SWNOVELXO Chapter 1: Chapter 1: A New Beginning
Chapter 1: A New Beginning
Elijah had never expected to wake up in a place that was not his own, yet here he was. One moment, he had been living a life in his past world—an ordinary, albeit troubled, existence—and the next, he found himself in the body of a teenager in a town he didn't recognize. The last thing he could remember was the pain of a sudden, unexpected death, and then… nothing. And now, he was back—alive, but not in his old life. His memories were intact, though distorted by the strange sense of déjà vu that clung to every corner of this new existence.
He sat up in the unfamiliar bed, taking in the room around him. The walls were painted a soft blue, posters of bands and sports teams adorned the walls, and a desk cluttered with papers and books stood in the corner. This was clearly a teenage boy's room, but who was he now? Elijah didn't know. He remembered his name, though—just Elijah—and he didn't understand how, but he knew with absolute certainty that he wasn't from Forks, Washington.
But as his eyes landed on the nameplate by the door, something stirred within him. Swan. That name felt familiar, like an echo from another life, yet it didn't make sense. He had no family here, no memories of a life before this moment. All he could recall was an aching emptiness that had plagued him in the world he came from.
As he got dressed and prepared to face this strange new world, Elijah's thoughts circled back to a part of him he hadn't yet explored—his reluctance to embrace the truth of reincarnation. He hadn't asked for this second chance. The thought of being born again into a new life, with all its complications, didn't seem like a blessing to him—it felt more like a burden. In his heart, Elijah had no interest in a soulmate, whatever that meant. The very idea of being tied to another person, bound by some invisible force that he couldn't control, made him recoil. He'd had enough of life's twists and turns in his past world. He didn't need another attachment to make things more complicated.
Yet, the universe had different plans. Somewhere in the corner of his mind, an inexplicable connection tugged at him, one he couldn't yet comprehend. But for now, Elijah chose to ignore it, dismissing it as a mere figment of his new reality. After all, he wasn't here to delve into fate or soul bonds. He was here to survive, to make sense of his life in Forks and avoid the chaos of whatever strange world this was.
The world, however, had already decided his fate. The first day he walked into the high school, he felt it—the weight of unseen eyes, the sense of something familiar yet unspoken. And though he could not yet recognize it, the pull of his soulmate began to stir—subtle at first, but impossible to ignore as his life in Forks unfolded.
But Elijah wasn't ready for it. Not yet. He didn't want to be bound by anything or anyone. His heart was closed off, and he planned on keeping it that way. What he didn't know was that his soulmate, someone he couldn't yet understand, was already waiting for him—closer than he could have ever imagined.