เรื่องสั้นแนว After Death และนิยาย Bias Family Emotions

While ordering food for my brother, I forgot one note, ‘no peanuts.’ My mother, Victoria Miller, bought a hundred pounds of fresh lilies and dragged them inside. I am severely allergic to pollen. She shoved me into the flower-filled room anyway and slammed the door shut behind me. "How many times must I tell you? Your brother is allergic to peanuts!" she screamed. "You left it out on purpose! What kind of monster are you? "You hate that I love him. Today, I'm curing your cruel heart!" Pollen choked the air. Thick clouds. My throat swelled instantly, cutting off my breath. My little brother, Toby Miller, rushed forward. He grabbed the handle. "Mom, I'm fine!" he sobbed. "Let her out! Please!" She didn't care. She yanked him back and turned the key. Click. "She tried to hurt you again!" her voice boomed through the wood. "Stop defending her! Today, she will learn her lesson." I slid down the cold door frame and sank into the sea of petals. To her, I was always the villain. My vision blurred. Air wouldn't come. I stopped clawing at the door and stopped begging. I collapsed onto the floor, dying among the blossoms. Mom, if the monster dies, will you finally be happy?

When the flood came, my father, who was the captain of the rescue team, immediately rescued my cousin and cut my rescue rope. "Vivian can't swim, and there's not enough space on the helicopter. You won't die even if we rescue you a little later." I was rushed to the hospital while hanging onto a thread, but my mother, who was a doctor, gave the last bag of rare blood to my cousin, who was not even seriously injured. I begged with a weak voice, but my mother pried my fingers apart and said, "Your cousin is anemic and has always been in poor health. Must you fight for attention at such a time?" My parents had no idea that I stopped breathing when they abandoned me.

My father's adopted daughter was only locked in the cramped storage closet for around fifteen minutes, yet he punished me by tying me up and throwing me inside. He even sealed off the ventilation with towels. "As Wendy's older sister, if you can't take care of her, then you should also experience how scared she was," he declared coldly. He knew I was claustrophobic, but my desperate pleas for mercy, my terror, were met with nothing but heartless reprimands. "Let this be a lesson on how to be a good sister." As the last sliver of light disappeared, swallowed by the oppressive darkness, I struggled helplessly. A week passed before my father finally remembered my existence and decided it was time to end my punishment. "Let's hope this week served as a good lesson for you, Jennifer. If this happens again, you will no longer be allowed in this house." He would never know that I had already taken my last breath in that suffocating room. My body had begun to rot in the darkness.

On Mom's death anniversary, drug dealers break into the cemetery and take me away. To get revenge on my brother, Zack Smith—a forensic pathologist—they torture me until there isn't even a single uninjured spot left on my body. I hold on for almost three days, barely surviving, until I finally get a chance to call him for help. However, Zack replied, "Why didn't they kill you for good? A jinx like you who killed your own mother shouldn't be allowed to live!" When the drug dealers notice my action, they shatter all of my bones. The next day, a janitor discovers several large bags of human remains in the trash can. Zack painstakingly reassembles my body back together with his own hands—yet he fails to recognize that it's me, his younger sister he always claims to hate. When the drug dealers are finally arrested, he descends into madness.

My mom believed in one thing above all else: being number one. To achieve that, she created a strict daily schedule and even developed a monitoring app that required us to submit reports every day. Anyone who failed to rank first according to the app's evaluation would be tied to a chair and severely punished. No matter how difficult the task was, my younger brother, Jason Hunt, could always complete it and receive a perfect score. Even when he actually ranked last, the monitoring software would still display him in first place. As for me, a single misspelled word was enough to trigger a failing warning from the app, followed immediately by my mom's harsh punishment. At first, I tried to explain. Later, I stayed silent. In the end, I could only kneel and beg. My mom remained unmoved. "Trash doesn't deserve sympathy," she said coldly. "You'll thank me when you become successful in the future." On the first day of the New Year, my mom took Jason out to visit our relatives and exchange greetings. I, meanwhile, was burning with a high fever and could not even finish the day's assignments. Ignoring my illness, my mom dragged me into a bathtub filled with ice. "If you're trying to escape studying, you don't deserve to live," she said. "Pretending to be sick? If you've got the guts, then just die already." She forced my head underwater and raised a rod, smashing it against my skull again and again. I begged desperately for mercy, but it was futile. My mom left with Jason, and I curled up alone on the floor. She was right. Only those who work hard deserve to live.

