Echoes Of My Past Self

Chapter 1:
The day where everything changed

"Samantha! You are so good with the violin, why don’t you sign up to go to a stage?" The teacher said trying to give Samantha a little push. Mrs. Clara was Samantha’s teacher at the time was always impressed by Samantha’s music.

"I- I’m too shy… I don’t think I can…" Samantha, the main protagonist of this story, was always the shy type. She has short black hair and green eyes.

"If you keep being shy your entire life you will get nowhere!" The teacher said trying to convince Samantha to pursue her dream. After a while of yes and no Samantha gave up.

"Alright… I will play on stage..." Mrs. Clara smiled in satisfaction.

"Wonderful!" Mrs. Clara left the room immediately. Samantha guessed that she left to look for the papers that would change Samantha’s life forever.

"What did I get myself into?" And sure enough, her life changed. In such a short time she became popular. Samantha still had mixed feelings about her new life, she did not know whether or not she regretted the decision she made.

"Will I get used to this?" On her break, she opens the book of her favorite author. Her favorite author's name was Ivan. The book she was reading started with tragedy that fell upon a poor family, but the main character always hoped that someday everything would get better. Gradually their lives began to improve, it took a long time, and his family began to give up. But the main character never gave up. Samantha was in the last chapters of the book, she wanted to finish at least one chapter until someone showed up. She sighs, her mood quickly dropping.

“Hey, is it that bad to see me?” Michael, her boyfriend asks feeling slightly offended, but he smiles all the same. His hair was brown and slightly wavy, and his eyes were a combination of orange and yellow. Samantha quickly stands up with an apologetic look on her face.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t know it was you!” She quickly bows towards her boyfriend, he was surprised and immediately cleared out Samantha’s misunderstanding.

“H-hey, I was joking you know.” She straightened up but didn’t look at his face from embarrassment. Her boyfriend however turned serious.

"Samantha, can we have dinner together? It’s been a while since we spent time together." Michael, her boyfriend said with a hint of sadness in his voice. Samantha felt bad for her boyfriend. Because she was always busy, she hardly spent any time with Michael or she just didn't spend any time with him at all.

"Of course!"Samantha tried to act cheerful, but in reality, she was worried. If he ended the relationship, it would probably be better for both of them. At least that's what she thought.

"Great! Let’s go!" Michael finally smiles and takes her hand. He takes her to a restaurant, the waiter guides them towards their table and gives them the menu. In silence, they both order their food, and while they were both waiting for their food he turns towards Samantha with a bitter smile.

“I don't like the fact that we hardly see each other, Samantha. And the way you act with me, it's like I'm a complete stranger.” There was irritation, anger, sadness in his voice. He had all the reason to feel that way but at the same time, he didn’t.

"I’m sorry…" Samantha apologizes but doesn't look him in the face.

"Soon we will have to do something about this." He looks Samantha in the eyes, eyes that won't look at him.

"…" She didn't say a word, she didn't know what to say. She was to blame and at the same time, she was not to blame. She likes but at the same time dislikes her new life. But the most surprising thing of all is that the fact that “she is busy” is just an excuse not to see him. When she started playing the violin on stage he would from time to time tell her to stop playing on stage. It is as if he does not want her to succeed.

"Stop working, please... I can't do this anymore..." Her boyfriend begged her once again.

"I will, I promise" She lied. A smile spread across her face as she raised her head. Well, it was more accurate to say that she was forcing herself to smile. She has a plan, a plan she forgets to execute the next day.

"Meet me tomorrow after class, let’s spend some time together" He smiles as he looks at her. She looks away once again as she thought:

“I wonder what will happen if he knew that I was lying to him.”

"Okay." That was all she said. And for the rest of the date Michael spent it talking excitedly about how they were going to spend their days together.

The next day

At the time Samantha was supposed to meet with her boyfriend she got to her makeup-wardrobe room, she had a feeling that she was forgetting something. She sat in the chair and started drinking coffee while thinking. But before she could identify what she was forgetting, Mrs. Clara enters the room.

