Pampered after rebirth

“Candice? Oh thank god you are here! Did you see any keys on your way in? Have you brought the police?”

“You have suffered so much sister, the humiliation, poisonings, losing everyone close to you and the many other setups. Aren’t you tired, little sis?” Candice said softly.

“Time and time again having to protect and hold on to your pathetic little life, isn’t it tiring? Because it is tiring for me, having to come up with new and exciting ways to end your worthless life.” Candice cackled.

Celeste felt like her whole body had been submerged in a freezing lake.

Seeing Candice enter the dungeon should have maybe clued her in. After all this is the same dungeon where she has been held captive, tried to escape multiple times and was tortured endlessly for days. The fact that Candice was able enter unobstructed obviously meant she was on their side.

But Celeste still stubbornly refused to see the truth.

Petra always tried to warn her that Candice was not who she pretended to be in front of her. That she secretly hated her because she had to share the spotlight as an heiress of the Manning family when she didn’t grow up having to do that.

Petra warned her that Candice was trying to steal her fiancé, Ben, because before her return they had a thing and everyone knew about it. She warned her that Candice and her mom, Debra, were working together to get rid of her because without her they would not have to worry about having their legitimacy being questioned.

She didn’t believe Petra. Instead she listened to Candice’s excuse that Petra had always been jealous of her because the two of them were always being compared in everything they did. Celeste was really regretting not believing Petra. Now it was too late. Petra was already dead and she was next.

“I need you to do me a little favor, CeCe. Can you do it?” Candice asked sweetly.

Celeste nodded quickly. She would do anything to survive.

“I need you to verbalize it, CeCe.”

“Yes, yes I’ll do anything.”

“Then die for me, little sis.” Candice screamed and swung a metal rod.

The impact to Celeste’s head almost knocked her out. Blow after blow she was still conscious it was to the point that she started thinking they must have given her something to keep her awake. Maybe that made it more exciting for them.

All Celeste could mutter was, “Why, why...” as Candice laughed manically and continued to swing the metal rod.

----

Celeste gasped deeply as if she had been drowning and was just fished out of the water. She sat up in bed coughing as she tried to figure out what was going on.

Didn’t she die? Did Candice change her mind at the last second and bring her to the hospital?

No that’s impossible. Celeste remembered the look in Candice’s eyes, there is no way she stopped.

She definitely died.So what’s going on?

Having calmed down a bit, Celeste got out of bed and walked to the mirror.She was shocked at the face staring back at her.

For one, she did see the scar that she had for the past 3 years. It used to run from her temple down to halfway down the bridge of her nose then under right eye across her cheek and ended under her jaw.Her face in the mirror was pasty and malnourished-looking but there were no scarring. She also looked younger. Celeste looked around the room and that’s when she noticed something, this isn’t her bedroom. To be fair it is her bedroom just not the one in the Manning Manor.This is her bedroom that she had slept in from when she was three years old. So she must be in her Uncle Darren’s house.

Uncle Darren Manning is her father’s cousin. She came to live with him, his wife Bernice and their daughter Gwyn after her mom died when she was three.

Having thought to this point, Celeste finally realized what was going on. She looked at the calendar on the wall to confirm and she was right. The year was 2017, three years before she died.

She had been reborn.

---

Celeste quickly accepted the fact that she had been reborn. After all there were many unexplainable phenomena in the world. Also Petra had made her read a bunch of rebirth novels and she may have become a bit of an enthusiast.

With that out of the way she was now thinking over the timeline of her life. She finally realized when this was. It was before she had not yet returned to the Manning family so she hadn’t had her 18th birthday yet.

Her cousin Gwyn had had her 18th birthday party three nights ago and Celeste was the entertainment for the night as always.

Since Gwyn could now legally drink, she and her friends decided Celeste needed to have. They forced her to drink until she could barely move and threw her out on the lawn, they then manually turned on the sprinklers and had a good laugh.

They didn’t care that the nights where colder and locked her outside. The adults, including her aunt and uncle, pretended to see nothing.

She spent the night outside shivering in her drenched clothes trying to hide from the cold.Celeste finally got to get out from the cold the next morning but she had developed a high fever by that point.

She would usually be woken up early to do some chores around the house and then be made to sit at the breakfast table where she would then watch the family of three eat their fill while she choked down her plain porridge in a couple of bites. But this time they left her alone.Celeste doesn’t think it was out of guilt. They probably realized she had a fever and hoped she would not make it out the other side of it.

--

Unlike her usual bath time that is restricted to 10 minutes, Celeste took a 40 minute shower. It made her feel much better after days of sweating in bed. It also makes her realize how hungry she is.Walking up the basement stairs she realizes she hasn’t fully recovered because she already feels tired after the few steps.

As she walks into the dining room she can hear the family of three joking around and laughing. They sound very harmonious.

Too bad it will not last. She won’t let it.