They Called My Death a Tantrum, So I Stayed Dead novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Offer
The church stood still around me.
A woman in the aisle had one foot lifted over a pew.
Cadence sat in the second row with her hand halfway to her mouth.
I could see every tear on her face, and none of them moved.
"Explain it," I said to the blue square.
"Forgive Pierce Fairbank aloud," the voice said. "Mean it. Your body will be restored to the hour before the crash, the wrist whole, the wound closed. You will wake in your bed on Larch Street. Your family will remember everything."
"Everything."
"The record, the ledger, the church."
"And Pierce?"
"Pierce Fairbank is dead. His account is closed."
I looked at my brother on the floor of the sanctuary.
His mouth was a little open, the way mine had been.
"What if I don't say it?" I asked.
"You go through the gate on the seventh night, as arranged. You will not return."
"How long do I have?"
"Until the gate. The offer stands until you answer."
"Can I go home?"
The square flickered.
"You may."
The church dissolved, and I was standing in my own bedroom, with the lamp lit and my gray sweater on the pillow.
Ada sat in the desk chair with her hands folded.
"I felt the house go quiet," she said. She looked at my face. "He's gone, then."
"He said he'd do it again."
She nodded slowly.
I sat on the bare mattress beside the sweater.
"If I say yes, I wake up in this bed," I said. "Mom comes up with a plate. Dad takes the lock off the door. Cadence stands in the hall in her black dress and I get to tell her I'd have said yes."
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