“Your sister never acted like this. We never had
to worry about her.”
I struggled through school with a foggy brain.
Before leaving for school, I heard my parents
talking.
“Nora’s just getting more and more out of
control. She’s acting like she’s sick. Does she
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11:11
think she’ll replace Sarah in our hearts with this?”
“She’s the reason Sarah is gone. I’ll never
forgive her!”
That day I fainted on the street, and a kind stranger took me to the hospital.
914
The doctors said I had brain damage from the fire and the smoke, they said the fire had caused burns to my stomach, there was serious cancer risk, and they said I had to be kept for observation.
When I heard that, I didn’t know how to feel.
I kept thinking, would my parents care about me
more if they knew?
I took the diagnosis report home, scared, and
showed it to them, but they didn’t even look at
- it. They just accused me of forging a doctor’s
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11:11
914
That report was even from the hospital where
my dad worked, but he couldn’t even bother to
look at it.
Later, I suffered through the side effects, and
studied hard to get into Stanford. I thought
they’d be happy if I told them, even just for a
second, but I was already dead, killed by Mom’s
old enemy.
They say that when you die you don’t feel pain,
but here I am, floating around, and my heart still
hurts.
Chapter 5
The next day at lunch, another big meal was
laid out. And just like always, no plate for me.
But then Mom’s phone rang.
“Well, if it isn’t good old, cold–hearted Dr.
Zhao,” the voice said. “Even after your
daughter is dead, you’re acting like it’s just
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another day.”
C
That voice… even as a ghost, it sent shivers
down my spine. The nightmare of being
tortured to death came flooding back.
“Who is this?” Mom frowned, clearly annoyed.
“My daughter died five years ago, what are you
talking about?”
She wasn’t even thinking about me, she thought
they were talking about Sarah. The anger boiled
up inside her.
“Really? So, the all–knowing Dr. Zhao didn’t
even recognize her own daughter, Nora Lin’s,
body? That’s hilarious, just hilarious.”
Then the caller just hung up.
Dad looked over at Mom. “Who was it?”
Mom scoffed. “Some weirdo, saying the body
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11:11
914
they took to our office three days ago is Nora Lin. No way, she called me just the other day…”
Mom flipped through her recent calls, showing:
Nora Lin 23 second call, three days ago.
—
“Three days ago? She called me too, I was in surgery. I texted her later, but she never answered…”
Dad pulled out his phone. And just like that, Mom’s face went pale. She remembered, my call three days ago was a call for help. She quickly called me back.
“The phone’s off.”
Mom and Dad looked at each other, a terrible
feeling washing over them.
“No… could it be Nora?”
She video–called a coworker at the morgue,
>
asking them to go check out my body.
In the video, she saw my ring again.
“That… that’s Nora’s ring?”
This time, she finally recognized my ring.
“Lee, uh… pull back the sheet…”
Her voice was shaking as she asked them to
show my body. What came into view were the
burn scars, all over my stomach, my arms, my
legs.
All the scars I got saving her in the fire.
But, three days ago, when she saw the scars,
she didn’t think of me once.
Seeing them now, she was struck like a
lightning bolt. She collapsed onto the floor,
falling out of her chair.
“Nora… it really is Nora!”
“Honey, the ring… I gave it to her when I
brought her home. These scars, she got these
when she saved me from the fire. Honey, it’s
really her… it’s her…”
Her eyes were bloodshot. She was calling me
Nora again.
