The SSS-rank Guide Doesn't Need Saving novel Chapter 72

Chapter 72: A Familiar Dream

The room was still dark when Daisy shook her awake.

"Miss Aisha. Miss Aisha, wake up. We’ll be late."

Aisha cracked open one eye. Through the gap in the curtains the sky was still black, no gray at the edges yet. She pulled the blanket higher over her shoulder.

"Five more minutes."

"Miss, if we don’t start getting you ready now, we really will be late."

"It’s fine. The ceremony can’t start without me. What are they going to do, announce the annulment without the bride?"

Daisy hovered over the bed, shook her shoulder again, called her name twice more, each time a little louder. Nothing changed. Aisha’s breathing only slowed further, settling into a long, even rhythm, one arm sliding off the edge of the mattress. Daisy caught the wrist gently and tucked it back under the blanket.

"Miss. Miss, please."

No response. Not even a mumble this time.

Daisy stood there a moment, chewing the inside of her cheek, then let out a breath and told herself it was fine. A young lady sleeping hard after a long week wasn’t strange. Near the pillow, curled into a small glowing ball, Nibbles was already snoring in tiny chirps, out cold right along with its host, one thin leg twitching now and then.

Daisy pulled the curtain wider so the sun could come in later, straightened the blanket one more time out of habit, and slipped out to check on the dress.

After slipping back to sleep, Aisha didn’t expect to be pulled into a dream. It was a realistic dream that she was familiar with and couldn’t forget. So, when she saw where she was, she felt a slight confusion.

Aisha was back behind the wheel of the truck.

It rattled under her, engine screaming as she pushed it faster down the cracked, debris-strewn street. Bodies that weren’t human anymore scattered in front of the bumper. Some went under the tires, and the sound stayed with her even now, years and worlds away — a wet, heavy thud she could still feel through the soles of her feet if she thought about it too long. She knew this stretch of road.

She had lived this exact moment before, once, right before she died...

She looked up ahead.

A small figure stood frozen in the middle of the street ahead.

She’d expected her brother’s face, that small rotted shape she could never bring herself to hit even if she repeated the same thing a thousand times. But when she got close enough to see it clearly, it wasn’t her brother. Its face had changed and replaced by someone.

It was Zenick.

Her heart slammed.

Aisha’s foot found the brake and pressed down. Some part of her knew this made no sense, that Zenick couldn’t possibly be standing in her past world with her younger brother’s body. Her foot stayed on the pedal and pressed even harder, as if enough force alone could make the truck listen to her command.

Unfortunately, the truck didn’t slow. If anything, the engine got louder, the needle climbing even as she pressed harder and the wheel shuddering under her palms.

She was going to hit him.

’Bam!’

The window beside her shattered inward as she braced herself for impact. A rotted arm punched through the glass, maggots moving in the open wounds along gray skin, black veins spreading past the elbow. Aisha turned to look and came face to face with a mutated human. But before she could scream, the hand clamped over her face. It was cold and slick, and covered her eyes, her mouth, everything at once, the smell of rot filling her nose in the same instant.

Tendrils of mutated mist crawled toward her from the extended arm, trying to bore into her mouth, nose, and eyes.

Aisha felt her heart stopped as she felt it enter her—

"Miss Aisha! Miss Aisha, please, wake up!"

I hadn’t gone back... I’m still Aisha.

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