Chapter 1

I never lend money to anyone.

Not because I am stingy, but because my family has passed down an ancient warning: anyone who borrows money from my hand must repay it before the third midnight bell tolls.

Otherwise, the Reaper will come in person to collect the debt.

My father called it the Reaper's Debt.

I was ten the first time I witnessed the curse.

My classmate Ethan borrowed five dollars from me. He said he wanted to stop by the corner convenience store after school for a soda and a pack of baseball cards.

The next day, when I reminded him to pay me back, he turned his empty pockets inside out and laughed like it was nothing.

"It's five dollars, Nora. Your family is loaded. Are you really that desperate for pocket change?"

On the third afternoon, Ethan was found drowned in the shallow drainage canal behind the school. The deepest part of that canal did not even reach an adult's knees.

The police ruled it an accident.

The second time, I was twelve.

My best friend, Madison, borrowed a hundred dollars from me to buy concert tickets.

On the day she was supposed to pay me back, she laughed at me in front of our lockers.

"Real friends don't chase each other for money. If you're asking me for it, then you never saw me as a friend at all."

On the third morning, Madison was found collapsed beside the school bus stop.

There were no external injuries. No history of heart disease.

The medical examiner listed the cause of death as sudden cardiac arrest.

When I was sixteen, our neighbor Caleb said he was sick and needed money for asthma medication and antihistamines. He borrowed two hundred dollars from me.

Because it sounded urgent, I gave it to him.

That night, I went to his house on purpose and reminded him not to forget the three-day deadline. Otherwise, I told him, the Reaper might come for him.

"Oh my God, the Reaper? Could you be any more childish?" he laughed at me through the screen door. "Once the money is in my hands, it's mine. If your Reaper wants it, tell him to come take it himself."

On the third day, Caleb suddenly swelled all over in the school cafeteria.

He dropped to his knees and clawed at his own throat with both hands, as if an invisible hand had closed around his windpipe.

I watched him suffocate to death.

The paramedics said it was a rare and severe case of anaphylactic shock.

Three times.

Every time, on the third day.

Every person who died had borrowed money from me and refused to pay it back. I was terrified, but I had no choice but to believe it.

The Reaper's Debt was real.

After that, I never lent anyone a single cent again.

When I kept pressing him, my father told me that one of our ancestors had once tricked the Reaper during a plague, using a silver coin to redeem the lover who should have died.

The Reaper did not take his life immediately. Instead, he cursed his bloodline.

From then on, if anyone owed money to our family and refused to repay it within three days, what they owed would no longer be money.

It would be a life.

So when my college roommate, Vanessa Reed, asked me to lend her money for a limited-edition skincare set, I refused without hesitation.

"Sorry. I don't lend money."

Vanessa was one of the most popular cheerleaders at school. She was sitting in front of the vanity in our dorm room, touching up her lipstick.

When she heard my answer, she paused.

"What did you just say?"

"I can't lend you money."

For two seconds, the dorm went silent.

Then Chloe, another one of our roommates, burst out laughing.

"Here she goes again with that story about the Reaper coming to collect debts."

Kayla laughed too.

"Borrow from her and don't pay her back in three days, and you die. So scary."

Vanessa snapped her lipstick shut. Then, without warning, she grabbed my phone and unlocked the screen with my face.

"Give it back!"

I lunged for her, but Chloe caught my wrists from behind.

Kayla shut the dorm door.

Vanessa opened my banking app with practiced ease. Her lips curved smugly.

"You have five thousand dollars sitting here. Why are you so cheap?"

"That's my living expenses for the semester."

"You don't want these pictures getting out, do you?"

She suddenly held her phone in front of my face.

On the screen were several photos of me in the shower.

My mind went blank.

"When did you take those?"

"That doesn't matter." She slowly swiped through the photos. "What matters is that if I press send, they will be on the school forum and in every fraternity group chat on campus."

Chloe gave a low whistle.

"With a body like that, you really shouldn't be hiding it."

Kayla covered her mouth and giggled.

"Maybe you'll be campus famous by tomorrow."

Heat rushed into my face.

"Tell me the verification code." Vanessa's thumb hovered over the send button. "Or I let all of Westbridge University enjoy these pictures for you."

In my mind, Ethan's pale, bloated face, Madison's body beside the bus stop, and Caleb's desperate hands clawing at his throat flashed one after another.

I could not give her the money.

But I also knew Vanessa was not bluffing.

In the two months since school had started, she had already used secretly recorded videos to drive another girl out.

"Time's up."

I closed my eyes and gave her the code.

The next second, five thousand dollars disappeared from my account.

Vanessa looked at the transfer confirmation and smiled with satisfaction.

"You said people who owe you money die if they don't pay you back in three days?"

"It's not a joke. You have to give it back before midnight on the third day."

She laughed even harder.

"Then I can't wait to see how your Reaper plans to kill me."

I said nothing else.

She would never believe me anyway.

The next day, Vanessa was perfectly fine.

On the morning of the third day, she came back with the skincare set and deliberately piled the packaging boxes on my desk.

"Looks like your Reaper forgot to show up for work."

The dorm filled with laughter.

For the first time, I truly breathed in relief.

But by noon that day, Vanessa had not come back.

I sent several messages to my roommates asking where she was. No one answered.

Chloe mocked me for not being able to live without her. Kayla said I was probably developing Stockholm syndrome.

That night, the dorm supervisor told me Vanessa had submitted an emergency leave request. She said something had happened at home and she needed to be gone for a few days.

My heart dropped.

The Reaper had come.

For the next two days, Vanessa never appeared.

Then, on the afternoon of the fifth day, several police cars suddenly drove onto campus. Crime-scene tape sealed off the central lake.

The dive team searched the water for four hours.

At dusk, a female body was lifted to shore in a black body bag.

The dead woman was Vanessa Reed.

The Reaper's Debt had come true once again.

The other two girls from my dorm and I were taken to campus police for questioning.

Chloe and Kayla pointed at me almost at the same time, their faces white with fear.

"It was Nora! She must have killed Vanessa!"

"Nora said herself that if Vanessa didn't pay her back within three days, she would die!"

"She predicted Vanessa's death. Who else could the killer be?"