Talent Awakening: I Awakened With The Rewind System

The air was thick.

Suffocating.

And it reeked of damp rot.

Darkness stretched infinitely in all directions, swallowing the world whole.

And in its cold embrace, a figure stirred.

A nameless figure.

Bloodied, battered, and broken, it let out a low, guttural grunt, its breath shallow and uneven.

***

My eyes fluttered open, sluggish and strained.

And all I could see was black—a void so endless it felt alive.

"Where am I?"

The words escaped my lips, fragile and subtle, as I struggled to my feet.

A chilling sensation coursed down my spine, prickling every nerve of mine.

I turned, hoping for something—anything—beyond this oppressive nothingness.

But there was only more of the same darkness.

I clenched my fists, trying to steady myself.

My mind scrambling for answers.

"Who… am I?"

I pressed my fingers against my temples, desperate to recall something- anything- that could tether me to reality.

But the harder I tried, the more it hurt.

"Aaargh!"

Pain erupted like needles stabbing into my skull, relentless and unforgiving.

I fell to my knees, clutching my head, as I struggled to breathe through the agony.

It was unbearable.

It consumed me, drowning out all thoughts and reason.

And then, as my vision blurred and my body trembled, I felt it: the cold hands of darkness pulling me under.

***

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.

.

.

.

When I woke up again, my body felt foreign.

Sluggish.

The disorientation was profound, as though I'd been untethered from existence itself.

My hands ran over my grime-covered skin, the texture rough and vile.

My legs shook as I stood, my movements hesitant,

Uncertain.

A sense of unease curled around me, a subtle, unshakable feeling that I was being watched.

I forced a hollow laugh, the sound brittle in the stiffling silence.

"Who'd waste their time stalking me?"

I muttered, shaking my head.

Still, the unease persisted.

Exhaling sharply.

I knew I had to try again.

To remember.

To figure out one or two things about myself.

Irrespective of the pain I had to go through to get them.

With a deep breath, I closed my eyes and reached into the void of my mind.

The pain came swiftly.

It was sharp and blinding.

I gritted my teeth.

Every muscle in my body trembling as I pushed through it, refusing to let go.

And then…

"Dean."

The name echoed in my mind,

Faint but undeniable.

Dean.

It was something, but it wasn't enough.

I-t...it felt like a cruel joke.

A bitter laugh escaped my lips, the sound raw and hoarse.

My legs buckled, and I collapsed onto the cold, hard floor.

"Dean," I whispered again.

I tried to breath, tried to calm down.

But I couldn't.

The name in and of itself was useless.

Compared to the other questions that gnawed at the walls of my mind.

My name seemed less important.

A loud laugh escaped my lips- it was hollow but true.

It came from within me.

I-t...it masked the slipping away of my sanity.

***

.

.

.

Soon,

I tried to find something.

Something,

Anything I could use as a balm against the pain that clouded my mind.

Y-et I failed.

Nothing helped out.

My gaze soon drifted upward, into the endless void above.

My mind swirled with questions that had no answers, doubts that clawed at my sanity.

Who am I?

Where am I?

Why can't I remember anything?

Time passed—minutes, hours, I couldn't tell. The stifling silence seemed to stretch infinitely, mirroring the darkness around me.

B-ut, I soon came to a certain conclusion.

I couldn't stay here.

I had to move forward.

Maybe there were answers out there. Maybe there was something-someone- waiting for me.

I forced myself to my feet, my limbs shaking under the weight of exhaustion and despair.

And then, I heard it.

A sound.

Creak!

My head snapped toward the source, my heart pounding in my chest.

"Wind?" I whispered, despite knowing better.

There was no wind here.

No air.

No sense of life.

And then,

The sound came again, louder this time.

CREAAK!!

I flinched, my breath hitching.

The door—if it was even a door—moved, its rusty hinges groaning.

My instincts screamed at me to run, but my feet refused to obey.

"H-hello?"

My voice was weak, cracking under the weight of fear.

Another creak.

This time, I ran.

I didn't know where I was going, but anywhere was better than here. My legs burned, my lungs screamed for air, but I didn't stop.

Not until I couldn't take another step.

Leaning against a cold, damp wall, I gasped for breath, my chest heaving.

"What the hell am I running from?"

I whispered to no one but myself.

The door?

The air?

It had been nothing, probably.

