Chapter 201: The start of a new time

Chapter 201: The start of a new time
The day of the trial came faster than any other day for the culprits.

Tears of regret, anger for failing, and sadness of realization hung in the air for Dayse, Shawn, and Mason. Their heart thrashed, their head hung low as they were led out of the courtroom, handcuffed.

Tears soaked Dayse's face, shame wore over her like cloth, fear as to why she did not see her daughter in the courtroom made her chest race faster than a horse.

Maybe she was ashamed of her.

Maybe she was hiding because she couldn't face her.

Even as she's not present, Dayse felt a little bit happy that she didn't have to witness how she got sentenced to death by hanging.

She watched Shawn get led away. He was charged with lots of crimes and got sentenced to life imprisonment while Madison was sentenced to seventy years imprisonment.

Her eyes fell on one last person who had a smile on her face.

Eloise.

She won.

Everyone who had crossed her path or caused her pain has all been dealt with.

And now. She has the last laugh.

Tears streamed down Dayse cheeks as they pushed her into the van taking them to prison.



Antonio and Eloise walked away feeling victorious, grinning and holding hands as they headed out of the court.

Fulfillment was an understatement of the feeling that bubbled in their heart.

But the day wasn't over.

Eloise finally decided to take him to her grandfather.

To properly introduce her husband and soon, after a long drive, they were standing by Mr. Stewart's bed.

Eloise smiled as she sat beside him on the bed and took his hand into hers.

“ Grandpa.” She called, tears gathering across her eyes. “ I'm so happy right now. It's finally over, pa, justice finally prevailed,” she chuckles amidst sob as she narrates the sentences they all received, before finally turning to Antonio.

“ And I want to introduce you to someone. My husband.” She said beaming. “ Antonio Brayden.”

Antonio bowed low for the unconscious man. “ Good afternoon, sir, I'm Antonio, and it's nice to finally be able to introduce myself to you.”

She grinned as Antonio assured her grandfather. “ I will always love and cherish her, care for her, and let no harm touch her. I hope you can give us your blessing.”

“ He has.” She giggled on his behalf.

While the air was getting filled with sweet banters and laughters. His heart monitor machine started beeping louder.

“ Wh.. what's going on?” She asked, getting scared and immediately calling for the doctor.

Antonio rushed out to get the doctors’ attention.

While he was gone, Eloise began panicking, calling out to him, but instead, her eyes fell on the wristwatch by the bedside. The watch that has been missing for a while.

She paused.

Slowly walked toward it and picked it up.

Her eyes fell on it.

“ It's.. It's working.” She mumbled, fear coursing through her veins. It's working right past twelve.

And Grandfather's heart monitor stopped at a flat line.

Her grandfather died.

Antonio walked in right then, with his phone shaking in his hand. Zade had just called him.

Eloise's teary eyes moved to lock with his. The longer she stares into his red eyes, the more she realizes.

The time has started moving again.

They overcome their untimely deaths. They changed their fates.

But lost their dear ones couldn't. Her grandfather, and his grandmother became the end of their old time, and the mark of their new beginning.



| TWO YEARS LATER |

Sobs were louder than words in the quiet room. Feeling boxed in with the pale walls, stripped of warmth or memory, she glanced at the single bed in front of her, its sheet pulled tight, untouched, as if even sleep had learned to despise her.

Tamara sat on the floor, slender arms wrapped around herself. The fabric of the hospital gown clung to her skin, smelling of antiseptic and loss.

Her eyes kept darting to the door, then to the corners of the room, then back again as though something had learned the rhythm of her fear and was waiting for the right moment to step out of it.

Loneliness hollowed her out. Not the quiet kind that brings peace, but the suffocating sort that made her chest ache. No familiar voice, no hand reaching for hers, only the indistinct voices and the echo of her own thoughts turning against her. She felt forgotten, not just by the world outside, but by the version of herself that once believed she could have everything.

Fear lived inside her now. It crawled beneath her skin, whispering that she was not alone. Failure had taken over her soul, reminding her every day and night that she was nothing but a failure.

She wept.

Regret came in waves. Heavy. Relentless. Faces she had hurt. A choice she could never undo.

It was too late for forgiveness. She knew that now.

Her mind no longer felt like her own. Thoughts crashed into one another, fractured and sharp, cutting deeper each time they circled back.

She laughed once. Soft. Broken.

“ It was all her fault. She ruined your life.” She heard another voice whisper in her head. “ You wouldn't be here if she hadn't lied to doctors. You would be living your life if she had ceased to keep existing.”

“ Elly!!!” She suddenly let out a scream. Jumped up and ran to the door, and began banging heavily on it. “ She's lying. Eloise is lying! I'm not crazy, she's the one insane! She hates me and wants to make me miserable, don't believe her, she's crazy, I'm not!”

She kept shouting until she heard another voice whisper in her head.

“ Shhh…what if she hears you, what if it pissed her off and she does something worse to you?”

She immediately stopped shouting. In a soft, pleading voice, she began. “ I'm sorry. Elly, please, I'm sorry. I was just jealous of you.”

She slumped down to the floor.

“ You just have everything and I? I have nothing. You're always the one shining and I hated that. I couldn't shine as you do, so I wanted to make myself superior to you. I wanted to have someone like you bow to me. I wanted to own you, to make you a puppet, my toy.” She sobbed. “'Cause that's the only way I can feel less, that's the only way I can feel like I'm better.”

In that lonely ward, with fear pacing beside her and guilt sitting heavy on her chest, she knew she wasn’t just a patient anymore. She was proof of a mind that had finally shattered under the weight of every evil she could no longer undo.

“ Please.” She wept bitterly. “ Please, don't let this be the end of me. I'm losing my mind, I'M FUCKING LOSING MY MIND!!” She began screaming again.

The End.