Cerita Pendek & Novel Live Streaming

The night before the Global Finals, my boyfriend, our team captain, handed my starting spot to an academy trainee just to indulge her. Every question I got wrong, I had to hand over a piece of gear that had carried me through championships. But every answer had been rigged from the start. In the end, he pulled my account key and gave my Finals seat to the trainee. "Just let her play one match. You're twenty-six, stop being so petty." I snapped my account card in half on the spot and signed the termination papers they'd drawn up. The whole team expected me to crawl back to base. But when the Finals lineups took the stage, I was wearing our rivals' starting jersey, standing on the other side. They still had no idea who had really been carrying whom to those three straight championships.

My best friend Chloe jumped off a cliff and killed herself after being assaulted. I was the only one who knew the monster who did it. Yet, I refused to tell anyone the truth. When her mother knelt at my feet and begged, I turned my back on her and walked away. The citizens cursed me, calling me a monster, and drove me out of the city-state. I accepted it all in silence. For the next ten years, I lived a miserable, lonely life in the woods, barely scraping by. Until I was weak and on the verge of death. Juliette, the best friend Chloe and I shared, returned to the city as the High Priestess of Athena. The very first thing she did was drag me to the Altar of Divine Punishment. "Olivia, you vicious bitch! You protected the monster who ruined her! We were blind to ever call you a sister!" "Chloe has been dead for ten years, and you let that bastard walk free for just as long!" "Today, I’m going to use Athena’s Mirror of Truth to see exactly who you’ve been protecting with your life!" But when the real culprit was finally revealed, Juliette broke down completely, dropping to her knees in pure disbelief.

I was only seven when my dad, Michael Carter, jumped into the river to save a drowning man. I was still playing in the sand on the riverbank. By the time a crowd had gathered and Dad was pulled from the water, his body had turned blue. He wasn't breathing. And the grown man Dad had risked his life to save? He swam back to shore on his own, shook off the water, muttered, "Just my luck," and walked away. Mom never smiled again after that. She worked three jobs to keep our family afloat. A year later, she collapsed from exhaustion at the textile mill and never woke up. Every spring, Grandma took me to visit their graves. She would cry and say the same thing every year. "If only I hadn't taken you to play by the river that day." Then I opened my eyes, and I was seven again. Dad was pulling off his jacket and tossing it to me. He pointed at the figure struggling in the river. "Stay right here, Mia. Dad's going to save him." The next second, I darted past him and jumped into the river. "Dad. "I can't swim."

Brandon Hawthorne said if I wanted to marry him, I had to prove I was tough enough to be a Hawthorne. He took my bank cards, ditched me in a city I'd never been to, and made me figure out how to get home alone. When my fever hit 104°F, he still refused to let the family doctor through the door. Instead, I had to smile through dinner with a house full of Hawthorne relatives while I could barely stay on my feet. And every time I finally asked Brandon for help, he looked at me like I'd failed him. "You can't even handle something this simple. How are you supposed to be my wife?" But when his childhood friend, Patty Rowan, got blisters from her shoes, he picked her up and carried her away in front of everyone. She got a headache in the middle of the night, and he left me alone in the hospital to take the family doctor to her. I asked him why. He frowned. "Patty's fragile. And she's not the one trying to become a Hawthorne." Then came our engagement party. I accidentally ate peanuts. My throat started closing. I couldn't breathe. Brandon grabbed my EpiPen and locked me in the lounge. "This is your final test. If you want to marry me, tough it out." Then Patty called. She had a paper cut. Brandon immediately left with the doctor. "Hold out for ten minutes." I lost track of time. Right before everything went dark, I saw Brandon come back with Patty tucked close beside him. She had a Band-Aid on her finger. Through the haze, I heard the disappointment in his voice. "Patty was bleeding, and she didn't even cry. Are you seriously pretending to be dead?" Then came the final blow. "You failed the test. You're not ready to become a Hawthorne."

I'm working the overnight shift at a convenience store, restocking shelves, when a female live streamer bursts through the front door at 2:00 am. She holds her phone out in front of her, broadcasting live to over 600 thousand viewers online. The camera sweeps across the store before zeroing right in on me. "You're still working the overnight shift at a convenience store at your age? Are you just not planning on getting married?" I don't even bother looking up. "Not really interested." She gives me a knowing smile. "Oh. I guess your income doesn't really allow for it, huh?" The comments in the live chat explode instantly. [A night shift clerk talking about marriage? How absurd!] [He's only making 1,500 dollars a month, and he thinks he can afford a wife?] [LMAO! As if any woman would actually marry him.] [Just a sexually frustrated guy trying to save his pride.] [ROFL! What a brutal reality check!] I place the last bag of chips onto the shelf and stand up. "Come. Let's talk." The next day, the streamer is canceled and banned across the internet.

I've been a liar for as long as anyone can remember. When I was seven, I told Mom that Jared smashed our piggy bank. She searched me instead and found the missing coins in my pocket. When I was 12, I insisted I didn't steal my classmate's notebook. Then it was found inside my backpack. When I was 18, I accused my stepfather of assaulting me. He produced photos proving he was out of state that night. By then, everyone knows exactly what I am. A compulsive liar. A daughter who will say anything. At 22, I sit in front of a camera with my psychiatric evaluation in my hands and start a livestream. "For the next three days, I'm going to show you what it's like to spend 22 years being called a liar."

