Reborn In a Murderer’s Embrace

In the darkness, echoes of voices haunted the fringes of my fading consciousness.

I could hear Stella’s sobbing, Robin’s urgent calls, and the doctor’s strained pleas. Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

“Phoebe, Phoebe, hang on…”

“Phoebe!”

“Phoebe!”

“She’s been holding on too long, and we found her too late. 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 to comprehend 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 porcelain doll. That maniac displayed her like artwork in a glass 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!” Stella screamed, lashing 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…” Stella’s cries were a lament, her strength failing as she collapsed 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 glass, 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 philanthropists who funded the

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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 flashes 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 accident… 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 accident!” Robin slammed 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 accident. 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 accept 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 vindictive

woman!

I couldn’t accept 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 accept this. I want to live, to seek vengeance, and to uncover the truth!”