Double Rebirth: Trapped by the Yandere

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Cillian lay heavy in my arms, choking up his final mouthful of dark blood.

His trembling fingers clutched the gaping gunshot wound on his chest as a ragged, wet breath tore from his throat. I regret ever being your brother.

Everyone always said I was a psycho, rotten straight down to my soul. And they were right. I was the one who used every dirty trick in the book to trap him, completely destroying the perfect, untouchable golden boy he used to be.

My eyes snapped open.

I sucked in a sharp, desperate breath.

No blood. No riots.

Cillian stood right in front of me, perfectly intact and breathing.

This time, I would let him go.

I would erase my existence from his world, just so he could live.

Chapter 1

"Vivienne, look at this trash you wrote. Does this not make you sick to your stomach! I'm your brother how could you harbor these kinds of twisted fantasies about me!"

That deeply familiar voice struck my ears, pulling me back from the void.

My eyes snapped open.

I saw Cillian.

The veins on the back of his hands strained against his skin as his grip mangled the pages of my diary. His chest heaved with heavy, ragged breaths.

That diary was stuffed with my darkest, most suffocating desires for him.

But right now, the sting of being exposed didn't even register. Instead, a choked, desperate sob tore from my throat. I had actually been reborn. Thrown right back to our first major fight, the exact moment he discovered my sick obsession with him.

Staring at my brother, fully alive and breathing right in front of me, fierce tremors racked my entire body.

Thank God. He was alive.

Cillian caught the absolute wreck of my breakdown. The inferno of rage in his eyes instantly faltered. He pointed rigidly at the floor. "Take all of this and burn it."

In my past life, the second those words left his mouth, I slammed him hard against the bookshelf, gripped his collar like a vise, and forced my mouth over his, biting down on his lips.

Cillian's pupils snapped to pinpricks. He shoved me away, stumbling backward before fleeing the room, setting off the chain reaction that slowly severed our bond. That single, boundary-shattering kiss unlocked my toxic obsession. It fueled a lethal jealousy toward Ivy, the girl who eventually took him away from me, and dragged us all into an endless spiral of tragedy.

So this time, I furiously swiped the tears off my face with the back of my hand. I bent down and gathered the box stuffed with my journals, gripping the cardboard tightly.

"Okay." I swallowed hard. "I'll burn it."

Those pages held over a decade of memories between Cillian and me.

My mother and Cillians mother were childhood best friends. But my mom was blindly driven by love and married a violently abusive man. When I was five, she died on an operating table. My dad, a chronic alcoholic, drove his truck into a ditch on his way to turn himself in and died on impact.

Cillian's mother took me in. Then, just as Cillian and I started middle school, she passed away too. From then on, it was just the two of us left wandering around that massive, empty estate, along with a handful of staff.

Cillian was only a few months older than me. But while I was a walking disaster, he always acted like a grown adult. Ever since we were kids, he trailed behind me, constantly cleaning up my messes. Before she died, his mother was always drowning in work, and the maids had their days off.

When my stomach ulcers flared up and I was vomiting from the pain, Cillian would hold me against his chest all night, using his broad hands to rub my stomach until dawn. Whenever I got into a fistfight, he stood right behind me, backing me up. When thunderstorms rolled in and my panic set in, he dragged his pillows and blankets over, squeezing into my bed to keep me safe.

Even when Ivy plunged to her death because of me. Even when Cillian looked at me with absolute, bone-deep hatred. When the riots broke out, he didn't hesitate for a single secondhe threw his body in front of mine to take the bullet.

My brother was flawless in every way. The only problem was that his love for me was purely familial. My love for him was a filthy, guilty sin.

In my previous life, when Helen the nanny heard the news of Cillians death, she broke down, sobbing uncontrollably. George, our butler, shoved his finger right in my face, his voice venomous.

"Vivienne, you are a psycho! You're like a cursed misfortune machine! Are you only going to be satisfied when you've killed everyone who ever cared about you?!"

My mind dragged me back to Cillians final words.

I spoiled you. I regret ever being your brother.

He regretted it. And honestly? So did I.

They said the abandoned Gothic church on the outskirts of the city would listen to the confessions of sinners. I wanted to beg God that in the next life, Cillian would never have the absolute misfortune of meeting me.