"Samantha! Your favorite writer is going to come to today’s show!" Mrs. Clara says with her voice full of excitement.

"WHAT!!!???" Samantha almost spits out her coffee. When Mrs. Clara mentioned the name of her favorite writer Samantha completely forgot about the bad feeling she had a few moments ago.

"Samantha, you cannot lose this opportunity! You have been waiting for this moment for months!" She suddenly remembers the promise that she made to her boyfriend, but it was too late to do anything about it since it was time for her to perform. Samantha began to think:

“I’m sorry Michael… I know that I’ve been selfish and that you deserve better, but I can’t lose this opportunity. I hope that one day you accept my decisions, or else this relationship is not going to go anywhere. I tried being nice and explain that this is what I wanted but you only thought about yourself. Now it’s time for me to be selfish.”

Just getting up from her seat, Samantha made her way to the stage. The audience began to applaud, and with violin in hand, she began to play. She began to play the music she was saving for this long-awaited moment. The music started off melancholic and then took on a cheerful tone. Just as the book she was reading began, a tragedy that does not make the protagonist of the story give up. She hoped that her favorite writer would understand what the song was about. She smiles as she gave her best performance yet.

After the performance

"Hey, Samantha!" Her teacher hurries to walk to Samantha when she walks in. Samantha was tired after such a performance but listened to the teacher anyway.

"Yes?" She sat back in her seat and looked at the teacher.

"Your favorite writer left you a gift!" Mrs. Clara showed her the gift, which was a beautifully designed box.

"Really!!!???" Samantha stands from her chair.

"Here, now open it!" Clara gave her the gift.

"And guess what? He is also inviting you to a party!" Her teacher looked as if she would jump up and down at any moment with how cheerful she was.

"No way!" Samantha felt like fainting. She never expected something like this to happen.

"You shouldn’t miss this opportunity Samantha!" Samantha smiled as she opens the box. Inside the box, there was a pretty necklace, one that didn’t look cheap whatsoever. She never saw anything like it.

"It’s so pretty..." Samantha's eyes sparkled as she took the necklace out of the box and wore it.

"I’m taking care of this necklace as if my life depended on it!" A big smile was on Samantha's face.

“I got to go now, I’m going to ask people for the best dress shop in town.” Her teacher winked at her before leaving. As Samantha admired the gift, someone grabbed her by the arm.

"!!!" She immediately looks behind her.

"Didn’t you promise me that you would quit!?" Michael asked in disappointment, but there was not only disappointment on his face, there was also anger. Samantha had never seen him as angry as he is now.

"I’m sorry, something came up!" She tries to apologize, even though she knew that what she did was wrong. She was just trying to live her dream, something that he wouldn't understand.

"I can’t believe you! You were never the type of person to break promises!" He forcefully took her out of the building, and as for Samantha’s luck, there was no one to save her where he was heading.

"Michael! Stop! You are hurting me!" He wasn’t listening to her, she had no other choice but to break free, which she somehow managed to do so. When she broke free she immediately ran away with no direction in mind, she just wanted to get away from him as soon as possible.

"Samantha!" He shouted at her, but she kept running and somehow managed to escape him. As soon as she felt like she had run enough, she hid in an alley.

“I never ran this much in my life.” Her legs ached from running. And when she was finally able to start breathing normally she looked out to see if he was still chasing her. As she was distracted, someone grabbed her from behind.

"!!!" She looked back, but couldn’t see the person’s face due to the person covering their face. The stranger opens its mouth, revealing a pair of fangs. Samantha tried to scream but the stranger covers her mouth aggressively with their hands. And then, she got bitten. Her body got paralyzed almost instantly, tears roll down her cheeks as her blood was getting sucked dry from her body; death was approaching. She closed her eyes and accepted her fate, maybe it was karma for being cruel to her boyfriend, or maybe she was fated to die at a young age. When she didn’t had any more blood on her body the stranger let her body fall on the concrete floor and fled the scene.

