Emma ducked as a flying motorcycle crashed into the building beside her.

"EMMA! GET DOWN!" Kael shouted, pulling her behind a concrete wall.

The motorcycle rider stood up, brushing dust off his jacket like nothing happened. His head was twisted at a weird angle and blood covered his face, but he was grinning.

"That was awesome!" he laughed. "I’ve always wanted to try that jump. Good thing I can come back if it goes wrong!"

Emma peeked around the wall and gasped. The whole street was chaos.

A woman was juggling chainsaws. A man was wrestling with a bear. Three teenagers were having a sword fight in traffic.

"What’s happening?" Emma whispered.

"This is what happens when nobody’s scared of death anymore," Kael said grimly. "People are doing crazy dangerous things because they think they can just come back."

A woman walked by carrying her own severed head under her arm. She waved cheerfully at Emma.

"Hi there! I’m testing how long I can survive without my head before using my resurrection. So far it’s been twenty minutes!"

Emma felt sick. "This isn’t what I wanted."

"I know, kiddo," Kael said softly. "But we can’t change it now."

They walked quickly through the dangerous streets. Emma had to dodge a man who was testing how far he could fall from a building. He splattered on the ground right next to her, then immediately came back to life.

"Fifty feet!" he announced happily. "New record!"

Emma’s stomach twisted. She had given everyone the power to come back once, thinking it would help them be brave. Instead, they were being reckless.

"Maybe I should have kept my powers," she said quietly. "Maybe I could fix this mess."

"Hey." Kael stopped walking and knelt down to her level. "You made the right choice. People have to learn how to use this gift responsibly. That takes time."

"But what if they never learn? What if they waste their one resurrection on something stupid?"

Before Kael could answer, a young boy ran up to them. He couldn’t have been older than eight, and he was crying.

"Please help me," he sobbed. "My big brother used his resurrection yesterday. He was showing off to his friends, jumping off the roof. But today he got hit by a car and... and he can’t come back again."

Emma’s heart broke. This was exactly what she was afraid of.

"Where is he now?" Kael asked gently.

"The hospital. Mom says he might not make it this time."

Emma felt tears in her eyes. She wanted so badly to help, but she didn’t have powers anymore. She was just a normal girl.

"I’m sorry," she whispered. "I can’t save him."

The boy looked confused. "But you’re Emma, right? The girl who gave everyone the resurrection power? Can’t you just give him another one?"

"It doesn’t work that way," Emma explained sadly. "I gave up my powers. I can’t do magic anymore."

The boy started crying harder. "Then my brother is really going to die?"

Emma looked at Kael desperately. She felt so helpless. Before, she could have fixed this with a thought. Now she couldn’t do anything.

"Sometimes," Kael said carefully, "when people can’t come back, it means their time is really over. Maybe your brother’s job was to teach everyone else to be more careful."

"That’s a terrible job!" the boy shouted angrily.

Emma couldn’t argue with that. It was a terrible job.

They walked with the boy to the hospital. Along the way, they saw more problems.

A group of people were fighting over who got to use a dangerous new drug first. "I’ll try it," one man said. "If it kills me, I’ll come back and warn everyone."

A woman was letting poisonous snakes bite her over and over. "I’m building up immunity," she explained. "This is my practice run before I use my real resurrection."

Everywhere Emma looked, people were treating their precious second chance at life like it was a game.

At the hospital, they found the boy’s brother. He was unconscious and covered in bandages. His mother sat beside the bed, holding his hand.

"The doctors say he might wake up," she told them quietly. "But his brain was hurt badly. Even if he lives, he might not be the same."

Emma felt anger burning in her chest. Not at the boy or his family, but at herself. She had created this mess by giving everyone resurrection power without teaching them how to use it wisely.

"I need some fresh air," she said suddenly.

Outside the hospital, Emma sat on a bench and put her head in her hands. Being normal was harder than she thought it would be.

"Having second thoughts?" asked a familiar voice.

Emma looked up and saw Future Emma sitting beside her. But something was different. This version looked tired and sad.

"I thought you merged with me," Emma said, confused.

"Most of me did. But a small part remained separate. The part that remembers what comes next."

"What do you mean?"

Future Emma sighed. "The resurrection power you gave everyone? It’s not stable. It’s like a house built on sand. Eventually, it will collapse."

Emma felt cold fear creep into her chest. "What happens when it collapses?"

"Everyone who used their resurrection will die again. Permanently this time. And there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it."

"When?" Emma asked in a tiny voice.

"Soon. Maybe weeks. Maybe days."

Emma stared at her hands. Normal human hands with no power in them.

"How many people will die?"

"Millions. All the people who wasted their second chance on foolish things. All the people who thought they were safe." 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Emma felt like she was drowning. "There has to be something I can do."

"There is," Future Emma said quietly. "But you won’t like it."

"Tell me."

"You could ask for your powers back. But getting them back would require a sacrifice. A life for a life."

"Whose life?" Emma asked, though she was afraid of the answer.

Future Emma pointed toward the hospital.

"Kael’s."

Emma’s blood turned to ice. "No. Never."

"Then millions of people will die because of your choice," Future Emma said sadly. "Including that little boy’s brother."

Emma felt tears streaming down her face. She had thought choosing to be normal would solve everything. Instead, she had created an even bigger disaster.

"There has to be another way," she whispered.

"There is one other option," Future Emma said. "But it’s the most dangerous choice of all."

Before Emma could ask what she meant, Future Emma started fading away.

"Wait! What’s the third option?"

"You’ll figure it out," Future Emma called as she disappeared completely. "You always do."

Emma sat alone on the bench, feeling more lost than she ever had.

Then she heard screaming from inside the hospital.

She ran inside and found chaos. Patients were collapsing everywhere. Doctors were shouting orders. Nurses were crying.

"What’s happening?" Emma asked a panicked doctor.

"I don’t know!" he replied. "Everyone who came back from the dead is getting sick at the same time. It’s like their bodies are rejecting the resurrection energy."

Emma felt the world spinning around her. It was starting already. The collapse Future Emma warned her about.

And in the middle of all the chaos, she saw something that made her heart stop.

Kael was on the ground, unconscious and barely breathing.

But Kael had never died. He had never used resurrection power.

Which meant something else was making him sick.

Something much, much worse.