My brother Weston Adler and I died in the same car crash. As we lay dying, a cold, mechanical voice suddenly spoke to us. "Win over your family, and you'll be brought back to life." From that day on, Weston became the sole receiver of my family's love. When he casually remarked that the master bedroom had better natural light, our mother, Maya Croft, immediately moved into the second bedroom. When he said he wanted to be an only child, our father, Lennox Adler, had someone remove my name from the family's official records. When he stated that he envied my five-year relationship with my girlfriend, Willow Wade, my family took turns pressuring me to hand her over to him. I clenched my fists and turned to my girlfriend. "Willow, is that what you want, too?" She leaned against my shoulder and spoke softly. "Sweetie, it's just an act. We have to grant Weston's wishes if he's going to survive." I recoiled and protested, unwilling to accept it. "Weston and I have the same mission! If I fail mine, I'll die, too!" My entire family looked down their noses at me as soon as those words left my lips. "Declan, to think you'll stoop so low to make up a lie like this just to win our favor." "If failing the mission means death, then how are you still alive?" And so, their words became my death sentence as the system spoke in its usual flat, apathetic tone. "Declan, your mission has failed. You will be eliminated immediately."

On Thanksgiving, my whole family gathered in a B&B in the suburbs when a group of masked men with machetes suddenly barged in. “Seth owes us four hundred and fifty thousand dollars in gambling debts! Either all of you die, or give us a young woman to work outside the country to pay for his debts!” Olivia was so terrified that she peed herself and cried. My mother shielded her and turned to me. “Ninian, Olivia has a weak heart. If she has to leave the country to work, she’ll die! Could you go in her place?” Clark Grant, the fiance I had dated for seven years, turned away and pushed me forward. “If we sacrifice you, we can save everyone else. Don’t be selfish.” When I saw their cold and aversive gazes, my heart shattered in disappointment. Under the pretext of grabbing my clothes, I went into the bathroom, brought out the paraquat under the basin, and drank half of it. When I opened the door and was prepared to face my end, the lights in the living room lit up, and loud laughter erupted. Olivia had been crying loudly a second ago, but she was holding her phone and laughing hard at the moment. “Everyone, the prank was a success! My sister nearly cried from fear!” The masked men removed their masks, and I saw that it was Seth as well as Clark’s friends. Clark squeezed my stiff shoulder. “It’s okay. Olivia was just filming a bit. It’s all fake.” My throat started burning, as if there was fire raging inside. I watched them laugh. The creditors were fake, and the threat to kill us all had been fake too. But the paraquat I downed had been real.

Ethan Shaw is dead. His face has been destroyed and his limbs severed. When his body reaches the morgue, the person who performs the autopsy is his own wife, Dr. Vivian Sullivan. She is a cool, rational professor of forensic pathology, and she is the woman Ethan loved for more than a decade. Six years ago he lost his voice saving her life, and she married him because of it. In all the years that followed, she remembered every one of his follow-up appointments yet never once remembered his birthday. She tended his injuries, but gave every ounce of warmth and favor she had to his younger brother. Right up until the moment he died, Ethan was calling her, over and over. And she hung up on his last plea for help so she could film a meteor shower for his brother. Afterward, Vivian finds a scar she knows on the body, a red mole behind its ear, and the ring he died protecting--the one he'd meant to give her. She finally recognizes him.

Mom said I needed to toughen up, so she made me walk home alone. "You're ten. Everyone else can do it. Why can't you? If you were even half as capable as your cousin, I wouldn't have to worry so much." I shook my head and signed, [I can't hear. Crossing streets isn't safe.] She gave me that look. Total disappointment. Then she walked off with my cousin, Sadie. What Mom didn't know was that before school let out, Sadie had stopped me. Said she was helping Mom make me independent. Then she snatched my hearing aid. Now the whole world was silent. I followed the crowd down the sidewalk. At a small intersection, a car spun out, horn blaring. Everyone scattered. Everyone but me. I couldn't hear it. My spirit rose above the street. Below, my body lay in a pool of blood. Mom... Sorry. I couldn't do this independence thing.

