Chapter 3

Linnea's POV

Tires crunched against the gravel of the Hartwell estate driveway. The moment the car stopped, three black armored SUV’s had completely surrounded the villa.

In the living room, Calderwell’s top psychologist, Dr. Vance Sterling, was signing a diagnosis report.

"Stable pulse, clear logic, no signs of PTSD." He handed the report to my father. "Garrick, I stake my thirty-year career on it. Your daughter is 100% lucid and—has zero suicidal tendencies."

The tension in my father’s jaw finally relaxed a fraction. He turned to the scarred, towering man by the door. "Kael, take your men and lock down every entrance. I don’t want a single fly getting into this house!"

"Understood, Mr. Hartwell." Kael waved his hand, and a dozen heavily armed bodyguards scattered in tactical formation, sealing the living room like an iron vault.

I collapsed onto the sofa and blindly scrolled through my phone.

My name had entirely flooded the social media feeds. The video of my declaration at the school gates had surpassed ten million views. The whole internet was treating my life like a sick Super Bowl countdown.

"She's too cocky. Bet a hundred bucks she jumps off a roof at midnight."

"Aldermere's death curse never misses. Waiting to collect the corpse tomorrow."

Sneering, I was about to close the app when a pitch-black email suddenly popped up at the top of the screen. No sender info.

Only a single line of blood-red text, flashing manically:

"The loudest birds suffer the worst deaths. See you tonight, Linnea."

"Damn it!" I screamed instinctively, throwing the phone onto the carpet like it had shocked me.

"What's wrong?!" My parents and two bodyguards rushed over instantly.

"A threat!" I pointed at the phone, my voice shaking uncontrollably.

Coralie frantically picked up the phone. The screen wasn’t cracked, but she stared at it for a full ten seconds, her expression turning bizarre.

"What are you talking about, Linnea?" She held the screen up to my face, her eyes full of disbelief. "There’s nothing here."

I snatched it back. Social media was still auto-playing that video, but my inbox was completely empty. The bloody email had vanished into thin air.

"Impossible! I saw it with my own eyes!" I clenched the phone tightly. "This is a hacker! Someone wiped the trace!"

"Alright, Linnea, that's enough." My father sighed. His previous certainty was instantly replaced by fear mixed with pity. "You're too tense. You had a hallucination. The doctor said this is common under extreme stress..."

"I'm not crazy!" I snapped, cutting him off.

But seeing my parents take a half-step back as if avoiding a viper sent an absolute chill through me.

Right then, my phone rang with a piercing tone.

It was Chloe.

As soon as I answered, her hysterical screaming pierced my eardrum like a knife. "You selfish, evil hypocrite! You ruined my life! Why doesn't God just take you now?! You don't deserve to survive tonight—go die! Die!!"

"Then remember to pick out white lilies for my funeral," I dropped the line coldly, hung up, and blocked her.

The pendulum of the vintage wall clock echoed with a dull tick-tock.

Only sixty minutes left until the midnight deadline when previous top students had mysteriously perished.

The living room was quiet enough to hear everyone's breathing. I sat dead center on the couch, firmly enclosed by the gaze of my parents and the bodyguards. After my nerves had stretched to their absolute limit, I actually felt a reckless, fatalistic calm.

"Looks like the curse is failing tonight." My father checked his watch, his deeply furrowed brow finally smoothing out as he let out a long breath.

My mother wiped cold sweat from her temples. "I knew it, baby. As long as we stay together—"

BANG! A horrific, crackling explosion detonated.

The giant crystal chandelier above us instantly died. The lights across the entire villa, including the backup generators, were completely severed in the same second.

A darkness so thick it was almost tangible swallowed everyone whole.

"Kael! What’s going on?!" my father roared into the pitch black.

"Protect Linnea! Check the breaker! Where are the emergency flashlights?!" Kael’s shouts were right next to me, but his walkie-talkie only returned chaotic static.

In the confusion, a blast of frigid air brushed right past the back of my neck.

"Who's there?!" I whipped around.

A sickening sound of bones crunching echoed.

A heavy human body dropped like a sack of dead weight onto the floor, barely half a meter from my toes.

"Kael? Dad! Mom!" I flailed blindly in the dark, trying to grab whoever was closest.

I only grabbed air.

No response. Nothing. The living room, packed with people just seconds ago, was now unnervingly quiet.

Before I could even scream, a pair of freezing hands—like they had just been pulled from a morgue—violently clamped around my throat!

"Ugh..." The air was instantly squeezed from my lungs. I kicked wildly, my hands clawing upward like an animal, my nails digging deep into the attacker’s flesh. But the hands strangling me didn't budge an inch.

In my dying suffocation, my hands flailed against the attacker's body, and my fingertips suddenly caught a cold, thin chain.

With the last ounce of my strength, I yanked hard.

The entire chain, along with the small object attached to the end, was ripped away and locked tightly in my palm. Its hard, sharp edges dug painfully into my skin.

Just then, the thick clouds outside parted, and a sliver of pale moonlight leaked into the room.

By that faint light, I saw two things.

The face pinning me down and strangling the life out of me.

And the cold, metallic bird pendant resting quietly in my palm.

I finally understood why the valedictorians who took the offer never survived past midnight!