Her body was cold, she could no longer open her eyes. Breathing was getting difficult by the second, and her organs began to stop responding. An agonizing 5 minutes went by and no one has found her yet. Just before she was completely dead she heard a voice:

“I won’t let you perish.”

A woman said to her, and the next thing she knew, she could breathe again without difficulty, still, she couldn’t open her eyes. It started to rain, yet her body was drenched in rain as if she had been out in the rain for more than a few minutes.

"Wait… It’s raining!? It wasn’t raining a second ago. This is bad! And why I’m all wet as if raining was pouring in me for the past few minutes." She had a lot of questions in mind, but she was focusing on waking up. Her body was chilled to the bone, she could tell she wasn’t wearing any clothes. To make matters worse, part of her body seemed to be was laying on the sidewalk and the other on the road. The only thing that was covering her body was her, long hair? She didn’t have long hair before, and this weirded her out, well, the entire situation was weirding her out.

"I need to open up my eyes, NOW!" Panic began to kick in and no matter how much she attempted to open up her eyes or move her body it was like her eyes were glued together and her body was cemented to the asphalt.

" Why….? What’s happening to me? Am I gonna be alright?" She heard footsteps getting closer and closer, she tried to scream for help, but she couldn’t do even that. The footsteps stop right beside her. The stranger covered her with a jacket and began carrying her somewhere. That’s the last thing she remembered before waking up sneezing. When she opened her eyes she saw a young male right next to the bed. He was blonde and had green eyes, he also seemed to be around his 18’s. As soon as he saw her awake he pours medicine in a spoon.

"So you are finally awake." The young male said. There was no expression on his face, but there was a lingering sadness in his eyes.

"W-who-*" Before she could ask she sneezed again. He shook his head and gave her the medicine.

"Are you Samantha?" He asked as he gave her the spoon with medicine. She drank it without questions.

"Y-yes… Why?” Fear and confusion showed on Samantha’s face. She has never met him, but given the fact that she was popular in the city, it wouldn’t be a surprise that he would know who she was.

"’Cuz I gave this to Samantha." The young blonde man showed her the necklace that she was wearing before she was attacked, the necklace that her favorite writer gave to her as a gift.

" …Yes… I’m Samantha…" She said while looking at him even more confused. Her situation was so confusing that she didn’t even hear the part where he said “I gave this to Samantha.”

"You look… Different… But I know that it’s you, Samantha." He looked like he didn’t know what expression to make in this situation.

"Huh?" Samantha sat down and looked at the mirror.

"Huh!!!???" Her short black hair now is a red long hair, her hair reached her feet. She had purple eyes and not only that, but she looked 3-4 years younger because of her face and height, and Samantha is a 16-year-old teenager.

"What!!!???" Before she could ask anything else she was interrupted by another one of her sneezes. The young man helps her lay back down on the bed.

"You should rest, it will help you get better." He stands up and made his way towards the door.

"Hey…" She stops him before he leaves.

"Yes?" He turns to face her.

"What’s your…. name?" She asks.

"It’s Shane." He gave her a gentle smile and left the room.

"What is going on…?" Samantha was left alone with her own thoughts in the room.





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 2:
The person taking care of me


-The next day



"So, are you feeling better now?" He said as he gave her another dose of medicine.

"Yeah...., even tho I don't understand why are you taking care of me..."

Shane sighs a little in frustration.

"If it weren't for me, who knows what might have happened to you. Other than that you were extremely close to the road without clothing." He tucks the medicine away.



"..."



There was no response on Samantha's part, in fact, she is still wondering how she ended up in that situation in the first place. Apart from that, she looks different now.



"But I can only guess what happened" He looks at Samantha in the eye with a serious expression. "I can only assume that you died and someone reincarnated you"

She began to think about it.

"How...?" She asks confused. He wasn't wrong about the part where she was killed, but the question is now, Who is the killer, Why was she killed, Why would someone want to reincarnate her, who reincarnated her, and for what purpose?

"I don't know that myself but..., I guess it doesn't matter now does it?" He shrugs his shoulders.

