01
On the day I started grad school, my roommate Belinda Abbott gave me a health-screening card.
"These days they make everyone do a special infectious-disease screening before enrolling," she said. "Josephine Pruitt, I know money's tight at home, so think of this card as a little welcome gift from me."
My eyes went hot on the spot, and I waved my hands, saying I couldn't take it.
But she pushed the card straight into my pocket, smiled, and patted my shoulder. "It's just a screening card. My dad's company hands them out as a perk. If it sits there it'll only expire and go to waste."
I was moved half to tears, and that afternoon I went to the clinic at the address on the card.
But the day my results came back, I was strapped to an operating table.
That was when I learned that Belinda had never meant any kindness. She'd had her eye on my kidney all along.
In the end I died on that cold operating table.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day I reported for grad school.
Listening to Belinda repeat the exact same lines from my last life, I smiled and took the health-screening card.
Then, right in front of her, I dialed the police. "Hi, someone's trying to cut out my kidney. Please send officers right away."
1
The moment the call connected, the smile froze on Belinda's face.
She lunged for my phone, her voice pitching up. "Josephine, are you insane? What kind of joke is this? Hang up, now!"
I twisted away, pressed the phone hard against my ear, and clearly gave them our dorm address, along with the name of that private clinic printed on the card.
Before I hung up, the dispatcher told me a patrol car would be there in five minutes, and to keep an eye on the suspect while staying safe myself.
I thanked them with a smile, slid the phone back into my pocket, and turned to Belinda with a cold smile.
"You heard that, Belinda. The police are on their way. You're not getting out of this."
Under my stare she couldn't help backing up half a step, forcing herself to sound calm. "Josephine, are you done making a scene? I gave you a screening card out of the goodness of my heart, and this is how you slander me? Have you lost every shred of conscience?"
I pulled over a chair, sat down, and spoke slowly. "That clinic does transplant matching. It doesn't do routine screenings at all. Whether this is a screening card or a death sentence, I think you know perfectly well."
Belinda's eyes flickered, and her voice shot up. "What are you talking about! That place is obviously a screening center... death sentence, what... what nonsense are you spouting."
"I'm spouting nonsense?" I stood and walked toward her, step by step, and gave a cold little laugh.
"Fine. When the police get here, they can look into who owns that clinic. And then look into a certain someone's medical records. Then we'll see whether I'm spouting nonsense."
In my last life, after they took my kidney and dumped me in a mass grave, Belinda had said to the surgeon, offhand, while they cleared out my things, "I was actually worried she wouldn't come. Never thought some girl fresh out of the sticks would have zero suspicion. Hand her a screening card and she walks right in." She'd said it as lightly as stepping on an ant, and until the moment I died, that cold laugh had drifted in my ears.
Given a second chance, if I didn't send her to hell, I'd be wasting the gift heaven had handed me.
Belinda's lips trembled hard. She yanked the door open and bolted for the stairs.
I'd known she would run. One hook of my foot and she went down.
Her knees hit the tile, and blood welled up at once.
She lifted her head and cried out to the students passing by. "Stop her! She's crazy! She's going to kill someone!"
A few of the new arrivals stopped, glancing at me, hesitating.
I pulled out my phone and gave it a little wave. "I've already called the police. She's suspected of trafficking organs. Anyone who lets her go is an accomplice."
The moment I said it, no one dared move. A couple of them quietly took out their phones and started filming.
Belinda still tried to run.
And then the sirens came wailing in from the school gate.
