All Chapters of The Blood-Stained Sour Candy: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

8 Chapters

Chapter 1

I lay curled up on the cold floor.I had taken the fall for my little brother and downed more than half a gallon of hard liquor as punishment. Now, every organ in my body felt like it was burning from the inside out.I wanted to drag myself to a hospital, but I could not even lift a finger. Just as my vision started going dark, the door burst open with a violent kick.My mother, Fernanda Sanchez, stood in the doorway, her face twisted in disgust.Her eyes landed on the pool of black blood I had vomited onto the floor. "Layla Lloyd! Did you do this on purpose?"I just mopped, and you've already made the floor filthy again! What, you couldn't make it to the bathroom?"All day long, you play dead. You're nothing but a burden!"I used every ounce of strength I had left to reach toward her, a desperate wheeze rattling from my throat."Mom... Please... Help me..."The sound came out so faint I could barely hear myself. Somewhere deep down, I still had hope.After all, I was her dau

Chapter 2

The next day, my body felt weightless. The stomach pain that had been driving me insane was gone.I looked down and saw a body lying on the floor with a purple and blue face, as well as white foam and dark red blood crusted at the corners of the mouth.That was me. That was Layla Lloyd, as dead as a doornail.I floated in midair, staring at my own stiff corpse. It looked almost like a stranger. Now, the girl who had always kept her head down would never have to bow to anybody again.Sunlight streamed through the window and fell directly across my body. Too bad I could not feel its warmth anymore.The sound of the television blared from the living room. Mom was watching her favorite variety show, exaggerated laughter echoing from the speakers.I drifted through the door and into the living room. Mom sat cross-legged on the couch with a handful of pistachios, cracking them and spitting shells all over the floor. She laughed so hard she rocked back and forth, completely unaware that

Chapter 3

Two days after I died, a strange smell began to seep from my room.Mom paused mid-step as she walked past my door and covered her nose. "That brat must be hoarding leftovers in there again and turning her room into a pigsty! It reeks!"I floated nearby and watched her grab a box of mothballs from the cabinet. Then, she got down on her hands and knees and shoved them one by one through the crack of my door, trying to cover up the smell of death.The white mothballs rolled into the room and stopped beside my corpse."Mom, that's not the smell of garbage. That's the smell of your daughter rotting."Did she not suspect anything at all? If she just opened the door and looked, just once, she would finally see. However, she did not.Mom dusted off her hands, looking pleased with herself.Just then, the delivery guy downstairs shouted up, "Layla! You've got mail!"Mom went down to get it and came back with a thick envelope stamped with the City Culinary Association’s logo.Getting in

Chapter 4

By the third day after my death, the stench of decay had become so strong that even the mothballs could not cover it anymore. Mom sprayed an entire can of air freshener in the living room."You brat! Did you take a dump in there or something? It's just some stupid cooking job. Is doing all this really worth it? Open this door right now so I can teach you a lesson!"Just then, urgent footsteps came from outside. Dad had come home three days earlier than planned.He had called my phone countless times over the past few days, and it had been off every single time. His fatherly unease drove him to get in his truck and drive through the night.He carried a large box in his hands. It was the latest model of the oven I wanted, the birthday gift I had been talking about for three solid years."Layla! Dad's home!"The moment Dad walked through the door, the smile on his face froze before it could fully form. The smell hit him like a physical force.As a long-haul truck driver, he knew th

Chapter 5

The moment the door opened, everyone in the living room instinctively covered their noses and mouths.Even Mom, who was always so domineering, gagged at the smell.Dad froze in the doorway. He stood frozen in place like a statue.I followed his line of sight and saw myself curled up on the floor. Between the drugs and alcohol, combined with the summer heat, my body had swollen and turned black beyond recognition.The pool of dried blood at the corner of my mouth split my face in two. There was still something tightly wedged inside my fist."Ahh!"Dad let out an inhuman wail. His legs buckled, and he dropped heavily to his knees. The sound of his kneecaps hitting the floor made me wince.He did not seem to feel the pain. He crawled toward me on his hands and knees."Layla... My Layla..."He reached out to hold me, but his hand trembled violently in midair before he pulled it back.He did not dare touch me. He was afraid that if he did, I would crumble to pieces.At that momen

Chapter 6

My funeral was simple.Mom was still bedridden in the hospital, while Dad moved like a walking corpse. Only Liam sat beside my casket, crying until his eyes swelled red and raw.Three nights after the funeral, urgent knocking shattered the dead silence in the house.Dad opened the door to find a man kneeling outside. It was Mr. Wilson, the client who had forced me to drink the day I died.He reeked of alcohol, and his face was swollen like a balloon from slapping himself. "Brian, I'm so sorry..."He started hitting himself frantically the moment he saw Dad.He used full force with every blow. Blood soon seeped from the corner of his mouth."I'm not human! I killed your daughter!"Dad stared at him coldly, gripping a kitchen knife in his hand. If not for Liam, I think Dad would have already plunged it into him.Mr. Wilson cried as he revealed the full truth of that night.That day, Liam had been running around the private room and knocked over an antique vase Mr. Wilson had br

Chapter 7

The house became a tomb for the living dead.Dad quit his job and stopped leaving the house. He spent all day sitting in my room, wiping down the oven that had never been used.Mom drifted in and out of lucidity, sometimes crying hysterically and sometimes laughing maniacally while muttering my name.Liam became silent and withdrawn. He lost weight rapidly.During one particularly heated argument, Mom started deflecting blame again and accused Dad of neglecting the family."If you hadn't been on the road all the time, if I hadn't been stuck raising two kids alone, would I have been under so much pressure? Who do you think I did all this for? This family!"Liam, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly exploded.His eyes went red as he screamed at Mom, "Shut up! This is all your fault! If you hadn't been too busy video chatting with that other man that day, you never would’ve blamed Layla for something she didn't do!"The air froze instantly.Mom's face went deathly pale as

Chapter 8

Several years passed.Mom and Dad never got divorced. Instead, they spent the rest of their lives in the prison they called home, torturing each other.Dad bought May's small diner downstairs after it went out of business. He renamed it ‘Layla's Noodle House’.The shop only served one dish: chicken noodle soup. He never sold it. He only gave it away for free to children and elderly people who passed by, rain or shine.He said he was trying to balance the scales, hoping it would make up for what I never got to have.Mom's hair turned completely white. She aged until she looked like a woman in her 70s or 80s.She stopped hitting people and stopped screaming.She spent every day in my room, keeping watch over the brand new oven Dad had bought. She wiped down the oven over and over, talking to it."Layla, what kind of cookies do you want today? How about chocolate chip? Mom's not very good at baking, but please don't mind, okay?"She got flour all over herself, but she never turne

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP