They Called My Death a Tantrum, So I Stayed Dead novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Ledger

Pierce held out his wrist.

His hand was shaking so badly that the gray band rattled against the bone.

"I don't have to," he said.

"Read it."

"It's only a hospital band."

The voice did not repeat itself.

The band lit up.

A thin line of white light rose from it and drew a long, flat bar in the air above his arm.

The bar had two colors.

All of it was gold, from end to end.

"Read," the voice said.

Pierce's lips moved.

"Family regard," he said. "One hundred points. Total."

"Read the division."

"Pierce Fairbank, one hundred," he said, and his voice cracked. "Ewan Fairbank, zero."

I felt the floor go out from under me, though I was standing on nothing.

"Zero?" my father said.

"There is one bar," the voice said. "It was opened on the night of the accident at a value of one hundred. Fifty to each of the two subjects."

"One bar," my mother whispered.

"The family's regard is a single quantity. It cannot be increased. It can only be moved."

Nobody spoke.

"When a member of the family gives to one subject, the same amount is removed from the other. The mission is complete when one subject holds the whole."

"The whole," Cadence said.

"The one who holds the whole lives. The other does not."

My father's mouth worked.

"That's not the mission we were told," he said. "He said they had the same mission. He said they both needed to win us over."

"They did," the voice said. "They did not both need to win. Only one could."

"You never told Ewan that," Cadence said.

"He was told the mission."

"You didn't tell him the cost!"

"He did not request the ledger," the voice said. "The ledger was requested by Pierce Fairbank on the first day."

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