"What do you mean, it doesn't matter?" A little concerned, Samantha asks.

"Well, I guess you should be grateful that you are alive..., even though I can't say the same for your former identity..." In addition to looking away from Samantha, Shane appears to be deep in thought. "Now you have a choice to make" He stands up from his chair.

"That being?"

"If you go to your family and tell them that you are Samantha, I doubt that they will believe you, after all, you look different" He walks towards the door. "So your only option is to start a new life" He left the room. This left Samantha to think about her options carefully.



"I..."



After a moment of silence, Samantha finally made her mind up.

"I know that my family won't believe me if I tell them that I'm Samantha...., Because it's impossible for a person to somehow come back from the dead, So I guess I will stay here a little longer..." Samantha smiled sadly, her tears were threatening to come out. "But won't I just be a baggage for him? But then again I have nowhere else to go..."



- In the afternoon

Samantha was gradually getting better as time passes, on the afternoon she felt a lot better, she found it odd that she recovered in just 2 days, but she shrugged it off, 'cuz hey, she's a lot better at least. She went to the living room and found Shane sitting on the sofa with the TV on.

"How are you feeling?" Shane asks without taking his eyes off the book he has on his hands. Samantha sat down beside him.

"I'm feeling a lot better thanks to you taking care of me" She smiles and he smiled back. "It's the least I could do, you should go to rest, tomorrow we have a lot of places to go"

"What do you mean?" She asks confused.

"Well, it's not like you have anywhere else to go, right?" Shane looks at her and Samantha averted her eyes.

"That's..., true..., but then does that mean that I can stay here?" Shane nods at Samantha's question. "Besides I have a party to attend in three days, and you will have to accompany me so you wouldn't be here alone" Samantha's eyes widen, and then she remembered what Clara said 2 days ago:



"And guess what? Your favorite writer is inviting you to a party! It's in 5 days!" Her teacher looked like in any second she would jump up and down.



"But, I have no money to buy a dress or anything."

"That's nothing that you have to be worried about." He smiled to reassure her. "Don't tell me, you're going to buy me the stuff I need for the party?"

"Of course"

Samantha felt a little ashamed, not only did he took care of her, but he also is going to buy her clothes too? "Shane, I have no money to repay you, don't do this"

"Who said that you have to repay me?" He said a little annoyed. His expression turned serious, it seems that once he's set to do something, there's no backing off for him.

"Guess I can't say no to you..." Samantha gave up and Shane smiled.

"Get some rest, let's talk tomorrow" Shane stood up from the sofa and left the room.

"God, I feel so useless" Samantha complained to herself as she went to her room.



- The next day



Samantha was woken up by Shane knocking and opening the door. "I'm a bit short on time, so sorry for waking you up" He seems to be in a hurry.

"It's..., okay"

Shane open up her closet, he began searching for some "adequate" clothes for Samantha, he picked up a beautiful and expensive dress and place it on Samantha's bed.

"Huh?" Her eyes went wide at the pretty dress that Shane just picked up for her.

"That's what you're going to use today"

"It's beautiful.... and..... It looks expensive...., Is it really okay for me to use this?" She asks. "I hope that I don't have to tell you every time that it's okay" Again, he looked a little annoyed as he chuckles. "I will leave so you can get ready, I will wait for you in the dining room"

"Alright" Shane left "I will never get used to this..."

Samantha took a shower and put on the dress, Based on her new appearance it suited her, it was a dress not too long but also not too short, it was a little above the knees, she put on some leggings and boots and she also wore some short gloves, she let her hair just like she had it, after getting herself ready she went to the dining room, when Shane saw her he had the expression of disapproval.

"Let me help you with your hair" Shane braided part of her hair, but he left the rest the same. "Better, also I know that we aren't going anywhere fancy but, A bit of makeup doesn't hurt you know"

"Oh okay" Samantha was feeling weird because she never wore anything expensive, let alone wearing makeup, she rarely wore any makeup to be honest, Samantha sat down at the dining table to eat breakfast that Shane made, It was like the best breakfast she ever had in who knows how long.

