I Swallowed The Key Today

The boy Id loved for a lifetime was throwing himself into the Atlantic, and the entire neighborhood was screaming for someone to save him.

The salt air was thick with panic, but I didn't move. Instead, I grabbed my brother, Griffith, by the collar and shoved him back inside. I slammed the heavy oak door shut and slid the iron bolt home with a resounding clack.

Griffith lunged for the door, his face a mask of frantic desperation. I didn't give him the chance. I took the heavy brass key, shoved it into my mouth, and swallowed. It scraped against my throat, a cold, metallic weight sliding down into my gut.

"Nora!"

Griffith screamed my name, his eyes bloodshot as he watched me through the small glass pane in the door. He threw his shoulder against the wood, the impact rattling the entire frame.

"Spit it out! Nora, goddammit, spit it out!"

I leaned against the wall, my body racked by a violent, reflexive cough. Tears pricked my eyesnot from grief, but from the physical toll of what Id just done. I looked at him through the blurred glass, my expression dead and cold.

"Griffith," I said, my voice raspy but steady. "If you try to find a way out of this house today, Im going out that window. And I wont be looking for a way to swim."

The look in my eyes stopped him cold. He knew me. He knew I meant it.

I stood by the window, my hand resting on the sill, watching the chaos outside. I wasn't joking. Not about this. Not after living through what Id already lived through.

By the next morning, the news that I had "stood by and watched a boy drown" had spread through our small coastal town like a wildfire. In a town where everyone knew everyones business, I had become the local pariah overnight.

"Did you hear? The Rivers girl... shes got a heart like a stone."

"I know! She watched Bennett jump and locked her own brother inside so he couldn't help. Can you imagine?"

"Its jealousy, plain and simple. Just because Bennetts been seeing that Miller girl, Melanie. A girls spite can be a poisonous thing."

The whispers followed me everywhere, thick enough to drown in.

In my previous life, I spent forty years being praised for my "devotion" to Bennett. Forty years of nursing a man who never loved me, all because I felt I owed it to the world. In this life, I simply wanted to keep my brother alive, and for that, I was a "vixen."

It was almost funny.

Around noon, Bennetts parents showed up at our door. His mother, Martha, didn't even wait to be invited in. She marched into our living room, her finger pointed inches from my nose.

"Nora Rivers! You black-hearted girl! What did my Bennett ever do to you? You grew up together! How could you be so cruel?"

She had a voice that carried, and within minutes, the porch was crowded with nosy neighbors looking for a show. My brother, Griffith, turned pale, stepping in front of me to shield me from her wrath.

"Martha, watch your tone! My sister had a medical emergency yesterdayshe was seizing! I couldn't leave her side!"

"A seizure? Pull the other one!" Martha barked, hands on her hips. "Shes got a sickness in her soul, is what she has! She couldn't stand to see Bennett happy with someone else!"

My parents, hardworking people who had never had a cross word with a neighbor in thirty years, stood there with their faces flushed deep red, unable to find the words to defend me.

I gently pushed Griffith aside and met Marthas fire-filled eyes with a chilling calm.

"Mrs. Sandra," I said.

The room went silent. My voice was flat, devoid of the frantic energy everyone expected. But the coldness in my gaze made Martha take an involuntary step back.

"You should be thanking me today."

Martha blinked, stunned. "Thanking you? I should thank you for the fact that my son is lying in a hospital bed in a coma?"

"Yes." I nodded, my eyes scanning the crowd at the door. "Because if I hadn't 'gotten sick' exactly when I did, and if I hadn't kept my brother here, there would likely be two bodies in the morgue today instead of one boy in a hospital bed."

A heavy silence fell over the room. People looked at each other, confused.

I took a step forward, my voice low but carrying to every ear in the house.

"Bennett didn't go to the cliffs alone, did he?" I let the question hang. "I could have sworn I saw Melanie Miller running toward the water, too. Crying her eyes out."

The crowd erupted.

In this town, in this era, reputation was everything. A young man and a girl running to the cliffs together, followed by a suicide attempt? That was a scandal that could fuel a hundred rumors.

Melanies parents, standing at the edge of the porch, went ghost-white.

Martha choked on her next insult. She wanted to argue, but facts were facts. People had seen Bennett and Melanie arguing by the waters edge.

I didn't look at her again. I turned to my parents, my face softening into a look of feigned exhaustion. I leaned into Griffiths arm, letting out a small, hollow cough.

"Dad, Mom... my head hurts."

