The One Chosen to Die Chapter 05

The One Chosen to Die Chapter 05

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 David’s hand away and crouched down.

She reached out and pushed my shoulder.

Once.

Twice.

On the third time, her fingers jerked back, as if burned. She fell onto the ground, her eyes wide, her mouth open, but no sound came out.

David rushed forward and placed his fingers under my nose.

He stayed there for a long time. So long that Linda finally made a sound, as if her throat were being squeezed, forcing the words out. “How… how is she?”

David’s fingers trembled.

He pulled his hand back, then touched my neck, my wrist—there was no pulse.

A suppressed sound came from his throat.

“Clara’s wolf spirit… is gone.” His voice was hoarse, almost impossible to hear. “Gone… And she’s been gone for a while…”

Mary grabbed the doorframe.

Her body swayed as if a gust of wind could knock her down.

She clutched the frame tightly, her knuckles turning white. Her lips trembled for a long time, and in the end, she only said one word.

“Cla…”

And then nothing more.

She closed her eyes. Two lines of tears slid down from the corners of her eyes, flowing down the wrinkles on her face.

Linda sat on the cold ground, staring at my body. The light in her eyes faded little by little.

She suddenly reached out and pushed me again, as if trying to wake me.

“Clara,” her voice was very soft. “Get up. Your sister is fine. Get up and look…”

My hand passed through her shoulder as I tried to help her up.

My fingers went through her body. I couldn’t touch anything.

I stood at the basement door, watching all of this.

Though I was already dead and shouldn’t feel anything anymore, it still felt like my heart was sinking.

Bella pushed her way through the crowd.

When she saw my body, she froze. The light in her eyes shattered at once.

Her lips moved, saying something inaudible. Then tears fell, one after another, onto the hay.

“Clara…” She kneeled and reached out to touch my face, but her hand stopped in midair, shaking badly.

“You said you didn’t blame me… You said it…”

I wanted to hold her and say, “Bella, I don’t blame you. I never did.”

But she couldn’t hear me anymore. None of them could.

I died on my sister’s sixteenth birthday.

Perhaps the witch’s prophecy from the very beginning was about the wrong one.