Chapter 1

The last thing I remember is the hunger.

It was a cold, gnawing emptiness that had consumed me for seven days and seven nights. Locked in the dark, dilapidated shed behind our house, the world had shrunk to the splintered wooden walls and the suffocating smell of mildew and dirt.

My parents had thrown me in here.

"You ruined Britney's life twice, and this time, you'll pay for it!"

My mother' s voice, sharp and full of hate, echoed in my mind. My father' s silence was just as damning. He had been the one to bolt the door shut.

It started on the eve of my college scholarship interview. It was the most important day of my young life, the culmination of years of hard work.

Then my adopted sister, Britney, had her dramatic breakdown.

"I'm a time-traveler!" she had sobbed, her body trembling. "I've come back from the future!"

She claimed that in her previous life, I had failed my interview. She said I suffered a mental collapse, became consumed by jealousy, and maliciously destroyed our family' s small tech startup. Our parents, she wailed, had ended up bankrupt and disgraced because of me.

And my parents, my own parents, believed her without a single question.

They saw Britney, their precious adopted daughter, as a savior. They saw me, their biological child, as a monster.

They locked me in my room to stop me from going to the interview. They dressed Britney in her finest clothes and sent her off to her own interview at a prestigious university, their faces glowing with pride.

I had screamed from my window, and a kind neighbor, Mrs. Davies, heard me and called the police. I broke the lock on my door and ran, arriving at my interview just in time.

But my escape had consequences.

When Britney heard I had made it to my interview, she was so distracted that she walked right into the path of a speeding delivery drone. She died instantly.

After a quiet funeral, a day after my scholarship results were announced, my parents' grief turned into a terrifying rage. They attacked me, dragged me to the shed, and locked me inside.

They left me to starve.

The pain was immense, but the betrayal was worse. As my vision faded, all I could think about was their faces, twisted with revulsion. My own mother and father.

Then, I opened my eyes.

Sunlight streamed through the familiar floral curtains of my bedroom. The air smelled of clean laundry, not decay. My body felt whole, not weak and emaciated.

I sat up, my heart pounding in my chest. I looked at my hands. They were smooth and healthy.

A cheerful voice drifted up from downstairs.

"Mom, can you iron my dress for tomorrow? The one for my university interview? I want to look perfect!"

It was Britney' s voice. Alive.

I scrambled out of bed and looked at the calendar on my desk. The date was circled in red ink: "Scholarship Interview."

It was today.

I had come back. I was back on the day Britney claimed to be a time-traveler.