Her New Beginning, My Final Ending Chapter 02

Her New Beginning, My Final Ending Chapter 02

By the time the wedding ended, it was already afternoon.

Back in the hotel room. Claire picked up her phone, her face tight with worry. When I drifted closer, I realized she was

texting me:

[Natalie, do you have your phone on you? There’s a spare key under the mat by the basement stairs. Hurry and come

out.]

[I left food for you in the kitchen. Don’t forget to eat.]

But no reply ever came. She tried calling me too, and still no one answered.

She hurried out to find Dad. “Dad, Natalie didn’t pick up. She probably left her phone outside. Can you go home and

check on her? She’s been locked in there all day, and she still hasn’t eaten.”

Mom poked her in the forehead, exasperated. “At a time like this, you’re still worried about her? Since when does her

missing one meal matter more than your life?”

“Mom!” Claire cried anxiously.

“All right, all right. I’ll go back and let her out, then bring her here to keep you company. Is that what you want?”

Claire quickly handed her a takeout container. “It’s all Natalie’s favorite food. Make sure she eats it. Her stomach acts up

if she goes too long without food.”

My nose stung. I reached out, wanting to hug her, but my hand passed straight through her body.

Claire, thank you. But I would never be able to eat it again.

Mom took the food and rushed straight home. When she got there, the basement door was still shut.

She sighed, walked to the door, and said coldly. “Your sister said there’s a spare key under the mat on your side. Let

yourself out. She left food for you too. Eat something, then come back to the hotel with me and keep your sister

company.”

There was still no response.

Mom’s face darkened. She slammed the container onto the floor and pounded on the door.

“Natalie Whitmore, are you still throwing a fit?”

“Everything we did was for Claire. Just because you were jealous, you would’ve let your own sister die? How could you be

so vicious?”

She banged on the door again, then pulled out her key and opened it. The door cracked open once more, the gap slowly widening, and little by little, my hand came into view in the strip of light.

But just then, Mom’s phone rang.

It was Dad. His voice was urgent. “Stop by a drugstore and pick up some bandages. Claire slipped in the bathroom and cut

her foot.

The next second, the door slammed shut again.

Mom hurried off without even looking back.

I let out a bitter laugh. She had only been one step away from discovering that I had already been dead for hours.

Back in the hotel room, Mom carefully bandaged Claire’s foot. Adrian came in at that moment, and the whole family sat

around her on the couch, silently waiting for time to pass.

An hour that would normally have flown by now dragged on like an entire century.

When there was only one minute left until midnight, Mom finally broke down in fear and started crying. In the last

thirty seconds, Mom and Dad clung tightly to Claire and waited with their eyes shut.

Ten seconds.

Five.

One.

The room was so quiet it felt suffocating.

“Has the time passed?” Mom asked, her voice shaking.

Dad picked up his phone with trembling hands, glanced at the screen, and murmured. “It’s past midnight. The

comments didn’t appear. Does that mean the prophecy is broken?”

My parents stared at each other for a moment. Then, at last, they burst into tears of relief.

“It’s broken. The prophecy is broken! Claire, my daughter!”

They held Claire and sobbed like people who had survived a disaster.

“Quick, let’s go home. I have to tell Natalie the good news!”

Claire hurriedly threw on her clothes and rushed for the door. “Natalie’s been locked up all day. She has to be starving.

I’m going home to cook for her.”

Mom, Dad, and Adrian hurried after Claire and got into the car.

On the way home, all of them kept glancing at her, their faces lit with the relief of people who believed the worst was

finally behind them.

“Mom, Dad, we’ve let Natalie down for far too many years. When we get back, can we take her somewhere for a change

of scene?”

“Ever since her eighteenth birthday, she’s never really had a proper one because of me. I want to make it up to her

As she spoke, Claire held the necklace around her neck, the one I had given her before.

Mom sighed. “You’re right. We’ve ignored her for far too long. It’s time we made it up to her.”

All I felt was bitter irony. I could not help laughing softly to myself, wondering what their faces would look like once they

saw my body.

Very soon, my parents and Claire arrived home.

And the moment they saw the food on the table, already spoiled and covered in mold, all of them froze.

I had not come out of the basement for two full days.