BLEACH .] 𝐒𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞

Chapter 1

_________

The rain poured down in heavy sheets, each drop striking the windshield with a ferocity that blurred the world outside. Streetlights flickered in the distance, their dim glow barely cutting through the darkness that seemed to swallow everything. Inside the car, the air was thick with the scent of damp leather and something else—something that hinted at the end.

She gripped the steering wheel tighter, her knuckles white with tension. The roads were slick, the tires struggling for purchase against the unforgiving asphalt. The rhythmic swish of the windshield wipers offered a hollow comfort, their steady beat a backdrop to the storm raging both outside and within.

Her thoughts were a tangled mess, memories and regrets swirling together in a chaotic dance. It wasn't supposed to end like this, not tonight, not on a night so ordinary that it should have been forgettable. But life had a cruel way of twisting the mundane into something tragic, of turning the final page on a chapter before it felt complete.

She wasn't ready. There were so many things left undone, so many words left unsaid. The argument earlier with her best friend played on a loop in her mind, the harsh words exchanged now seeming so trivial. If only she could go back, take it all back—but time, like the road before her, was a one-way journey.

A flash of lightning split the sky, illuminating the road for a brief moment. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw the figure in the middle of the road—a shadowy silhouette frozen in place. Panic surged through her veins, her foot slamming on the brake pedal, but it was too late. The car skidded, tires screeching in protest as they fought against the slick surface.

Time slowed, each second stretching into an eternity. She could see the horror in the eyes of the figure ahead, a reflection of her own terror. The car spun, the world outside becoming a blur of lights and shadows, the rain a constant drumbeat against the roof.

And then, silence.

The impact was sudden, a jolt that shattered the stillness. The glass shattered, shards flying like deadly confetti. Her body jerked forward, the seatbelt biting into her chest with cruel force. Pain exploded in her side, radiating outwards in sharp, searing waves. Her vision blurred, the edges of her consciousness fraying like an old photograph.

In that moment, as the world began to fade to black, a sense of finality washed over her. She had read about endings like this in the novels she loved—tragic, inevitable, a cruel twist of fate. But it was different when it was real, when the end was something you could feel closing in on you with every labored breath.

The rain continued to fall, indifferent to the life ebbing away within the crumpled metal shell. Her thoughts drifted, the pain beginning to dull as darkness crept in. She wasn't scared anymore, not really. Just... sad. Sad that this was how it all ended, here on a lonely road in the middle of a storm.

As her eyes fluttered shut, the last image in her mind was of a book—a novel she had read countless times, the pages worn from her fingers tracing the words. A story she knew so well, a world that had always felt more real to her than her own.

Weird, they say the last minutes before you lose yourself you tend to remember all those memories before you.

So why was it this novel is seemingly one of the last things to be seen?

The irony wasn't lost on her; in the end, it was fiction she clung to as reality slipped away.

"Do you know why I hate the rain?"