I’ve Been Dead for Three Years

My wife, Katrina Paine, was being pressed to the floor by several burly men in our cramped rented apartment. The men were street thugs whom my mother had hired.

Katrina’s face was deathly pale, and she was so terrified that her body shook uncontrollably.

“Why are you doing this, Samantha? Everything was going just fine. Why are you doing all this?”

“Don’t call me by my name so casually. You’re not my family.”

My mother, Samantha Harding, frowned. Her gaze burned with fury, and her voice was filled with hatred.

“I already disowned Aiden when he said he wanted to marry you. If he dares to abandon his older brother for a woman, then he doesn’t deserve to be a member of this family. The Harding family raised him for twenty years. It’s time for him to pay us back, but where has he run off to?”

At Mom’s words, I felt a wave of bitterness rise within me.

My older brother, Anthony, had been in poor health since he was a child. The whole reason my parents decided to have me was so I could take care of him after their deaths. That was why they forbade me from getting married and starting my own family.

When Katrina heard my name, she was stunned for a moment. Then, she started screaming like a madwoman.

“Aiden? Where’s my Aiden? I want to see him!” she howled. “Where have you disappeared to? How could you leave me alone and run off? Come out!”

She screamed and screamed. Intermittently, she would laugh hysterically or sob painfully.

The men who had been pressing her down were so shocked by this that they immediately let go.

Pain lanced through my heart as I saw Katrina go through her symptoms, like a knife twisting mercilessly.

Ever since I died three years ago, Katrina had been depressed. As time passed, her symptoms only got worse, and at this point, it had gotten so bad that the mention of my name would send her into a frenzy.

Samantha’s expression shifted; when she looked at Katrina again, her gaze was ice cold.

“Katrina Paine, how dare you put on this crazed act just to avoid telling me where Aiden is? Do you think you can trick me? If Anthony wasn’t waiting at the hospital for Aiden to save his life, I wouldn’t even be here!”

As she said this, Samantha slapped Katrina viciously twice. She yelled, “You’d better call Aiden and make him come out here to see me. If anything untoward happens to Anthony, I’ll have you all die with him!”

I watched all this play out in disbelief. I could not hold back the tears that flowed from my eyes. I reached out, wanting to caress Katrina’s reddened and swollen face, but I could not touch her at all.

Katrina was stunned from the slaps, and she ducked her head and started murmuring, “Die with him? Yes, I want to die with Aiden!”

Katrina suddenly clambered up from the floor. Her cloudy eyes suddenly lit up. She used all her strength to push away the men before her and rushed outside, toward the sunlight.

She got onto a stool on the balcony and jumped off without hesitation.

I rushed over in a panic and reached out to grab her, but my hand phased right through her fingers. I watched as her figure grew smaller as she fell.

With a dull thud, Katrina landed on the ground below. Her body broke like a porcelain doll’s. Blood spread out below her, staining my vision red.

Samantha’s cold voice rang out beside me.

“It’s because you hid yourself away that she died, Aiden. This is all your fault.”