Semua Bab The One Chosen to Die: Bab 1 - Bab 9

The moment my soul drifted out of my body, I could no longer feel any pain.My heart stopped pumping, and the ache in my chest disappeared. I simply floated upward, light and weightless, and passed through the basement door.The same door I had just been banging on yet could not open.In the living room, candlelight flickered. A warm yellow glow fell across my parents’ and sister’s faces.They sat close together on a fur rug. Mom, Linda Walker, gently patted my sister Bella Roth’s back.Dad, David Roth, kept his head lowered, his shoulders trembling. It was hard to tell whether he was crying or holding it in.Bella was wearing that white fox fur dress, the only one in the house who had it.The fur at the hem shimmered silver in the candlelight, making her face look even paler.“Mom, Dad, is Clara really okay?” Bella asked softly. “I heard her saying her chest hurt…”Linda’s hand paused for a moment, then continued.“Don’t worry about her,” she said coldly. “She’s just pretend

On the night before Bella’s sixteenth birthday, I was locked in the basement.My chest had already been hurting for three days, and I could feel my body getting weaker.I curled up on the pile of hay, my whole body cold, my teeth chattering. I barely had the strength to even say that it hurt.A line of light came through the crack of the basement door. It was David.He crouched outside and pushed a bowl of soup through the gap.“Clara,” his voice was very low, as if afraid someone might hear. “Eat something. Don’t go hungry.”I floated in front of him, separated by the door, and watched as he pulled his hand back without even looking inside.“Dad,” I called out to him. He didn’t react. After all, he couldn’t hear me.He sighed. “Clara, don’t be stubborn with us. When your sister is gone, I will make it up to you.“I’ll buy you the best deer-hide boots. Haven’t you always wanted them?”I stood in front of him and said softly, “No need. You’ll never have the chance.”He coul

Linda didn’t understand why David was still standing at the door.“Why are you just standing there?” She stepped forward, trying to squeeze past him to look inside.David raised his hand and stopped her.He stood with his back to the moonlight. His face was hidden in shadow, but his shoulders were trembling badly.The hand he used to block Linda was shaking too, as if it took all his strength to lift it.“What’s wrong?” Linda’s voice tightened. “Where’s Clara? What happened to Clara?”Bella leaned out from behind her mom and looked into the basement. She called softly, “Clara?”No one answered.The basement was dark. Only a thin strip of moonlight came through the doorway. It fell onto the pile of hay, lighting up a curled, motionless figure.My body.It lay curled in the hay, like a small, abandoned animal. The hay covered most of my face, leaving only a patch of grayish skin exposed. My eyes were tightly shut. My lips were bluish-purple, like frozen meat.Linda pushed Da

The crying drew a neighbor, Ms. Hill, over.She had probably been passing by and heard the noise. She peeked into the yard and stepped inside.She stood at the doorway and glanced in. Seeing me in Mary’s arms, Linda collapsed on the ground, her lips curled, then she clicked her tongue.“Oh my, this is… Bella didn’t make it?”Her voice was lowered, but every word was clear.“Poor thing. She finally made it to sixteen, and still didn’t survive…”Mary raised her head and looked at her.“It’s not Bella,” she said. “It’s Clara.”Ms. Hill froze. The expression on her face shifted from pity to shock, and then to something else.Her voice rose, loud enough for the whole yard to hear.“Clara is dead? Wasn’t it Bella who was supposed to be taken?”No one answered her.She stood there, holding a fur bag. Her mouth moved faster than her thoughts as she muttered, “This… the one who should die didn’t, and the one who shouldn’t did…”Linda sprang up from the ground.I had never seen my

“I can see you.”When those words came out of Mary’s mouth, I thought I had heard wrong.She was standing at the doorway of the old house, holding the urn containing my ashes. Her eyes were fixed straight ahead at me, floating in midair.There was no fear in her cloudy, old eyes, nor was there shock, only a kind of heartbreak I couldn’t describe.My tears fell.So someone could see me. From the moment I died, Mary had been able to see me.Mary placed the urn on the table and reached out her hand.She extended it into the empty air, stopping right where my lingering soul was. Her fingers trembled slightly, as if she were testing something.“You’ve suffered,” her voice choked.She opened her arms to gesture a hug.I drifted closer and stopped in her embrace.Of course, she couldn’t hold me.Her arms wrapped around nothing. When her fingers closed, there was nothing there to grasp.However, she didn’t let go. She just stayed like that, holding the empty shape, as if she were