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All Chapters of After I Died, My Family Lost Their Minds: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

11 Chapters

Chapter 1

I felt the floor drop out from under me, so I closed my eyes and waited quietly to die.Then came a solid smack.She'd lunged crooked, missed her footing, went down face-first, and rolled the whole flight.Which is how I dodged Tessa Ashford's plan to shove me to my death.I opened my eyes, looked at the empty space beside me, and shrugged.Too bad. Still alive.Tessa's sobbing tore up the stairwell.I ignored it, turned around, and went looking for a good spot to tuck myself into and wait for the end in peace.One loop of the second floor and I found it: the ventilation duct above the bathroom, its cover not quite shut.Dark, narrow, wrapped in sheet metal.A perfect drawer in a morgue.I climbed in, folded my hands over my stomach, and closed my eyes, satisfied.Downstairs, Tessa's crying had summoned the entire household."She said that as long as she was here there'd be no place for me in this family! And then she pushed me down the stairs on purpose!"Mom, Dad, and m

Chapter 2

Sometime after midnight, the greenhouse door eased open.I was half asleep in the dirt. I heard it, but I didn't move.Then a sharp chemical stink spread through the air.Tessa was stamping Mom's orchids flat.She had two bottles of weed killer, and she was spraying the whole greenhouse down with them.Then she locked the door from the outside.The fumes spread. My throat tightened and breathing got hard.Going by ten lifetimes of experience: pesticide, mid-range way to go.I shifted into a more comfortable position and took a long, deep pull of it.Good. This time it should finish the job properly.Right as my mind started slipping loose, there was a crash outside and one of the night security men shoved the glass door open.Fresh air poured in. Someone dragged me out by the arms.Every light in the house came on at once.Mom, Dad, and Ryan came running into the greenhouse.Mom took in the wreckage and clutched her chest. "My orchids! I spent three years on those!"Dad

Chapter 3

I don't know how long I'd been lying there when the faint trickle of air inside the box stopped completely.I heard soft footsteps outside.Then the last breathing gap was taped over and sealed.The temperature climbed. Every breath felt like a knife cutting through my throat, and my head grew heavy and foggy.Somewhere in the haze, ten lifetimes of memory came flooding back.I'd desperately cried for help in fires, in the deep sea, and beneath rubble.Not once had a single person stopped for me.So this time, even as I felt myself suffocating, I didn't move so much as a fingertip. I didn't make a sound.I just lay there and waited for it to arrive.This ridiculous eleventh life, I thought, is finally over.Then I woke up again.No underworld. Just the sting of antiseptic.Dad stood at the side of the hospital bed, gray-faced, jabbing a finger at me."Claire! Have you lost your mind?"An ambulance drove onto our property. Do you have any idea how the neighbors are looking

Chapter 4

Three days after I got out of the hospital, my parents took the family up to Summit Ridge.They'd asked me to, so this time I made myself sit in the back seat of the car.It had been pouring for days. The road was muddy all the way there.The moment we arrived, Mom, Dad, and Ryan immediately gathered around Tessa."Tessa, we had this room done exactly the way you like it. Go and see if it suits you."If anything's missing, say the word and we'll have it sent up."Tessa hooked her arm through Dad's and smiled sweetly. "If you chose it, I'll love it."Only after everyone else had picked a room did Mom turn and ask which one I wanted.There was exactly one left — the end room, the one closest to the mountainside. Why ask?Inside, I did my usual survey of the place.Good. The gap under the bed was just high and wide enough to lie flat in.I slid myself under, folded my hands, and waited for morning. Or for death.Around midnight a heavy roar came in through the window.The who

Chapter 5

Ryan's sneer froze on his face."What are you talking about? The cameras must be broken."He shoved the property manager aside and pointed at Tessa."She saw her run out with her own eyes!"The manager swallowed. His voice shook."Mr. Ashford, an independent infrared system doesn't just break..."Dad turned to Tessa and asked, low and even, "Did you see her or didn't you?"Tessa shrank back, her eyes darting, her voice barely there."The rain was so heavy... maybe I was wrong...""How could you be wrong?" Ryan said, frantic now. "Even if she didn't get out, she's hiding in there on purpose!""Shut up!"Mom's scream cut him off.She shoved Tessa out of her way and ran for the ruins."Which room was Claire in? Which room?"She clutched Dad's sleeve tightly with both hands, her eyes bloodshot.His mouth opened. He'd gone white. He had no answer.Because when the rooms were handed out, not one of them had paid attention to which room I'd been given.The rescue commander's

