The realization hit me like a ton of bricks. I was dead. The memories flooded back, the sound of screeching tires, the blinding headlights, the bone-jarring impact. I had pushed the girl out of harm's way, but in doing so, I had sealed my own fate.
Anger boiled up inside me, a raging inferno that threatened to consume me whole. How could this have happened? How could I have been so foolish, so reckless? And where was the old man now, with his promises of destiny and purpose?
I remembered his words, the cryptic hints and vague assurances. "You have a destiny to fulfill," he had said. "There are others out there like you, waiting for someone to show them the way." But now, lying alone in this empty white room, his promises felt like nothing but empty lies.
"Why?" I muttered to myself, my voice a hoarse whisper in the empty room. "Why! Why! WHY! Why does it have to be me! What happened to the promise of my destiny?!" My words echoed off the sterile walls, bouncing back at me with cruel mockery.
"What happened?!" I shouted, my voice breaking with emotion. "Lies! They're all lies! I'm dead….I'm….dead….because of lies! Why?...Why? WHY?!!"
Tears welled up in my eyes, hot and bitter against my cheeks. I felt the weight of my anger pressing down on me, suffocating me with its intensity. I wanted to scream, to rage against the unfairness of it all. But what good would it do?
But as the minutes turned into hours, something inside me shifted. The anger didn't fade, but it changed, morphing into a strange sense of acceptance. I couldn't change what had happened, couldn't undo the choices that had led me here. All I could do was accept it, and try to find some kind of peace in the chaos.
With a heavy sigh, I let go of the rage, letting it wash over me like a wave crashing against the shore. And in its place, I felt a strange sense of calm, a quiet resolve to make the most of whatever lay ahead.
The old man had lied to me, that much was clear. But maybe there was still some truth to his words