No One Came Chapter 03
“Mom, what if something really happened to her?”
Nico’s voice was suddenly small.
“What could have happened?”
Mom was washing dishes in the kitchen.
The sound of the running water nearly drowned her out.
“She’s been like this since she was little. The smallest thing happens and she lies there ignoring everyone.”
She paused.
“Last time, when you pulled her chair out from under her, didn’t she stay in bed for two months? She got over it, didn’t she?”
My soul drifted into Nico’s room.
His computer was still on, the game frozen on the screen.
He was leaning back in his gaming chair with a lollipop in his mouth.
His phone lit up.
It was a message from a classmate.
“Nico, how’s your sister?”
Nico typed back.
“She’s fine. You know how she is. Just lying in there ignoring everyone.”
“Your mom didn’t yell at you?”
“Nah. My mom knows she’s just being dramatic.”
“That’s good. Try something else next time lol.”
“Totally. Next time I’m hiding her chemistry report so she can’t hand it in.”
“HAHAHAHA you’re insane.”
Reading those lines, a chill went through me.
That was the moment I understood. In their eyes, I wasn’t family.
I was just their plaything.
To Nico and his friend, I was just a toy they could break whenever they got bored.
After all, Mom and Dad always took his side. He never had to fear the consequences.
I turned and floated out of his room.
I couldn’t stand to hear their laughter anymore.
I was already dead.
Logically, none of this should matter to me now.
But it still ached.
That night, Mom came by again.
This time, she knocked.
“Adriana, come take a shower.”
No answer.
“If you don’t say something, I’m coming in.”
Still no answer.
Mom pushed the door open.
The room was pitch-black.
She fumbled for the switch on the wall.
The light flickered on.
My body was still on the bed.
In the exact same position as that afternoon.
My face had swollen even more.
My lips were a deep, bruised purple.
My fingers were curled, frozen in place.
Mom stood in the doorway, frowned, and looked me over.
“How long are you planning to keep this up?”
She didn’t come any closer.
She just stood in the doorway with her arms crossed.
She was right there.
And she still didn’t see.
After a few seconds, she turned and left.
“Adriana, I’m telling you, if you don’t get up, I’m taking your phone tomorrow.”
Her voice echoed from the hallway.
She didn’t look back. She didn’t hesitate.
I floated above the bed, looking at the body so swollen I could barely recognize it as my own.
Mom.
You couldn’t see me, not because the room was dark, but because you never really looked at me in the first place.
You always saw me as exaggerating, faking, looking for attention.
You never imagined I would actually die.
And even now that I was, you refused to believe it.
At ten o’clock, Dad went to take a shower.
Mom was watching a sitcom.
Canned laughter spilled from the TV.
Nico went back to his room to play his game.
The clatter of his mechanical keyboard was loud. He was on a voice chat with his friends.
“Come save me, I’m down.”
“Hahaha, he died again.”
Their voices carried through the wall.
I floated in the hallway, listening, feeling a deep sense of the absurd.
Everyone in this house was lost in their own little world.
And no one knew I was dead.
At eleven, Mom turned off the TV and went to brush her teeth.
As she passed my bedroom door, she stopped.
“Adriana, what are you…”
She pushed the door open a crack and looked inside.
The light was still on.
I was still lying there, motionless.
She sighed.
“You are such a handful.”
Then she reached in and flipped off the light.
The room plunged into darkness.
I stood in the dark, looking at myself on the bed, and suddenly remembered a post I’d seen online a few days ago.
The post was about how long it takes for someone who dies alone at home to be found.