Reborn, I Let Them Take the Cursed Graduation Photo Chapter 04

Reborn, I Let Them Take the Cursed Graduation Photo Chapter 04

At exactly ten o’clock Saturday morning, I was at my desk working through a stack of practice problems when the doorbell rang.

I opened the front door.

Ethan stood on the porch.

“Come on,” he said. “We’re taking the class photo.”

Just for Isabella’s sake, he’d actually come all the way to my house.

Despite knowing each other for fourteen years, Ethan had never liked coming here.

“You live in a mansion,” he’d once told me. “People like me don’t exactly belong in places like this.”

Deep down, he’d always believed my family looked down on his because we were wealthier.

It didn’t matter that my parents had always welcomed him warmly.

It didn’t matter that our families had worked together for years.

He had always kept me at arm’s length.

At first, I tried to reassure him.

I kept explaining that our friendship had nothing to do with money.

Eventually, I stopped.

A friendship that survived only because one person kept apologizing, explaining, and compromising had already stopped being a friendship.

I folded my arms and lifted my chin.

“I’m not going.”

His brows knitted together immediately.

“Why not?”

“I don’t want a graduation picture.”

I answered without hesitation.

“And I don’t have anything worth remembering.”

He stared at me in disbelief.

“You only graduate from college once.”

A faint smile crossed my lips.

“There are plenty of moments in life worth remembering.”

“What matters is who you’re remembering them with.”

I held his gaze.

“I don’t consider any of you my friends.”

“So I don’t see any reason to memorialize today.”

Ethan went completely still.

It took him several seconds to find his voice.

“We grew up together.”

“We’ve been friends for fourteen years.”

“No.”

I leaned against the doorframe.

“That’s what you believed.”

“As far as I was concerned, we were classmates.”

“Nothing more.”

Color rushed into his face.

His pride had taken a direct hit.

When he realized he couldn’t change my mind, his tone became forceful.

“I don’t care how you feel.”

“Isabella wants a full class picture.”

“So you’re coming.”

A cold smile tugged at the corner of my mouth.

“Ethan…”

“Aren’t you curious why Isabella is so obsessed with getting one particular photo?”

He answered instantly.

“She wants something to remember us by.”

I let out a quiet, humorless laugh.

“Really?”

“Even someone like me?”

“Someone who has never treated her like a friend?”

“She still insists I have to be in the picture.”

“Does that honestly make sense to you?”

He opened his mouth.

Nothing came out.

I decided not to push him any further.

“If you all want to take the picture, that’s your choice.”

“But I’m not going.”

“So stop trying to drag me into it.”

I started closing the door.

Before it could shut, Ethan planted a hand against the frame.

He stared at me.

Really stared.

As if he were trying to peel away every layer hiding beneath my expression.

Finally, he spoke.

“You know something.”

His eyes locked onto mine.

“You remember your previous life too.”

“Don’t you?”

I smiled.

It was a tired, bitter smile.

“You know exactly how my last life ended.”

“So you should understand why I don’t think of you as my friend anymore.”

I spoke slowly.

“I can’t pretend none of it ever happened.”

For a long moment, Ethan said nothing.

The warmth disappeared from his face.

Without another word, he turned around and walked away.

Half an hour later, I was scrolling through Instagram when a new post appeared.

My heart skipped a beat.

They had done it anyway.

All forty-nine students from our department were gathered in front of the university’s main entrance.

Isabella stood in the front row with a bright, radiant smile.

In her hands was a laminated printout.

It wasn’t me.

It was my student ID photo downloaded from the university portal and printed onto a large card.

She held it up so my face appeared in the group.

The caption read:

[Katherine couldn’t make it, so we brought her with us anyway! Now the whole class is here together!]

The comments flooded in almost instantly.

[Perfect!]

[Now everybody’s included!]

[This is so wholesome.]

[Best graduation photo ever!]

A knot tightened in my stomach.

Something felt horribly…

wrong.

Then the sky exploded.

BOOM!

The thunder was far louder than yesterday.

Closer.

Violent enough to rattle the windows.

I rushed to the window.

The moment I looked up, my blood ran cold.

Letters were appearing across the sky.

Not glowing.

Bleeding.

Dark crimson seeped into the clouds one drop at a time, as though someone were writing with fresh blood.

Each letter slowly took shape until they formed a single sentence.

[I WARNED YOU NOT TO TAKE THE GRADUATION GROUP PHOTO.]

[BUT SOME OF YOU JUST COULD’T LISTEN.]

A blinding pain stabbed through my temples.

My vision blurred.

The room tilted.

Somewhere far away, almost like a voice echoing from another world, I heard a whisper.

[THE RULES HORROR HAS BEGUN.]