Kadar's fingers felt numb. Perhaps if it was snowing, he wouldn't have minded going out too much. The last time it snowed was when he was twelve, after all.

But no.

It was just a cold day.

The worst kind of day.

On most days that he'd overslept, Kadar would simply run frantically to work with little to no consequence other than being slightly out of breath. Screw the jeers and sidelong glances he'd receive on the way. Why couldn't one run in public without being made to feel awkward? But today, Mother Nature had heavily mined the streets with frozen puddles, and the throbbing pain he'd received from detonating one had more than convinced him to slow down.

Limping slightly, Kadar switched to speed-walking and within a few minutes, found himself at another obstacle to arriving to work on time. The wide-ass road junction.

Bloody cars...

Since there were no traffic lights nearby, he'd have to find an opening in the traffic to cross the safely. But due to rush-hour, all the vehicles passing by moved at a speed that was too fast to exploit and just slow enough to clog up the road. The result was terrible traffic and a horde of angry drivers who had a higher likelihood of ignoring any hand signals Kadar made for safe passage.

If he were to die at any point today, it would most probably be here.

Everything hurts. Maybe I should just take the day off... I don't even need to be there anyway...

Just then his phone vibrated.

A message?

Still unable to cross, Kadar pulled it out from his coat pocket and began scrolling through his DMs.

Today

[Iris]: Hey

[Iris]: U here yet? I ve been waiting for u since 7:00. We re about to do our first shoot

Heading over rn :[Kadar]

Actually :[Kadar]

Kadar paused for a moment. Realistically, he'd be roughly 25 minutes late. There was no way he'd make her wait that long. Like himself, Iris was also a young actress, but she was ten times more talented than him. And of course, that held true with her public image as well. If anything, Kadar considered himself to be completely average at the most. Decent by today's standards but nothing special.

Sorry :[Kadar]

Dont think I can make it :[Kadar]

[Iris]: Where are u rn?

Like half an hour away :[Kadar]

It doesnt matter. Im not even part of the shoot in the first place :[Kadar]

[Iris]: I said 'where are u?' not 'how far'

[Iris]: Are u by the main road

ig :[Kadar]

But listen :[Kadar]

[Iris]: Im taking one of the agency's cars over to u rn

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

[Iris]: Idc if we re late

[Iris]: Ur coming over to watch if its the last thing u do

Fine :[Kadar]

[Iris]: I wouldnt even be here if u never helped me that time

Fine :[Kadar]

I'll come over myself. No need to bring a car :[Kadar]

[Iris]: So theres no way ur sitting this out.

[Iris]: Understand?

She's still going...

Kadar sighed, taking one last glance at her final message, before stowing his phone back into the deep confines of his pocket. He had never felt such passive-aggressiveness from Iris before. She was so cold and collected in person that it was almost impossible for Kadar to imagine her even slightly losing composure. The idea that such a beast lay dormant in her frightened him.

But she's human after all.

Kadar's relationship with Iris was strictly professional. Sure, as the more experienced actor, he'd given her some pointers and compromised with her manager at times despite being in different agencies. He'd done the same for many others before. But he always avoided getting too involved with celebrities, since he enjoyed his relatively peaceful life and privacy. And he was sure he wasn't into anything as stupid as enjoying fame second-hand.

Actually... Maybe I'm fooling myself...

Kadar took a step forward onto the road. Maybe he had been a tad too involved in other people's lives.

Just as he was about to take his next step, he noticed a truck speeding towards him seemingly out of nowhere. He was pretty sure it wasn't there a couple minutes ago. In his attempt to stop in his tracks, Kadar strained his leg muscles and planted a foot backwards. Had it not been for the sudden strong hand yanking him off the road to safety, he would have fully expected the 4000 lbs of fast-moving steel to have launched him sky high by now. But the truck whipped harmlessly pass, horns blaring.

"Close one," A female's voice sounded just below his shoulder "Almost got isekaied,"

"Y-yeah," Kadar replied shakily "Thanks,"

He turned towards his saviour and found himself facing a girl whose age could have been anywhere from their late teens to early twenties. Her glossy hair was dark and elbow-length with a single dash of pink like a streak of evening in the night sky. She also had the photogenic features that would have made any modelling agency immediately consider scouting her. Hell, Kadar figured that even his own lazy-ass manager would personally come out to greet her, had he never relied on Kadar to settle everything. She was prettier than Iris after all.

"Ow!"

Before she could say anything else, a gloved hand reached out and gave her a heavenly smiting to the back of the head. Behind her stood another girl who looked almost identical save for her ponytail and eyes which were narrowed in annoyance.

Twins?

"What the hell were you thinking!?" whispered one angry twin to the other. "You could have died!"

The saviour twin bowed her head meekly and whimpered.

"Sorry," Kadar said, feeling a little guilty "I was being careless,"

The actor flinched as the ponytail twin rounded on him. Kadar felt as though she had the same aura of authority as a mother. However, instead of scolding him, her expression softened slightly.

"No worries. We thought it looked safe too. If you had never went first, we might have been the ones in danger," she bowed her head slightly towards him out of gratitude. "Thank you,"

So that truck really did appear out of nowhere?

Kadar rubbed his head uncertainly, feeling as though he had received thanks that he'd never deserved, but at last, a sizeable opening in the traffic seemed to have shown itself. The twins moved to cross, one of them beckoning him to follow suit.

Right, I should get going.

As he and a couple of other impatient pedestrians began to move towards the other side of the road, Kadar's instincts told him that something was very wrong. It was only until he took a second glance in the direction of the twins that he realized what it was. One of them had suddenly collapsed causing the other to slow down. Stranger still, none of the cars closing in on them seemed to have noticed and began to pick-up speed.

"What the--, " Kadar sprinted towards them, "Stop! STOP!"

The driver leading the charge looked at him first with confusion, then anger and finally horror. Even if he somehow didn't see the twins, he could clearly spot the crazy man jumping in front of him yelling madly. He slammed the brakes in panic causing the tyres to emit a shrill screeching noise.

Kadar was pretty sure that he could make it in time. He stooped low swiping both twins in each arm and rushed towards the other side. But then, he witnessed the cruellest joke that life could possibly ever play on him.

You're bloody kidding me...

Although the driver had slammed the brakes, the car was not losing speed and began to rotate as it skid on the icy road. There was no avoiding it now. Kadar felt the hood slam heavily into his back, crushing his spine and organs. And as if that wasn't enough, the car then collided into another vehicle causing it to barrel away and promptly catch fire.

Kadar was thrown painfully to the side, his entire body in unimaginable pain.

"Not now..." he said gasping for breath "I... can't die..."

He crawled away from the wreckage, darkness eating away at his vision.

Someone is expecting me...

I can't die...

I can't die...

Sorry Iris...

Sorry... everyone...

Then he blacked out.

[System]

Thank you for your Soul Tribute.

You will be reawakened shortly.