My Sister Had a Death Countdown, But Mine Hit Zero First Chapter 01
Everyone in my family could see the silver countdown above my sister Stella’s head.
It was counting down to her death.
Those numbers were the Moon Goddess’s mark on her fate, a curse every elder in the Cedar Ridge Pack was too afraid to name.
Everyone knew Stella would die on her sixteenth birthday.
So she became the child everyone protected and spoiled.
The best cookies went to her. The pretty dresses went to her. Even Mom’s bedtime stories and hugs belonged to her.
I felt sorry for her.
But I was jealous too.
She had all the love I never got.
When Stella’s sixteenth birthday finally came, Mom and Dad were afraid I would make a scene, so they locked me in the storage room while I was burning with fever.
I pounded on the door, terrified.
“Mom, let me out. I have a fever. My head hurts so much…”
On the other side, my mother, Helen, gritted her teeth.
“Enough, Ava! Your sister has only one day left before the Moon Goddess claims her. Can you not make this about you for one day?”
“But I really feel awful…”
The sounds outside the door faded. Little by little, everything went dark.
…
Then my body suddenly felt weightless.
I passed through the old wooden door and saw warm firelight glowing in the West Wing sitting room of the pack house. My father, Marcus, and my mother, Helen, sat close beside Stella on the couch.
Helen gently patted Stella’s back. Marcus lowered his head. His shoulders trembled slightly. Stella wore her only new dress.
The pale blue skirt had tiny silver stars sewn onto it. They looked just like the star lanterns that hung from the porch eaves for the Moon Goddess rite. Her face was terribly pale in the firelight.
Her lips had almost no color.
“Dad, Mom, is Ava really okay?”
Stella’s voice was soft, stuffy with fever.
“I heard her saying her head hurt.”
“Leave her alone.”
Helen spoke at once. She touched Stella’s cheek with aching tenderness and brushed the loose hair from her forehead.
“She’s not sick. She just wants to make your birthday about herself. She wants all of us fussing over her. You only have one day left before…”
Helen didn’t finish. Her throat seemed to close. Her eyes turned red.
“Just focus on your full-moon birthday tomorrow. Don’t let her ruin your mood.”
Stella pressed her lips together and said nothing.
But her frown deepened.
I knew she had always felt guilty about me. Since we were little, all the love in our family had been poured into her.
I could only stare at hot roast chicken and wish for a single bite. New clothes and new toys were even further out of reach. But Stella always secretly stuffed her cookies into my hand.
She would shorten the new dresses our parents bought her and pass them down to me.
Every time Mom and Dad scolded me, she was always the first to stand in front of me.
She always said, “Ava, I’m sorry. You got hurt because of me.” But Mom and Dad never thought that way.
Helen sighed, her eyes full of aching tenderness as she looked at Stella.
“Stop defending her all the time. That girl has been jealous of you since she was little. She can’t stand seeing you get anything good.”
“Did you forget what happened on your fourteenth birthday?”
Stella’s fourteenth birthday was the first time I truly understood that she was going to die. That day, our family bought a birthday cake with cream frosting for the first time. Fourteen thin candles stood on top. Helen lit each candle with great care.
Marcus held an old camera he had used for years. He wanted to record one of the few birthdays Stella had left. I hid around the corner of the hallway.
I watched the candlelight fall across Stella’s face. I watched her close her eyes and make a wish. I watched Mom and Dad hold back their tears.
Then I rushed out. I didn’t know what I was thinking at the time. Maybe I was jealous.
Maybe I couldn’t accept that the sister who had always been gentle to me would really leave me on her sixteenth birthday.
I knocked the cake over with both hands. Cream splattered across the carpet. The candles rolled near the fireplace and quickly went out.
“I don’t want to see you celebrate her birthday!”
I screamed like the worst kind of child. Even now, I still remembered the way Mom and Dad looked at me. When Marcus raised his hand, I didn’t dodge.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Helen stood beside us and cried. But she didn’t stop him. It was Stella who threw herself over me. She hugged me and blocked me with her thin body.
“Stop hitting Ava, Dad! Please stop!”
Her voice shook, but she held me tightly.
“It’s my fault. It’s all my fault…”
That night, Stella snuck into my little room. She pressed the half piece of candy she had hidden into my hand. A red mark crossed her wrist. The corner of a chair had scraped her when she tried to protect me earlier that day.
“Ava, I’m sorry.”
She touched my swollen face gently.
“I’ll be gone soon. After that… after that, no one will take anything from you anymore.”
Now, in the sitting room, Helen touched Stella’s face with that same aching tenderness again.
“Stella, don’t mind her.”
Helen’s voice was tired.
“That girl has been jealous of you since she was little. You know that.”
My soul froze in midair.
Yes.
I was jealous of my sister.
Jealous that she had all their love.
Jealous of her new dresses.
Jealous that when she had a fever, Mom stayed by her bed all night.
Jealous that even with only one day left, she was still the little girl at the center of their hearts.
I floated toward Stella. I wanted to grab her hand.
I wanted to tell her I really did have a fever.
My head really did hurt.
But my hand passed straight through her body. It was like passing through cold mist. I stopped in the air and stared blankly at my transparent fingers.
Then I turned and looked at the tightly shut wooden door of the storage room. A faint line of light slipped through the crack beneath the door.
I floated over and passed through the door. There I was, curled up among piles of old junk.
So I was dead.
Already.
The first countdown to reach zero had not been Stella’s.
It had been mine.