Then, in a whisper that sounded broken and terrified, I added:

"I just... I didn't want my brother to die for someone else's secret affair."

A single sentence turned the tide.

In an instant, I wasn't the "jealous girl" who let a boy drown. I was the "protective sister" who sacrificed her own reputation to keep her brother out of a messy, dangerous drama.

The judgmental glares shifted. Now they were directed at Martha and the Millers.

"So thats what it was..."

"My goodness, young people these days. No sense of shame."

"Exactly. If he wants to go play Romeo and Juliet on the rocks, why should a good boy like Griffith have to pay the price?"

Marthas face went from red to a sickly purple. She opened her mouth to scream at me, but Id already backed her into a corner. If she kept pushing, shed only confirm that her son was a fool whod tried to die over a girl.

She eventually grabbed her husbands arm and scurried out, the crowd parting for them like a tide of judgment.

The house finally went quiet.

Griffith looked at me, his eyes filled with a mix of worry and a confusion Id never seen before. He opened his mouth to ask a question, then thought better of it.

I didn't explain. The truth was too brutal for him to handle yet.

I just leaned my head against his shoulder. "Im tired, Griffith."

He sighed and guided me to my room, tucking the quilt around me. "Sleep, Nora. Don't worry about anything. Im here."

I closed my eyes, feeling the dull, lingering ache in my stomach from the key. It was nothing. Not compared to the forty years of slow-motion agony Id endured in my last life.

Bennett. Melanie.

This was just the prologue. Everything you took from meeverything you took from my brotherIm taking back. With interest.

Bennett woke up two days later.

Hed been pulled out by Old Man Miller, the fisherman, but his lungs were infected from the seawater. He was weak, tethered to an oxygen tank.

Griffith couldn't stay away. He dragged me along to the hospital.

"Nora, look, weve lived next door to them forever. We were kids together. Now that hes awake, its the right thing to do."

That was Griffith. Always too kind. Always too good. In my previous life, his kindness was what killed him.

"Fine. Lets go."

I agreed without hesitation. I wanted to go. I wanted to hand-deliver my first "gift." I wanted to see the look on the face of the man who ruined my life when he realized I wasn't the girl he remembered.

The hospital room was crowded. His parents were there, along with a few neighbors. And sitting right by his bed was his "muse"Melanie Miller.

She was wearing a simple cotton dress, her eyes red-rimmed, tenderly spooning water into Bennetts mouth. She looked every bit the grieving fiancee.

When we walked in, Melanie jumped like a startled rabbit.

"Nora... Griffith," she whispered, her voice trembling. She looked at me with a flicker of resentment and a strange kind of triumph.

Bennett saw me, too.

His face was already pale, but the moment he saw me, the blood drained from it entirely. His eyes were a storm of guilt, curiosity, and the raw panic of a man whose secret had been exposed.

Griffith didn't notice the tension. He set a basket of fruit on the nightstand. "Bennett, man, glad to see youre back with us. Don't do something that stupid ever again."

Bennett forced a smile that looked more like a grimace. But his eyes remained fixed on me, unable to look away, as if I were a ghost.

I ignored him. I ignored Melanie.

I walked to the window and yanked the heavy curtains open, letting the harsh afternoon sun flood the room.

"Its too stuffy in here. Patients need air to heal."

I turned around, walking slowly toward his bed until I was standing right over him. I smileda gentle, harmless smile.

"Youre lucky to be alive, Bennett."

I leaned in closer.

"But next time you feel like ending it all, try to pick a spot where there aren't any witnesses. Poor Old Man Miller spent half a day in that cold water saving you. His arthritis is so bad now he can't even get out of bed. His medical bills are going to be a lot more expensive than your stay here."

My voice wasn't loud, but every word hit him like a hammer. Id stripped away the romantic veneer of his "tragedy" and exposed it for what it was: a selfish act of vanity that hurt innocent people.

"Cough... cough!"

Bennetts face went beet-red, and he began to cough violently, his thin frame shaking.

Melanie turned on me, her eyes flaring with anger. "Nora! How can you be so heartless? Hes suffering!"

"Is he?" I didn't look at her. I kept my eyes on Bennett. I leaned down, whispering so only the three of us could hear.

"By the way, while you were out, the nurse said you kept mumbling something. You kept saying, 'Melanie, don't leave me.'"

I paused, watching his pupils dilate with terror. I let my lips curl into a cold smile.

