was reborn as an Anomaly in the first place?

𓈃 𝖄OTE

i feel sad for the poor guy. sorry for putting you through this much sunoo, but it's only just begun

just 40 more chapters (im joking)

(....maybe)

𓈃𓈃𓈃𓈃𓈃𓈃𓈃𓈃

ⓘ

date of publication:
November 17th, 2024.

this chapter is: 2,271 words.

Don't forget to vote for the chapter if you liked it!

©𝖐𝖆𝖟𝖚𝖐𝖔𝖗𝖊, 2024.