Chapter 33 - A Duck's Reset

Shac opened his eyes, slowly welcoming the day. He just woke up and is facing the ceiling he was familiar with. Lifting himself up, he sat at the side of the bed, waiting until he gathers enough strength to move.

He took a deep breath, remembering what happened to him last night. “That was crazy…” he whispered, couldn’t believe the situation he was in during the encounter with Zoyi.

I wouldn’t want to go to her house ever again, and I might get killed if it happened again. He thought, terrified at the thought of meeting Zoyi again.

He then looked at both of his hands, noticing that there was something different about it. “It healed?” he asked himself, seeing that there were no wounds in both of his hands.

That can’t be right.

He examined his hand and looked at it closely. But, he couldn’t find any wounds on it, not even a hint of scabs.

How? This is not how it looked like last night!

“No no no no no!” He shook his head and stood up to run outside the room immediately. As he ran outside the room, the first thing that came to his mind was to find his father.

“DAD! DAD! WHERE ARE YOU!” he called, shouting in the house.

“Calm down! It’s early in the morning! Why are you shouting?” his father answered.

“D-did you remember last night?” Shac stammered, trying to control his breathing.

“Last night? Did something happen last night?” his father frowned.

“I was stabbed last night! In both of my hands!” he explained showing both of his palms to his father. “Don’t you remember that?”

“What? Are you still dreaming? Why would you get stabbed?”

“OH FUCK!” Shac shouted in disbelief, holding his head.

His father held his shoulder in confusion. “What happened? Tell me!” he said, wondering what happened to Shac.

Shac raised his head and looked at his father. “No Dad it was just… I was just surprised…” he muttered, taking a deep breath.

“Surprise about what? Could you explain it to me?” his father asked.

He closed his eyes and took another deep breath. “I’ll explain it later but, all you need to know is that I knew that you were looking for Mom. I’m not the same Shade you knew, and I’m from the future.”

“Wait wait! Are you joking around?”

“I don’t! But I can’t explain everything right now, and I need to go to school!” he explained.

“But—”

“Just listen to me, Dad! What I wanted you to do is to continue on finding Mom like you always do. While I, I’m going to school because there’s a much bigger problem that I need to look a. I promise I’ll explain it to you later, but I do need to do something first.” he continued.

His father looked confused but decided to accept and follow what Shac said. He nodded in response even though he was hesitant, considering that Shac wasn’t able to explain everything to him.

“Okay. I got it.” he answered.

Shac smiled. “Thank you Dad.”

“We’re not done with this.” he replied, looking straight at Shac.

Shac froze and smiled awkwardly. “Yes…” he answered, nodding multiple times.

His father smiled and tapped his shoulder. “Then we’re all good. I’ll do what I need to do, and you will do what you need to do. You got it?”

Shac nodded again. “Got it Dad.”

“Good. Now don’t forget to eat breakfast before going to school.” his father said.

Shac took a deep breath. I still couldn’t believe that I had a father all along. How did I miss such an important thing? And why it didn’t occur to me that I have parents all this time?

Hah… It’s not like this was the first time this happened. Nothing was normal about this life, and I’m not even sure what is normal anymore. He chuckled, not because it was funny, but because he couldn’t believe how messed up his life was right now.

But this is not the time to question things that are not going to help me currently. He exhaled, clearing his thoughts.

The day got reset, and It only meant that something must’ve happened. Not just any normal thing… But rather, someone got cursed and died last night.

Shac clicked his tongue. “Fuck these ducklings…”

It can’t be anyone other than Ivan…

Ivan got cursed.

× × × × × × × × × ×

Shac ran towards the road where he first arrived yesterday, which the place where he met Qoka. Although he arrived as early as he can, he has no idea what time exactly he met Qoka yesterday.

I hope I meet her here… It’s not like she’s going to walk in a different route right? There’s only one road leading to the school since we were going the same route going home yesterday.

He grabbed the phone out of his pocket and looked at the time. “It’s still early…” he whispered, wondering when is Qoka going to show up.

“Everything’s going to be fine Shac.” he whispered, trying to control himself. He repeatedly say it just to calm himself, it was his way of comforting himself out of his anxiousness.

How about I call her?

He opened his phone and looked for his contacts. There, he noticed that he has no other contacts other than his own phone number.

“You can’t be serious right now Shac…” he muttered to himself, couldn’t believe that there was not a single person in his contacts. He closed his phone and put it back to his pocket.

He blinked and raised his head, looking at the blue sky in front of him. He chuckled softly, remembering the dreadful place he was in before. “I’m just glad this sky is much better than seeing the All-White Void and dead ducklings.” he sighed in relief.

“S-Shac!!!” someone called, shouting from afar.

He immediately turned around, seeing Qoka running with all her strength to him. “S-s-shac… Why didn’t you wait for me?” she said, panting.

Wait… Am I supposed to meet her today?

“I was waiting for you. Look.” I answered, trying to find a way out.

She took a deep breath and raised her head. “You were supposed to wait at your house, not here.” she said, still catching her breath.

How am I supposed to know that!?

“I forgot…” he said, scratching his head.

“It’s rare for you to forget… But that’s not the problem! Ivan called me this morning and he was looking for you!”

“He was looking for me?” he asked.

“Y-yeah… That’s why I was running full speed, I know that you don’t have our contacts, and the only way is to find you personally…” she explained.

“Ah… I’m sorry to hear that…” he replied.

“You’d better be!” she said, straightening her body. “But again we have a problem! Ivan said I should rush and grabbed you to go to their house. He said that you should know what happened to him.” she continued.

Yeah, I totally knew what happened to him.

“What happened to him?” he asked.

“I don’t know it myself. But he said you should know about it.” she said, sighing. “I swear you guys keep making to these errands.”

“What? What errand are you talking about?”

“This! Why do you guys always ask me to go fetch someone this, something that!”

Shac chuckled awkwardly, not knowing that he was doing that in the past. “I’m sorry.”

“…” Qoka paused and scratched her cheek with her fingers. ”It’s fine. Besides I was only talking about Ivan, not about you.“

“Oh…”

Qoka shook her head and turned around. “Let’s not waste any more time. We should get going now.”

“You’re right.” Shac answered, following her.

I hope he is fine… I did tell him about the curse, but why did he still die last night despite that?

“I don’t think he is that dumb…” he whispered.

“Hm? Who’s dumb?” Qoka asked.

“I was talking about Ivan… I was thinking why he was rushing you this early in the morning.” I replied.

“I wonder about that too… But he did say that you can explain what happened to him.” she said.

Shac chuckled. “I honestly don’t know what is that supposed to mean, but I hope nothing bad happened to him.”

“I hope so too.” Qoka replied, smiling even though she was worried.

Instead of going straight to school, both Shac and Qoka decided to skip the school to head straight to Ivan and Evie’s house this early in the morning.