Chapter 3

Late at night, a gray mouse crawled out from the corner of the kitchen.

It followed the wall and made its way into my room, finally stopping beside my desk.

I used to be terrified of creatures like this.

Whenever I saw a mouse, I would scream and hide in Mom’s arms.

But now, I could only float beneath the ceiling, helplessly watching it crawl closer to my body.

“Don’t touch me…”

I tried to scare it away, but my voice couldn’t reach the living world.

The mouse gnawed at my toes, and dark purple blood slowly seeped out.

But I could no longer feel any pain.

Maybe this was better.

At least, I no longer had to endure that suffering.

I lowered my head and looked at my own body, whispering softly to myself,

“Don’t be afraid, Julia.”

“It doesn’t hurt anymore. It will all be over soon.”

The next morning, sunlight pierced through the thin winter fog of Florence and spilled into the room.

But when that light fell upon my body, it still carried no warmth.

The sound of dishes clinking came from downstairs.

Then came the sizzling sound of butter melting in a frying pan.

The scent of fried eggs drifted through the crack beneath the door.

It was the breakfast I loved the most.

But Mom always said that a lazy and disobedient child didn’t deserve meat or cheese.

She would only give me a bowl of plain boiled broccoli and order me to finish every bite.

Today, she deliberately made the spatula hit the pan louder than usual.

Once.

Then again.

I knew she was doing it on purpose.

As long as I couldn’t stand the hunger and walked out to apologize, she would take the chance to lecture and punish me again.

If this had happened before, I might have really admitted to things I had never done just for half of a fried egg.

But now, I no longer needed food.

“Julia still hasn’t come out?”

Dad sat at the dining table, flipping through the local newspaper.

“She’s still throwing a tantrum.”

Mom placed the plate on the table, the movement so forceful it sounded like she was throwing it down.

“Let her be. She chose to starve herself, so she shouldn’t expect anyone to comfort her.”

Sophie held her glass of milk, her eyes shifting slightly.

Suddenly, she jumped off her chair and ran to my bedroom door.

She sniffed several times.

The next second, she covered her nose and shouted,

“Mom, it smells horrible in Sister’s room!”

“Did she make another mess in there?”

I floated toward the door and looked at her bitterly.

The heating had been running all night.

My body had already begun to release the smell of decay.

Mom would hate me even more now.

Just as expected, Mom quickly walked over.

She didn’t open the door.

She only shouted angrily through the wooden door.

“Julia, what exactly are you doing in there?”

“The bathroom is just down the hallway. Are you really too lazy to walk a few steps?”

“Just because you’re angry with me, you’re willing to throw away even the last bit of dignity?”

I suddenly remembered when I was younger.

That year, I caught acute gastroenteritis.

In the middle of the night, I couldn’t make it to the bathroom in time and stained my pajamas.

Mom didn’t help me clean up.

She didn’t even ask if I was feeling sick.

Instead, she took me to the public courtyard behind our apartment building and made me stand there in the cold wind.

When the neighbors passed by, she even smiled and said,

“Look at this child. She can’t even take care of herself. She’s filthy like a pig.”

Now, she had once again decided that I had made a mess in my room.

“Don’t bother with her.”

Mom waved her hand in disgust.

“Since she likes staying in there, let her smell it until she can’t stand it anymore.”

“When she has had enough, she’ll come out and admit she was wrong.”

Dad put down the newspaper and glanced toward my bedroom door.

“The smell doesn’t seem right.”

“I’ll go inside and check. Maybe something happened with the heating pipes.”

As he spoke, he stood up and walked over.

My heart suddenly tightened.

Dad, hurry!

Open the door!

I’m right here!

You only need to push this door open, and you’ll see me collapsed beside the desk.

I frantically waved my hands and floated in front of him.

But he couldn’t see anything.

Dad reached for the doorknob.

Just then, the phone in the living room suddenly rang.

The ringtone was sharp and urgent.

Dad answered the call, his expression changing instantly.

