In the darkness, echoes of voices haunted the fringes of my fading consciousness.
I could hear Ste’s sobbing, Robin’s urgent calls, and the doctor’s strained pleas.
“Phoebe, Phoebe, hang on…”
“Phoebe!”
“Phoebe!”
“She’s been holding on too long, and we found her toote. If only, if only a day earlier… just one more
day, she might have made it.” The doctor’s voice was hoarse with emotion, eyes glistening with unshed
tears. “She was pregnant.”
As an onlooker to my own tragedy, it seemed impossible toprehend what I had endured these past
days.
“How desperate she must have felt,” Cory said, turning away, unable to face the truth. “If we’d found
her sooner… Now a life inside her is gone too! That monster!”
“To think she was tortured so, her fingers broken to appear more delicate, her blood tainted with a
cocktail of drugs, her skin paler than a porcin doll. That maniac disyed her like artwork in a ss
case.” The female officer wept openly, looking away, unable to bear the sight.
Dexter sat on the floor, breath ragged, his eyes bloodshot as if he’d lost his mind. “She can’t be dead.
She won’t die… she’s lying! She’s tricking me! She won’t die! Didn’t she want me to marry her? I will!
Come back, Phoebe, don’t die!”
“If you and Melody hadn’t interfered with the police investigation, Phoebe wouldn’t be dead, she
wouldn’t!” Ste screamed,shing out at Dexter, her hands aching to throttle him.
The female officer moved to intervene, but Robin held her back.
Robin, too, harbored resentment towards Dexter.
After all, there was still a chance for me before.
“If only a day sooner…” Ste’s cries were ament, her strength failing as she copsed to the floor.
If only a day sooner.
“You and Melody killed her, so why don’t you die, Dexter? Go to hell.”
“She’s not dead… she won’t die!” Dexter suddenly burst out, in denial of the lifeless form behind the
ss, running desperately towards the exit.
How ironic; hadn’t he always wished me dead? And now that I was, why did he lose his mind?
“Officer Robin! We’ve got a lead. Phoebe’s parents were the phnthropists who funded the
13-10
orphanage. The day they died in the car crash, they were on their way to a celebration there! And on
the same day, there was a fire at the orphanage, many perished.” A policeman burst into the basement,
holding a photograph of the orphanage, with my parents and me in it.
“Orphanage…”
A sudden headache gripped me, and shes of the car crash scene appeared in my mind. I saw the
figure desperately trying to save me.
Why
the image slowly became clear. It wasn’t Dexter.
“Colin…” Why did the memory of that murderer surface?
Wasn’t it Dexter who saved me?
That ident… had I truly lost so much of my memory?
“This is no coincidence. The death of Phoebe’s parents, and the cause of Phoebe’s own death might
not be an ident!” Robin mmed his fist against the wall in a fury. “I will catch the culprit. I won’t let
Phoebe’s death be in vain!”
My consciousness was slipping away, the voices fading..
So, the death of my parents was no ident. It was orchestrated! Linked to the one who murdered me!
As death closed in, a tumultuous tide of hatred and a thirst for truth nearly tore me apart.
The Grim Reaper had granted me time, but no chance for regret.
My life had only just begun!
I couldn’t ept this. Why did I have to endure all this pain? Why lose my parents at eighteen, be at
the mercy of others? Living a life of timid acquiescence, yet unable to escape a fate of being tormented
by a murderer, abandoned by the man I once loved, and framed by a vindictiveExclusive ? content by N(?)ve/l/Drama.Org.
woman!
I couldn’t ept it! If given another chance, I would live differently, never again so meekly. “Mom, Dad.”
Beyond the darkness was a piercing white light. I didn’t know how long I’d been out, lost to time and
everything else. “I can’t ept this. I want to live, to seek vengeance, and to uncover the truth!”