The cold air hit Poppy first. A slight shiver ran down her spine. Then the disturbing silence in the place.
Poppy's eyes fluttered open. The ceiling was grey and dim. She was not in her matrimonial home or the bright place from before. Instead, she was lying on a steel slab.
The air smelled of ash... and something burned.
Poppy's heart stuttered from the overwhelming smell. She sat up with a sharp breath and gasped. Her eyes moved from her hands that were bare and pale to the rest of her body. She was completely naked. Her fingers trembled as she looked around.
There were rows of cold chambers, metal drawers, and furnaces.
She was in a cremation room, alone.
"Where...?" Poppy's voice cracked like she hadn't used it in months as she slid off the slab. She shivered slightly when her bare feet came in contact with the cold floor. Her legs were shaky, but she forced herself to move.
She froze when she saw it — her tag with her new name printed in black ink hanging from her toe.
Bella Highland.
As she stared at it, her heart pounded like thunder. "No, no, no... this isn't real."
Her confused eyes wandered around the room mindlessly, and when they found the door, she immediately ran to it without thinking. She was about to open it when she caught her reflection in the glass.
And there—staring back—was not her. It was someone else. The girl from before.
She touched her face. Her skin was rounder, softer. Her hair too was longer. This wasn't her body.
Startled, Poppy scrambled to the floor. Her weak legs finally gave out. She panted hard with her back pressed against the cold wall as her mind raced to catch up with the impossible.
She was alive. And somehow... She was Bella.
A second chance... That's what the girl had said.
She'd been given a second chance at life.
Unending tears rolled down her cheeks.
At first, it came from the panic of having to live for the second time after being killed unfairly in her first, but when new memories from Bella, the girl whose body she now had swirled in her head, she couldn't stop herself from crying.
She'd always thought life was unfair to her, until she got a glimpse of Bella's.
The girl never had any happy memory. Her memories were only filled with abuses, maltreatments, and pain from her family till she was finally killed in the most cruel way.
I want revenge...
Poppy closed her eyes, and when they opened again, they were cold.
She was going to make everyone that'd hurt them both pay.
Another shiver crawled up Poppy's spine, reminding her of her current situation, and she instantly stood to her feet. Her legs were still weak, and she felt pain from the injury on her forehead, but the last thing she wanted was to die for the second time from cold without getting her revenge.
She looked around. There was no piece of clothing around to cover her naked body. There was no way she could go out of this place like this!
A little frustrated, Poppy ran a hand through her hair, but then her frustration vanished when she heard the lazy slapping of flip-flops on the hospital's tiles approaching the room.
The sound stopped directly in front of the room. She waited for the person to come in, but when the door's handle didn't move, Poppy decided to make her presence known.
Slowly, she peeked through the squared glass on the door, only for her eyes to capture the most beautiful face she'd ever seen.
"What the...!" The man flinched at the sight of her, but he regained his composure just as quickly as it left.
Poppy felt bad for scaring him, but she had no time for guilt. "H-hi... Give me your clothes!"