"Thats funny. Because forty years from now, when youre taking your last breath by my bed, those are the exact same words youll say."

Boom.

The words hit him like a thunderclap.

Bennetts eyes went wideimpossibly widefilled with a primal, soul-deep horror. His hands gripped the bedsheets so hard his knuckles turned white. He started to tremble, looking at me as if I were a monster from the depths of the sea.

He... he was back, too.

He had returned with his memories, just like I had.

The realization made my heart race with a dark, intoxicating mix of adrenaline and hatred.

Good.

Wonderful.

If I were the only one who remembered, this revenge would be far too lonely.

Now, youve brought your filthy secrets back with you. And Im going to make sure you stay awake for every second of it. Im going to make you watch as I dismantle every single thing you think you own.

I savored his look of absolute dread for a long moment before straightening up and smoothing my hair.

I turned back to my brother, who was looking on with a confused frown. "Lets go, Griffith."

"I think Bennetts got plenty of company. We wouldn't want to crowd him."

I put a sharp emphasis on "company," glancing at Melanie, who was blushing a deep, guilty crimson.

"Lets leave the happy couple to their private talk."

I took Griffiths hand and walked out without a backward glance. Behind us, I could hear Bennetts ragged, panicked breathing and the sound of Melanies stifled sobs.

Outside, the summer sun felt warm and clean on my skin.

I took a deep breath. The weight that had been sitting on my chest for forty years finally began to lift.

Bennett, from the moment you chose to drag my brother into your suicide pact, you sealed your fate.

In the last life, I protected you for forty years. In this one, Im going to walk you straight into hell.

Bennett was smarter than I remembered. Or perhaps he was just better at survival.

Once he realized I was playing the same game of time-traveling shadows, he spent exactly one night formulating a plan.

The next day, despite his fever and his rattling lungs, he checked himself out of the hospital. Within hours, his parents were at our door again, but their arms weren't empty this time. They were loaded with expensive gift baskets and fine wine.

They weren't there to accuse. They were there to propose.

Marthas face had undergone a miraculous transformation. The bitterness was gone, replaced by a fawning, oily smile as she took my mothers hands.

"Oh, Mary! Our Bennett has been talking nonstop about Nora! He says we all owe her so much! If she hadn't stopped Griffith from jumping in, and if Griffith had been hurt... Bennett says he could never have lived with the guilt!"

She was rewriting history in real-time, turning my "refusal to help" into a "noble sacrifice for the family."

"So, the Mr. and I got to talking. Bennett feels the same way. We think its time to stop dancing around it. Lets set a date for the wedding! Lets fulfill the wish our families have had for years. Let Bennett spend the rest of his life making it up to Nora!"

My parents were simple, honest people. They were completely blindsided by this "happy news." Theyd always liked Bennetthe was the "golden boy" of the neighborhood, after all.

Seeing the Sandras humble themselves and ask for my hand was, in their eyes, the ultimate honor.

My mothers face lit up. She was already nodding. "Well, if the children are willing..."

Griffith was pacing in the corner, his brow furrowed. Hed seen the tension between Bennett and Melanie, but he was a man of few words, and he didn't know how to challenge the parents without sounding like a jerk.

I watched the scene with cold, detached amusement.

Nice move, Bennett.

He knew my parents were traditional. He knew they valued reputation above all else. He figured if we were engaged, Id be bound to him. To protect my own future, Id have to help him bury the scandal with Melanie. He even assumed hed "sacrifice" Melanie for a while just to tie me down.

Hed done it before.

In my previous life, after Griffith died, the Sandras made the same offer. They said Bennett would "take care of me" in Griffiths place. My parents, drowning in grief, agreed instantly.

And just like that, my life was locked in a cage labeled "gratitude."

But there was one thing Bennett didn't account for.

Nora Rivers was no longer a naive girl who could be bullied by "duty." I was a wraith who had crawled back from the grave.

I looked at Bennett. He was standing behind his parents, pale and swaying, but his eyes were sharp. He was sending me a silent message: Were even now, Nora. You smeared my name, so Im taking your freedom. Well be 'happily' married, just like last time.

He was so arrogant. So sure of himself.

I smiled.

Just as everyone expected me to nod shyly, I stood up.

I walked over to the coffee table and reached under a stack of old magazines. I pulled out an envelope. It was slightly damp, the ink a little blurred at the edges.

"Whats that, honey?" my mom asked.

I held the envelope up to the light, my smile widening.

Bennetts face went from pale to a ghostly, translucent white.