Chapter 6
1518words
Calix and Kieran continued their violent struggle, metal cabinets crashing loudly, roars and curses echoing through the cold basement. But I heard nothing except a sharp buzzing in my ears.
My gaze fixed past Daniel's shoulder on the half-open freezer drawer.
It was Lena.
That pale, distorted face, like a wound that would never heal, burned itself into my memory.
"Daniel…" my voice was dry and hoarse, barely audible, "you told me Lena committed suicide by slitting her wrists."
I raised my head, looking directly into his eyes.
"Then what about the wounds on her head… how did those happen?"
Daniel's body suddenly stiffened, his arms tightening around me. His eyes darted wildly, like a trapped animal, desperate and cornered.
"Emily, let's get out of here first. It's not safe…"
"ANSWER ME!" I pushed him away with all my remaining strength, pointing at the watch that had fallen nearby. In the dim light, it looked like a cold, watching eye.
The fighting had stopped. Kieran lay pinned to the ground by Calix, blood trickling from his mouth. Calix stood up and looked at me, his eyes filled with unexpected compassion.
"Daniel, she has the right to know the truth." The antique store owner, who normally wore a gentle smile, now showed nothing but profound sorrow.
He sighed and delivered the terrible truth that Daniel couldn't.
"Emily, Lena… died a week ago."
My world collapsed.
Calix's voice was like a dull blade, cutting through my last hope word by word.
"Kieran's deranged son didn't just attack you. When Lena tried to protect you, he struck her down too."
"Lena's head… suffered multiple severe blows. By the time she reached the ICU, she was beyond saving."
My hand began to shake violently as warmth drained from my blood.
Dead?
Lena was dead?
Then who… had I been speaking to on the phone?
That voice, that tone—it was unmistakably hers…
"It was Daniel." Calix looked at Daniel, who knelt on the ground silently weeping. "He couldn't bear losing both of you. So he used the watch's magic to reverse Lena's death."
"It wasn't true resurrection—just an… echo. A shadow of her soul forcibly retained through forbidden magic."
"As long as no one mentioned her death, as long as she herself didn't remember, this shadow could remain… for one month."
One month.
My mind buzzed with those two words.
"But…" Calix continued with difficulty, "this magic has one inviolable rule."
"If she asks about the truth of her death, the caster must answer."
"Once the answer is spoken, the illusion shatters."
Calix closed his eyes, as if unable to bear watching any longer.
"She asked, right after you called her. She asked Daniel why her head hurt so badly, and what had really happened that day."
"Daniel… answered her."
"And so, Lena remembered that she was already dead."
"Her soul… vanished completely."
My heart felt gripped by an icy hand.
The single light bulb swayed overhead, its dim yellow glow stretching our shadows long and thin.
It was then that I noticed the most terrifying thing of all.
In the flickering light, Daniel cast no shadow. Calix cast no shadow. Even Kieran, half-conscious on the floor, cast no shadow.
In this cold room, only I…
Only I cast the clear shadow of a living person.
Tears fell unbidden, carrying with them a bone-chilling realization.
"Daniel, are you still going to lie to me?" I whispered. "The one who died was me."
This truth pierced my heart like an ice-cold dagger.
I recalled all of Daniel's recent strange behaviors.
How he would disappear late at night, returning with a face as pale as paper.
How his once jet-black hair had gradually become streaked with silver, as if his life force was being drained away.
And his missing shadow… no, that wasn't his shadow I was seeing—it was mine.
I trembled, looking at him through tear-filled eyes.
"Daniel… did you… exchange your life for mine?"
He remained silent, but his eyes—filled with pain and profound love—gave me the cruelest answer.
Fragmented memories flashed through my mind.
A cold, rainy night. Me lying in a pool of blood, consciousness fading. Daniel holding me, wailing in desperation. Then finding Calix, kneeling before him, using the blood-stained watch to perform forbidden magic at the cost of his own life and soul, allowing me to be "resurrected."
He had filled my dead body with his own soul.