B-ut,

My hands were shaking, and no amount of self reassurance could stop the gnawing sense that something was wrong.

Deeply wrong.

The air shifted all of a sudden.

It was now heavy and oppressive.

A shiver ran down my spine, and my breath hitched in my throat.

There was no logic here, no semblance of reasoning to be found in t-his dark void that surrounded me.

But one thing was clear:

I shouldn't be here.

The thought settled in my chest, cold and unrelenting.

My fists clenched, and my jaw tightened.

I I took a step forward.

Tok-

I didn't know where I was going.

But I wasn't staying here.

I couldn't afford to stay here, not even for a minute longer.

Tok-

Taking one more step.

Whoosh-

My surroundings suddenly shifted.

Cracks and fragments slowly came together to form a fitting image.

I had suddenly found myself inside a source of water- it seems.

I glanced around me.

It was first my hand.

They started to tremble.

And soon,

My body joined in the fray.

And then, my heartbeat.

It thundered in my ears, trying to keep up with the rate at which I was breathing.

"Huff-Huff-"

I closed my eyes.

'Perhaps this is all an illusion.'

At this point, I could only try to convince myself.

But there was something that somehow- unnerved me.

Strangely enough,

Despite the overwhelming conditions that I had suddenly found myself in, I was able to maintain a semblance of rationality.

Why was that?

I wasn't able to find an answer to my question.

Closing my eyes.

I knew I wouldn't anyway.

All I could feel around me was an endless darkness.

And worse,

I-I felt as though multiple eyes were staring right back at me.

A shiver ran through my spine.

And I opened my eyes.

But I was still inside the water.

Yet strangely enough, I could breath in it.

But that was the least of my worries.

My gaze were shifted towards the strange fishes that surrounded me.

Some had humanoid faces and some had devilish ones.

But whichever one it was,

There was no doubt about one thing.

And that was the fact that they filled me with the urge to puke.

Soon, a shocking change occurred.

The eyes of the fishes all came to rest on me.

Ba-dump!

My heartbeat accelerated.

My body trembled as I moved back.

I tried to say something but no word escaped my lips.

"Hu-ah."

Ba-dump!

As I was lost in my world of confusion.

The fishes suddenly darted towards me.

Fuck-

But contrary to my expectations of being eaten alive.

They simply writhed against my skin, prompting me to run away from them. B-ut, I soon realized a fact that chilled my bones to the core.

The faster I ran, the more abound they became.

If that was all, I wouldn't have really minded and would have done everything in my feeble power to get away from them.

But I soon noticed something that didn't really sit well with me.

Hum!

I took in a gulp of saliva.

As more monstrous fishes started to appear at a breathtaking pace.

Now...something was definitely off.

My mind slowly descended into confusion.

Fear slowly sank into me.

And just as i was lost battling a chaotic fusion of various primal emotions.

Just when I thought I had really lost it.

The water suddenly rumbled.

Rumble!

Whoosh!

It surged and seethed violently.

And then,

The fishes started to recede at a frantic pace.

Running into the endless darkness as though trying desperately to avoid something.

I never saw how they had appeared and I

certainly didn't know how they had suddenly vanished into thin air.

But well,

On the bright side of things.

They are finally gone.

I heaved a sigh of relief.

Clearly relieved by the sudden turn of events.

I mean...who wouldn't be?

Calming my rapidly beating heart.

I was starting to feel at peace when,

Coldness.

A chilling coldness suddenly crept into my spine.

And then,

A terrifying presence descended upon the entire space.

Gazing up,

A dark pair of eye had emerged in the endless darkness.

The cold pair of eyes stared down at me.

Its cold gaze somehow sent shivers down my spine.

Gazing at it.

My heart started to skip a beat.

Ba-dump!

Ba-dump!

Next,

Came the trembling of my hands.

After that was the difficulty in breathing.

I found it hard to breathe, it was almost as though some unseen hand of sort was clenched around my neck.

My entire body screamed at me to,

...To run!

Swim!

Fuck!

Just do anything to get away from this monstrous entity.

What the entity is.

I didn't know.

Is it even a thing- this-...I also didn't know.

B-ut,

There was something I could remember.

Something I definitely couldn't forget.

Something etched into the deepest parts of my psyche.

Just somehow-,

I knew it.

This was it...them.

This was the thing that has been haunting me, and strangely enough, this doesn't seem to be our first encounter.