Life has a funny way of throwing curveballs at you. And in my case, it threw one in my 2nd life.

I was four when I remembered my past life. What's even more surprising though is that this wasn't just any second chance at life, this was the life of a character in a manga I had read long long ago. I had always had a sense of déjà vu growing up. Something about my name always bothered me, like I had seen it somewhere before, but it was my eyes that always got to me. Every morning I would look into the bathroom mirror, and I would stare into my reflection for minutes on end. My skin was abnormally pale, my hair was a plain black, but my eyes were a startling crystalline blue that just seemed far too familiar.

It wasn't until my accident at the gala that I actually recalled what was going on.

My family and I were at a night gala in a nature conservatory for a fundraiser that I wasn't quite sure what the money was going towards. I assume for the environment or even to an animal sanctuary but that's not important right now. I didn't know which family invited us there, but since it was held at night, there weren’t many kids near my age. Besides me, the youngest person there who was close to my age was fourteen, and that's only because I refuse to count my siblings.

At four years old, I still had very bad balance and I was prone to tripping quite often. And like most young girls, I wore a layered poofy dress that while it looked adorable on me, was absolutely horrid in the mobility department. That darn dress didn't help my cause I as I tried my best to follow the older kids around the venue. And of course, it was only a matter of time before I had stumbled over a large tree root and fell into the lake.

The morning after the incident, I woke up in a hospital room with my mother asleep by my side. In her hands she still clutched my patient chart which I reached out for and started to read over slowly.

Patient Name: Faine Clarion Cotheran

Guardians: Lenore and Norman Cotheran

Condition: Passed out from lack of oxygen, high temperature, and intense shivering.

Assigned Doctor: Walter Cotheran

Known Allergies: None

Blood Type: O Negative

Gender: Female

Age: Four years old

I reread over the last line a couple of times in confusion.

Four? I am most definitely four, but a four year old can't read over a medical chart this easily. Actually a four year old can't read anything much at all. My shock was a bucket of ice water that had been poured over me in an instant.

But Faine, that name sounded much too familiar despite it being mine. It was my name, but I was rarely ever called by it.

Instead I went by Faye.

And Faye Cotheran just so happened to be the Villainess's 2nd in command in the manga "Love's a Fool"

It clicked all rather fast. I was the 2nd in command villainess, the main girl of the villainess's entourage who would follow her friend like a loyal lapdog down the road of destruction.

"Love's a Fool" started off as the first web novel of a talented young writer that would eventually be published as a physical book, turned into a manga, and even a movie and then finally the long awaited drama.

The narrative followed a regular girl transferring to a highly prestigious private school for high school after her father got a job as a teacher for the middle school section.

After entering the school, the protagonist couldn't get used to her new surroundings. Everywhere she looked, there were her peers, incredible in their achievements and determination, but also cruelty. Despite the obstacles she faced when arrived, she was happy as long as she had her father and younger brother by her side.

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Her life was not perfect, but she didn't want to complain. It wasn't until she was assigned to start tutoring the male lead that her life really changed. They didn't initially get along, but they eventually fell in love despite the protests of the students around them.

And the loudest of the complaints came from none other than Melody Serenella and her lackeys. I'm not Melody, but I am, or was her main lackey.

At the end of the novel when the couple had gone against all odds, Melody Serenella and her friends would make one final attempt to separate the protagonist and the male lead. She would frame the protagonist for not only cheating on her college entrance exams, but also funneling money from the male leads bank account into her own private account and even working with a long time competitor company that had always gone head to head with the male lead's family business.

It didn't take much for the duo to realize Melody's schemes. In the end there was a violent confrontation between Melody the the protagonist. In a terrible twist of fate, Melody and one of her followers, Violet, would fall to their deaths off the top of a sky scraper.

In the aftermath of the tragic fate of Melody and Violet, Faye and Violet's twin sister Hazel were left with the consequences of their actions. The pair were grief stricken, ostracized from society, faced jail time for what they had done to the protagonist, and all three families had fallen into ruin and out of grace as well.

Most of the readers of the novel actually hated the ending. They felt it was rushed, badly planned, and didn't fit the characters. And I couldn't have agreed more with them back then but now I agree with them even more. It's a terrible ending but not only because of how it was written, but because that's not how I want my life to play out.

