My best friend lured me to that seedy club. There were fourteen other people in the private room. Fifteen including her. I don't remember much after that. I just remember my broken, abused body being sent home. My dad’s hair turned gray overnight; my stepmom passed out cold. Kaelen somehow got the news. He snuck away from his doctors abroad and came back, deceiving everyone. Only our family of four knew the truth: Kaelen—the stepbrother my stepmom brought into the family—was completely unhinged. I floated as a spirit beside Kaelen, sticking close, desperate to see what he would do. He went to the morgue first to see me. His eyes were rimmed red, concealing a terrifying, overwhelming rage. Carefully, gently, he lifted my mangled hand and pressed it tight against his cheek. "Lily..." It was the first time he’d ever used my nickname. Before, he always impatiently called me "Nuisance." I instinctively answered, then realized he couldn't hear me. I awkwardly touched my nose. "Brother is going to avenge you." "All fifteen of them. I won't let a single one get away." His venom-laced voice sent a tremor through my soul. When we were small, every time I trailed behind him calling "Brother," he'd look annoyed: "Who's your brother? Get lost!" After a while, I stopped calling him that. "Brother..." I zoned out for a second, and the next instant, Kaelen had already walked out. 1. Kaelen bought a razor-sharp hunting knife. First, he kidnapped the girl who tricked me. [Content redacted: Extreme violence] Then, he used her phone to invite the remaining fourteen people back to that club. Those fourteen had powerful parents who managed to get them out on bail during the investigation, which only made things easier for Kaelen. When they arrived at the club, laughing and joking, they were met with a nightmare scene and Kaelen, covered in blood. Everything I had suffered, Kaelen returned to them, one by one. When someone begged for mercy, crying out in pain, Kaelen just laughed coldly and grabbed their hair. "Did you ever stop to think that my sister felt pain when you did this to her?" Screams, begging, cursing, confessions... The chaotic chorus of voices sent all fifteen of them straight to hell together. Kaelen never planned to escape. By the time the bodies were discovered, he was already standing on the roof of the city's tallest skyscraper. He stepped off the edge. "NO—" I screamed involuntarily, reaching out to grab the empty air. An instant later, sharp pain hit me, and I blacked out. When I opened my eyes, I saw my familiar canopy bed. Stunned, I walked to the mirror and touched my face. It was me at ten years old. 2. My dad, still having a full head of hair, pushed the door open. It was jarring to see; he went bald a few years later. "Lily, your brother Kaelen has arrived downstairs. Go down and say hello. You'll be living together from now on." I scrambled out of bed, not even bothering with shoes, and thundered down to the second-floor landing. Downstairs, a thin, sharp boy stood ramrod straight in the living room, looking up at us with a mix of disdain and intensity. I leaned over the railing, meeting his hostile gaze. Stepmom nudged him slightly. "Kaelen, say hello to your sister." Kaelen tugged the corner of his mouth in a challenging smirk and slowly said, "Nuisance." Dad and Stepmom’s faces dropped, but I ran down the stairs barefoot, pat-pat-pat, right up to Kaelen and hugged him fiercely around the waist. "Not a nuisance. I'm your sister." I looked up, letting the tears stream down my face unchecked. "Brother, this time, I won't let go of your hand no matter what." 3. Kaelen was unstable. I knew this from the time he butchered that meat rabbit we bought for dinner. In my past life, when he came to our house, he was covered in thorns, pushing me away time and time again. When Kaelen came to pick me up from school, my classmates would laugh and scatter. "Song Lily, your psycho brother is here. Are you a psycho too?" My face would burn red with anger. I'd turn and see Kaelen's frosty expression. He'd toss my backpack onto his back, hesitate, then stiffly reach out his hand to me. Slap! In my anger, I’d slap his hand away and run off. After running a bit, realized he wasn't chasing me, I went back to find him. I saw him cornering the classmate who mocked me, hands around their neck. I hurried over to pull him off, terrified inside by this volatile brother. Thinking back now, I realize there was no real malice in Kaelen's eyes then, and his hands weren't applying pressure. It was just because that classmate insulted me behind my back, and Kaelen was warning him not to bully me again. Again and again, the rift between Kaelen and me grew deeper. Until Stepmom suggested sending him abroad for "treatment." The family voted. Kaelen voted no. Dad and Stepmom voted yes. It was two against one. They just needed my vote for Kaelen to stay. But I deliberately avoided Kaelen's hopeful gaze and turned to look at Stepmom. Whispering the words: "I agree." The light in Kaelen's eyes instantly extinguished. Thinking about it now, if Kaelen had stayed back then, those fifteen people would never have been able to hurt me later. Because I had the best brother in the world. 4. I held onto Kaelen tightly, refusing to let go. Kaelen’s hands hovered over my shoulders, wanting to push me away, but he hesitated. He craved a warm hug too, didn't he? Kaelen's face turned bright red. It took him ages to squeeze out a sentence: "Nuisance, are you trying to frame me for assault?" I burst out laughing, snot splattering onto his pristine white shirt. Mortified, I covered my face and ran off, but kept looking back at him. He looked down darkly at his soiled shirt, but slowly grabbed a pair of fluffy slippers from nearby and threw them at my feet. "Put them on!" Oh. I just realized I was still barefoot. I put on the slippers, turned back, and gave Dad a brilliant smile. "Dad, Stepmom, I really like Brother Kaelen!" Maybe now, they wouldn't reject Kaelen so much and would treat him better? I was plotting how to make his life better, never expecting that the cold, hard teenager behind me had ears burning red. The frost was melted by the blazing sun; the boy's thorns dissolved by an embrace.
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