Chapter 13
I reached the twenty-seventh floor.
The resident was a woman in a jarring clash of corporate attire and a kitchen apron, holding the hand of a boy whose body had been flattened into a pulp.
I knew their tragedy without the newspaper in my pocket.
The boy had died in a car accident at school. His mother had rushed to the scene straight from the office, still in her uniform.
Trolls snapped photos of her grief, labeling her a whore and shaming her for wearing makeup while her son lay dead on the asphalt.
Overwhelmed by the venomous harassment, the grieving mother eventually leapt to her
death.
Now, in this twisted afterlife, she and her child were finally reunited.
I opened my mouth to offer some comfort, but the terrifying little boy spoke first in a sweet, childish lisp.
“It is okay. I already fixed Mommy. If I see those bad people again, I am going to kill every single one of them.”
“I can tell you a secret. The player who moved into our apartment three days ago was actually one of the men who bullied Mommy online.”
“He begged right before I killed him. He swore he only shared the post and never wrote the bad words himself. I killed him anyway. Sharing makes him an accomplice.”
“I know Mommy wears makeup because her job needs it. But as long as she is happy, she is Wonder Woman to me, even if she cook dinner in her work clothes.”
I looked at the woman’s disheveled outfit and reached out to gently pat the boy’s head.
“You are a superhero too, little guy.”
“Your superpower is making your mother smile.”
Chapter 13
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The invisible chat feed dissolved into tears.
[I knew it. Alice is a saint! She is my goddess!]
[This is heartbreaking. Alice really is an angel sent to redeem them all.]
I continued my descent, encountering entities that felt both strange and familiar.
There was a boy who died tragically searching for his birth parents, and a teenager beaten to death by school bullies. I listened to their stories, offering what peace I could.
Over the next two days, I treated this survival game like a corporate grind.
Every time I returned to the thirtieth floor, Meg would pounce on me like a clingy kitten, nuzzling her face against mine. “Mommy, I missed you so much.”
My heart practically melted every time.
Not to be outdone, the headless boss would prepare dinner and hold my hand with a look of brooding jealousy. “I missed you too, you know,” he would whisper.
This tug-of-war for my affection is pure bliss
I could get used to this life.
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The readers' comments on the novel: Her fifth daughter died, so she deleted his bloodline.