The Whole Family’s Regret After I Died Chapter 05
Dad didn’t go in.
He stood in the doorway with one hand gripping the frame, like he’d been nailed to the floor. Morning light came in from behind him, stretching his shadow out long and thin, while his face stayed in darkness.
“What’s going on?” Mom still had her arms around Elena and was smiling as she leaned in to look. “Come on, call Emma out, let her share in the good news-”
Dad’s arm came across the doorway. “Don’t come in.”
Mom’s smile stopped where it was.
Elena slipped out from under Mom’s arm and stood on her toes to look inside. The light was dim, just what crept in through the gap at the door and a narrow air vent up high, enough to light a small patch of stone floor. And on that floor, a figure lying on her side.
“Emma?”
Elena’s voice still had a laugh tucked in it, light and careful. “Stop pretending to sleep. Come on, the curse didn’t work. I’m okay.”
The figure on the stone floor didn’t move. Her chest didn’t rise. Not even a strand of hair stirred with breathing.
The smile faded from Elena’s face, little by little.
Mom finally pushed Dad’s arm out of the way, stepped over the threshold, and crossed to me in three steps, crouching down.
“Emma, get up. Stop making a scene.”
She reached out to touch my face. The instant her fingertips made contact, she went rigid from her hand upward.
Cold. Hard. Not the temperature of something alive.
She snatched her hand back like she’d touched a hot iron, stumbled backward, and sat down hard on the floor.
“No…”
Her mouth was open, but the sound seemed to be coming from somewhere far away. “That can’t be right. She was calling out just last night. She only had a stomachache, how could she…”
Dad pushed through into the cellar. He knelt down and turned me over: my eyes were closed, my lips blue-gray.
He put a trembling hand beneath my nose and his whole body locked up.
No breath.
“You try.” He said it to Mom, but his voice had completely come apart. “Your hands are steadier than mine. You try
Mom didn’t move. She was still sitting on the floor, both hands pressed over her mouth, eyes blown open wide, frozen like a statue.
Dad didn’t wait. He pressed two fingers to my wrist, searching for a pulse.
Nothing.
He collapsed all at once, like something had been removed from inside him. His forehead met the stone floor, and a sound came out of him that wasn’t quite crying, more like something being torn straight out of his chest.
“Emma… my Emma…. you were just in pain last night… I brought you porridge… it was right at the door… why didn’t you drink it…”
Mom finally moved. She threw herself forward, grabbed my hand, and started rubbing it frantically between both of hers, over and over.
“Warm her up. Just warm her up, that’s all…”
She rubbed and talked at the same time, her voice shredded: “You always wanted your own room/Mom got it ready. The string lights are in the closet, just for you, Mom’ll put them up the second you wake up—”
“The art money’s all saved. Starlight Academy opens Saturdays. You love drawing flowers, Mom already signed you up…”
She pressed my hand against her face as she rubbed, her cheek burning hot, my hand ice cold, and no amount of warmth passed between them.
“Open your eyes and look at Mom. Yell at her, hit her, anything, just move, just show Mom you’re still here-”
Her crying became something raw and awful.
“Mom won’t lock you up anymore… never again… just come back… please come back…”
Grandpa didn’t enter the cellar. He stood outside with one hand locked around the door frame. The vine-woven shoes were still in his coat pocket, the silver embroidery of the vine-flower peeking out.
His lips trembled for a long time. No words came.
Then his legs gave. He slid down the doorframe and sat on the ground, face buried in both hands. Tears poured through his fingers and wouldn’t stop.
Elena was still standing there, motionless. She had one hand on the wall, looking in through the doorway: me on the floor, Dad broken over me, Mom clutching my hand, Grandpa sobbing in the hall.
“Emma…”
The light went out of her eyes. Her whole body went slack, like the strings had been cut, and she fell straight toward the floor.
“Elena-!” Grandpa scrambled up from the ground.
In the cellar, Mom and Dad held my body and wept. In the hallway, Grandpa caught Elena before she hit the floor, his face a wreck of tears and grief.