But my sins were too heavy. The old priest refused to pray for me.

So I knelt outside that confessional booth. Year after agonizing year.

The dark, rusted bloodstains ground into the rough stone floor were left by my own knees, scraped raw and bleeding out. I stayed there until my dark hair turned entirely gray.

Chapter 2

Finally, when my life was drawing to a close, the old priest pushed open the heavy wooden doors.

He looked down at me. "What has happened cannot be undone, but perhaps a new beginning is still possible. You are his fatal curse. If this knot isn't untied, all your penance is for nothing."

Then, he pressed a silver cross pendant into my wrinkled hand. "This will guide you back to the moment of rebirth."

Waking up again, the cold metal of the cross pendant pressing into my palm proved this was no dream.

This lifetime, I wouldn't drag him down to hell with me. I would pay any price, as long as Cillian lived a long, safe life.

On the ride to school the next morning, neither of us brought up last night. A suffocating, heavy silence filled the space in the backseat. It wasn't until the driver pulled up to the curb that Cillian finally broke the tension.

"You got Ivy hurt a few days ago. Go apologize to her today." His tone was rigid. It was obvious he fully expected me to throw another screaming fit the second the words left his mouth.

But I just gave a stiff nod. "Okay."

Cillian's movements stalled, his half-lowered eyelashes snapping up as his eyes bored into me. But in the end, his jaw clenched, and he didn't say a single word.

During lunch break, I went looking for Ivy to apologize, just as I'd promised. After circling the campus, I finally found herstanding right next to Cillian.

The rowdy afternoon sun was warm. The girl giggled, practically pressing her entire body against his arm, her fingers casually tracing the fabric over his chest. A second later, she caught me in her peripheral vision. She immediately flinched, shrinking behind Cillian's broad back and defensively cradling the bandages on her hand.

Cillian instinctively stepped in front of her, blocking my view. "Why are you here?"

The sheer distance in his voice was freezing. He had already forgotten his own order for me to come apologize.

Honestly, I couldn't blame him for going on the defensive. I really was crazy.

My possessiveness over Cillian was toxic. He was gorgeous, wealthy, and gentle. Plenty of girls threw themselves at him. And I had systematically bullied every single one of them away.

I always misread his tired tolerance as permission, twisting it to convince myself that he secretly wanted me too. Just like in my past life, when I slipped something into his drink, forcing him to cross that sacred line.

He had physically fought against my touch, but I still managed to delude myself into hearing pleasure in his broken, rough breathing. I willfully ignored the fact that it was nothing more than an uncontrollable, drug-induced biological response.

Ivy was different to him. Even a full decade after her death, Cillian had never stopped treating me like a monster.

I bit down hard on the soft flesh of my inner cheek, forcefully swallowing back the thick, suffocating lump rising in my throat. I let out a long breath.

I stepped forward and lowered my head in a stiff, deep apology toward Ivy. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have caused your injury the other day, and I never should have humiliated you in public like that. Can you forgive me?"

Ivy peeked nervously up at Cillian. Seeing his jaw tick in silence, she finally squeaked out, "It's fine. Don't worry about it. I forgive you."

I straightened up, my gaze colliding straight into Cillian's. A storm of complex, heavy emotions I couldn't decipher churned in his dark eyes.

In my past life, there was another massive reason I despised Ivy. I had caught her hanging around Kade multiple times. Kade was my brothers absolute worst enemy. He was a ruthless asshole who made it his life's mission to make Cillians life a living hell.

I heavily suspected Ivy was just a low-class scammer who would do anything for money, getting close to my brother for all the wrong reasons. That was why I targeted her so relentlessly.

This time, no matter what the truth was, I had to figure it out. I needed to push these two star-crossed lovers back on track so they wouldn't miss out on each other again.

Chapter 3

So, I started sticking to Ivy, telling her I felt incredibly guilty and just wanted to be friends.

At first, she deliberately kept a step away from me, her shoulders locked rigid. It wasn't until she saw I really didn't have any malicious intent that she finally let her guard down.

I casually fished for answers. "What do you think of my brother?"

The tips of Ivy's ears instantly flushed bright red. "Cillian he's helped me out a lot. Plus, he really loves animals. He used to always feed the stray cats around the neighborhood and get them fixed."

