Since going to the support group, Linda’s mood had improved a lot compared to before.
Even though it was just a brief venting session, it had brought comfort to her heart.
Today, as usual, she sat in her workshop, busy with her miniature models.
“Mom.”
A young boy’s voice came from behind. Linda paused her work and turned around.
Peter was leaning against the doorframe, watching her.
“It’s Halloween tonight. I have a party with my classmates. I need to go out. Can I borrow your car?”
Under Linda’s gaze, the boy couldn’t help but put his hands behind his back.
Inside his pants pocket was a pipe meant for a certain kind of special herb.
“Going to do what? Get high with them, drink, and waste the whole night in meaningless craziness?”
A hint of anger appeared on Linda’s face.
“Don’t be so tense, Mom. It’s just a regular party.”
Peter avoided her gaze, still putting up a front.
Looking at her son like this, Linda finally lowered her head.
“Take Charlie with you. And look after your sister.”
“Okay.”
Peter immediately turned to find his sister, not noticing the strange flicker that passed through Linda’s eyes.
Regarding this son of hers, she always carried a certain sense of guilt in her heart.
Back when she was pregnant with Peter, she had tried almost every method possible to have an abortion.
Everything a pregnant woman shouldn’t do, Linda had done it, and more than once.
Thinking back now, she didn’t know why she had been so determined to do those things back then.
But in the end, Peter had miraculously been born healthy, without any congenital defects.
Perhaps it was because they’d talked so much about the past yesterday; Linda once again recalled her own past actions.
Her heart softened, and she agreed to Peter’s request.
With Charlie there, at least he wouldn’t get too out of hand.
Linda comforted herself with that thought and continued working.
“Charlie!”
Peter searched throughout the house for his sister.
He finally found her under the attic stairs.
“What are you doing here? Come on, big brother is taking you out to play. Tonight’s Halloween.”
Peter’s tone was very excited.
In his arms, Charlie’s androgynous face was expressionless. She just stared blankly at the attic stairs, making a clicking sound with her tongue.
Peter drove across the highway, bringing his sister to the large villa his classmates had rented in advance.
As soon as he opened the door, the smell of burning special herbs hit them in the face.
Inside the villa’s main hall, boys and girls moved their bodies freely to the loud music blaring from the speakers.
In the dim environment, people’s primal desires were amplified. Normally well-behaved teenagers were now paired up, holding each other close.
Peter led his sister through the dance floor in the hall to the back area.
Here, just as he expected, he saw the girl he had a crush on.
“Charlie, eat some cake here. Be good and don’t run off. Big brother will come back for you later.”
Peter had just taken two steps when he turned back.
“Don’t eat anything with nuts, okay? Remember.”
Charlie looked at the boy in front of her and nodded, as if agreeing to his instructions.
Only then did Peter feel at ease and leave the area.
Watching her brother’s figure disappear into the throng of moving bodies, Charlie’s gaze fell on the party cake not far away.
Talking and laughing youngsters cut into it, revealing the large and small nuts inside.
She walked over, picked up a knife and fork, cut a large piece, and stuffed it into her mouth.
Chewing. Swallowing.
The allergens traveled down her esophagus and throat. The tissue in her respiratory tract immediately reacted, beginning to swell.
But she didn’t immediately look for her brother. Instead, she used a discarded small drink bottle nearby to fashion a little doll…
Only after completing the doll did she stagger off in the direction Peter had gone earlier.
At that moment, Peter was inhaling smoke with the girl he liked. He turned his head and saw his sister, her face swollen and red, making “heh heh” sounds, struggling to breathe.
A nut allergy.
Peter immediately dropped what he was holding, rushed over to pick Charlie up, and ran quickly towards the outside of the villa.
“Charlie, hang in there. I’m taking you to the hospital right now.”
Placing his sister in the back seat, Peter frantically started the car.
On the dim highway, theirs was the only car driving.
“Heh… heh…”
In the back seat, Charlie twisted her body in pain.
She opened the car window and stuck her face out, as if doing so would let her breathe fresh air again.
Peter drove, his heart burning with anxiety.
His foot pressed harder and harder on the accelerator, as if he wanted to stomp right through it.
The needle on the speedometer climbed steadily, the car speeding up in the darkness.
The next second…
“Crunch!”
Charlie, with the upper half of her body out the window, her head struck a lamppost. Her body separated from her head.
Her lifeless body slid down the inside of the car door…
The car speeding down the highway suddenly braked.
Stopped right there.
“…Charlie…”
Peter called out softly from the driver’s seat, but the car was dead silent, no response at all.
His gaze was vacant, the muscles in his face twitching slightly.
Peter didn’t dare look back. As long as he didn’t look back… as long as he didn’t turn around…
As long as he didn’t turn around…
Numbly, Peter restarted the car, shifting gears with trembling hands.
He didn’t drive fast, but he ran quite a few red lights along the way.
He drove all the way home, walked up the stairs like a puppet on strings, went to his room, and wrapped himself up in a blanket, head and all.
He just lay there, completely still, without blinking.
Outside the door, he could vaguely hear his mother and father’s voices.
“Going out this late?”
“I need to buy some paint from the town. Need me to pick anything up?”
“We’re running low on detergent at home. Bring some. And buy some hangover remedy. Peter must have come home drunk…”
…
Not long after, a heart-wrenching wail pierced the air.
Peter, lying on the bed with vacant eyes, convulsed as if he’d been electrocuted.
He couldn’t accept that he had caused his sister’s death.
The emotions—pain, self-blame, fear, grief—were too intense, and his body’s protective mechanisms isolated them.
Peter’s consciousness now felt detached, as if another personality had emerged, watching everything from behind a thick pane of glass.
He got up and walked to the outside of his parents’ bedroom.
His mother was wailing as if she might cough up her own heart, screaming “I want to die” over and over again, punctuated by the dull thuds of her head hitting the floor.
His father, his voice choked with tears, tried his best to comfort her.
Even though only a wall separated them, Peter felt he could never take that step through the doorway.
He was a sinner.
The sinner who had caused his sister Charlie’s death.
In a daze, Peter went outside and saw a faint blue light.
He followed the blue light to the pool outside.
The clear water reflected his face.
But his reflection in the water wore a sinister grin.
Instinctively, Peter raised his hand to touch the corner of his own mouth.
No change.
He stared blankly at himself in the water. Suddenly realizing something, he stumbled back in fear.
Then, a voice came from a distance.
“Get out! Peter!”
In his daze, the single voice seemed to multiply.
“Get out! Peter!”
“Get out!”
With each shout, Peter suddenly felt his body grow very light. It seemed that any second now, he would leave the ground and fly towards the sky, towards some unknown place…
