Dying in Three, Two, One

My three elder brothers treated Phoebe like a princess but avoided me like the plague. Even the maids brushed me off.It was a regular occurrence for me to go to bed while starving. That didn't stop me from reaching the age of 18, though.Carl always said I was a monster who would forever plague the rest of the family, and I somewhat agreed. I wondered whether I was still alive because I was too evil for hell to take me in.On this day, I got out of bed and headed to the bathroom to wash up. My hair was dry and frizzy, and my cheeks were sunken. No one would ever think I was the oldest daughter of the affluent Jensen family.That was beside the point, though. What caught my attention was the countdown timer above my head. I saw the bright red numbers above my mirror reflection.The day had finally come. I wanted to smile but only managed to lift the corners of my lips slightly.I slowly put down my glass of water and stared dazedly at my reflection. I didn't have friends and rare

I stiffened. This was about Phoebe again. I now knew who Carl had been on the phone with—Eugene.Well, it made sense. I'd always been known as a symbol of misfortune. Why else would I have cursed my family members?I couldn't help shuddering at the thought of what Carl was capable of. After my mother's death, a kind doctor had taken me home. For three days after that, Carl had locked me up in the tool shed without food or drinks. Nobody had cared about me.To this day, the incident haunted me. I thought I was about to die on my third day without sustenance when my eldest brother, Gary, had descended from the heavens and set me free. Though he hadn't expressed any concern toward me, he was still the kindest among my brothers.I supposed he'd already heard about what I'd said earlier that morning.When I didn't respond, Carl probably thought his threat had scared me. He leaned close and said, "You know what I'm capable of. It's easy enough for me to make a person disappear without a

As my soul left my body, I wondered why I could still see what was happening to me. It only hit me when I looked down to see my lifeless body slumped on the table—I was dead.The sound of the door opening caught my attention. I turned to see that a maid had returned. The remnants of whatever hope I harbored disappeared. My brothers hadn't returned.The maid was shocked to see me slumped on the table with the urn and photo beside me. She stopped to assess the situation before slowly approaching me. She reached out a trembling finger and placed it underneath my nose. Then, she paled and shrieked in fear.She pulled out her phone and made a call, the shakiness of her voice a testament to how terrified she was. "Hello? Yes, someone has just died here! Yes… The address is…"After hanging up, she patted her chest and glanced at me. Then, she turned away. Suddenly, she remembered something, and her expression turned conflicted. After a brief hesitation, she made another call. "Mr. Gary…"

Eugene buried his face in the scarf, his body trembling slightly. He remembered watching me pick the shreds from the trash can while mocking me. "What's ruined is ruined. It'll never go back to being what it was, no matter how you try to put it back together."There'd been an undercurrent to his words, which I'd understood. My hands had stiffened in mid-air while clutching the pieces of the scarf, but I'd still taken them with me.As Eugene sobbed inside my room, Carl and Gary leaned against the doorframe and looked in. This seemed to be their first time seeing my living conditions—the attic was dark and cramped.Carl was stunned. He'd never stepped foot in here before. He approached my closet, which was small and old. It was enough to contain all the clothes I needed for every weather.Everything in the attic was old and worn out, save for the small bed in the center. I'd only managed to get it changed because the old one had collapsed in the middle of the night. A piece of broken