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I think he has a really good heart."

Just as I thought. The feelings were entirely mutual.

Ivy really was a top-tier student. Her family barely scraped by, but she clawed her way up, surviving purely on academic scholarships. She was the classic ghetto girl who always acted pitiful even while standing in line for free charity meals.

My brother was gorgeous, ranked first in our grade, and sitting on a massive trust fund left by his mother. Anyone who looked at them would say they were the perfect match. Even though I already knew this cold, hard fact, my stomach still churned with toxic, burning acid.

That night, for the first time in a long time, Cillian knocked on my bedroom door. He didn't dare step inside. The last time he barged in without knocking was the exact moment he uncovered my filthy, twisted obsession with him.

I took the initiative to speak up. "I'm just looking at college applications. There's nothing else"

Ever since I woke up in this life, I could feel Cillian constantly building a wall between us. Even without that line-crossing kiss, he still couldn't stomach the fact that the younger sister he raised with his own hands was in love with him. And even without that kiss, I still couldn't tear Cillian out of my system.

He cleared his throat, shifting his weight. "Why haven't you been riding home with me lately?"

I blinked, thrown off guard that he was asking about this. Because I need to get used to a life without you as fast as possible, I said silently in my head.

Even today, I was specifically hunting for colleges out of state, far away from Cillian. Since both he and Ivy had perfect transcripts, they were definitely going to end up at the same elite university anyway. As for me? I just needed to put as much distance between us as humanly possible.

I threw out a random excuse. "Ivy and I actually get along pretty well now, so we agreed to walk home together. We can just chat on the way."

The second the words left my mouth, even I didn't believe my own lie. Cillian stared dead at me, his intense gaze making the back of my neck prickle.

I stiffened my neck and challenged him. "Are we crashing your alone time with her or something?"

His brows locked together instantly, and he flicked my forehead hard. "What kind of garbage are you thinking about? It's nothing like that." He forcefully ran a hand through his dark hair, the messy strands reflecting his irritation.

"Forget it. It's good for you to make more friends."

Today, I walked home with Ivy just like usual. She had opened up to me quite a bit, and I desperately wanted to figure out the real reason she plunged to her death in my past life.

Everyone was dead set on the story that I had shoved her off that roof. Even Cillian fully believed it. After all, my track record was completely unhinged. But I didn't do it.

I never even touched a single thread of her clothes. She had stood there sobbing before throwing herself over the ledge on her own. I kept wondering if something catastrophic had happened in Ivy's family, dragging her into such a suffocating corner that she wanted to end her own life.

"Ivy, if something is going on, you have to tell me. If you're in trouble, let me know, and I swear I'll fix it for you!"

Ivy froze, her eyes immediately welling up with red, unshed tears. She definitely had a secret. She opened her mouth, about to speak.

Suddenly, a street gang in hoodies lunged out from the dark alley. They were out for blood, gripping gleaming switchblades.

I had taken some self-defense classes when I was a kid, managing to barely dodge and grapple with the first guy. But Ivy was completely defenseless.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a heavy blade slashing straight down toward her.

Without a single second to think, I threw my body right in front of hers.

Then, my entire world slammed into pitch black.

Chapter 4

When consciousness slammed back into me, a searing, white-hot agony tore through the back of my skull all the way down my spine. The damp, foul-smelling mud soaked through my clothes. But the horrific scene playing out in front of my eyes instantly choked off my gasp.

Ivy lay motionless on the filthy ground. Stripped bare.

"Hey Ivy, what happened to you?"

My voice was a jagged, violent tremor. Panic hijacking my brain, I frantically clawed through the dirt for my phone. I just needed to reach Cillian. Right now.

But the screen was completely shattered, staring back at me like a dead, black eye.

Suddenly, blinding, high-beam headlights slashed across my face.

I instinctively ducked, my eyes burning as they squeezed shut. The deafening shriek of police sirens violently collided with Cillian's roaring voice. A brutal force shoved me backward. My spine cracked sickeningly against the concrete steps.

"Vivienne, I actually thought you had changed, but you were just holding back all your sick, twisted venom for today, weren't you!"

Cillian's eyes were blown wide, saturated in blood-red rage. I stared at him, my brain stalling out. Then, the horrific realization clamped around my throat like a vise.

