The man’s pupils dilated when he saw her reaching out. Lola was paralyzed from the waist down, but her upper body functioned as normally as ever. And yet, even though he knew what she was trying to do, her words left him frozen in place.
"Have you... ever considered that this might not be a curse? Or a gift? What if it’s a punishnt bestowed upon you by the heavens—for trying to play God?"
As soon as the words left her lips, his hood slipped off his shoulders and down his back.
The mont their eyes t, she felt her own widen.
Staring back at her were a pair of dark, naturally brooding eyes. He looked just as surprised as she did, but she couldn’t tell what had startled him. Was it because she had removed his hood? Or because of what she had said?
He looks younger than I thought.
That was the first thing that crossed her mind. Then she noticed the unusually dark circles beneath his eyes. He looked exhausted.
Was this really the face of the man who had been playing God with everyone’s lives?
If so, looks truly were deceiving.
He looked like soone who wouldn’t even swat a fly. If anything, he looked younger than her. It didn’t match the level of power he supposedly held, especially within a Church governed by strict hierarchy.
Right. He did ntion making himself appear like so kind of prophet with reliable visions or prophecies.
If he had been living through four lifetis, all he needed to do was display a little foresight to convince others he carried divine favor.
That trick works every ti... But does he feel a little familiar? Have I seen him before?
Not lingering on the thought, Lola parted her lips.
"Why do you look so surprised?" she asked. "Am I not supposed to see your face?"
He didn’t answer imdiately. Instead, he stared at her as though weighing sothing. Then he drew a slow breath and closed his eyes. When he reopened them, whatever warmth had been there was gone. A cold frost seed to coat his gaze as he looked at her with detached indifference.
It was like watching soone flip a switch.
"But even with all those hiccups, I’ve co to accept that achieving my goal would never be easy," he continued, his voice colder and more distant than before. It felt like listening to a completely different person, leaving her unsure whether to feel unsettled or amused.
"It no longer matters if others rembered the previous tiline," he went on. "It doesn’t matter if you all co together and paint as the villain in your story."
His eyelids lowered slightly, though not enough to hide the dangerous glint in his eyes.
"Because just like you... I, too, have a goal."
"And that goal is to massacre the innocent?" she scoffed. "You’re full of crap."
"Believe whatever you wish," he replied with a faint smile. "It doesn’t change the fact that in my story, they ruined everything—for and for the Church. And it was because of them that I... hurt my only friend."
Lola swallowed, her eyes shimring with a thin veil of tears that made her vision tremble.
If everything he said was true, then every change in one tiline carried into the next.
Jasmine and Mike, for example—once loving parents in the first tiline. But because he altered them in the second, he didn’t need to do anything in the third—the one she rembered.
Now that she thought about it, Penny’s life had begun the sa way in this tiline. She was swapped at birth, just like before. But because Penny rembered, she changed the outco.
Which ant...
If they all died again and returned, there was no guarantee they would rember—just like Old Mrs. Pierson. And everything from this tiline would carry over unless soone else interfered in the next. If there was another one.
"Do not worry," his voice snapped her from her thoughts, making her shudder when the back of his hand brushed her cheek. "This ti, I will not end up staring at your cold corpse."
He gently caressed her cheek and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
"I’m not as cruel as Atlas to force him to rember your face in death. Instead, I’ll send him off while he’s still looking at your living face."
Her body went rigid, her breath stalled, and her heart skipped.
"I’m going to bring you back to your faith," he murmured. "Just like in the first life. You’ll be ho, Lola. In the place you always wanted to serve. Once this is over... once I create a new world order where the Secret Society no longer exists, we can remain here. You’ll live in peace."
"It’s the only way I can atone—for hurting you, for pushing you away from the path you once sought—"
His words cut off abruptly when Lola grabbed the collar of his robe and yanked him toward her.
His eyes widened, pupils shrinking as his face halted inches from hers. Up close, he could feel the murderous aura radiating from her.
"Hey..." she said, her voice blank—just like her eyes. "If you’re going to kill , then do it now. Otherwise, you’ll regret it. Because I, Lola Zorken, will not rest until I burn you and this entire Church to the ground."
"A new world order where the Secret Society doesn’t exist?" she added with a scornful laugh, dragging him closer despite being able to move only her upper body. She swiftly wrapped her arms around his neck, her gaze sliding to the side without blinking.
"At one point, maybe I did want the life you described," she breathed, refusing to release him even as he tried to pry her off.
She laughed, unfazed by his struggle.
"But after four lifetis... it’s bold of you to think you can atone just by trying to fix what you broke."
Her voice dropped lower, stopping him for a fraction of a second as her grip tightened around his throat.
"And friends... don’t do what you did, you fucking psycho."
The mont the words tore from her throat, Lola squeezed his neck with every ounce of strength she had—determined to end him once and for all.
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