The Apocalypse Is My Second Home

2

Right now, he was clearly in another world. Worse still, he had no idea whose body he had occupied because he hadn't inherited its memories.

How was he supposed to live in this body without arousing suspicion? Perhaps he could claim to have lost his memory.

As thoughts raced through his mind, a sharp pain suddenly shot through his head.

He clutched his head, gritting his teeth as foreign memories flooded his consciousness, as though someone were forcing them directly into his brain. He endured the agony without uttering a sound. Compared to everything he had suffered during the apocalypse, this was nothing.

Eventually, the pain subsided, and he slowly opened his eyes.

He now knew everything about the body he occupied and how he had ended up in this world.

Just then, the door swung open, and a beautiful blonde woman walked in. Her face was caked in heavy makeup, and she wore designer clothes, an expensive handbag hanging from her arm. From the memories he had just acquired, he recognized these as the luxuries the man whose body he had taken over was accustomed to.

The woman was his wife. Or, more accurately, the wife of the man whose body he now occupied.

"Jason, thank God you're still alive! I really thought I'd lost you, sweetheart!" she exclaimed, hurrying toward him with her arms outstretched.

"Are you really thankful that I'm still alive, or are you disappointed that I didn't die?"

She stopped in her tracks, her smile vanishing as she stared at him in disbelief.

"What do you mean?" she demanded, her expression darkening. "I've been here worrying about you all week! I've visited every morning, and now that you've finally woken up, this is what you have to say to me? You ungrateful bastard!"

"Cut it out, Emmanuella. You know how this happened. You know it was all your fault."

Noah gritted his teeth, his voice thick with rage.

What surprised him most was how genuine the anger felt. It was as though he really were Jason, the man whose body he had taken over.

These aren't my emotions. They're Jason's.

The realization unsettled him. The feelings attached to Jason's memories were just as real as his own.

"Isn't that your own fault?" Emmanuella shot back. "You could have pretended you knew nothing, just as you've been doing for the past two years! I take care of you. I give you everything you want. All you have to do is mind your own business, and you've been doing that perfectly well every day. So why did you have to react that way on that particular day?"

Her voice rose with each sentence, indignation twisting her features.

Noah clenched his jaw, fighting the urge to snap back. He knew these weren't his feelings, yet the deeper he delved into Jason's memories, the harder it became to separate himself from the man whose life he had inherited.

Am I Noah, or am I Jason?

He possessed the memories of both men. He remembered being a ruthless hitman known as the Western Storm, and he remembered Jason's miserable life. Yet neither man's past felt entirely foreign to him.

The pain, the anger, the betrayal. Everything felt real.

"Leave. I don't want to see your face," he said coldly.

Emmanuella froze, staring at him as though she couldn't believe Jason would dare speak to her that way. After a moment of stunned silence, she gritted her teeth.

"Fine! Do whatever you want. I don't care!" she snapped. "But don't tell anyone what happened. I've already told everyone you had an accident, so keep it that way. If you tell a single soul, you know Brian very well. He'll make sure you cease to exist. I'm telling you this for your own good!"

With that, she stormed out.

The door slammed shut, leaving Noah alone in the hospital room.

He sat quietly, sorting through Jason's memories.

Jason and Emmanuella had been lovers since university. He had accidentally gotten her pregnant, and because she came from a wealthy family with a reputation to protect, her parents couldn't afford to let anyone discover their daughter had conceived a child outside marriage.

Emmanuella managed to hide her pregnancy for a long time, but by the time her family discovered the truth, terminating it was no longer a viable option. Left with little choice, they forced Jason to marry her and sponsored the wedding themselves.

For the first six months of their marriage, everything had been wonderful. They were two nineteen-year-olds deeply in love, eagerly awaiting their child and dreaming of the family they would build together.

But in the ninth month of the pregnancy, just as they were preparing to welcome their baby, Emmanuella suffered a miscarriage.

Their daughter died before they ever had the chance to hold her.

The loss devastated them both. For two months, they mourned together, clinging to each other through their grief. During those dark days, they had only each other to lean on.

Then Emmanuella began to change.

Her attitude toward Jason shifted so drastically that he couldn't understand what had happened. At first, he wondered whether their daughter's death had affected her more deeply than he realized. Perhaps she was simply grieving in a way he couldn't comprehend.

He gave her the benefit of the doubt, hoping things would eventually return to normal.

Then he discovered the truth.

Emmanuella was having an affair with a wealthy young man whose family was even more powerful than her own.

His name was Brian.

Brian had been Emmanuella's childhood sweetheart. He had left for another country when she was sixteen, and they had lost contact. Yet their old feelings had apparently never faded.

Jason, meanwhile, was an orphan raised by his aunt, his mother's younger sister. He had taken out a student loan to finance his university education, struggling to build a future with the limited resources available to him.

After his marriage to Emmanuella, however, she and her family began supporting both him and his aunt financially. They even persuaded him to abandon his education and become a stay-at-home son-in-law.

Jason had willingly accepted the arrangement, eager to please his in-laws and prove they hadn't made a mistake by allowing him to marry their daughter.

He did everything they asked, complying with even their most unreasonable demands without complaint, hoping his dedication would eventually earn their respect.

Instead, they took him for granted.