Shortly after I married Andrew Lorne, my mother-in-law has my husband's widowed sister-in-law move in with us. She wants my husband to bear the responsibility of caring for two families. My husband says he wouldn't be who he is without his elder brother's help, so he won't let his sister-in-law suffer. And so, she and her son steal my home and my husband's love. Meanwhile, my daughter and I are banished to the countryside. On the first day of our banishment, I'm violated and murdered by beggars who barge into the house. … It takes three years for my husband to remember me. He comes to the countryside to take me home. "Come out, Jovana. I'll immediately bring you home as long as you agree to give your property to Tiana as an apology for the things you've done." As soon as the words are out of his mouth, my daughter emerges from the yard, which is overgrown with weeds. She tells him I was dead. He doesn't believe her. He allows his mother to beat my daughter half to death and berates me while he's at it. "How dare you, Jovana! You haven't learned your lesson at all, have you? These dirty tricks are all you know, and you even taught our daughter to lie! It's been years, yet you still can't compare to Tiana!"

Everyone in Crowglade knows that my wife, Sophia Tuson, treats me and my son, Ashton Yates, as the apples of her eye. When I want to stargaze, she spends 100 million dollars to create an extravagant meteor shower for me. Ashton loves carousels, so she builds the biggest amusement park in the city and names it after him. She has never been stingy when it comes to showering us with love. When Ashton and I get into a car accident, Sophia hires a renowned medical team to save my life. Mustering what little strength I have left, I tell her to save Ashton first. Sophia's voice is thick with tears when she tells me that Ashton has already died of excessive bleeding on the way to the hospital. Overwhelmed by grief, I can't hold on anymore and faint. When I regain consciousness, I hear Sophia speaking with the doctor outside the door. "Mr. Ashton could have been saved, Ms. Tuson. Why did you just watch your son die without lifting a single finger to help him?" "The purpose of Ashton's existence is to save Harold's and my child," Sophia says nonchalantly. "I can't openly remove his heart and give it to Micah if he doesn't die. I've treated Gabriel and Ashton very well in the past few years. Now, it's their turn to repay me." It turns out that Sophia only treated me and Ashton so well because she wanted Ashton's heart in exchange for her kindness. She's the one who orchestrated the tragedy that befell us. If that's the case, I will grant her wish.

For as long as I can remember, my family and I have been living in an underground basement that's completely shut off from the outside world. My parents have told me that the zombie apocalypse is terrorizing the outside world. The air is completely plagued with the zombie virus, and we'll die if we ever leave the basement. In order to save the supplies—which are already dwindling, to begin with—I've starved myself to the point I'm all skin and bones despite being only 18 years old. When I realize that there's only one last can of food left, I leave behind a suicide note. "Mom, Dad, now there's one less mouth to feed. You'll last a few more days." After that, I slit my wrist right away. Once I'm dead, my soul phases through the thick and heavy metal door. Bright sunlight illuminates the entire world. It's a beautiful, peaceful world filled with greenery. I can even hear birds chirping in the distance. Mom, Dad, and a bunch of people are throwing a barbecue party on the lawn. The mouth-watering smell of food being grilled permeates the air. So, it turns out that the zombie apocalypse is just a lie that's designated to trap me inside the fortress. I'm the only one who has died in this sunny, peaceful world.

My mother gave birth to a pair of twins. I, the first twin, lived with my grandmother in the countryside since I was little. My twin brother, Felix Carter, lived with our parents during the same period. After I got accepted to a high school in the city, I was finally allowed to live with my parents. I thought I could finally have a taste of the familial love I'd been yearning for. Little did I know that this was the start of my nightmares. My parents and Felix ostracized me all the time, as though I were an outsider. Heck, my status at home wasn't even comparable to that of Felix's pet dog! One day, Felix stuffed a piece of kiwi into my mouth against my will, claiming that he wanted to help me get rid of my allergy toward kiwis. I pleaded with my parents for help with great difficulty, and yet all I received were cold glances from them. "Don't be a wuss! Are we expected to quit eating kiwis because of you?" "You're allergic to kiwis? Ridiculous! You'll get used to them after eating them a few more times!" But what my family didn't know was that severe allergies are actually fatal to the patient.

