Sirens.
Alarms
News broadcasts.
They never stopped.
They clawed at Rain's ears, tearing through every thought, every breath, every desperate step as his shoes slammed against wet pavement. His lungs burned, each inhale sharper than the last, but stopping wasn't an option.
Not anymore.
Rain didn't look back.
He couldn't.
If he did, if he slowed even for a second, everything would be over.
I didn't do it.
The thought repeated in his head like a broken record, desperate and useless.
They said he killed him.
The man everyone loved.
A world leader who fed the poor, reformed broken systems, and stood for people no one else cared about. A man who was supposed to change the world.
And somehow… Rain was the one who murdered him.
It didn't make sense.
None of it did.
"I didn't do it…" he whispered under his breath, voice cracking as his legs threatened to give out.
But the world had already decided.
Evidence fabricated. Witnesses twisted. His name dragged through every screen, every voice, every corner of society.
Guilty.
That was all anyone saw when they looked at him now.
A killer.
Rain turned sharply into an alley, his shoulder scraping against brick as pain flared down his arm. Trash bins rattled as he knocked into them, the metallic crash echoing louder than the sirens for a split second.
A mistake.
Footsteps followed.
Closer now.
Too close.
His chest tightened, panic clawing its way up his throat. There was nowhere left to go. The alley stretched ahead, long, narrow, empty.
A dead end.
Rain stumbled to a stop.
For a moment, everything went quiet.
Not the sirens.
Not the city.
Just… him.
His heartbeat pounded in his ears, loud and uneven.
This is it.
A bitter laugh bubbled up, breaking apart before it could fully form.
"I didn't even get a chance…" he muttered.
The footsteps slowed behind him.
Weapons raised.
Authority closing in.
Rain squeezed his eyes shut.
I didn't do it.
Darkness swallowed him whole.
.....
Silence.
No sirens.
No footsteps.
No pain.
Rain's eyes snapped open.
The first thing he noticed was the ceiling.
Plain. Unfamiliar.
Not the alley.
Not outside.
He sucked in a sharp breath, bolting upright as his body moved faster than his thoughts. His chest rose and fell rapidly, but.
No burning lungs.
No exhaustion.
No pain.
"…What?"
His voice came out wrong.
Too steady.
Too… unfamiliar.
Rain froze.
Slowly, he lifted his hands into view.
They weren't his.
Different shape. Different scars. Different everything.
His breath hitched.
"No… no, no-"
He scrambled off the bed, nearly tripping over himself as he stumbled toward the nearest reflective surface. His heart pounded again, but this time it wasn't from running.
It was fear.
Real fear.
Rain reached the mirror.
And stopped.
The face staring back at him wasn't his.
Different eyes.
Different hair.
Different person.
His lips parted, but no sound came out.
Because he recognized that face.
Even if he had never seen it in person.
"…Delaney?"
The name slipped out like a whisper.
The same Delaney.
Sixteen.
Accused criminal.
Claimed to be framed.
Just like him.
Rain staggered back, his mind spinning as one impossible thought forced its way to the surface.
He wasn't Rain anymore.
He was in Delaney's body