My Second Cursed Life

Episode 1

It was raining when I died.

My room was so dim, and everything felt blurry in just a few seconds.

That was it. The prophecy came true, just like what the fortune teller had said to my parents right when I was born.

"On her 20th birthday, unfortunately, death will call her back."

I didn't hear that myself, of course—I mean, I was merely a baby back then—but it was hard to forget that when you had to live with it every single time.

It's all written in everyone's faces, the way they acted and treated me. They'd probably think the best decision was to leave someone who was destined to die at the end alone.

My parents were no exception.

They let me live, but only enough to "live" without really feeling it. I was the first daughter of Marquess Delaire, the one who managed the Vice Ministry of Justice. It's no surprise that my father was expecting a son rather than a daughter, let alone a girl who could only live less than 20 years.

Those 20 years were a blessing as much as a curse—a reminder that the Delaire family would end with me. No wonder my parents were working so hard to have another baby, yet forgot that they had a daughter to take care of.

"Just let her do what she wants."

"You don't have to come. Just stay here."

"This is not for the weak."

It was funny, sometimes, how they treated me as if every second of my life I would get weaker. The fortune teller never mentioned if I'd die from any kind of sickness, and so far, I was feeling okay. Yet no matter how good I was at something, I'd only be seen as someone who would die at the end, and nothing would change that.

Probably they were right.

I didn't think too much about what it would feel like if I died, because I never really felt alive.

But this was what it felt like—nothing. Like something slipped through your hand, and you couldn't grab it. I lay on my bed and felt my chest tighten.

This was probably it. Everything felt so slow and fast at the same time. I felt like I could think, still in control of my thoughts, even though everything was already beyond my reach and control.

I had lost myself.

All I did today was eat my breakfast, get my Earl Grey tea, and wait for someone to arrive at my room to come back and help me dress up. I remembered last night I met my fiancé, and he told me he needed to break our engagement and said he would talk about it to my parents this very morning.

That was why I needed to get dressed up.

However, no one came. There were no footsteps. I could only hear a muffled sound, maybe a scream, before everything went quiet.

That was when I realized that today was my birthday. It's supposed to be. Too many birthdays went uncelebrated, and I thought these were just any ordinary days.

My control over my own body faded away, away, and away... until everything turned dark.

Nothingness.

I was so doomed, wasn't I?

"If you can live longer, what will you do?" Anastasia, my nanny, once asked. She was the only one who cared enough to ask, or at least made me enjoy a piece of my life before she fell ill and died before me.

"Not everything depends on fate, Hazel," she said to me once, while she lay helpless in her bed with no one to accompany her except me.

I never imagined that now I would be the one lying alone, waiting for death to come.

I didn't understand why Anastasia's words from back then were echoing in my head now. Fate, life, death. Three things that couldn't be avoided. But if I could, what would I do? What would happen if it turned out I could overcome everything and prove that fate had no right to control my life? Must everything end up like this?

Was this the end that I wanted?

No one ever asked me what I truly wanted except for Anastasia. I'd never put much thought into it, but now, in this very moment, as I felt the darkness keep swallowing the little pieces left in me, my mind wandered.

What if everything could be different?

What if this wasn't the end?

What if... I could defy fate?

It was at that exact moment that everything changed. I didn't know what exactly happened, but the darkness changed within the blink of an eye.

The light shone so brightly that it almost hurt my eyes. I squinted automatically, blocking the light with one of my arms, before turning my head when I heard a voice greeting me.

A familiar one. Too familiar for me not to be recognized in a second.

"My lady, it's time to get ready. You have a schedule to attend."

Anastasia.

It was her.

Did she suddenly rise from the dead? She looked... alive.

I blinked fast. No, that wasn't the right question. Not really.

Did I just... come back alive?