He started wailing in fright. "Claudia, I'm begging you... Do it quickly! Just shoot me, please! You'll be traumatized for the rest of your life if you choose to burn me today! You don't want your conscience to be tortured every day, do you?!”
Claudia shook her head and said firmly, "I want to move forward instead of living in hatred for the rest of my life. I'll stop hating you once I watch you burn to ashes!”
Having said that, she dug out the S. T.
Dupont lighter that she had prepared for months from her pocket.
Her late father had loved this type of lighter. It would make a crisp clicking sound when the cap was popped open.
In the past, whenever she heard this sound, she knew that her father was smoking again, so she would nag at him for a bit.
Upon her father's passing, she had bought the same type of lighter. Whenever she missed her family, she would take out this lighter, listen to the familiar clicking sound, watch the light flicker, and reminisce the happy times she had spent with her family.
She had even planned to use this lighter that was significant to her to die with Gopher.
At that moment, she gently pushed the metal cap open, and the lighter clicked.
The crisp sound that reverberated in the spacious cargo hold actually sounded melodious.
Right then, Claudia felt the entire world slow down.
She remembered the bedtime story her mother had told her when she was a child about that poor little match girl who had seen her late grandmother in the match's light.
Unable to stop her tears from flowing, her vision instantly blurred.
Even though her vision had blurred, the image of her parents and brothers became clearer.
She saw her young mother smiling at her, her stern father acting like a child, trying t o hide his hand that was holding a cigarette under the table, and she saw her two younger brothers running to her excitedly.
At that moment, time seemed to have stopped for her.
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