I had imagined countless ways Jonathan might react to the news of my death. But his actual response was nothing like I had expected. "Alright, got it," he said casually before hanging up.Someone nearby asked, "What's the matter, Jonathan?""It's nothing. Just a scam call," he replied indifferently.Since I hadn't told him I was back in the country, he assumed I was still abroad. No wonder he thought it was a scam when the hospital told him I had been in a car accident here.Well, at least he hadn't told anyone else I had died. Otherwise, they'd probably be grumbling about how I had managed to ruin their day yet again.To them, I was always the killjoy, the one who smelled like fish. The wet blanket who didn't finish their homework. A nuisance because I couldn't give them money for a new gaming console.Even when they shoved my head into the toilet, I was still a disappointment. I was unable to scream, and that only made them torment me more.Even now, the memory of their word
I watched as the color drained from Jonathan's face. He clenched his fists, and panic crossed his face. "D-Did Madeline really die in a car accident?" he asked. His voice was trembling. "I thought that was a scam call."The police officer frowned. "If you weren't sure, you should have called your wife or checked with the traffic police and the hospital. It wouldn't have taken long. Your wife passed away two months and thirteen days ago. Didn't it seem strange that you couldn't reach her?"But back then, Jonathan had been preoccupied with Selena, who had just undergone a heart transplant. He hadn't had a moment to think of me.Now, he seemed unable to accept that I was gone. "Madeline was always so careful on the road. How could she have been in a car accident?" he demanded with displeasure."She went to the bakery to pick up a birthday cake, and a drunk driver hit her," the police officer explained.Jonathan froze upon hearing that. His face grew paler. Suddenly, it dawned on hi
In my diary, I wrote, "August 7th, 2020. Jon told me I needed a balanced diet, and that just eating vegetables wasn't good for me. So, he added a plate of barbecue ribs to the table."He said I didn't have to eat it if I didn't like it, but he had made it himself. I noticed blisters on his hands from the burns he got cooking it. I forced myself to take a bite, but as soon as he left, I ran to the bathroom and threw it all up."I'm sorry, Jon. I just can't shake the memory of Selena forcing raw meat into my mouth. The taste still lingers. I'll never be able to eat meat again, not in this lifetime."…The second entry read, "April 5th, 2021. Jon said I shouldn't be working all the time and that I needed to learn how to relax. So, he took me to a spa and insisted it would help me unwind."Although the masseuse rubbed oil into my skin to loosen my muscles, I couldn't relax. Once, Selena called me a slut because someone she liked had talked to me."She and her friends smeared hot sauc
"Jonathan, wake up!" I shouted. Seeing him like this stirred an anxious pang in me. I didn't care if he died; I just didn't want him to die beside me. I had endured enough while I was alive. I had been trapped in his games and manipulation. The idea of being connected to him, even in death, felt unbearable.But he couldn't hear me. Instead, he shivered and clutched my lifeless body tighter.Thankfully, Jonathan's parents, Bernard Lewis and Katherine Miller, rushed over the moment they heard of my death. When they found him unconscious in the ice coffin, they immediately took him to the hospital.Jonathan's fever burned relentlessly for a week. Even in his coma, he murmured my name over and over. His temperature wouldn't break, and they eventually moved him to the intensive care unit.On the eighth day, Jonathan finally woke. However, his eyes were vacant, like those of a puppet. "Jon, what's wrong? Don't scare us like this!" Katherine cried out, her eyes swollen and red.W
Selena felt a wave of terror wash over her. "Jon, what are you doing?""You and Madeline share the same birthday. Don't you remember how you treated her on that day?" Jonathan questioned. "You scared her so badly that she's been haunted by nightmares for years."She hasn't even celebrated her birthday in over a decade. What makes you think you can live a happy life?"His icy gaze pierced through her and sent a chill down her spine.Trembling, Selena instinctively turned to flee, but the door was locked.In a flash, Jonathan caught up to her, gripped her hair, and slammed her head against the wall. Blood trickled down from her forehead as she slumped weakly to the floor.Selena had never endured such brutality before. Tears streamed down her face as she yelled, "Jonathan, have you lost your mind? If you hadn't broken up with me and intentionally gotten close to Madeline to provoke me, I wouldn't have targeted her!"Most of the ways I tormented her were your ideas! You're the one
Selena's face turned ashen, but she let out a hysterical laugh."What's the point of all this now? Madeline is dead. You were the one who killed her! Not even death could make her forgive you."Jonathan's pupils contracted sharply. "That's why I have to make things right by making sure all of you atone for what you did."…After leaving the hospital, Jonathan returned home and sat beside the ice coffin. He scribbled some words on his thigh. They read, "I'm sorry, Maddy," and "I deserve to die."Despite the words written all over him, he appeared numb. He gazed at my lifeless body and softly asked, "Did it hurt like this all the time? How did you endure it?"After my parents died, it was his love that kept me going. Ironically, it was only after my death that I learned he had once been a bully himself.Like Selena and her friends, who had blackmailed and tormented me with humiliating videos for seven years, Jonathan used similar evidence to torture them for seven years.None of
Selena had formed her clique, and together they bullied Madeline. For the first two years, I hadn't even met Madeline. I had only heard Selena call her a "pretentious nerd."We weren't at the same school, but I had never been fond of overachievers. My deskmate was one. He came from a poor family, had no tutors, and was so thin from all the work he did at home. Yet, he still managed to rank first in our class while always leaving me in second place. Later, my parents decided to sponsor him. They held him up as an example and used his achievements to criticize me. Resentment started to build.To everyone else, I was a good student. But I despised good students. In the end, I forced the top student to drop out. …When Selena approached me to complain about Madeline, I even helped her come up with new ways to torment her. However, things changed when I ended up at the same high school as Madeline.One day, while sneaking a smoke on the rooftop, I saw her. Her hair was a mess, a