"This tastes good!" Her eyes began to sparkle.

"Thanks" he smiles. After both of them ate breakfast Shane checked the time."We only have 2 hours to go shopping, Let's not waste time" "Alright" Samantha and Shane left his house. "Also I feel like walking today, The mall is not far from here, What do you say?"

"Sounds good to me" Samantha smiled at him. "Then it's settled"

And so they both walk over to the mall.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 3:
Little brother


Day #1:



Both of them head over to the mall to buy some clothes for Samantha. Shane was walking over to a "not so cheap" dress shop, which caused Samantha to stop and stare at the shop's dresses price tag. "This shop...doesn't look like it sells cheap clothes..." Samantha said while staring wide-eyed at the price tags. And it's safe to say that the profit that Samantha made, in her previous life, would only allow her to buy 2 of the expensive dresses.



"And?" He raised his eyebrow and looked at her. It was like he could care less about how much a single dress could cost him. "There are so many zeros on all of these dresses..." The price tags on each dress made her hands sweat as she browsed through the clothes. As soon as she turned around, he poked her forehead "Silly, stop looking at the price tags and pick a dress" he tilted his head "Unless you want me to pick up your clothes too". She immediately denied it "No! It's okay, I mean..." but before she could finish, he was already picking up some dresses for her. He didn't even look at the price, and he already grabbed 10 beautiful and expensive dresses, and she gotta admit that they all look...cute...



"Um..." She tries to say something, but Shane interrupts her by placing another dress in front of her. This one is crimson red, and the skirt had black transparent flowers as a decoration. "This dress is perfect for the upcoming party" he smiles "What do you think?" he asks Samantha. She looks at the dress wide-eyed and thought:



"Shane really knows his stuff..."



"The dress looks pretty...Is it really-" she gets interrupted by Shane holding a finger to her lips to make her quiet. "How many times do I have to repeat myself?" His smile is awkward this time, and there was a hint of annoyance in his voice yet again. Samantha goes quiet and takes the dress from him "Can you please wear it? I want to make sure the dress looks great on you" Samantha nodded and went to the dressing room. "Why does he does all of these things for me? We only just met a few days ago..." as Samantha was deep in thought she remembers what Shane said the day before:



"Are you Samantha?" He asked



"Y-yes…, why?" she asks



"Cuz I gave this to Samantha"



The young blonde man showed her the necklace that she was wearing, the necklace that her favorite writer gave to her as a gift.



"Wait, is he actually...him? My favorite writer? How I did not notice before!?" at this sudden revelation Samantha didn't know how to react. Moreover, his calm approach to the situation left her with more questions than answers, but at the moment, she just has to go with the flow. She even forgot to look at the mirror before leaving the dressing room. "Just as I thought, you look beautiful in that dress" he commented, making Samantha blush a little. In the end, he paid for her clothes and left the store with her.



"I picked up your clothes, but I won't choose your undergarments of course, I'm not a pervert" he stated before giving her money. "Also, buy stuff that girl uses, like the shampoo's and stuff, and don't buy cheap stuff just because you feel bad for using my money".



"We will meet here in an hour, you go to any shop that you like" Samantha nodded and both of them went in opposite directions. When Samantha counted the money he gave her her jaw almost dropped. "Where does a famous writer get all this money from!?" she didn't want to use his money, but then again, he will probably get angry if she doesn't. When she finished Shane was already at the waiting spot, but he didn't have the bags with him. Samantha tilted her head confused.



"I delivered the bags to the apartment" he chuckles as he reached for her bags "I'm gonna send this as well so we don't have to carry these all the way home"



"This is an interesting sight" someone that Samantha doesn't recognize said. Shane's face turned from smiling to annoyance, he turned around to face the person. "Hi big bro, long time no see!" the young man said with a bright smile, it was like the sun itself, too bright. Shane sights "Long time no see? I saw you 2 days ago..." At this point, Shane is not even trying to hide how annoyed he is. "Come on big bro, can't you say hi to your little brother?" he sounded hurt, but still smiled all the same. "Get lost Zero, I have better stuff to do" he turns around. "I don't know why you hate me so much big brother..., but that won't stop me from smiling " he said, his smile never faltering. " Zero is Shane's little brother? Shane has had so many interviews, but he never mentioned that he had a little brother, I wonder why..." Samantha was deep in though. Zero finally notices her.