He misunderstood.

"Cill no it wasn't me." I gasped.

Cillian aggressively ripped off his jacket, wrapping it tightly around Ivy and scooping her up into his arms. "You're literally holding your phone, and you're telling me it wasn't you! Delete every single photo right now. I'll deal with you when we get back!"

I sat completely paralyzed in the freezing mud, staring at his retreating back as hot tears aggressively burned my eyes. "It really wasn't me"

All the oxygen was sucked out of my lungs. My vision collapsed back into pitch black.

I dreamt of my past life, back to the moment Cillians fury had incinerated me just like this. It was right after Ivy plummeted off the roof and the cops dragged me in for interrogation.

That was the first time Cillian ever laid a hand on me.

A sharp, echoing slap across my face.

"How could you do something this disgusting I am so entirely disappointed in you. I wish I never had a sister like you."

His eyes were heavily bloodshot, yet his gaze was as dead and motionless as a pool of stagnant water.

I couldn't blame him. After all, Ivy and I were the only two living souls on that rooftop. Nobody in their right mind would believe that a straight-A student with a blindingly bright future would just inexplicably throw herself over the ledge for absolutely no reason.

But even though Cillian fundamentally believed I was a murderer, he still hired the most ruthless defense attorneys in the city for me. There were no security cameras on that roof, zero direct evidence proving I pushed her, and my fingerprints were completely absent from her body. The prosecution argued I could have psychologically coerced her into jumping, but ultimately, the death was legally ruled a tragic accident.

Cillian paid an astronomical settlement to Ivy's mother. But it didn't matter. She still showed up at our campus every single day, screaming and causing a massive public scene.

So, Cillian permanently withdrew both of us from school.

I truly was the one who completely annihilated his life. If I had never existed, his future would have been absolutely unstoppable.

No matter how the public speculated, in Cillian's mind, the truth was permanently set in stone: his own sister had viciously murdered the girl he loved. From that day on, the bridge between us was completely and irreversibly burned to ash.

I violently jolted awake from the nightmare.

The heavy, familiar warmth of my own bedroom slowly came into focus. Cillian was sitting vigil right by my bedside. He looked absolutely wrecked, heavy dark circles bruised under his exhausted eyes. The absolute second he saw my eyelashes flutter, a fractured glimmer of light sparked in his dark pupils.

He leaned over and engulfed my entire body in a crushing, desperate hug.

As it turned out, Ivy had regained consciousness before I did. She had completely laid out the brutal truth of what actually happened. I had been knocked unconscious strictly trying to save her life. Those street thugs had snapped explicit photos of her and completely vanished into the night.

Cillian held me impossibly tight against his chest, his large frame trembling uncontrollably. His rough voice cracked as he poured out an endless stream of apologies against my hair.

"I am so sorry, Vivienne. I'm so damn sorry. I was completely wrong. I failed to protect you, and then I blindly accused you of the worst thing imaginable.

You should hit me you should absolutely beat me to death for this"

Chapter 5

His massive frame shuddered violently against mine. The scorching heat radiating from his chest bled through my clothes, making a fierce, burning sensation prick at the corners of my eyes.

The suffocating weight of the past few days finally snapped.

I buried my face into his shoulder, choking on my own sobs as my tears and snot completely ruined his expensive shirt. "Cillian! This is all my fault! "If I wasn't such a toxic wreck all the time, you wouldn't have blindly doubted me!"

I aggressively shook my head, my fingers digging into the fabric of his back, desperate for him to believe my promise. "I swear I was wrong. I'll never suffocate you or put you in a terrible position again! I'll completely kill off whatever twisted feelings I had for you.

I just want to be your sister. Just your sister, forever!"

The muscles in Cillian's back locked into solid rock.

A heavy beat of silence passed before his large hand slowly moved, methodically stroking my spine. We stayed locked together like that for a long, long time. It felt like the suffocating tension that had been choking us for days finally burned away into nothing.

Cillian brought over a steaming mug of hot cocoa and handed it to me. "Drink this first."

He roughly gathered my tangled hair and tied it back, then grabbed his heavy jacket. "Im running out to the bakery to get your favorite red velvet cupcakes to make it up to you. Wait right here for me. I have something extremely important to tell you when I get back."

