Adelaide

III

Edited

Stella spent the rest of the night in denial, this is a dream, she kept convincing herself but when the sun rays entered the room, she started losing hope of returning or waking up.

Around seven in the morning, she heard a knock on the door.

"Sweetheart, come down for breakfast." called a voice, which she supposed would be Annalise, Adelaide's mother.

Gosh! How would she feel if she came to know that the body of her daughter was literally occupied by another soul.

Nervously, she stepped out of the room and went in the direction she heard sounds from, hoping it would be the dining room.

"Morning sweetie." said Annalise.

She had a kind face, and her eyes shone with adoration. She looked really beautiful, or maybe it had something to do with her smile. It was so bright, but she didn't have a single similarity to her mother.

Her eyes travelled to the man sitting at the table, reading his newspaper.  He looked up at her and gave her a lopsided grin. He was Adelaide's father. Again, he didn't have even the tiniest bit of resemblance to her own dad.

So how did Adelaide look exactly like her.

"Morning," Stella,  said, in a small voice, as she sat at the table.

Annalise placed a plate in front of her and loaded it with scrambled eggs, toast and sausages. It looked quite appetizing and her stomach growled.

"Must have been quite hungry, eh?", said Jason. Adelaide looked up at him, and forced herself to smile at him.

Halfway through the  breakfast, Annalise started speaking.

"Sweetcakes, we are going shopping today. Is it alright with you?"

Adelaide was caught off guard, a shopping trip was not what she had in mind while going through an existential crisis.

"I can't, I'm feeling a bit under the weather. Sorry," she muttered.

"What happened sweety? "
"Should we go to the doctors, Addy. "

She was greeted with two extremely worried faces, she tried to control the situation.

"It's nothing M-mom and Dad, I'm just not in the mood for shopping. The two of you can go ahead. " Stella struggled to voice out those two words.

Then she scarfed down the rest of her breakfast and rushed upstairs to the sanctuary of the room, all the while observing the house.

The house was big, smaller than the one she had before. There were marble tiles and glass chandeliers in the living room. Thinking back, it looked almost like her old house. There were pictures of little Adelaide with her family in the hall and on the way upstairs.

Adelaide looked so full of life. She was smiling or laughing in every picture that was taken.

Those photos made Stella even more guilty; she stole her life. What if Adelaide died that night because Stella's soul forcibly entered her body.

What if she was the one who killed that sweet girl, who didn't even get to experience life.