Chapter 2: Another Chance
Alex woke up gasping for air.
Sunlight streamed through the partially open window, casting golden stripes across a white ceiling. He sat up, drenched in sweat, heart thumping like a war drum. His lungs struggled to catch up with reality, each breath more panicked than the last.
His head ached.
He was... alive?
He blinked hard, trying to bring the room into focus. Everything looked... off. Familiar, but wrong. The smell of fresh espresso drifted in from the open kitchen. A distant sound of birds chirping outside the balcony. There was no beeping heart monitor. No IV drip. No antiseptic sting of a hospital room.
He looked around. The room was spacious, modern, and painfully familiar. Polished wooden floors, a massive 4K television mounted on the wall, minimalist black shelves stocked with a few books and awards. A glass coffee table with a bottle of Italian wine—half-empty—and yesterday’s La Gazzetta dello Sport folded on the couch.
The architecture, the furniture... his apartment in Lombardy, Italy.
He stumbled out of bed, his legs shaky, and shuffled to the window. With trembling hands, he pulled the blinds aside. The rolling hills of Lombardy basked in morning gold, stretching as far as his eyes could see. The sun was high already.
"What the hell..." he muttered.
Had he survived the heart attack? Was this some sort of miracle recovery? Or was it a dream?
He rushed back inside, grabbed his phone from the nightstand, and jabbed at the screen. The lock screen blinked to life. One notification. The time: 10:03 AM. The date: October 14, 2024.