The 31 Deaths of Evelyn Johnson
Number 21: The Happiest Day of My Life
Part 2: Happy Families
It turned out that it had been nothing personal against either the Johnson or Evelynson families - the cellarman had developed a grudge against his employer and, in an effort to ruin him, had found a way to poison every bottle of the best champagne in the place. This was, of course, little comfort to Evelyn, who in one moment had lost everyone she knew and cared about.
In that one moment Evelyn realised exactly what she had to do, and in the eternity of motionlessness that followed, her mind worked and planned and dreamed of a better future quite serenely - until the first toddler to realise that something wasn’t just strange, but very, very wrong, started screaming her little lungs out.
The police found Evelyn slumped against a pillar - her beauty quite different now: cradling that one little girl in her arms - both of them quite dry of tears and so far past exhaustion not even a dry sob escaped them. The other children were gathered about them - those that weren’t sleeping, gazing at this strange, sad lady in her lovely, white dress, who seemed to be the last real grown up in the world, but wouldn’t tell them what to do. They refused to move until she got up and then followed her out of that terrible place.