[Music Recommendation: "Dreamy Shards" by Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Cross OST)-available in Youtube or Spotify] ~ Please listen to it in a loop while you read this part to experience the utmost beauty of this chapter ~

"Haah… Haah… Haah…"

Deep, heavy breaths from my dry mouth echoed in my room. The dead silence only made it sound louder. Along with it, was the ringing in my ears, and the wild thumping of my heart.

Finally, I was back in my room. Or was I really? Did I time travel again? It wasn't an impossibility. After all, the reason I had a second chance at life was because of that fact.

Worried and scared, I immediately got up from my seat and looked around me. I surveyed the whole place carefully making sure nothing changed. My eyes wandered at every nook and cranny, even at the view from my window. It was the same burning sunset. And everything in my room was the same.

As a last check, I went into a mirror to see if in any case, something about me changed. With trembling feet and cold sweat covering my body, I walked towards the dressing room and carefully, towards the large mirror in the middle of the room.

"Haaaaah…" I sighed deeply. I looked the same. With the same clothes I was wearing before I fell asleep. It seemed that… I didn't time travel somewhere.

For a truly final and one last check, I took my mobile phone in my pocket. Trying to wet my dry mouth, I gulped and checked for the time and date.

"7:17 pm, July 6, 2010," was what my phone showed.

At last, I could breathe peacefully. My heartbeat started to slow down as well, along with the trembling and cold sweat.

"It's just a dream. It's just a dream," I repeated those words to myself over and over in a whisper. But then again, it wasn't a dream—it was a nightmare.

I didn't know what got into me but I decided to write everything that happened in that nightmare in my diary. Yes, I still continued writing down the diary I started way back when I first time traveled. I didn't write daily though, only when something important happened to me. Thus, my secret folder in my laptop only contained over a hundred entries given the fact that I started back on July 7, 2009.

Come to think of it, it's been a year since I time traveled! That's right. The date I time traveled was the day before my first diary entry—July 6th of 2009! And today was also July 6th! In my past life, I died at sunset, and now, I had a nightmare at sunset!

"Could there be… a connection?" I mumbled to myself.

If my theory was right, then next year, on July 6th, something would happen again. Maybe another nightmare?

But then again… was it really just a nightmare?

What if… instead of a nightmare, it was a warning? A premonition?

Or what if… I really time traveled into the future and just came back again in this timeline? There was that giant clock, too.

'I don't understand. In the first place, why did I travel back in time? And how? Do I have some sort of powers I don't know about? No. That's impossible. Instead of me, it's got to be that woman! And maybe… just maybe, during that car incident… Was she also the one who called me?'

"Senara," a soft and gentle voice whispered to me. "Get out of there, now!"

Yes. It sounded like her!

Could it be? Was she the reason I went back in time?

But why? Why did she help me?

Not only that, she… she was protecting me. If it wasn't for her, I probably would have died during that car accident.

Lost in my thoughts, I lifted my head up and stared at the windows. The sun was slowly setting and what a beautiful sunset appeared before me. Drowning in the beauty of the dusk, I asked a heartfelt question.

"Who are you?"

Along with that question was a hopeful prayer.

"I want to meet you."

Despite not knowing who she was, one thing was for certain… she meant no harm to me. Instead, she was probably someone really kind and loving. And another thing was also certain… she was here with me… in this timeline. Because if not, how did I hear her voice? So audible and real as if she was just there beside me.

Thinking all that, I decided to myself that I would look for her… whoever she was. I wanted to talk to her, ask her lots of questions but most of all, I wanted to thank her personally for this new life I was given. And maybe, she would have answers about that nightmare, too. Hopefully.

Knock… knock… knock…

"Sena? Are you awake?" Hora called for me on the other side of the door to my room. "It's dinner time! Let's eat!"

"Yes, coming!" I replied back in a shout.

Then, I walked towards the door of my room and greeted her with a smile.

"Why is your room so dark? You haven't turned on the lights yet?" Hora raised her eyebrows.

"Oh. Right. Sorry about that."

Clicking her tongue, she briefly went inside to turn on the lights.

"Come on, let's go."

"Thank you."

I was a bit disoriented. When I saw Hora, I wondered if I should tell her about it? But then I would have to tell her about time traveling, too, which I still wasn't sure if I was allowed to tell anyone about. My instincts leaned more about it being a taboo and I couldn't risk Hora or anyone at all to get hurt just by knowing that fact alone.

'I should keep it to myself. After all, it was between me and that woman.'

Yes. That's right. That should be for the best.

"Crystal! Let's go! Come out of there!" Hora knocked on Crystal's bedroom and called her.

"Yes! I'll be there in a sec!"

Once out, the three of us went together to the dining hall for dinner.