My Brothers Helped Her Steal My Body ,So I Died to Make Them Pay

When the transmigrator tried to seize my body for the fourth time, I finally drove her out for good.

I rushed downstairs, desperate to share the good news with my brothers.

But at the turn of the staircase, I saw them huddled together, their faces drawn tight with worry.

Cole Harding's brow was knotted, his voice clipped with irritation.

"How is it Lorna Harding who woke up again? Trafficking, kidnapping, dragging her off to the mountains. We've tried everything, and Miriam's hold on the body keeps getting shorter!"

My feet stopped dead. My whole body slammed against the wall, my pupils shaking.

Those weren't accidents?

Finn Harding picked up the thread, a note of concern in his voice. "Stage another accident? A car crash? Would Lorna catch on?"

Malcolm Harding, my fraternal twin, gave an indifferent scoff.

"So what if she does. Miriam told us herself: only when Lorna suffers a severe shock or extreme fear does she get the chance to take over Lorna's body."

Their words turned my legs to water. I collapsed onto the cold floor.

So all those nightmares I'd lived through were engineered by them. For the transmigrator, Miriam Pruitt.

I lowered my head and laughed bitterly, my eyes hollow with despair.

If that was how it was, then I'd grant their wish. I'd disappear for good.

...

My fingers clawed at the wall, leaving five bloody streaks behind.

Cold sweat soaked through my clothes. My tears wouldn't stop.

And in the hall below, the conversation kept going.

Cole's voice carried an undercurrent of exhaustion and irritation. "She won't find out. Besides, Miriam said she has a System. Once the mission's complete, she'll leave."

"We can make it up to Lorna then."

Finn exhaled a ring of smoke and sighed.

"Then we keep going. Last time before Miriam left, she reminded me not to let Lorna get hurt too badly. She said she'd feel guilty."

The coldness in Malcolm's eyes softened.

"That's just how kind Miriam is. Always thinking about Lorna."

I sat in the corner, my gaze frozen and vacant, but at Malcolm's words something flickered behind my eyes.

My lips twisted into a ghastly arc.

Kind?

My fists clenched so hard my whole body shook.

If she was kind, why did she try to steal my body again and again and again?

Why did she keep going, knowing full well I was being tortured?

She was kind.

So I was the monster who deserved every bit of it?

Dragged into the mountains and beaten. Struck with a stun baton by my captors. Was that somehow my own fault?

I closed my eyes and felt my heart constricting.

Tears hit the floor one by one.

A year ago, I'd slipped and fallen into a lake. I sank into a deep coma.

By the time I woke, two months had passed.

The day I opened my eyes, all three of my brothers were at my bedside, their faces tight with urgency, worry and fear spilling from their eyes.

"Hey," I murmured, unable to help the plaintive whine in my voice. "What day is it?"

"My head hurts so much."

But the concern I expected, the tenderness, never came.

What came instead were expressions that froze solid, and three bodies stepping back in unison, as though I were something monstrous.

"Cole? Finn? Malcolm?" Worry crept into my voice. "What's wrong with you?"

The three of them exchanged a glance, then forced their composure back into place.

"Nothing. Get some rest. We'll come see you tomorrow."

I nodded.

It stung, but I didn't think much of it. After all, only I knew how much I meant to them.

I knew they'd give their lives for me.

When I'd been sick as a child, Cole had drained half the blood from his body to save mine.

And after Mom and Dad died, Finn and Malcolm had treated me like the most precious thing in the world.