"Oh! Who are you miss?" he asks. "Stay away from Lilith, Zero!" Shane's tone turns a little aggressive, he grabs Samantha by the wrist and drags her away. Despite him being irritated, he gently drags Samantha away from Zero. Samantha still waves at Zero all the same.



"So Zero is his little borther's name, he looks to be around my age too" Samantha thought



After Shane dragged Samantha out of the mall he apologizes "I'm sorry that you had to see that..., I just don't get along with my little brother..." he didn't looked at Samantha. "It's okay, I understand" despite being curious as to why he doesn't get along with Zero, she doesn't pry into it. Shane takes his phone out of his pocket to look at the time, his eyes go wide "We need to go back to the apartment ASAP, I'm a little late for work". "I'm sorry I took so long..." Samantha looks at Shane with apologetic eyes "It's okay, besides Zero took time from me too" he makes a call.



"My assistants are gonna pick us up, good thing that my other assisstant was nearby, I gotta say, that's a little convenient" he chuckles. "You have assistants!?" Samantha was surprised, Shane just smiles in response. "We will talk about it later" as soon as he finished talking, two cars pulled over. "You go first, I need to go straight to work" he opens the car door for Samantha, when she got in the car he gave her a phone. And of course, the phone wasn't a cheap one either "Feel free to use anything in the house, my phone number is already registered, see ya later" he closed the car door. Samantha waved goodbye to him, which he did the same in return.



At the apartment:



When she reached the apartment she went straight to her room. Samantha was deep in thought as she put away her new clothes.



"What should I do while he's at work?" Samantha thought about cooking dinner for him "I can at least do that..." She realizes she should be at school, but she didn't want to keep taking money from Shane's pocket. "Should I get enrolled in school again? But I have to act different, I mean nobody will notice that I act like "Samantha" but still..." Samantha sat on her bed thinking about her options.



"Argh!!! I can't be thinking about this! I should be thinking about how to repay him for all that he's done for me!" And so Samantha went to the kitchen. "He doesn't want me to pay him with money, then how about I cook him dinner? Well, I don't know how to cook tho..., But I'm good at baking". She browse through the cabinet and smiles when she sees that there are enough ingredients to make a cake. "A cake it's gonna be then!"



2 hours later:



Shane came to the apartment, and despite having been at work, he didn't look tired somehow. "Shane! Welcome home!" she was excited to show him what she baked for him. "Thanks, you look excited, did something good happen while I was gone?" Samantha dragged him to the kitchen and showed him the cake that she baked. "This is for being so kind to me!" She smiles, while Shane grew a little pale.



Shane's POV:



"Oh crap..., This isn't good, she's so cute..., but I can't eat this but I also can't refuse this or else she's going to be sad if I refuse it..." he pats Samantha on the head. "T-thanks" he picked up a knife and cut a piece of the cake for Samantha "Here, I'm gonna also eat a piece of the cake later" he said while gently smiling. "Okay then!" Samantha smiles. Shane waits for her to leave the kitchen so he could go to the neighbor's house and give them the cake. He felt bad, but he couldn't eat the cake. After giving the cake to the neighbor's he came back to the apartment. "I feel bad..., But I can't eat that" Shane went to the livingroom and sat beside Samantha. She was watching the news while eating cake.



The news:



"We found the young violinist Samantha dead in the streets this morning, the investigators said that the cause of her death was probably being slashed in the neck... But nobody knows for sure"



Back to Shane and Samantha:



Samantha got upset after hearing the news about her death, she stopped eating the cake. She got gloomy and Shane immediately changed the channel. "Sorry you had to see that..."