The Day I Died, He Married Her

Chapter 6

I was dead, yet my soul lingered in the courtyard.

My lifeless body leaned quietly against the tree. My delicate, pale face still bore a frozen teardrop at the corner of my eye, crystallized into ice.

What had I been thinking in my final moments?

It must have been my freshman year of college.

The day before my nineteenth birthday.

Ethan Winters had secretly taken leave a day early to surprise me at school for my birthday. When I spotted him at the campus gates, he was wearing a white sweater and black casual pants, his disheveled hair falling over his forehead.

Those cool, distant eyes of his softened the moment they met mine, warming with quiet amusement.

I shrieked and threw myself at him, leaping into his arms and covering his face with kisses.

"Ethan, what are you doing here?"

His handsome face flushed as he carried me toward a secluded corner. "There are people everywhere. Have some shame."

"Why should I? You're my boyfriend."

I clung to him tightly, as if holding onto my entire world.

Back then, I naively believed I was the happiest person alive.

That day, we wandered through every street and alley of the city, taking in the glow of countless windows. When fireworks bloomed overhead, we shared a tender, lingering kiss.

At night, cheeks burning, I slipped into his bed.

I knew what he wanted.

But he had always held back, afraid of hurting me.

That evening, Ethan kissed me with near-reverence, each touch like a slow-acting poison.

"Rachel," he murmured, "I'll take responsibility for you."

"Next year, when you turn twenty, we'll get married."

The moon was bright, the stars sparse.

His face hovered before me, sometimes close, sometimes distant.

The night was gentle, and his eyes held the vastness of a summer sky—flecked with starlight, filled with nothing but me.

The Grim Reapers came to claim my soul, but when they saw my lifeless body, they were furious.

"Why did you take your own life?" the black-robed one demanded. "Your time wasn't up. Suicide defies the natural order!"

I stared at them helplessly. "I had gastric cancer. And depression. Death was inevitable."

The black-robed Reaper shook his head. "You still have a destined love waiting for you. You can't die yet."

But I didn't want to live anymore.

"Even if you stop me now," I said, "I'll find another way."

The white-robed Reaper glared at me. "Fine. I'll give you one hour—one chance to return to your body. Do whatever you need to do. See if you can find a reason to keep living."

I agreed.

The moment my soul re-entered my body, I grabbed my phone and dialed Ethan Winters' number.

It rang for a long time before he answered. "Rachel? What is it?"

Hearing his voice, my breath caught.

Even after our breakup, he still called me by that nickname—Rachel. Never changed it.

As if nothing had ever come between us.

As if I were still the girl he cherished, the one who belonged only to him.

"Ethan," I whispered, tilting my head back to watch the heavy snowflakes drift down. For a moment, it felt like that snowy night ten years ago.

Silence stretched on the other end.

I knew why.

I hadn't called him Ethan since we broke up.

"Ethan," I said again, softer this time. "If—"

"Honey," Lily's voice cut in from the background. "Who are you talking to so late?"

The flick of a lighter. Ethan was lighting a cigarette.

"Nobody," he replied. "Just an old friend."

An old friend.

So that's all I was to him now.

I laughed bitterly and hung up.

The snow had stopped.

The moon peeked through the clouds, soft and luminous.

I stared up at it, blinking hard to keep the tears from falling.

"Ethan," I murmured, finally voosing the words I never got to say.

"If I died... would you grieve?"

I already knew the answer.

He probably wouldn't.

After all, to him, I was just a passing shadow.

Insignificant.

Forgotten.