Chapter 3

The moment he saw the message, Dad's face changed.

Mom caught it and frowned. "What's wrong? You look terrible."

"The staff say one of the pythons wasn't shut in properly. It got out."

Mom's eyes went wide. "What did you say? Rosalind, she couldn't have…"

Dad didn't answer her. He dialed the staffer instead and told him to pull up the security footage inside the enclosure.

After all, if something had really gone wrong, the staffer wouldn't get off easy either.

So he moved right away to check the cameras, only it turned out the cameras in the python enclosure had broken two days ago, and the repair had only been scheduled for today.

Which meant no one knew what had actually happened inside last night.

The only way to be sure now was to find the missing python and check its belly.

Seeing the panic on our parents' faces, my sister thought of something and spoke up.

"Mom, to keep track of Rosalind before, didn't you link her phone location to yours?"

"Check whether she's still inside the enclosure."

The reminder jogged Mom's memory.

She opened the app and looked at my location right away, and found I wasn't in the park at all. I was at a café near it.

The instant she saw where it was, Mom let out a breath of relief.

Then something else occurred to her, and she flared up again.

"So this kid climbed out of the python enclosure and ran off in the night!"

"How is that staffer so useless? Didn't check the cage, didn't lock the door."

My sister sounded a little upset. "Then didn't this round of treatment fail?"

Mom looked up, vicious.

"I was even thinking we'd stop after this one. Next time we'd go straight to diving and shut her in a shark cage for a few hours."

"Let's see if she can run off halfway when she's out in the ocean!"

I hovered in the air, watching Mom and my sister start discussing the next treatment plan.

Not once did they consider how much I could take.

I was already dead. I shouldn't have been able to feel pain.

But my whole body still ached and burned, my whole soul as if it were being torn apart.

"And right now this brat is sitting cozy in a café, sipping tea?"

"Come on, we'll go drag her back and lock her in the dark room for a while as punishment."

With that they got in the car and set off for the café at the location.

At the same time, the staffer they had bribed was still inside the park looking for the missing python.

He soon spotted it in a very hidden corner of the ceiling.

Full and heavy, the python was deep in sleep.

The staffer crept up to it carefully and used a flashlight to search along its belly.

The moment he saw the huge shape bulging clearly there, his heart dropped.

He knew at once that he'd caused a disaster. A serious accident.

He didn't notify my parents, and he didn't tell any of his coworkers.

Instead he chose to bury the truth, went straight to the manager to quit on the spot, and fled.

Not long after he ran, my parents made it to the café, and the shop was open to full view, but there was no sign of me.

Yet the location showed I was right here.

Mom tried calling again, and soon my phone was ringing somewhere in the shop.

They followed the sound, only to see a strange man.