Back From The Dead

"Cleo, you realize you screwed up, right?"

Marcus Dalton's voice sliced through the heavy, suffocating fog wrapping around Cleo’s brain.

She stared blankly at his sharp, familiar features, her mind struggling to process the visual information. The cognitive dissonance paralyzed her. Her nervous system was still registering the freezing, damp stone of a maximum-security prison cell. She could still feel the oppressive chill in her bones and taste the metallic tang of blood in her mouth. She vividly remembered the absolute nadir of her previous life. After her trusted mentor had ruthlessly sold her out and left her to take the fall, she had lost everything. Her academic career, her freedom, her will to live. She remembered the sickening, wet crunch of her own skull slamming against a concrete wall. She had chosen to end her miserable existence right then and there.

Death was supposed to be the final curtain.

So why was she sitting in a brightly lit room? Why was a remarkably younger, fresh-faced Marcus Dalton sitting across from her?

Marcus glared at her lack of response. He grabbed his ceramic coffee mug and slammed it hard onto the cafeteria table. The harsh, physical clack jolted her senses. The lingering shadows of the prison cell shattered. The bustling noise of the student cafeteria rushed into her ears.

This was no hallucination. She wasn't tripping, and this wasn't some twisted afterlife. She had inexplicably regressed ten years in time. She was back in her senior year at the prestigious Cresthaven Medical School.

Marcus leaned forward, pointing a judgmental finger at her. "Look, we get it. You're desperate to secure that spot on Professor Arthur Kenrick's elite research team. Everyone knows how hard you grind. But trying to sabotage Maya Winslow’s academic prospects? Throwing her under the bus to eliminate the competition? That’s pathetic, Cleo."

Cleo blinked, her eyes adjusting to the bright fluorescent lights. She stayed silent, letting him talk.

"You realize the gravity of what you've done?" Marcus demanded, his tone dripping with self-righteous anger. "You accused Maya of stealing your paper. Now she’s a mess. She hasn't shown her face on campus in days because she's on the verge of an emotional collapse. If you keep this up, you're going to push her off the deep end. When did you turn so cold-blooded?"

Cleo processed the bitter irony of his words. This was the exact moment of the infamous plagiarism scandal.

In her past life, Maya’s thesis was an undeniable, near-identical clone of Cleo’s pioneering research. Cleo had spent months practically living in the lab, surviving on instant coffee and sheer willpower to gather that data. Maya had simply taken it. Same angle, same methodology, same data sets, same conclusion.

When whispers of the blatant duplication leaked, Cleo had expected a fair investigation. Instead, the entire department turned on her. Professor Kenrick, along with the five senior students she had considered her found family, attacked her with venomous hostility. They branded her a petty, jealous saboteur spreading vicious rumors just to ruin the new girl.

Marcus scoffed at her silence. "Professor Kenrick is giving you a way out. He is offering you a chance to fix this before it goes to the disciplinary board. You are going to stand up in front of the entire student body and give Maya a public apology. Tell everyone you lied. Do that, and he'll keep the administration from stepping in."

He leaned closer, lowering his voice into a harsh threat. "But if you refuse? If you keep dragging Maya's name through the mud? You are facing immediate expulsion."

Expulsion. The word hung in the air.

In her previous timeline, a younger, naive Cleo had screamed the truth until her throat bled. She had fiercely defended her integrity, refusing to apologize for a crime she didn't commit. She thought justice would prevail if she just fought hard enough. That righteous stand got her a ruined academic record, alienated her from every connection she had, and set her directly on the bleak path that ended in a prison jumpsuit.

Screaming the truth at people determined to misunderstand her was a waste of breath.

Cleo looked Marcus dead in the eye. "Fine," she said. Her voice was flat, an emotionless void. "I'll apologize."

Marcus froze. His mouth hung open slightly. He had braced himself for a screaming match, expecting her to fight tooth and nail. Cleo Abbott never caved this easily. He stared at her, waiting for the punchline, waiting for her to explode. When she didn't, he eagerly accepted the victory.