I was crushed into a pulp by a speeding semi-truck while my mother was at a baking class with my cousin. When I called her, desperate, she only snapped at me. "What's all the racket? Kyle burned his hand because your call distracted him. Did you do that on purpose?" The next day, in her capacity as one of the city's most celebrated morticians, she was assigned to restore the face of a body mangled beyond recognition. She worked on it for a full day and night and still couldn't bring back the dead woman's face. Mom, can you really not recognize her? That's the face of the daughter you hated most.

The rogue wolf Beck had kidnapped me and stabbed me ten times with a silver dagger. Now he was forcing me to call my brother, the Alpha of Sterling Pack, and trade the entire northern border for my life. I knew Cain wouldn't care. But I dialed anyway. The line rang for a long time before he picked up. His voice came through, raw with irritation. "What stunt are you pulling now?" "Cain, help me. I've been taken—" I didn't get to finish before he cut me off, cold and clipped. "You'd really stoop to faking a kidnapping to ruin Selene's Chief Healer ceremony tonight? Iris, I swear to god, if you don't show up, you're out of this pack for good." Click. The line went dead. Beck let out a low laugh. Then he drew the silver blade across my throat. Pain swallowed everything. My heart stopped. But my soul drifted up, light as smoke, out of my body. You don't have to throw me out anymore, Cain. I'm never coming back.

In Ashport, it was no secret that my mom, Celia Gibson, had two families. When she was up in Northline, she stayed with Dad and me. When she was down in Southbank, she cared for the man who once saved her life and his son. Years ago, Arthur Poole stepped in and took a knife that should have struck her when the dock she was at exploded. From that moment, Celia lived as if her life belonged to him. Dad fought with her about it for over a decade. The wealthy in Ashport snickered behind his back, saying Liam Olson was her husband in name only. After all, Dad couldn't even get her to cut ties with her so-called savior. Then, Celia got pregnant with my little sister. Arthur called her, screaming that she had to choose between them. That very night, she went to the hospital and had an abortion. "Liam, we can always have another baby, but I can't just turn my back on Arthur and his son." The night we lost my little sister, Dad finally stopped fighting. He gathered me close and whispered, "Lucas, my son... I'm leaving. I'm going home." I'd known long ago that Dad wasn't from this world. He'd come here with a single mission: to have a son and a daughter with Celia. Only then would he earn the right to stay alive. Unfortunately, he'd failed. The countdown above his head kept ticking, stealing a little more time from him each day. I called Celia over and over, my voice breaking as I begged her to come home and see Dad. Alas, she was in Southbank, having a grand time with Arthur and his son. All I got was her cold, impatient response, "Hasn't your father caused enough drama all these years? Tell him to stop using his own life just to guilt me into choosing him." What she didn't know was that Dad meant it this time around. When his countdown finally hit zero, I cradled him as he drew his last breath. Then, I wiped my tears and called the hospital. From that day on, Dad was forever lost to me. And as far as I was concerned, I no longer had a mother, either.

On the day of my birthday, my adopted sister, Juliette Griffin, and I get into a car accident. The flames are already licking me hungrily, and yet my fiance, Leon Sinclair, points at the front passenger seat. "Save Juliette first! She has a heart disease!" When I wake up, I'm completely disfigured. At most, I only have one month left to live. Later on, my family decides that Juliette will marry Leon on my behalf for the sake of our families' interests. Leon caresses my bandaged face with heartbreak in his eyes. He then vows to me, "Once you get better, the position of Mrs. Sinclair is still yours." I just smile and say okay. I even give all of my shares, properties, and my unpublished artwork to Juliette as her pre-wedding gifts. Just like that, Juliette becomes a famous artist by publishing my artwork. When the reporters interview Mom, she's so happy that she bursts into tears. "I'm so glad that Juliette isn't the one who got badly hurt in the accident! Otherwise, we'd have lost a genius!" Leon also announces in a high-profile manner that Juliette will be his one and only wife. But what they don't know is that the actual genius is gazing at them coldly from a corner. The things that I've voluntarily given away from the start are actually offerings meant for my vengeance.