"Faye? I'm glad to see you awake moonbeam. We were all so worried about you." While I was busy thinking about who I was and where I was, I hadn't even noticed Uncle Waldo, my father's younger brother and our family doctor, come in. He placed one of his hands on my forehead while he reached for my chart with the other. It felt warm, almost clammy. He must have been really nervous. "You seem to be looking much better sweetheart. I can't lie, I was worried for you for a bit when you didn't wake up. But I know you're a strong one, you take after me after all." He cracked a smile at me, squeezing my hand slightly once he was done before turning around to readjust the blue quilt on Mother's shoulders.

"Uncle Waldo, where's Papa?" I leaned back into the hospital pillow, getting swallowed by it almost. Why was this pillow way too soft? 

"Norman and your siblings will be here later today when it's time for you to be discharged. I need to check on a few more patients, but I'll be back with medicine and some snacks for you so just get some more rest Faye. Try to take it easy on the playing next time okay, kiddo?"

I nodded almost obediently and tried to get comfy as Uncle Waldo left to go run his rounds. I wasn't going to be getting any rest though. All I could do was ponder over my predicament.

In the novel, the main villainess was my childhood friend Melody. A member of the prestigious Serenella family and also the perfect example of a high class lady of the uppercrust of society. Sometime in primary school, she would meet the male protagonist and fall for him. And by fall, I mean fall hard. She would do absolutely anything for his love, but he only had eyes for the female protagonist and only wanted her, not Melody.

As I said before, at the end of the novel after the two leads ended up together and thwarted Melody and her final lovesick plot, she and Violet ended up dying while Hazel, I, and our families were left in with the rest of the broken pieces.

My heart hurt just even thinking about it.

I didn't want to go to prison, I didn't want my family to face the consequences of my future actions, and I most certainly did not want my friends to die!

This had to be some kind of dream. Just a really bad dream after all.

This wasn't my life, it couldn't be.

This wasn't who I was.

I was a regular girl. Or at least I used to be.

I had a single father and my little brother. We were small, but we were happy. My father owned a diner that he bought with my mother when they got married And we were by no means rich, but we could support ourselves just fine and that's all we needed.

I went to public school like everyone else, I obsessed over manga's and other media, I got into fights with friends, I worked part time at the diner during the school year and full-time during the summer. I was also as awkward as they came, I was an ordinary girl. Just another person you would pass by on the street without a second thought.

Eventually all those memories stopped though. The farthest I could remember was up to college. But I wasn't able to recall any graduation or ever attaining a real job. Did I die early? Why were the later parts of my life cut off?

I didn't know that answer, and nor did I know any of the others that would be able to silence my plagued mind. But what I did know was that I was here and I was most definitely that Faye Cotheran from the novel.

No matter how much I wanted to deny it, this wasn't just a dream. I had figured that out after I had been discharged from the hospital and brought home in my Papa's thin arms.

It was all most definitely real. Everything was too lifelike; it was too detailed. The scene was set, the scripts were written to a T, and the characters behaved as real people and flowed as naturally as water.

The house was an older style, darker than your average home as well. It reminded me of the Addams family mansion, but not nearly as tall or decrepit. A large garden surrounded the home with many plants I had never even seen before. A black stone path led the way to a mahogany two double door that did not need to be opened either, the moment my older brother Ian ran ahead of us, the door was opened by a set of maids who immediately came out to fawn over me and ask if there was anything I needed at all.

And the bed, the bed was perfect and even that line feels like an understatement. It was soft, but also firm enough where I did not feel that I was sinking into the mattress. It honestly felt like sleeping on a cloud. I could lay in this bed all day or night. And the room… It was at least 5 times bigger than my old room, or maybe even bigger then that. One of the walls was an entire bookcase from bottom to top, completely filled with books my parents had bought me. Another wall was a giant curved bay window facing the backyard where the garden met the pool, a pond, a patio, and even a gazebo.

Was there nothing this house was missing?

And as real (and unbelievable) as this new life was, there was no way I would let all the bad things that awaited us to happen.

I would not fall into ruin, and the first step to achieving that was to steer Melody to the path of light.