“What? The data center lost power?”

“Alright, I’m coming right now.”

He hung up and quickly grabbed his coat from the sofa.

“Darling, there’s a major problem at the company. I have to go to Turin immediately.”

“I might not be able to come back for the next few days.”

Mom was about to say something.

“Then Julia…”

But Dad had already opened the front door and hurried into the hallway.

The door slammed shut behind him.

I floated there in a daze.

I was so close.

I was really so close.

If that phone call had come just a few seconds later, Dad would have opened the door.

He would have found me.

Maybe then I wouldn’t have had to keep lying here, watching my body slowly decay.

But there were no such things as ifs.

That afternoon, Mom took Sophie out shopping.

They went to luxury boutiques downtown and bought fresh seafood at the San Lorenzo Market.

The entire apartment was left with only my body.

By evening, the mother and daughter returned carrying bags of purchases.

The moment the door opened, the smell of decay rushed out.

Mom immediately covered her nose and even gagged.

“Julia!”

She stood in the living room and shouted angrily toward my bedroom door.

“Are you satisfied now that you’ve turned this entire house into a garbage dump?”

She didn’t go inside to check.

She didn’t even want to take a single step closer to that door.

As if what was inside wasn’t her daughter, but a piece of waste that could contaminate the air.

Mom found a roll of wide sealing tape from the storage room.

She crouched by the door and carefully taped around the edges, layer after layer.

“Don’t you love locking yourself in here?”

“Then stay inside. Don’t come out and bother anyone else.”

She pressed down firmly on the final strip of tape.

Only after making sure there were no gaps did she stand up.

“Now it’s finally quiet.”

After saying that, she turned around, walked into the kitchen, and began preparing dinner.

Not long after, the aroma of freshly steamed seafood filled the air.

I floated in front of the sealed bedroom door, watching the tape completely separate my room from the outside world.

The last bit of hope inside me slowly faded away.

So this was how Mom saw me.

I wasn’t even worth more than a Christmas seafood dinner.

She would rather seal the smell of decay inside the room than find out whether I was pretending to be sick…

or whether I was already dead.

Mom.

You win.

From now on, I will never bother you again.

On the morning of the third day, the winter sunlight poured into the Florence apartment, yet it couldn’t chase away the coldness inside.

The underfloor heating had been running nonstop, and the room temperature was close to twenty-six degrees Celsius.

But the tape sealing the cracks around the door could no longer contain the smell.

The stench of decay mixed with the damp, warm air and slowly spread throughout the room.

Even with fresh lilies and roses filling the living room, nothing could cover the nauseating smell of a corpse.

Mom sat by the window, trimming flower branches.

“Snap!”

She forcefully cut through a rose stem.

The thorn pierced her fingertip, and blood immediately welled up.

Mom stared at the drop of blood, her expression growing darker and darker.

In her mind, me refusing to shower, refusing to clean my room, and even hiding a dead mouse inside were all deliberate acts of defiance against her.

She believed I was using the disgusting smell to fight back against her.

She believed I was challenging the rules she had created.

“Julia, you’re becoming more and more impossible!”

Mom suddenly stood up.

She rushed into the storage room, grabbed a wooden spoon, and stormed toward my bedroom.

“Today, I’m going to make sure you remember this lesson!”

“If that self-discipline bracelet can’t control you, then I’ll give you a real punishment!”

I floated in front of her, desperately waving my hands.

“Mom, don’t go in!”

“Don’t look at me! I’ve become horrible now. I’ll scare you!”

Even though she had never truly loved me,

I still didn’t want her to see what I looked like after death.

But she couldn’t hear me at all.

She walked straight through my soul, crouched down, and ripped away the tape sealing the door.

“Riiip—”

The sound of the tape tearing was especially harsh in the silent apartment.

Mom took out the spare key and inserted it into the lock.

The key turned.

Click.

The next second, she forcefully pushed open the bedroom door.

The overwhelming stench of death rushed out instantly.