Submitted to: Contest #313

Cherry Blossom: Life, Death, & Rebirth

Written in response to: "Hide something from your reader until the very end."

Fiction

I opened my eyes. The bus stopped. I kept my head down. It wouldn’t be my stop for a while now, and I didn’t feel the need to move from my comfortable position or interact with anyone that may know me. Unfortunately, my decision to remain unbothered was taken away from me when I found myself no longer alone. When I raised my head, I discovered that a girl my age had decided to sit beside me. I had never seen her before.

“Ah, hello…,” I greeted.

“Hello, Mitchell,” she replied. “We go to the same school, we have the same fourth hour. My name is Lily. We're getting off at the same stop.”

I stared at her, bemused. How did she know where I was getting off? Why don’t I have any memory of her?

I chose not to reply to her, which she took in stride and turned to face the front of the bus. Time seemed to pass unfortunately slower with her sitting beside me, but eventually we reached the stop just before ours. I gathered my things silently, avoiding looking in her direction. She didn’t seem to notice my apprehension, or, rather, if she did, she didn’t care. When the bus stopped again, we both stood up, but she hesitated.

“Watch your step when you walk down the stairs,” she warned.

The stairs were perfectly fine when I used them to get on the bus so I took her advice with a grain of salt…and promptly fell down them. I groaned and rolled onto my side. It was spring and the cherry blossoms had bloomed a week and a half prior. Now, the petals littered the ground, but did nothing to cushion my fall - or my pride. Nonetheless, the pretty flowers were preferable to imminent embarrassment.

“You’re as dumb as always,” Lily muttered, “Why am I surprised? Of course you are, you never learn.”

I chose not to deign her with a response. She helped me up quickly and handed me a tissue. Against my better judgement, I followed her as she began walking.

“What’s this for?” I asked.

“Your nose.”

“Oh, wow, thanks, I didn’t realize tissues were for your nose,” I deadpanned. “I don’t need it.”

Just as she turned to look at me, something began dripping from my nose. I brought the tissue up to my nose, and when I pulled it back there was a sizable spot of red.

“Of course my nose is bleeding. Lily is omniscient or something, I swear,” I grumbled, and put the tissue back to my nose.

When she had turned to look at me, she paused in walking while I did not, putting me in front of her. I seemed unable to shake her, and I was unwilling to lead her right to my house, so I took a detour into a small bookstore. Lily followed closely behind me. I pointedly ignored her stalking me and grabbed a couple of books that I had been wanting to buy. She snatched one of the books out of my hand as soon as I picked it up.

“You don’t want this one.” She grimaced and set it back in its place. “Trust me.”

“What? No. This book is the final one in my favorite series. I’ve had to wait for this book for two years, and it’s even here on an early release because the author grew up in this town.” I picked it back up. “I’m buying it.”

She mumbled under her breath as she flipped to a specific page. “You’re going to hate it and regret buying it, trust me.” She found what she was looking for and thrust the book in my face. “Read it and weep, Loser,” She said, raising her eyebrow.

I quickly skimmed over the page and promptly set the book back where it belonged in the trash on the shelf, wondering how my tweenager comfort series had turned into faerie smut. I paid for my other items without a word to Lily. Above the counter someone had strung a garland of threaded cherry blossoms. Lily followed behind me as I left the bookstore and lamented my favorite book series.

I took a deep breath and turned to face her, walking backwards. When I turned around, however, Lily was no longer there. I looked around for where she might’ve gone. I startled, almost tripping, when a hand firmly stopped me from walking. I turned back around quickly. Lily still had her hand on my shoulder, but pointed to the ground with her other hand.

“Careful,” She said quietly, “There’s a cord.”

True to her word, when I looked down there was a cord a few inches from my feet. There were cherry blossom petals scattered across the sidewalk and cord. We were nearly a mile away from the trees now. These flowers were starting to get weird.

“How did you...?”

She offered a sad smile. “Doesn’t matter,” she said. She continued walking, in my sight this time, and I followed, careful to step over the cord.

“No, wait. Why do you keep predicting what’s happening?” I jogged to catch up to her.

“It’s not important,” she said.

“You’ve been predicting every bad thing to happen to me, and completely accurately too. And now you’re just being weird. Being observational is one thing, but that wouldn’t stop you from telling me. What is going on, Lily?”

She looked contemplative for a moment. She hesitated, “You might not believe me, but I promise I am telling the truth.” She took a deep breath, “This isn’t the first time we’ve met.”

I stared at her. “Okay… and? I mean we’re in the same class and I’m aware of my bad memory.” Although, I had never forgotten someone so completely.

“No, I mean-” She looked frustrated, “-I’ve relived this exact day eleven times already. Every so often this timeline resets and I get taken back to this exact day, but I’m the only one who remembers.”

I froze in shock and irritation. “I- What? What does that even mean?! I didn’t ask just for you to lie to me!”

Lily looked ready to cry. “I’m serious!” She sounded ready to cry, too. “Every time a certain condition is met, the timeline resets and I have to live it all over again. I’m stuck in this terrible loop and I don’t know how to get out.”

I chuckled humorlessly. “Fine, humor me then. What condition resets the timeline?”

A surprised look blew over my face as a single tear slipped past the tight barrier on her emotions. She drew in a deep breath. “You-” another breath, closer to a sob this time, “your death.”

What?

“The timeline resets every time you die.”

I hesitated. “You’re messing with me. This isn't funny.”

“Mitchell, please,” She begged, “Please believe me. I don’t like this any more than you do.”

I started taking steps backwards, a little frantic. I don’t want to be here anymore. I started turning away from her, and out of the corner of my eye I saw her reach out to grab my hand. “Don’t,” I snapped. Seeing another tear tail down her cheek I softened my tone a bit. “Don’t follow me. I need to go home. Goodbye, Lily.”

I turned and ran to the crosswalk. Her pained sobs quieted the farther away I got. I put my head down, wanting more than anything to hide. I couldn’t bring myself to believe her, but she had sounded so…afraid. The crosswalk began to make noise, signaling that it was okay to cross, so I began to walk. I didn’t bother looking up, being too occupied with my thoughts of Lily and the whole mess that had started. That’s when I noticed the cherry blossoms scattered across the road. That’s also when I didn’t notice the car hurtling toward me, much too fast to stop.

A terrified shriek that wasn’t mine overtook my last thoughts.

Mitchell!” And the world was dark until I opened my eyes.

The bus stopped. I didn’t look up. It wouldn’t be my stop for a while now.

Posted Jul 30, 2025
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