Chapter 2

The moment she called, I was suddenly back in that cabin where I died.

The cabin was in a remote area. There were a few others like it, but all the elderly who used to live in them had already been relocated to town by their families.

After that, it was my grandpa, Frank Linwood, living here.

When Linda first dropped me off, Frank was still lively. She asked him to sort out my school transfer so I could go to school down in town.

Frank received a pension of over a hundred dollars a month, and he grew some seasonal vegetables in the backyard.

Linda said that was enough for us to get by.

She also told me that Frank was getting old, and staying in the cabin let me be there for him and fulfill my duties as my father's child now that he was gone.

Linda dropped me off in a hurry that day and took off as fast.

After a few quick words, Eric started crying his lungs out, gasping for air.

Linda said there were monsters, and Eric was terrified, but she still left me there even though I was as scared as he was.

After she left, Frank looked at me and asked, "Who are you? Why are you here in my home?"

I couldn't understand why the man who'd called me his sweet granddaughter was staring at me like I was a total stranger. It took me a few days to figure out he was sick and kept forgetting stuff.

But he always remembered my father's name. Every morning when I woke up, I'd have to remind him all over again that I was his granddaughter.

Frank forgot that Linda had told him to take me to school, and I kept quiet about it. The thought of going to school alone in a place I didn't know freaked me out.

Every evening, I would stare out through the wooden window. The looming mountains and the dense, shadowy trees felt like they were pressing down on me, making it hard to breathe.

I wanted my Mom, and I missed her so much.

I called her on Frank's phone over and over, but she never answered.

Suddenly, the ringtone blared again.

I squinted at the cracked screen and could barely tell it was Linda.

Linda said sharply, "Why won't you pick up, you brat?

"Pick up the phone.

"I'm already having such a hard time. Why do you have to make things harder for me, too?"

I could hear Linda sobbing through the phone, every word cutting right through me.

"Mom, it's not that I don't want to answer. I'm already dead," I cried out desperately.

But she couldn't hear me at all.

"The battery is dying. What should I do?" I said as I hovered anxiously around the phone, feeling helpless.

"Why did it turn off again?" Linda said as she kept calling until the phone shut off.

Chloe knocked on the door and asked, "Do you get the money back yet?"

"Not yet. She's still little and doesn't know how to use a phone. It shut off because she didn't charge it," Linda explained.

Chloe rolled her eyes and sneered, "I've heard her calling and texting you all the time, hitting you up for living expenses.

"You keep saying you only gave her thirty dollars these past few months, but who knows how many times you've dipped into Dad's money and slipped her another thirty dollars behind our backs."

Linda was shaking with anger. "What do I have to do for you to believe I'm not using your Dad's money to pay for her?" she pressed.

Eric burst into tears again, freaked out.

David stepped in upon hearing Eric cry. He then scolded, "Enough. I work my ass off all day, come home, and there's no dinner. You argue constantly, day after day, and it's making me lose my mind.

"Linda, if you still want to live with me, make sure that freeloader doesn't cause any trouble."

David never fixed anything. He just kept siding with Chloe and blaming Linda for everything.

I yelled, "I'm not a freeloader. After my father passed away in that accident, the people responsible paid Linda three hundred thousand dollars so she could raise me.

"I barely spend anything. Linda buys Chloe all kinds of stuff, but she never gets me a thing. I haven't touched a single cent of David's money."