Chapter 2

2.

It was strange.

Everyone was acting strange.

After finding out Luna died shielding me, I became public enemy number one.

The home I had lived in for over a decade was completely destroyed.

Dad’s hair turned white overnight. He told me, "You’re the one who should be dead."

Mom beat me and screamed, collapsing in hysterics. "You killed her! You killed my baby! How can you still stand there?"

They stopped letting me go to school.

They locked me in the basement, day after day.

But...

Why not blame the shooter? Why blame me?

Wasn't I a victim too?

Is the person who survives automatically the sinner?

I didn't know.

I only knew that, like they said―

I owed Luna.

I owed her a life.

A debt I could never repay.

I stayed in that pitch-black basement for a long time.

Until my eighteenth birthday.

Zayden convinced my parents to finally let me out.

Seeing sunlight after so long, my legs went weak. I could barely stand.

Without a word, Zayden carried me on his back, walking step by step to Columbia University.

Columbia was my dream school.

It was also where Luna wanted to go.

The cherry blossoms on campus were in full bloom. Zayden’s voice was soft. "You know? Luna wanted to come here too. But she’ll never see it now."

I didn't answer.

I just lay on his back, weeping silently.

That day was my eighteenth birthday.

It was also the last time Zayden was gentle with me.

After that, my school enrollment was cancelled.

I was locked in the attic at home.

Mom and Dad went to Europe and completely stopped caring about me.

Zayden became reckless and cruel.

At first, I would beg. "Please, let me go."

But the attic was too dark.

There was not a sliver of sunlight.

Trapped inside, I lost track of time and seasons.

My mind started to break.

Another anniversary of Luna's death arrived. When Zayden tried to make me kneel, we had a massive fight.

"I won't kneel!"

"I hate her! I hate her! I hate all of you!"

"I never asked her to save me!"

"You want me dead? Then do it! Kill me!"

I might have already been a little crazy by then.

Zayden kicked me in the knee.

He didn't like it when I disobeyed.

As punishment, he dislocated my wrist joints.

He tied me to the headboard in a humiliating position.

Zayden’s tone was cruel. "You owe her, understand?"

"At least you're still alive. She isn't."

Oh.

So my being alive was the sin.

Then I didn't want to live anymore.

On the night of my twenty-second birthday, I couldn't hold on any longer.

Blood soaked through the sheets.

I chose to end it all.

To fulfill what they said―to pay Luna back with my life.