Chapter 1Pillow Talk of Death

I jolted awake on March 7th, my eyes snapping open.

By my desk stood the student I sponsored, a scholarship kid. She held a bottle of pills, a sweet smile on her face.

“Eleanor, your allergy meds are almost out. I put a new bottle in your drawer for you,” she said.

I didn't call her out immediately.

Because I distinctly remembered that after my accidental death in my previous life, I’d found a notebook hidden under her pillow.

It was filled with dates, each one checked off, and each checked date perfectly matched a time I’d suffered an “accident.”

And on the very last page of that notebook, there was a line I still couldn’t quite understand.

…

I looked at the bottle of pills in Vera’s hand.

A white, round bottle, almost identical to the imported loratadine I used.

But there was an extra line of small print on the label.

Vitamin C.

In my past life, I hadn't noticed such a small detail.

I’d casually put it in my medicine cabinet and dutifully taken it for half a month when allergy season hit.

Then, my allergies had erupted, sending me straight to the hospital.

“Eleanor, you look a little pale…”

Vera tilted her head, her eyes wet and innocent.

I took the bottle and placed it on my desk, not in the medicine cabinet.

“You don’t need to buy my medication anymore. And you don’t need to organize anything on my desk.”

Vera’s lips trembled.

“Eleanor… did I do something wrong? Please tell me, I’ll change…”

Tears welled up instantly, her voice dropping lower and lower until it became a soft sob.

The door creaked open.

Nathan stood in the doorway. He saw Vera crying and his face immediately darkened.

“Eleanor, what’s going on? Are you picking on Vera again?”

I looked at him.

In my previous life, I had been in love with him for two years.

Tall, handsome, student body president.

But every time something happened to me, he was always the first to defend Vera.

“Nathan, we’re breaking up.”

“...What?”

“We’re done. Effective immediately.”

Vera quickly grabbed my arm.

“Eleanor, don’t be rash! You and Nathan have such a good thing going. Don’t let me get in the way...”

I looked down at the hand gripping my arm.

Her nails were neatly trimmed, spotless.

In my previous life, that hand had worn rubber gloves, using tweezers to painstakingly peel off and re-affix labels in the lab.

That wasn't the kind of meticulous work a timid liberal arts student would do.

“Let go.”

Vera recoiled.

I grabbed my backpack and walked out of the dorm room.

Nathan shouted after me, “Eleanor Bennett, what the hell is your problem? If you walk out, don’t bother coming back!”

I didn’t stop.

After leaving the dorm building, I sat on a garden bench for ten minutes, letting my heartbeat settle.

Then I went back to the dorm building and borrowed a spare key from my friend, Sarah, in the room next door.

While Vera was out, I re-entered the dorm.

I walked over to Vera’s bed.

She had very few belongings, and her bed was meticulously neat.

Under the pillow.

In my past life, at the very last moment before I died, I saw her holding a notebook.

I reached under her pillow.

My fingertips brushed against a hard cover.

I pulled it out.

It was an ordinary black notebook.

I opened it.

Page after page was crammed with dates.

She was planning to kill me.

From March to June, step by step, systematically.

I was about to close the notebook when I noticed a small asterisk next to the date May 18th.

After it, in tiny writing, were three words.

[She will come.]

She?

Who was ‘she’?

Was someone else involved in Vera’s plan?

I pulled out my phone and took pictures of every page in the notebook.

Then I put it back under the pillow exactly as I found it.

By the time I left the dorm, it was dark.

I stood by the window in the hallway, looking at the dates on my phone.

March 12th, five days from now.

In my previous life, that's when my pollen allergies had landed me in the hospital.

This time, I was eager to see what "surprise" Vera had in store for me.