Hearing that my son was dating an A-list pop star, I intentionally put on a pair of comfortable, casual clothes to visit him on set. The moment her livestream began, Janice Swanson's eyes landed on my old-fashioned outfit and the battered thermos in my hand. Pure contempt flashed across her face. The live chat erupted into a frenzy. [Where did this redneck lady come from? Did she wander onto the wrong set?] [She looks so cheap. Are those clothes from a bargain bin?] [Is this one of those relatives who shows up looking for a handout?] Janice covered her mouth and gave a light, knowing laugh, putting on an air of generosity. "Come on, guys. She's just one of Brandon's distant relatives. Her family's having a hard time right now, so it's understandable that she can't afford designer clothes." Then, she lowered her voice and warned me out of range of the mic. "Listen up, old lady. Don't embarrass me. Play along with me later, or I'll make sure you regret it." I stood there, stunned. My outfit might look simple, but it was actually a bespoke handmade piece from a top Italian atelier. It was priceless and unobtainable to the public. Oblivious, Janice shook her head and sighed dramatically for the camera. "I honestly feel bad for her. I heard she was Mr. Castillo's mistress when she was younger. Now that she's getting older and he's cast her aside, she has come crawling to us for money." The story was so absurd that I almost laughed. "Whose mistress? Richard Castillo was begging me last night not to cut off his allowance."

I give relationship advice online, helping the lovesick and heartbroken work through their problems. One night a young man called into my livestream. A wealthy woman had been keeping him for seven years. Now he wanted to go home and get married, but she'd threatened to kill herself if he left. I gave him the standard advice. "You want out? Go to her husband. Tell him the truth. Give everything back." Three days later a property deed arrived, along with dozens of luxury-car keys and more than a hundred designer bags. Then my phone lit up with a transfer notification. Eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The note read: "Thanks for the advice. Returning everything to its rightful owner." I looked at my wife's name on the deed. That night I went live. "Tonight, I'm telling you a joke about myself."

In the continent of Elysium, magic has dried up and monsters have descended. The only way to survive is to participate in a game called "Hide and Seek." Only the winning races receive rewards and a chance to live. The Werewolf Clan drew me—a twenty-two-year-old half-blood werewolf. I was painfully thin, having been locked in a dungeon for the past fifteen years. The live chat scrolling before my eyes was filled with despair: [What the hell? This is our clan’s representative?] [A girl a strong breeze could knock over? Is she even an adult?] [I bet she bursts into tears the second she sees a monster.] [It’s over. We’re so dead. I knew we’d lose this time. Are the werewolves really going to be wiped out...] But they didn't know that staring at the gloomy, ancient castle, I wasn't scared. I was thrilled. Best of all, I’d already found an interesting helper: a man kneeling to kiss the back of my hand, calling me his... "little master."

My wife, three months pregnant, falls into the lake while I'm fishing nearby. As I watch her struggle in the water, I shout anxiously, "Stop thrashing around! You're scaring all the fish away!" My fishing buddy stares at me in disbelief and demands to know why I'm still worried about fishing instead of saving my wife. I calmly rebait my hook and cast it back into the lake. "She'll be fine in the water for a little while, but if that big fish gets away, it's gone for good. Besides, what if I jump in and drown too? Better leave the rescuing to the professionals." Just then, sirens sound in the distance. The rescue team finally arrives, and everyone around us breathes a sigh of relief. But one of the rescuers freezes when he sees me. "Gary? What are you doing here?" Then, he realizes the woman in the lake is my wife. "That's Claire? She went through seven rounds of IVF to get pregnant! Why aren't you saving her? You're the best swimmer on the team!" The tourists around us erupt in outrage. Meanwhile, Claire's struggles grow weaker and weaker until only one hand remains above the surface. At last, my expression changes. I shoot to my feet. Everyone quickly moves aside, assuming I'm finally going to save her. Instead, I pull hard on my fishing rod. A huge fish bursts out of the water. I immediately break into a grin.

After swallowing my fourth painkiller, I spent the entire morning sitting in my hotel room in the wedding dress Curtis Bradford had picked out for me. The car that was supposed to take me to the ceremony never showed up. Instead, I came across a livestream of a wedding that had gone viral around town. On-screen, Curtis slipped the pink diamond ring I had begged him for onto the bride's finger. The bride was Shannon Cobb, my biological sister who had disappeared ten years ago. Curtis looked straight into the camera. "Leslie, I know you're watching. "Ten years ago, you lost Shannon and put her through hell. I only let you believe I was going to marry you because I wanted you to know what it feels like to be abandoned." The camera panned to my parents and my brother, Richard Cobb, who were supposed to be helping set up my new home. Richard looked into the camera and said, "You've had ten years of our love and attention. Give back everything that should've been Shannon's, and we'll consider your debt paid." I stared at the happy family on the screen, completely numb. Then I closed the livestream and threw the keepsake I had gotten for Curtis into the trash, along with my wedding ring and veil. None of them knew I had been diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer the month before. Even with painkiller injections, I could barely stay on my feet that day. All I wanted was to marry Curtis before I died and let my parents and Richard see me happy one last time. But that wasn't going to happen anymore. I only had three days left. I might as well find somewhere quiet and wait for the end.