I couldn't let him continue this sacrifice. I couldn't watch the person I loved most walk step by step toward oblivion for someone already dead.
I wiped away my tears and, meeting his anguished gaze, asked the question that had lingered in the depths of my memory but that I had never dared to voice.
"Daniel, why are you afraid of circular objects?"
He completely broke down, his body shaking violently as if the question itself was a curse. He knew that once this question was asked, all the lies he had maintained with his life would shatter.
Because the answer was the cause of my death.
Daniel trembled and said, "Because the watch…"
"Watch?"
What watch? The next second, my vision changed.
My consciousness was pulled into a massive vortex, my surroundings rapidly receding.
When I regained awareness, I found myself back on that sunny afternoon days ago when we visited the antique store.
The antique store smelled of old wood and mothballs. Lena and I were huffing as we helped Calix move a heavy oak chest.
"I'm telling you," Lena said, plopping down on the chest and wiping sweat from her forehead, "Calix, if your store goes under, you could make a fortune in the antiques business. This stuff is older than my grandmother!"
Calix waved dismissively. "Enough chatter. To thank you lovely ladies, go ahead—pick anything you want from the shelves. My treat."
Lena's eyes lit up as she darted away like an excited child, rummaging through the jingling pile of jewelry.
My attention, however, was drawn to a velvet box in the corner.
Inside lay an exquisite circular pocket watch with intricate rose patterns engraved on its brass case, its hands frozen at a single moment in time.
"Still so old-fashioned," Lena teased, leaning over to look before holding up a shiny brooch. "Now THIS is fashionable!"
Lena and I left the shop into the glaring sunlight, the street bustling with people. We were still arguing about dinner plans.
"Pizza, obviously!"
"Steak! Sizzling, juicy beef is truly heaven's—"
Lena's words cut off abruptly.
A man blocked our path.
It was Kieran's son.
He was rail-thin with sunken eye sockets, his eyes burning with a wild, incomprehensible flame. His gaze fixed on my wrist where I wore the pocket watch.
"Witch…" he rasped, his voice like grinding sandpaper. "A witch's relic…"
I hadn't processed his words before—
He lunged at me.
Everything happened too quickly. I couldn't even see what he held. I just felt a cold sensation in my abdomen, followed by an enormous force piercing through me.
I looked down to see a knife handle protruding from my body.
A metallic, sweet taste filled my mouth as my strength drained away. I collapsed softly to the ground.
The world spun around me. The last thing I saw was Lena.
I saw Lena let out a heart-wrenching scream, grab something nearby, and rush toward my attacker without hesitation.
I watched her fight like an enraged lioness against the madman.
Blood blurred my vision. Finally, she and the attacker collapsed together in a pool of blood.
The wounds on her head came from his repeated blows as they fought to the death.
So that's how it happened.
That's how I died.
That's how Lena died.
And Daniel, using that circular watch stained with my blood, pulled me back from death.
How ironic.
How cruel. My body began turning transparent, like smoke about to be scattered by wind. Daniel lunged toward me desperately, his hands passing through my chest, grasping only cold air. He froze, staring at his hands in disbelief.
"No…" broken syllables escaped his throat. "Don't go!"
He lunged at me again, trying to embrace me, but each time passed through my increasingly transparent form. He was like a child drowning in a nightmare, flailing desperately but grasping nothing.
I raised my transparent hand and gently caressed his cheek. He trembled violently—that cold touch finally making him face reality.
"Daniel," I whispered.
"Don't look at me like that." I tried to smile through my sadness. "Forget about me." My voice grew fainter, my body reduced to a mere outline. "For your own sake, live well."
Stop being afraid of circular things.
Stop punishing yourself.
The world dissolved into pure white light, all sounds and colors fading away.
Just when I thought everything would return to eternal silence, a familiar voice with a hint of impatience rang out in the brightness.
"Jeez, you've finally arrived."
"If you don't hurry up, the pi-zza will be com-plete-ly cold!"