Chapter 6

Ryan broke free from the bodyguards and ran to the stretcher.He grabbed a fistful of my clothes and shook me like a rag."Claire, get up! Open your eyes!"You're faking again, aren't you? I knew it — playing dead is your favorite thing in the world!"Your body's still warm. Get up. Right now."Behind him Tessa wiped her eyes and chimed in through her tears."Ryan's right. She's obviously faking. She's always been the best at finding somewhere to hide."And anyway, with all that noise, how could she not have run?"She must have padded something around herself first and made herself look like this on purpose, to frighten us into feeling guilty—"A sharp slap rang out and cut her off.It was Mom's hand.Not across Tessa's face. Across Ryan's.Mom steadied herself, swaying, her eyes bloodshot, and fixed them on her son.She pointed at the bloodied beacon still in my hand and screamed until her voice tore."She called for help! She kept pressing the emergency beacon for five

Chapter 7

"We can still save her."The doctor's words hit Mom like a shot of adrenaline, and everything she'd been holding together came apart.She let out a breath, sagged down beside the stretcher, and gasped for air."Save her. Please, I'm begging you, save her."They rushed me onto the helicopter and flew me to the hospital downtown.Outside the operating room, the air in the corridor was thick enough to choke on.The red light above the doors glared brightly.Ryan stood off to one side, face dark, the mud on his clothes still wet."Mom, you're being completely unfair. Tessa had a terrible shock tonight."Nobody's asked her a single question. You're all gathered here around Claire."He glanced at the doors, and the stubbornness hadn't gone out of his voice."I told you she couldn't die, didn't I? It's obviously an act."Who survives under that much stone with breath left in them? She found herself a safe pocket ahead of time, that's all. The whole thing's a performance to punish

Chapter 8

My soul drifted into the air above them and watched the corridor below.My body was covered with a white sheet and wheeled toward the morgue.The surgeon's words went into Mom like a knife.She fainted and collapsed to the floor.Dad caught her in a panic and ended up sitting on the tile himself.He stared at his own hands. Then he started swinging his arms like a lunatic, slapping himself across the face over and over."I should have knocked on that door! Why didn't I knock on that door?"Ryan's legs gave out and he went down on his knees, his head buzzing."It's not possible. How could she be dead?"He rushed the gurney and yanked the sheet back.Underneath it was my face, drained of everything.He'd spent weeks telling me I wore a dead woman's face.Now that he was actually looking at one, he couldn't stop shaking."Dead? Just like that?"Into the dead silence came Tessa, tears on her cheeks, sniffling softly.She crouched down and reached out to help Dad and Ryan up

Chapter 9

Tessa's face went crimson under his grip, her feet off the floor, kicking.She had never once imagined that the brother who adored her most would expose all of it in front of everyone."You... what are you talking about...""You knew?"Dad got to his feet, his voice trembling."What did you just say? Say it again. You knew about all of it?"Mom braced herself against the wall and stared at the gurney while the tears came down.Home was supposed to be the safest refuge in the world.She had promised. The sky could fall in and they would be the ones holding it up.Then why had I preferred sleeping in a ventilation duct, a planter box, or under a bed?"Everything Claire said was true."Mom turned to look at Tessa and bit her lip so hard it nearly bled.She wanted to cross the corridor and tear her apart.But her hand stopped halfway up — and she brought it down across her own face instead.Then a second crack.Dad's palm caught Tessa full across the face."How could you be

Chapter 10

It occurred to me, watching from above, that I'd started to admire Tessa a little.She was vicious, but clear-eyed.And she understood me better than any of them.Her words left the whole family with nothing to say.Mom crawled to the gurney and pushed the hair back from my face with shaking hands.She looked at what the collapse had done to it, and the expression slowly faded from her face."Yes. All of it was my fault."Dad sat slumped on the floor with his face in his hands, weeping."When she said something was going to happen, I thought she was just talking..."I never wanted her to die. How did this happen?"Ryan's last excuse had been stripped away.Shame turned to rage. He roared, threw himself across the hall, knocked Tessa to the floor with one punch, sat on her, and started slapping her like a man out of his mind."It's you! It's you, you vicious little—"The two of them tangled together in the middle of the hospital corridor."And you aren't vicious? What you

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