Page 39 of What Goes Around

My body didn’t respond.

I was too weak. Too empty.

Apple leaned over me, her perfume suffocating me all over again.

“Goodbye.”

Something drove into my stomach.

For a split second, there was nothing.

Then the pain hit.

White-hot. Vicious. Blinding.

A broken sound tore out of me as I gasped, my body jerking against the mattress.

Her smile widened at the horror in my eyes.

“Your whole life’s been a joke,” she whispered. “Better luck in the next one… sis.”

Warmth spread across my abdomen.

My vision dimmed at the edges.

The room blurred. Tilted. Faded.

But in those final moments, I wasn’t afraid.

I was angry.

Not weak. Not broken.

Angry.

Something burned inside me, hotter than the pain, stronger than the darkness closing in.

I wanted to come back.

No.

I would come back.

And I would make them all pay.

Then everything went black.

Part II

Chapter 12: Reborn

Age 17

I came to with a gasp.

Cold tile pressed against my cheek. For a second, I couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. My lungs dragged in air like I’d been drowning, like I’d just been pulled out of something dark and endless.

Bass thudded through the walls, loud enough to shake the floor beneath me. Laughter. Shouting. A bottle crashing somewhere nearby.