"Good," Marcus said, masking his shock with a smug nod. "Write the apology letter tonight. You read it to everyone tomorrow."

He grabbed his bag and walked away, acting like a hero who had just solved a major crisis.

Cleo watched him leave. Beneath her placid, deadpan expression, a freezing determination settled in her chest. She knew the truth now. Maya had meticulously fabricated her depression. She had orchestrated the rumors herself, playing the fragile victim to systematically isolate Cleo from her peers and her mentor. Maya wanted Cleo out of the picture, and the public apology was designed to break Cleo's spirit permanently.

Not this time.

The next morning, the campus was buzzing with anticipation.

Cleo stepped out of her dorm and walked onto the Cresthaven campus grounds. The morning sun did nothing to warm the chill in her bones. She kept her posture upright, her chin leveled, refusing to look down as she crossed the quad.

A suffocating wave of malicious whispers and open mockery hit her from all sides. Students stopped in their tracks, pointing and snickering as she walked past.

"Look who it is. Professor Kenrick's former golden girl," a girl sneered loudly to her friend. "Got so jealous she tried to frame the department's darling for stealing her paper."

"Can you blame her?" a guy muttered, laughing loudly enough for Cleo to hear. "Cleo thought she owned those five senior guys just because she gets good grades. Then Maya transferred in. Maya is just as smart, drop-dead gorgeous, and actually has a personality."

"Look at that sour face," another student chimed in. "She's not even in Maya's league. Why anyone ever supported her is beyond me."

"They don't support her anymore," the first girl shot back. "They’re all backing Maya now. I heard this whole public apology thing was actually Declan’s idea. He wanted to make sure Cleo learned her lesson."

Declan.

Cleo’s steps didn't falter, but a cynical smirk touched her lips. Declan was her former idol, the genius senior she had looked up to for years. He was the reason she pushed herself so hard in this major. So, the public humiliation was his brainchild. Fitting. The found family she once cherished was nothing more than a pack of wolves waiting to tear her apart.

Before she could reach the other side of the quad, a tall figure blocked her path.

Caleb Astor.

Caleb was a first-year graduate student. Back when she was a struggling junior, she had pulled countless all-nighters hunting down obscure reference books and formatting research data just so Caleb could ace his graduate school applications. She never asked for anything in return. He used to rely on her for every academic favor.

Now, he stared down at her with deep moral disgust.

"Cleo," Caleb said, his voice heavy with disappointment. "I really thought you were one of the good ones. I never figured you'd pull something this low just to get ahead."

Cleo stopped and looked at him, offering zero reaction.

Caleb scoffed at her silence, stepping closer to lecture her. "You didn't see Maya after what you did. She is physically devastated. She's lost weight, she’s worn out, and she can barely keep food down. Those bright eyes of hers? No spark left. You pushed her to the brink."

He leaned in, his tone dripping with condescension. "And you know what the crazy part is? She is still saintly enough to defend you. She went to Professor Kenrick on the down-low, crying and begging him to cancel the public apology. She didn't want to see you humiliated like this. But you have to have a heart, right? So when you see her today, you better apologize and actually mean it."

Cleo lowered her head. She let her eyelashes drop, casting shadows over her eyes to hide the burning hatred flaring in her pupils. They all bought Maya's act so easily. They all rushed to play the knight in shining armor for a girl who stole another student's life work.

"I got it, Caleb," Cleo said softly, keeping her voice subdued and docile. "I will make everything right today. I swear."

Caleb scrutinized her bowed head. Seeing her acting so submissive, standing there like a kid who finally realized the gravity of her sins, made the tension bleed out of his shoulders. He let out a long, heavy sigh of relief.

Deep down, he still remembered the hardworking girl who used to help him study. He respected her academic drive. He just couldn't fathom why she let jealousy turn her into such a vicious person. But at least she was taking responsibility now.

"You should have thought twice before pulling that stunt," Caleb muttered, shaking his head. "Come on. Let's get this over with."

He turned and led her toward Professor Kenrick's office. Cleo followed quietly behind him, preparing to face her accusers with a hidden agenda.