Chapter 4

Mom immediately turned around and left me behind.

It turned out that Rachel had accidentally fallen and hurt her leg. Mom's face blanched with panic when she saw the thin line of blood on Rachel's knee.

Without another word, she crouched down and let Rachel climb onto her back, her voice full of alarm. "Don't be scared. I'll carry you to the infirmary. We can't let this scar. What if it affects your classes?"

Rachel squirmed a little on her back. "But Penelope's still passed out down there. Are we just going to leave her?"

Mom didn't so much as falter.

"Don't worry about her right now. She's always putting on an act, anyway. She won't die. You're hurt worse than she is. Worry about yourself first."

She hurried down the hill with Rachel on her back. After a few quick strides, she seemed to suddenly remember something and turned back to call out to my deskmate, Stephanie Barker.

"Go keep an eye on Penelope. Shake her awake and have her rejoin the group. Don't let her linger here and cause trouble for everyone."

Stephanie had been hoping to get back to school and rest as soon as possible. Reluctance and resentment filled her face at being singled out like this, but she could only duck her head and mumble an agreement.

Once Mom had disappeared down the path with Rachel on her back, Stephanie finally dragged her feet over to me. She kicked my arm, irritation written all over her face.

"Are you getting up or not? Cut it out already, will you? Your own mom doesn't even care about you. If you weren't lying here playing dead, I'd have gone back with everyone else a long time ago.

"Instead, I'm stuck here wasting time because of you. God, you're so annoying. How can you just lie there and keep acting like you're out cold? You haven't budged at all!"

The more she talked, the angrier she got. She kicked me again, harder this time.

My head slammed into the cold stones lining the flowerbeds. Blood instantly spilled from my forehead, running down and staining the ground red.

Stephanie's face turned ashen. She froze for a split second, then bolted, sprinting all the way back to school.

In the classroom, Mom sat with her head lowered, staring blankly at my empty seat like she'd already been waiting there for a long time.

When she saw Stephanie come back alone, she couldn't help looking surprised. "Why are you alone? Where's Penelope?"

Stephanie's eyes darted around shiftily. She hastily said, "She's still out there sulking! I tried to get her to listen—I said everything I could think of, but she refused to listen. She even snapped at me and flat-out refused to get up!"

To my surprise, Mom merely listened quietly without getting angry the way she used to. Instead, she just let out a long sigh. She said in resignation, "Even now, she's being so childish. She really has no idea where to draw the line."

Then, she turned to Stephanie and said gently, "You've done enough. It's Penelope who's being reasonable. She made you waste your time and effort."

Outside, the sky slowly turned completely dark, until only the sound of the wind remained.

Small creatures crept closer to my body, drawn by the smell of blood. At first, they cautiously sniffed the blood on my forehead. When I still didn't move, they grew bolder, even starting to lick my flesh.

I used to be terrified of the dark and of pain. Because of my allergies, even the tiniest cut would make me miserable for hours.

But now, I didn't need to worry about that. I was dead, so I couldn't feel anything anymore.