“Please, just let me go.”

“If you leave, what happens to Lydia?”

“You only remember Lydia as your sister—what about me?”

He said nothing.

Desperate, I sank to my knees before him.

“I’ve never begged you before, but I’m asking you now—please, just let me go! Give me a chance to live.”

“A chance to live? What about our sister? Our father? Tell me, where are they?”

“You only see the dead—father, sister, mother, Lydia. Am I not your family too?”

His eyes softened for a moment but quickly hardened again.

“You? No!”

No? No!

It felt like a thousand needles piercing my heart, unbearable pain.

He and Mom had...