Chapter 3: Death and rebirth.
There was no time to think anything over, Phoebe had nothing left, she had lost her husband, kids, and her reputation. It was better for her to die than her family. She was a failure as a wife who failed to see trouble brewing in her marriage.
She had failed as a mother because her children had just died before her eyes. She was a failure as a human for not seeing the mask her best friend had worn for years, plotting against her.
As a daughter, she couldn't be a failure too and cause the death of her parents. Her brother was expecting his first child. Wouldn't she be a sinner if she made that child fatherless?
"David Saxon." She said the name in a whisper.
She wet her dry lips and laughed. After all she had done for him, how could he have believed the lies and abandoned her?
She wondered how often he had looked at her with disgust. How he refused to kiss or touch her, pretending he was exhausted or busy.
She remembered how he barely spent time with their sons and finally, she pictured him in bed with Ruth, whispering sweet words of love and making promises, the same ones he had once made to her.
Her heart broke with every image she imagined, shattering into millions of little pieces like broken glass.
With the speed of a snail she walked to the pavement and lowered her tear filled eyes to the ground where she was about to fall. Her hands moved to the half pendant stone she was wearing around her neck as she closed her eyes right before she jumped off the building.
"David Saxon." She whispered the name again and laughed softly just before her body hit the ground and her head shattered like a soft watermelon on the cold hard ground.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Once upon a time, Cinderella took off her glass slippers and run away from the castle.
It was the tallest tower in Citrus city, known as the ninth wonder of the world. One hundred floors high, sitting on three and half million square feet.
With two thousand rooms, two hundred bathrooms and eighty kitchens. It had eight swimming pools, two hundred car garage and a church where prayers were held every morning.
On the grounds were air conditioned stables big enough to house three hundred horses and ponies.
Uphill was a horse racing track, a car racing track, a helipad and hunting grounds that were patrolled by one hundred ten dogs. Not to be forgotten were its glamorous gardens that often appeared in ideal home magazines.
It was a castle, in its own right, a house meant for a king and also known as the house where dreams were fulfilled.
Two billion dollars was how much had gone into the building this tower that was designed by world renowned famous architect Alonzo Cusco in 1991.
Many famous people had been inside this house, presidents, foreign dignitaries, even kings and queens from different parts of the world.
It was indeed the ninth wonder of the world, with its beautiful gold statues owned by the most envied family in Fog country, the golden family, the Saxons.
Everyone was dying for an opportunity to crawl through the small gaps of the main gates and live on the grounds of Saxon tower, everyone that was except for Phoebe Gabriel.
She was standing in the midst of the awe filled crowd of tourists from other countries that was here to take pictures and create memories outside of the Saxon tower.
"Ladies and gentlemen the Saxon tower has one hundred floors. I know some of you are wondering how many cleaners it takes to keep this behemoth mansion clean. I will save you the wondering and give you an answer, one thousand and three maids."
The tour guide was as cliché as one of his kind could get. A bright charming smile and an I heart citrus city cap on his head. He was wearing shorts and a shirt that similarly declared his love for Citrus city.
He had a small earpiece through which he was talking and brochures advertising the tour bus company for which he worked in his hands.
Without pause, kept handing out the brochures to the tourists while divesting information about one of the world's greatest cities. For every question that the tourists had, he had an answer.
"Each of the servants is rumored to earn no less than twenty thousand dollars a month, a lot more than most of us make in three months. Who knew that a fancy degree in art history would pay a lot less than moping some floors for rich folks?"
Some people chuckled, highly amused by the mix of self-loathing and dry humor of the tour guide. Phoebe didn't laugh with the others.
"It's ten thousand dollars actually." She said loudly.
"Well, it looks like I have a competitor ladies and gentlemen. How do you know how much they earn gorgeous, do you work inside or do you perhaps know someone that does?" His amused eyes were pinned to her face
Phoebe looked at Saxon tower with a wistful look in her eyes. She was still struggling with the memories of the life she had lived before.
A sad smile formed on her face and she said.
"I used to live here, among the cold hearted untrustworthy, prestigious monsters."
After saying those shocking words, she turned around and started walking away, well aware of the confusion her words had probably created.
Some people believed her but many did not after all a lot of people came out claiming to be part of the prestigious family which claims eventually turned out to false.
Every member of the Saxon family was well known to the public. They were not shy about using their name to enjoy the privileges it offered them. Even the reclusive members of the family were known and famous.
They would have to come out of hiding for birthdays, weddings and other important events during which their pictures would be taken and shared on their socials that had massive following.
"Wait, as a servant or a Saxon?"
"She can't be a Saxon, her hair is red." A woman said.
It was settled then, that she was the child of a servant that grew up on Saxon grounds perhaps.
The Saxons were not just famous for their insurmountable wealth, they were also famously known for their snow white hair.
Rumor had it that one of their ancestors was a witch that made a deal with the devil to keep the Saxons in wealth forever and so the devil took all color out of their hair as a price.
It was often said that you couldn't see a Saxon if they were hiding in the snow because they were snow monsters.
As stupid and ridiculous as the rumors were, people seemed to enjoy them, spreading and whispering about it as if it was the concrete truth.
The white hair of course was another thing the Saxons took pride in and they never dyed it. In fact, it was forbidden to dye hair as a Saxon. Every string on their heads had to be as white as the clouds.
Phoebe wanted to remind the tourists that Saxons married people with all other kinds of hair colors but she figured, why bother. It wasn't as if she had any intention of sharing the story of her life with them.
