Chapter 2
The still body was utterly wretched.
And so, as the dazzling protagonists took center stage, Selina faded away—without even the shadow of a presence.
So that’s what it was, Selina. In your final moments, you wanted someone to be by your side.
Is that why you called me? Someone as pitiful and abandoned as you? Did you summon me to fulfill the wish you couldn’t?
Or was it because I looked like someone who had no lingering attachment to life—someone who could choose death without hesitation?
Did you bring me here so your death wouldn’t be miserable? So that, instead of wasting away alone, you could at least die on your own terms?
It didn’t matter.
I was Selina now. I would live in her body. And I would die at twenty-three.
Those two things would never change.
I snapped back to consciousness.
The room was dimly lit by candlelight, not electric bulbs—a reminder that this was Selina’s world.
The image of her dying face flickered before my eyes.