The Day the Tragic Heroine Chose Herself Chapter 05

The Day the Tragic Heroine Chose Herself Chapter 05

The sharp smell of gunpowder hung in the air.

A high-pitched ringing filled my ears. Then I was floating. Weightless. Above everything.

Below me, the room had erupted into chaos.

“Celine!” “Mom!”

All three of them screamed at once.

Elias staggered forward and collapsed to his knees beside my body.

His hands shook as he pressed them to my temple, but the blood kept pouring out. He couldn’t stop

It soaked through his white shirt.

He pulled my body into his arms and broke down. A raw, animal sound ripped out of him.

“Celine, don’t do this to me. Somebody get a doctor! Get a doctor NOW!”

Arthur didn’t move at first. He was the best surgeon in Ravenwood City.

He knew exactly what a bullet to the brain meant.

“No… no, this can’t be happening…”

A broken sound scraped out of his throat. He dropped beside me and pressed his hands frantically

over the gunshot wound, shaking so badly he could barely apply pressure.

He kept pressing. Kept talking. The words fell apart on his tongue.

“Don’t die… baby, please don’t die… Daddy’s right here, please, please don’t die…”

But all the color was draining from my face. He could see it. No amount of denial could change what

was right in front of him.

His hands went still. “Celine… she’s…”

Leo tore away from Hazel and stumbled toward me.

He got close enough to see my face and froze. His legs wouldn’t take him any farther.

“No. No, she’s faking it, right?”

“Hazel said Mom always does this. She threatens to die just to scare us. That’s all this is, right?

She’s just… she’s trying to scare me?”

Hazel stared at my body. She was trying to keep her composure, but panic was bleeding through

She swallowed back a gag and started talking fast, scrambling to save herself.

“How did this happen? I was treating her. She was getting better. She shouldn’t have snapped like

this.”

“She must’ve… she must’ve planned this. She talked one of the guards into helping her!”

Elias’s head snapped up. He grabbed the gun off the floor, slick with my blood, and opened fire.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Chandeliers burst apart. Paintings were shredded. Antiques shattered into dust.

Then he turned the gun on Hazel.

“She’s not faking it! She’s dead, Hazel! And you’re still trying to spew lies about her?!”

“You did this. You pushed her until there was nothing left of her!”

Hazel stumbled backward, nearly tripping over herself. Her voice came out in pieces.

“Elias, what are you… what are you doing?!”

“Celine killed herself! That’s not my fault!”

The room erupted into screams.

Elias smiled. It was the hollowest thing I’d ever seen. He squeezed the trigger…

But before the shot could land, something yanked me backward. A tunnel of light swallowed me

whole.

It was instant.

I didn’t even get to see how it ended.

When I opened my eyes, I was in a hospital bed. A real hospital bed.

Sunlight poured through the window, warm on my skin. Real. Solid. Beautiful.

Like something precious I thought I’d lost forever, placed back into my hands.

My mom and dad were there. Both of them, arms around me, sobbing.

“Baby, you’re awake. Oh my God, you’re awake. You’re really awake…”

“The doctors can’t explain it. Your cancer, the tumors… they shrank overnight. You’re in remission They’re saying you could conte home soon!”

I broke down. I cried so hard I couldn’t breathe.

I made it. I was home.

Back in the world where people actually loved me.

The system pinged.

[Congratulations, Host. Cancer fully cleared. Seven hundred million dollars transferred to your

offshore account.]

I whispered a thank you in my head.

The system paused. When it spoke again, something in its tone shifted.

[Host, I told you before. Once you died in that world, everything in it collapses within three days…]

[Today is the last day. Are you sure you can live with that?]