Her story was even more ridiculous than the white hair and witch rumors, for she had died once, and been reborn.
Chapter 4: A narrow escape.
What kind of odd luck was this? Phoebe's intention was never to set foot near the Saxon castle. She had boarded a tourist bus just to pass time after doing some shopping and somehow she ended up there.
But in all honesty she was curious whether the place was still the same. It was now a full year since she had been reborn and not once did she ever set foot at that house, if anything she was actually hiding from the Saxons especially her husband.
In this life, it was not her intention to become entangled with him. She felt like she had done enough for him in her last one. Still, thinking of David Saxon caused a dull ache in her chest.
She had been reborn with the love and anger and grief he caused her. Even now, entering into his world to save her own life was not a thing she could avoid due to the rules of her rebirth. Had her rebirth been a gift or a curse?
A black Porsche that she clearly remembered drove past her causing her to quickly turn around such that the driver couldn't see her face.
Inside the gorgeous car was a handsome white haired man whom she hoped never to see ever again.
The two hadn't met yet in this life time but nonetheless Phoebe wanted to leave nothing to chance.
"Do not remember, do not smile, do not miss him." she whispered to herself.
Everyday, it was a battle between her mind and her heart to keep the good memories at bay and remember only the grief.
Phoebe closed her eyes and let out a huge exhalation of pent -up breath when the car continued to driveway because the last thing she wanted was to run into her husband.
The sound of screeching brakes from the car however compelled her eyes open.
"Why is he stopping?"
Phoebe hoped that she wasn't the reason why.
Her hope quickly faltered when she heard David's familiar voice call her name. For a second there it felt like she could hardly breathe.
How in God's name did he know her name? If she remembered correctly this wasn't how they met in her past life. They had first met when she went to Saxon group in search of a job, so how did he know her.
Without a pause, she began to walk as fast as she could sparing a quick glance behind her, on noticing that he was following her, Phoebe's pace increased as her walking transitioned into running.
"God darn it! Why does he keep following me?" Her hands clenched on the straps of her bag.
Lucky for her was that a tourist was exiting a taxi to which she jumped into and ordered the driver to drive away.
"No problem, I will do that as soon as the previous passenger pays me in full. This is not the amount we agreed upon." The old man expressed his frustration on the woman who was claiming to have run out of cash.
Looking at the direction from which David was coming from, it was just a matter of seconds before he caught up to her.
"Drive I'll pay whatever she owes you." The patience in her voice had clearly run thin.
On hearing her declaration, the driver set off just when David and her eyes met.
"Phew, that was close." Phoebe let out a sigh of relief, she continued to blame the red hair on her head which she blamed for giving her away.
"You should have spoken to him, do you think that it's a coincidence that you guys were there at the same time? I have told you times without number that your destinies are intertwined."
The words came from the mouth of the spirit that was sitting right next to her. It's statements caused Phoebe to scream angrily.
"Shut up! Just....please keep quiet." Phoebe's words caused the old driver to adjust the rear view mirror so as to look at her.
"Ma'am, I didn't say anything." He defended himself, a worried look enveloped his face because the passenger he was driving appeared nuts.
"Am not talking to you." She leaned back and shut her eyes tightly.
Her response had the old man swallowing excessively as he searched the vicinity before asking whom she was talking to.
"Focus on the road." She ordered curtly
Since Phoebe was reborn, she was yet to live a day without hearing about the Saxon pendant and how it had saved her life.
The ghost of the Saxon ancestral spirit was the first thing she saw when she was reborn and according to the nagging spirit it was because of the magic of the Saxon pendant that she got to get a second chance at life although she was taken back ten years in time.
However according to ancestor Saxon, all magic comes at a price and in this case Phoebe had to live the rest of her life seeing ghosts. And she had to help the ghosts so as to give the pendant energy which would then keep her alive.
Ancestor Saxon had also been insisting that Phoebe reconnects with David, however after everything that he had done to her it was going to take something more than just their destinies being fated to get them together.
"Don't do that again ancestor, I know that you pulled some strings to get us to meet. If this happens again I will stop helping those ghosts that you care for so much." Phoebe issued a warning that caused the fat spirit with white hair to laugh.
"Young lady, I think that of the two of us you benefit more by helping the ghosts." Ancestor Saxon lied blatantly.
Although Phoebe didn't know it just yet, her being alive was more beneficial to the Saxon spirit. In fact to the Saxon empire as a whole.
The taxi came to a stop in front of the Cerene Apartments. The terrified taxi driver asked the young woman at the back to step out of his vehicle.
He was visibly horrified because the young woman had been talking to herself since she entered the car. Without waiting for her to pay for the ride, the man sped off like he had seen a ghost.
A tiny chuckle escaped her lips because she was used to getting that kind of reaction from people, most times they called her weird especially because she was the owner of The black ghost Cafe and she never made it a secret that she could see ghosts or that her business was to deal with the dead.
Majestically she moved to the tiny Cafe that was located on the ground floor of the Cerene luxurious apartments.
As usual the Cafe was almost full of customers but these were not the usual customers who went to a Cafe to enjoy a cup of coffee.
Most were people that desired to talk to their family and friends who were on the other side, others wanted solutions because they believed that they were haunted and some were actually ghosts that needed to make contact with humans.
Phoebe had made quite the name for herself with some some people calling her a Shaman and others a witch. None of that bothered her after all with each ghost she helped more energy was funneled into the pendant and above all she had made quite a fortune for herself.
It was not so bad being the ghost seeing lady, as the little kids around often called her.
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