Chapter 3: New Life, Written Future

Dawn Everhart

I was supposed to wake up standing by the gates of the afterlife but the heavens gave me a second chance not to cross the gates yet. Alone and secluded in the dusty house, I heard the door creak open followed by footsteps clacking on the tiled floor. I should've been nervous and panicking of who might intrude but I think, after all that crying for days there's nothing left to do but brace myself and dread what may come sooner or later.

It was the moment Dr. Scarlett Everhart found me when she entered that lifeless house and found a child with soulless eye, ready to surrender the meaning of 'life'.

I had lost everything. My beloved father died of an accused crime, my mother lost all sanity and forgot about her own kids, my eldest brother abandoned me and so is the other one who eloped. He said he'll come back for me an I, half-heartedly hoped he'll keep his word, but it has been a week now. He'll never come back even if I wait forever because he decided to save himself from the severe crisis.

I guess people are born selfish indeed. Be it family or strangers.

I had survived 7 days without food and scarcely had any fluid intake, slowly declining my own health. Now before you say 'You should've cooked food', or 'find a way', I did my best. What can you expect a 6 year old to cook some vegetables (because that's all that's left in the fridge) when she can't even handle a knife or even reach the counter yet?

Each day I had nothing to do but weep the pain I felt until my heart petrified to a cold stone and I never knew hunger and pain no more. Each night, I'd gaze the stars at the night sky from my window in what seemed forever.

I stared at her beautiful, yet lifeless eyes as if there's nothing mattered anymore.

"Your parents must be looking for you child." She told me, in hopes that I leave the place.

"I do hope that time will come... in forever." I beamed in the silent atmosphere between us.

We had each other's sync in a millisecond.

And we laughed.

At the pitiful state of our lives that only left us a question why we existed in the first place.

She should've just discarded me in the first place but she never was that kind of person. She pitied me and took me to her place and legally became my mother.

"Why?" I asked her one night as she joined me by the moor, star-gazing.

A sad smile slowly etched her face as she gazed the stars longingly. "I've always dreamed of having a family, become a mother myself and have my own children. My husband had other plans and forced me to an abortion. I was helpless, so I did. He tricked me and made me a murderer in front of everyone. In the end, my family abandoned me as so did my husband. I could never forgive myself about that up to this day."

Why does the greatest misfortune always befell on people like her?

Time passed and our bond grew like mother and daughter and it gave us a bit of hope to live for the sake of the other.

I had a new home, new family, and everything went well for me.

One night, I lay in bed rethinking what were the people who abandoned me doing right now. Especially Julia.

Now that I think about her, my anger boiled. Just thinking of her having a great time now that I'm gone, making fun of the life I had, turned my sad ghost to a vengeable one.

It may have been some mere backstab, but you don't need the knife to penetrate deeper to know it hurt now, do you? Even if she was to say sorry, I'm sure you know that 'sorry' doesn't fix everything just as you'd say 'money can't buy everything'. If you put a band-aid over a bullet wound, would it fix it? And the pain I felt after what happened left more than a bullet hole. I got back to my studies and did well in school when I transferred to New York.

As I continued to education, I met a girl named Stella Maddox who ignited my crazy side I hid for almost all my life. We had a lot of fun going to parties at night and secretly smoking.

I know that drinking, smoking, and parties are not what a smart kid should do. But hey, that's the life of a teenager no one can deny that. Your parents might scold you, tryna protect you but they'd done it before, no lie.

We often had problems as mother, makes a comeback in the elite league of society. After what had happened, new rivals rose and in order to had those nosy flies off, she made an alliance contract with a French businessman named Mr. Kline. When that happened, she got me betrothed to his son.

"Excuse me?" I slammed my cup of coffee on the table.

"I'm sorry, honey. I know you don't want to be married yet but it's just a trial." She tried to explain.

"I don't see any trial in a contract marriage." I told her.

"You will be married at 25 or so if you wanted to. But till then, you are betrothed until I complete what it takes to finally annul your betrothal." She sighed exasperated. "I know it was selfish of me, but I did my best for our sake."

"Smart of you to even make a contract only to annul it however." I scoffed.

"It's the best I could do rather than have you marry someone you don't even like." She countered.

"Yeah, and whatever happens. I am not meeting him."

I did my best to forgive her.

-

I must say, she did a great job making excuses for me whenever she had a meet up with the Klines.

The time I turned 15, was when mother got a business trip to France for a year and half. She hate to leave me so I had to transfer with her too. Anyway, I'm used to it and Stella was also going to Australia with her family anyway.

-

Never have I ever felt so much advanced in a different school since I left Asia. The Institute of Fine Arts (IFA) was now my favorite school that I never expected would be one of my favorites since I find schools boring. Asia might've been so advanced academically, but I loved how they teach us in IFA. They were the first ones to explain to me what purpose does learning math and science serve in reality.

And for the first time in my whole life, I enjoyed school.