Chapter 7
New York, at the corpse–bearing inn.
I untied the rope around Rachel and carefully moved her stiff corpse.
For seven years, whenever I felt overwhelmed, I would go to the hospital morgue to see her.
I
was born with a deadly aura, and my mother died giving birth to me.
Only the negative energy passed down through corpse bearers could balance the deadly aura inside me.
In the dry well where even the sky couldn’t be seen, Rachel was the only light I had.
She hurt her fingertips making a spinning flyer just for me.
When I went up the mountain to carry a corpse to build up my courage, she stayed with me even though she felt sick.
When I left New York, I kept thinking about it.
Did I affect Rachel’s fate? Was that why a fortune teller said seven years ago she’d die in another city?
I didn’t want to accept it. But collecting her body felt like a knife in my heart.
Even knowing how unfair she had been to me, I remembered her kindness and endured it.
But after seven years, I was truly exhausted.
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Holding her cold face, I tried to warm her with my body heat. But she
didn’t smile at me like before.
“Rachel, I’ll take you home.
“Look, New York’s night view is still as beautiful as we remembered.”
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The corpse inn didn’t allow the living. At night, phosphorescent lights lit the place.
Suddenly, a flashlight beam broke the silence.
The wind blew, and the corpse–blocked door creaked open.
I was ready to howl to scare whoever was away, but then I heard a
familiar voice.
“Honey, is that you?”
The scent of sandalwood mixed with the smell of death.
My mind reacted faster than my body, and I growled in a low voice, “Theodore, you shouldn’t be here!”
I turned around coldly. The flashlight flashed briefly, then vanished like lightning.
Only Theodore’s gasp filled the air.
After a few days apart, his voice was hoarse, like he had smoked too much.
He said, “I came for just one question.
“After seven years, besides repaying a debt, did you ever love me?”
The stars shone above, but the corpse inn felt icy and cold.
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Theodore seemed desperate for an answer, but I was too tired.
Maybe when I felt his warmth as a human, my heart softened.
Maybe he lit up my heart when he carried me through the snow to the hospital.
But what could that small love do?
Could it erase the pain of jealousy when he brought other women home? Or the scars all over my body?
What stood between us were Rachel’s death and the insurmountable seven
years.
I shook my head gently and said coldly, “It’s meaningless.”
Theodore had his life and career, and I had my duty as a corpse bearer.
It was my fate to bring back every person who died far from home.
Theodore sank to the doorstep, refusing to give up.
“Hannah, just say something.
“Say you love me, and everything I have will be yours.
“I’ve handled every other woman. No one will come between us.
“What future can you have guarding dead bodies? Come back with me!”
I frowned and covered Rachel’s ears. She wouldn’t want to hear those.
“Every corpse means something–to itself and the living.
“Theodore, do you want me to be clear?” I looked up at the moon outside, holding back my hatred.
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“I’ve been with you for seven years to repay a favor. Now that it’s paid, I have to go.
“Even if I once loved you, now I only hate you.”
In the quiet inn, the phosphorescent light came back on. I saw Theodore’s pale face.
He covered his face, but his shaking lips showed his true despair.
“Can’t you give me one more chance?”
I opened the mat and refused coldly, “I’m going to sleep. I have to carry Rachel back tomorrow.”
No matter how much Theodore begged, I said nothing more.
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