Lilac Blooms Twice

"In your next life, pray for better luck!" Was all Lilac heard before she was pushed over board the ship.

They say that when a person dies, their life flashes through their eyes. Every moment of happiness, pain and regret. For Lilac, there was only regret. She felt herself falling past the ship railing down into the darkness of the wild sea water below. Her sister’s smiling face looming above, from on top the ship as she watched her fall to her death. Lilac’s shock at being pushed into the sea by her sister only lasted a second.

The entire night before this was full of shock. Her family had stood there and accused the Black family of funding terrorist groups in the middle east in a bid to try to expand into the oil and gas industry. She, the daughter-in-law who had married into the Black family was used as bait and evidence of the Black family’s crimes. She had only gone to confront her sister when she was pushed into the sea.

Her shock was replaced by regret and a slow anger that brewed deep within her. Maybe she had imagined it in her last moments, but she saw petals flutter around as they rained down at her from above.

If regret could breathe, it would smell of wilted Lilacs stained in blood, it would look like a falling red head swallowed into the darkness of the sea as a cold smile crawled up her lips.

As she fell from the ship into the cold water below, there was no pain, no fear, only questions filled her mind; Why? Why had she been so stupid her entire life?

As her eyes fixed on the face of her sister looking down at her falling form in glee, a thought emerged from the depths of her soul. She should have killed this bitch when she had the chance. 

Lilac opened her eyes the next second to a familiar ceiling crown. Her eyes groggy with confusion, she gets up from the bed and looks around the room. This was her room on the family ship. She touched around her body in a panic and crawled from her bed to a mirror on the dressing table. Shock seized her. She was really alive. She was not dead. A joy like never before bloomed in her chest as she hurried for her phone. She opened and checked the date. It was the morning of the twenty-fourth. She only had a few hours before she was killed again. Her eyes steeled as she recalled what would happen in a few hours and they flashed coldly.

“Madam, you have been called for breakfast,” she heard a maid inform her.

“I will be out in a bit,” Lilac answered and hurried into the bathroom to take a quick bath. She came out some minutes later and quickly dressed, then brushed her wild red hair. She attempted to put it away in a bun she had always done, then stopped. What was the use? She had been told that her husband, Eric Black, preferred women to be neat and regal. She, who had wild waving red hair, in an attempt to please him, had always put it up in a bun, or styled it sleek. She had died once before, she no longer cared for what he wanted. She dressed in a short, flowing white dress and stepped out. She made her way down the familiar steps to the dining room. This entire ship was owned by the Black family. They had been on vacation for three days and the trip was supposed to end with a party to be held tonight. As she made her way to the dining room, what transpired at the party crossed her mind. She had been the core and the pawn of their trap for the Black family.

When she walked in and took her seat to eat without bothering to greet anyone there, she caused a few brows to raise. In the dining sat her husband, his two brothers and his wife, their younger sister and their parents. They knew her to be quite the shy girl who cared for their opinion. She recalled when she had greeted them in her last life. Her sisters-in-laws threw digs at her while her husband sat there, saying nothing. She was tired of it all. She had always known she was not one of them. They lived in a universe too different from her own, and she was no longer interested in being one of them. She looked down and ate her food without a word, her wild hair blocking her face, they could not see her clearly.

“Lilac did not put up her hair today, it’s getting everywhere,” Greta, her brother-in-law’s wife, asked.

“Why? Is it getting in your food?” Lilac looked up sharply at the one who had spoken and asked. Her question made Greta freeze. She never thought Lilac would respond. She had always kept quiet, whatever they said.

“No, I was just…” Greta started to say.

“Then, how does my hair get in your way?” Lilac asked, and the room seemed to pause. It was the first time they had ever heard her reply to anything.

“That’s enough, she was at most curious. If you are going to eat, do it quietly,” her husband, Eric, interjected. She found it funny. If one did not look clearly, they would have thought that her brother-in-law’s wife was his wife.

“Are you blind?” Lilac asked and Eric paused in shock.

“What did you say?” he asked.

“It seems you are deaf too,” Lilac answered, and she heard her mother-in-law, Tamara, suck in a breath.

“You are calling me deaf?” Eric asked.

“Could you not see me sitting here eating without caring? Or you could not hear her looking for something to say. But the moment I open my mouth, you tell me to be quiet? If someone had just walked in, they would have thought you were defending your wife from me,” Lilac said and Tamara sucked in another breath, that Lilac would have thought she was having breathing problems.

“Do not create misunderstandings,” Eric scolded her.

“Then if you have nothing to say, eat your food quietly. Why are you interfering when women are talking? Her husband has not even spoken, but you have jumped over to make your voice heard,” Lily said. She had always wanted to say these words. She had never understood why he was so quick to jump to other people’s defense instead of her own. Even though he did not like her, he should at least like his own reputation. After scolding him, she went back to eating. She could have said more, but felt there was no need. She was already tired of this marriage, anyway.

Eric could not believe she had scolded him. He just realized that her green eyes lit up when she was angry.