When my young sister, Sharon, did something wrong for the first time, my mother downloaded an AI child education app. The AI said, "I think that punishing Sharon isn't effective. Why not punish her older sister, Sherry, whom she is close to? That way, Sharon will be disciplined because of her love for Sherry." Since then, I was used as a tool to discipline Sharon. Sharon loved ordering delivery, and my mother followed the AI's advice to dose my food delivery with ten packets of laxatives, which landed me in the emergency room. She used this opportunity to teach Sharon a lesson about food safety. When Sharon stayed out all night and did not come home, my mother followed the AI's advice to get five homeless men to drag me into the alleyway and rape me after I came home late from school to teach Sharon to protect herself. Sharon wanted to adopt a dog, so my mother took the AI's advice to release a mongrel with rabies into my room. I was bitten because I could not evade the dog's attack, as my mother locked me in the room with it. "Once your sister comes back from school, I'll show her the consequences of adopting a dog! "The AI told me that there is a one-month incubation period for rabies. When Sharon finally admits her mistake, I'll take you to the hospital for a vaccination." However, she had no idea that I had been bitten in the head. By the time Sharon returned, I had contracted rabies. My mother used my life as the price to pay for disciplining my sister.

After the accident, I came home in clothes soaked with blood. Mom and Dad took one look at the bandages covering me and immediately asked what had happened. I clenched my fists and said, “Car accident. My phone’s emergency SOS automatically sent my location to my emergency contacts and tried calling them. Mom, you hung up. Dad, you never even checked the alert.” I thought they would apologize and promise that they would never ignore an emergency alert again. Instead, Mom frowned. “Why would you put down my number? You know I have a heart condition. What if I suddenly got an emergency alert like that and passed out from the shock?” Dad waved a hand dismissively. “My blood pressure is high. I can’t handle that kind of shock either. Take my number off the list.” I stood there, stunned. Everyone in the family had me listed as their primary emergency contact. When Grandma fell out of bed in the middle of the night, when Dad was rear-ended by someone on the highway, when Mom had a sudden episode of heart palpitations... No matter what I was doing, the second I got an SOS alert from them, I would call for help and rush straight over. At the beginning of September, my younger sister started college. Mom and Dad had practically fought over who would get to be her primary emergency contact, each insisting they were the better choice. When it came to me, their whole attitude changed. I lowered my eyes and asked softly, “Mom, Dad, if I died because neither of you answered when I called for help, would you regret it?”

The pack knew my mother, Wynne Carter, a renowned pack healer, as the very definition of fairness. To avoid any accusation of favoritism, she once had me removed from the emergency ward while I was suffering from a severe allergic reaction, all because she couldn’t let her own daughter take medical resources away from other pack members. Even when I invited her to the academy’s open day, she turned me down because my instructor was pregnant. She reprimanded me sternly, “Get those funny ideas out of your head. My position is not a way for you to get special treatment from your instructors.” I had always believed my mother was merely strict. Then, the fire happened. My adopted sister, Lena Sylan Carter, and I, who was five months along, were taken to the pack infirmary. My mother walked straight past me while I clutched my belly in agony. She assembled the infirmary’s best healers around Lena, all to treat a minor burn to the back of her hand. “Lena is just a fragile human. She doesn’t have healing powers. Even a small wound could become infected or leave a scar. “Odette Carter, you’re my flesh and blood. If I were to give you priority, the elders will have something to say about that. “Why are you making this about yourself and competing with Lena for attention? You’re about to become a mother yourself. It’s time you grew up!” I grabbed desperately at her pant leg, only for her to shake me off in annoyance and walk away. Little did she know, my wolf had been severely injured. My healing ability was gone. Blood ran down my legs, and the pain in my abdomen shifted into hollow numbness. The truth that my mother wasn’t impartial sank in. I simply wasn’t the one she favored. My vision blurred. I knew that I didn’t have much time left.