Short Story: Re:LIFE

By: Light Jiezl S. Reyes and Stephanie Kith C. Martos

A man named Steven works in Seven-Eleven at Bulacan as a cashier. One night after working overtime with his co-workers, Steven was invited to drink alcohol in an infamous bar. While drinking he and his co-workers are enjoying the night, he suddenly started talking about his life and his co-workers started laughing at him, After that, he got angry about the response that he received and then Steven shouted "I wish I listened to my parents and my life could've been better" and everyone looked at Steven as he walks out of the bar. A strange man was looking at him. Then the strange man followed him outside and talked to him. The strange man offered him a place to stay for the night and he said "yes". The strange man then revealed that his name was Victor as he gave him a glass of water, after drinking the water he felt dizzy and suddenly fell asleep. When he woke up he was so shocked he fell to the floor, he was a high school student!! He looked around to see that it was his old school. He rushed to ask a student "what’s the date today???" and the student replies “Today is June 18, 2002” He was shocked and asked himself “what happened while I was sleeping?” Then Steven remembered Victor, he then rushed to go outside of the school but he was called by a teacher, the teacher asked “Where do you think you’re going young man??” Steven replied, “Just looking for my classroom m-ma’am” The teacher then asked for his name and proceeded to show his classroom. While the teacher walked him to his class, he saw the teacher name tag and the teacher’s name was “Jasmine” he immediately realized that his teacher was his ex-girlfriend who is now his adviser in their old school. He stopped and thought that his life could’ve been better like Jasmine, that he should have finished school like his parents said, that he got lost in path with no light to guide him. Then everything hit Steven, he thought once again “THIS IS IT, THIS IS MY CHANCE TO CHANGE EVERYTHING I CAN RELIVE MY LIFE AGAIN!!” Then he stepped inside the classroom with a big smile and a new path, as he continued his new life with courage and enjoyed everything around him…

Victor then goes inside his house as Steven is lying in the bed with computers and machines watching him while he was enjoying his new life inside his head. Victor then revealed his true identity as he shouted “FINALLY!! Subject 103 WAS A SUCCESS” as he observed Steven in his mind. Turns out he is collecting people as his lab rat for his experiments, and Steven is the only successful test subject he ever had. “It has been 5 months and the police haven’t found Steven yet, nobody knows where he is and whatever happened to him”, as Victor turned the television off and started walking toward Steven, he then whispered in a sinister voice…

“you are not leaving this place, not until I decided to get rid of your rotting dead body…..”