Semua Bab My Mother's Blind Faith in a Lie Collar Broke Me: Bab 1 - Bab 10

On Christmas Day, my mother was getting ready to take my brother, Daniel Benson, to watch the fireworks when I felt a sudden, violent pain in my stomach.I curled up on the floor, breaking out into a cold sweat."Mom… Help me… My stomach hurts…"My voice was shaking, but the collar around my neck started flashing red like crazy.Mom stood over me, staring down at me without a hint of emotion. She dialed the shock up to the highest setting."So now you're pretending to be sick just to go watch fireworks with us? How could you even think to put on such a fake show? It's revolting. You're seriously rotten to the core!"She grabbed Daniel and walked off. The door slammed shut, and the bang made my ears ring.I couldn't help thinking maybe she was right. Since the collar was flashing red, that meant I couldn't really be in pain.I must just be me pretending to be pitiful and trying to get attention again.I couldn't be any more sorry, Mom. If there were a next life, I would definit

Daniel added, "Irene is always lying. She's even lying in her sleep!"Mom patted Daniel's head, her voice turning gentle. "Our Danny's such a good boy. Leave her be. She can lie there all she wants. Let's see if she can stay like that forever."Dad looked in from the doorway. "Should we carry her to her bed? It's winter. She'll catch a cold."Mom cut him off instantly. "Why should we? Kids these days are just spoiled. Even the experts say so. This kind of behavior needs to be corrected with cold treatment. She has to realize her mistake on her own."She pointed at the red light on my collar. "See this? It's still red. That means she's still acting out on the inside. She hasn't reflected at all. That's enough. Let's head to bed. We still have to visit my parents tomorrow."She turned to leave, pulling the door shut behind her and locking it.Floating beside my body, I stared at the glaring red light in the darkness. The chill in my heart felt colder than death itself.If Mom had

The moment our skin made contact, time seemed to freeze.Through the thin fabric of my pajamas, what Mom felt was neither warm skin nor soft flesh. What she felt was something icy and stiff, like a chunk of meat that was as hard as a rock.It was the kind of cold that could be felt in the bones, the kind where there were no signs of life to be found."Huh?"She froze for a second, but out of habit, she kept pulling. As my body was yanked backward, the chair tipped over with it.The crash echoed through the room as my body fell stiffly, like a rigid statue.That was when my face was finally revealed. I no longer looked like the timid little girl she was used to.My face was now dark and discolored, my eyes bulging. My features were frozen in a twisted expression of unbearable pain that I felt just before my death.At the corner of my mouth, dried foam mixed with dark red blood could be seen. And around my discolored neck, that "lie-detecting collar" she was so proud of hung li

Right then, Mom suddenly thought back to when I turned ten. Overwhelmed by the collar's highest setting, I had curled up on the floor, biting my lip so hard that I bled just to stay silent.So this was how painful it was. Mom completely lost it. She screamed at the collar like a madwoman, her spit flying everywhere, "Why is it red? Why? I'm telling the truth, so turn green! You broken thing! You're framing me!"No matter how much she shouted, the red light kept flashing wildly, as if it were silently calling her a liar.Having seen enough, a forensic technician spoke coldly. "That's enough. Stop trying. That thing doesn't work like a lie detector at all."He picked up the manual they had found during the search and threw it onto the coffee table. "This thing simply measures the heart rate and electrodermal activity."When a person is nervous, anxious, afraid, or in pain, their heart rate rises and skin conductivity increases. That makes the light turn red."You're in full-blo

The officer continued, "I want to be an ordinary child. I want to eat the pulled pork you make."Mom stared at the plastic parts. The "honest green light" she had believed in so deeply turned out to be nothing more than a cheap toy.Because of this toy, she had spoiled Daniel for ten years, and because of that damned red light, she tortured me for ten years.Mom started laughing. It was a harsh, eerie laugh that sounded ugly. "It's fake… All of it is fake… I killed my most honest child and spoiled a liar."This time, she truly did lose her mind. My death became the city's most talked-about news.The kind-hearted but gossipy Felicia posted everything she saw that day online. The chilling title read, "The Girl Electrocuted to Death by a Pseudoscientific Collar".The article gave a detailed account of my body's condition and the collar that was stuck to my flesh.That single post sparked a massive wave of outrage across the internet.When Mom's identity was exposed, countless curs