I gave a stiff nod, staring at his face. Something deep in his dark eyes had violently shifted, like a heavy vault door slamming shut on a final decision.

But the hours dragged by in agonizing silence, and Cillian never walked back through that door.

Instead, my phone violently buzzed with a text from Ivy.

[ Vivienne, please. Come find me on the school roof. ]

[ You have to come alone. ]

[ Please ]

My blood ran ice cold. I bolted out the front door, sprinting down the street like an absolute lunatic.

Why was this happening again?

The old priest's gravelly voice violently looped in my skull. What has happened cannot be undone.

Was I completely powerless to change anything? Then what the hell was the point of ripping me back from the dead in the first place!

But Ivy's texts were entirely different this time.

In my past life, she had sent a viciously smug message, baiting me by claiming she and Cillian were secretly hooking up on the roof. But this time, it was different. I could practically feel the real truth burning my fingertips.

I burst through the heavy fire doors onto the rooftop. Ivy was standing right by the ledge, hot tears streaming down her face, exactly like my past life.

"Ivy, what the hell is wrong with you! Do you really have to throw yourself off this damn roof!?"

Ivy stared at me with completely hollow eyes. Her knees instantly gave out, slamming hard onto the rough concrete. "Vivienne, there's no way out for me," she choked out.

"The guys who jumped us that day they work for Kade. They took so many sick, explicit photos and videos of me. I've been trapped from the start."

A violent rush of adrenaline slammed into my chest, making my ears ring. "If you knew it was him, why the hell didn't you go straight to the cops! You're the victim here! You didn't do a damn thing wrong!"

Ivy let out a shrill, broken scream, frantically tearing at her own hair. She was completely unspooling. "It's completely useless, Vivienne! I tried to fight back, but it's useless They are using my mom's medical insurance and my little siblings' lives as a threat!

Kade's family has deep, untouchable power. Trash like us from the bottom of the barrel have absolutely zero way to fight back against him."

"He's an absolute psychopath. He's been playing a sick game with all of us this entire time. He wants to completely annihilate Cillian, which is exactly why he targeted you first.

I am so entirely sorry. You and your brother have been nothing but good to me."

"Don't take another step closer! As long as you don't physically touch me, the cops won't find a single shred of your DNA on my body. Cillian cares about you so much.

He will rip the world apart to keep you completely safe. But if I don't follow Kade's orders, my family is as good as dead. If I throw myself off this ledge, at least the media will tear this scandal wide open."

"I'm just begging you after I'm gone, please look out for my family. Just do it for the one month we actually spent being real friends"

Chapter 6

I didn't even let her finish her sentence. I lunged forward, grabbed the collar of her shirt, and yanked her down from the ledge.

My own raw scream tore through the night air. "Then do you have any idea what would happen to my brother if you died! He spent his entire life obsessing over your ghost!"

My chest heaved. Thick, heavy tears streamed down my face, blurring my vision into a mess.

Ivy stared at me, her eyes completely blank and uncomprehending.

The silver cross pendant slipped out of my pocket and hit the concrete with a sharp clink. It lay dead on the rough ground. I could still faintly remember the scorching heat that had burned into my palm the very first time I held it.

If I was the fatal curse in Cillian's life then without me, he would finally be happy, right?

So that was what the priest meant. I finally understood.

"So, you just need a massive scandal to rip this open, right?" I whispered.

I spun around and sprinted straight toward the edge of the roof.

At first, it was just a weightless, floating sensation. Then came the violent, suffocating pull of gravity dragging me down. I chose the abyss. So I plummeted straight into it.

A deafening crash shattered the silence.

A blood-curdling scream immediately ripped through the quiet night.

At that exact moment, just one street away from the campus, the sudden, violent crash jolted me so hard I almost dropped the box in my hands. This was the absolute last red velvet cupcake in the entire city. The bakery I usually went to had completely closed down. I had driven around frantically to multiple different spots before finally finding this newly opened shop near the school.

The crowd around me instantly erupted into a chaotic frenzy.

"Someone's dead!"

"A girl jumped off the roof! A student!"

I snapped my head around, my gaze locking onto the dark silhouette of the campus buildings.

A sharp, agonizing spasm suddenly ripped through my chest, syncing perfectly with the echo of that deafening crash