Carter Lee blinked.

Then he screamed, grasping at the side of his head. It felt like a hammer had just smashed into his skull. He groaned in agony as he clutched at the area. Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the pain began to recede. Warm relief filled his body as the discomfort fled, and soon nothing was left of the mysterious pain except for phantom memories.

What was going on? What had happened?

He dropped his hands from his face and looked around. Surrounding him was the lush vegetation of a very old forest. The trees were gigantic, each trunk thick as a house and looming several stories high into the sky. The branches of the giant trees formed a canopy that prevented the majority of sunlight from reaching the forest floor. Yet some sun did penetrate the thick leafy covering, as various golden rays shone down from the leaves.

Carter would have thought the scenery beautiful if he wasn’t so confused about his situation. Wasn’t he just at the cemetery? He couldn’t quite remember what had happened.

A flood of memories suddenly rushed into his mind, cutting through the fog like a straight razor. He saw himself getting up in the morning, remembering the rough feeling of his unwashed sheets. He watched himself passing by the kitchen table with all the unpaid bills littering its surface. He remembered putting on his best suit. He was sitting in his car for a long time outside his former place of employment. He was then driving down the highway, toward the direction of the cemetery. He recalled buying some flowers, then visiting Anne’s grave. And the gun.

The gun.

An intense chill went up his spine. Carter bent over and began to dry heave. His stomach convulsed, desperately trying to expel its contents. But since he didn’t have breakfast that morning there was nothing to expel. Over and over he hacked and coughed until his body finally got itself under control.

Oh god.

A shaky hand rose to the side of his head and began to feel around. Fingers traced the surface of his skull, looking for any sign of a wound. He found nothing.

But he had felt it. He was certain of it. He still remembered the feeling of the cold barrel pressing against his temple. The smooth action when he pulled the trigger. The explosion of light and sound.

He had to see. He had to see for himself. A mirror. He needed a mirror.

Hands still shaking, Carter reached into his inside coat pocket and pulled out his cell phone. He swiped his thumb over the fingerprint sensor and breathed out a sigh of relief when the phone activated. He had been half expecting the thing not to work.

The fact that it didn’t have a signal didn’t surprise him at all.

Carter swiped through the phone’s numerous applications until he found the one he was looking for. With a tap of his finger, he activated the camera app, then switched it to the front-facing camera.

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What he saw… was impossible.

Carter was forty-five years old, but the face looking back at him from the screen of his phone looked twenty years younger. Gone were the crow’s feet and jowls. Gone were the gray hairs as well as his receding hairline. All the signs of aging had miraculously vanished, leaving behind a young face that he hadn’t seen in decades.

He looked away from the phone and began to pat down his body. He noticed that he was much slimmer than he used to be. The slight paunch in his gut was gone, replaced by a flat stomach. His arms had regained muscle, and the perpetual ache in his knee from an injury he had five years ago was absent.

Somehow, miraculously, Carter had regressed back to his early twenties. Back to when he was in the prime of his health during his military days. And for some reason, his suit transformed to fit his current shape.

“Impossible,” he said to himself.

He looked back at the cell phone and frowned at the younger face staring back at him. There was no wound in the side of his head. He looked closely at his temple and he saw nothing, not even a scratch.

“Impossible,” he repeated.

Carter surveyed his surroundings once more. Aside from the giant trees, there was other plant life present. Vines, moss, ferns, and various greenery grew from the ground in between the giant trees’ roots. He heard birds and other animal calls in the distance.

He sat down on a nearby root and took long, deep breaths. After a long moment, the dark-haired man looked down at his hand and found it steady, unshaken. Good. Panic would solve nothing. He had to be calm about this.

Another thought came to him. He placed a finger on his wrist. He felt a pulse tap against his fingertip. His eyes widened. Carter stood up and pressed two fingers against the side of his neck. A steady, pulsing beat could be felt, along with the warmth of his skin.

He was alive.

To his surprise, relief flooded through his body.

He was alive!

But it didn’t make any sense. He had shot himself, that much he did know. Yet here he was now, alive and well, in an unknown location. And twenty years younger.

He needed answers and he wasn’t going to get them by standing around in the middle of nowhere. He had to find someone, anyone. Maybe look for signs of civilization; at least, if there was any civilization to be found here in this strange, prehistoric-looking forest.

Before moving from his spot, he decided to take stock of what he had with him. Carter searched through his pockets, pulling out the items that had made it on this strange journey with him.

First was his cell phone. It was fully charged and should last him three days with minimal usage. He checked the phone’s signal and found that there were still zero bars. To save the battery, he held down the power button until the device switched itself off.

Next to exit his pockets were the keys to his car and apartment. Those seemed utterly useless in this situation, though the Swiss army knife key chain connected to them would probably come in handy. He also had his wallet, which contained his ID, credit cards, and about eighty dollars in cash. The rest of his items included his sunglasses, a handkerchief, and his wristwatch. Aside from those, the only things he had left were the clothes on his back. The ones that had magically transformed to fit his new (or old) body.

And his ring. Carter looked down at the silver band around his finger and sighed. It had been more than two years, yet still, he couldn’t find the strength to remove it. His friends and family had all tried to get him to move on, but he couldn’t. There were some things you couldn’t just forget about.

Carter noticed that his gun wasn’t with him. It was probably for the best; he didn’t know if he would be tempted to pull the trigger on himself again.

He shook off such dark thoughts. He had to get moving; he didn’t want to be stuck in this forest after dusk. It was dark enough here in broad daylight due to the shadows of the trees. Once the sun had set, it would be impossible to navigate at night.