The Girl Died in the Thicket of Flowers

While ordering food for my brother, I forgot one note, ‘no peanuts.’ My mother, Victoria Miller, bought a hundred pounds of fresh lilies and dragged them inside. I am severely allergic to pollen. She shoved me into the flower-filled room anyway and slammed the door shut behind me. "How many times must I tell you? Your brother is allergic to peanuts!" she screamed. "You left it out on purpose! What kind of monster are you? "You hate that I love him. Today, I'm curing your cruel heart!" Pollen choked the air. Thick clouds. My throat swelled instantly, cutting off my breath. My little brother, Toby Miller, rushed forward. He grabbed the handle. "Mom, I'm fine!" he sobbed. "Let her out! Please!" She didn't care. She yanked him back and turned the key. Click. "She tried to hurt you again!" her voice boomed through the wood. "Stop defending her! Today, she will learn her lesson." I slid down the cold door frame and sank into the sea of petals. To her, I was always the villain. My vision blurred. Air wouldn't come. I stopped clawing at the door and stopped begging. I collapsed onto the floor, dying among the blossoms. Mom, if the monster dies, will you finally be happy? Chapter 1 My younger brother, Toby Miller, screamed in pure panic from the hallway. "Mom, Anna didn't try to hurt me! Open the door! "She’s severely allergic to pollen! What if she dies?" He slammed his fists against the wood. He begged again and again. Our mother, Victoria Miller, stood like a statue. "No!" Her face was as hard as stone. No shred of mercy. "If I don't break her now, she will scheme against you forever." Toby's desperate pleading was cut off. A sharp thud echoed through the door. He had dropped to his knees. "Mom, it was me! I lied! "Anna didn't order the food. I took her phone and did it myself. I forgot the note! It’s all my fault. Punish me, please just let her out!" Pressed against the cold door frame, my freezing heart felt a sudden burst of warmth. I thought she would hesitate. Just for a second. Instead, her voice shattered into a furious screech. "Did Anna teach you to say that? Did she force you to lie for her? "She did, didn't she? She is rotten to the core! She wants to corrupt you. She wants to ruin your life! "I cannot soften now! If I let her go, she'll only get bolder. Next time, she'll murder someone!" The blood drained completely from Toby’s face. He trembled violently on the floor. "No, Mom! Nobody taught me! I messed up! "Please believe me! Anna has nothing to do with this!" My mother didn't listen to a single word. "Enough! Stop defending a criminal." "She has completely brainwashed you." Inside, the suffocating scent of lilies poured into my nose. I curled up in the pile of crushed stems. Every ragged breath tore through my swollen airway. Sharp pain spiked through my chest. My arms and legs began to twitch uncontrollably. My foot kicked the wooden panel with a heavy, dull thud. The sound terrified Toby. He hit the door like a madman, sobbing uncontrollably. "Anna! Are you okay? Don't scare me! "Apologize to Mom! Just apologize and she will save you!" My throat was completely sealed. I tried with everything I had, but no sound came out. My mother waited for a confession. When none came, she took the heavy thud as defiance. Her face darkened even further. "You see that? She doesn't care. She's kicking the door to challenge me! "If you keep defending her, Toby, I will lock her in there for three full days!" Toby froze solid. The chaos finally drew the attention of our neighbor, Brenda Davidson. She took one look inside the apartment and spoke with absolute certainty. "Toby, is your sister locked in that room again?” Chapter 2 I curled up on the cold floor, surrounded by piles of lilies. My eyelids weighed a ton. A bitter, icy sorrow spread through my chest. Ever since I could remember, if I didn't care for my brother the exact way my mother wanted, she accused me of trying to harm him. Then she locked me away. This room was never a storage closet. It was my execution chamber. Once, I saw Toby sweat in the summer heat and turned the air conditioner down one degree. My mother caught me. She swore I was trying to freeze him to death so he would get a fever. She turned this room into a walk-in freezer and locked me inside for three hours. Another time, Toby was hungry after playing outside. I used my pocket money to buy him a burger. She found out and shrieked that I was feeding him trash to ruin his internal organs. She fetched three pounds of rancid grease and forced me to swallow it in this room. Every good thing I ever did for my brother was twisted into a cold, calculated crime. Endless grief and the agony of the allergic reaction viciously attacked my organs. Toby responded to Brenda, like a drowning man grasping for a lifeline. "Mrs. Davidson! Please save Anna! Mom put a hundred pounds of flowers in that room!" Brenda gasped. She stared at my mother in utter horror. "Victoria, are you insane? Don't you know Anna is severely allergic to pollen?" My mother just sneered. "What? First you try to steal my husband, and now you want to steal my daughter?" Brenda swallowed her rage, refusing to play her games. "I'm not arguing about your delusional fantasies. Give me the key. Open that door now!" A malicious glint flashed in my mother's eyes. She pulled the key out and dangled it in Brenda's face. "You want it?" Before Brenda could grab it, she spun around, ran into the bathroom, and flushed the key down the toilet. Toby rushed after her like a crazy person. He didn't hesitate. He thrust his bare hand into the toilet bowl, digging wildly into the pipe. The rough porcelain scraped his skin. Clear water turned a terrifying, bright red with his blood. My mother rushed forward and yanked him up by his arm. She shrieked at him, but her eyes welled with panic and pity. "What are you doing? Do you want to get an infection?" Toby stared at her, tears spilling over his cheeks. "Mom, you see me bleeding and it breaks your heart. You worry that I'm hurting. "Why don't you care that Anna is hurting inside that room?" She snapped without missing a beat. "She deserves the pain! She's a vicious monster who always tries to ruin you!" I lay frozen on the floor. My heart felt torn to pieces. Every shallow breath was agony. My lips twitched weakly. Toby... Mrs. Davidson... stop trying to save me... No sound escaped my throat. Brenda refused to give up. She tried to step around my mother to search for a spare key. My mother spread her arms wide, blocking the hallway, refusing to yield an inch. Taking advantage of their clash, Toby pulled out his phone and dialed a number. He hung up and ran back to press his face against the door. "Don't be scared, Anna! I called Dad! "Dad is rushing home. When he gets here, he'll open the door and save you!" "I'm so sorry, Anna... It's all my fault... If I hadn't asked for takeout..." His eyes were bloodshot. Tears splashed onto the floor. I summoned every last drop of strength to raise my hand toward the door to comfort him. My heavy eyelids finally gave out. Everything went pitch black. My body felt light, floating away from the ground. Then, my mother's sharp, hysterical screech broke through the haze one last time. "Anna! You want me to let you out? Scream that Brenda is a whore! Scream it out loud, and I'll open the door right now!" My consciousness faded, but one thought remained crystal clear. Brenda was not a whore. When my mother starved me as punishment, Brenda secretly snuck food into my hands. When my mother stripped me naked and threw me outside because I forgot to grab Toby's coat, Brenda took my freezing body into her home, wrapped me in warm blankets, and held me. Seeing my total silence, my mother's rage boiled over. She raised her hand to slap Brenda across the face. A large, powerful hand caught her wrist in midair. Our father, Richard Miller, was home. He stared at his wife, his brows furrowed in pure fury. "Victoria, have you lost your mind?!” Chapter 3 Seeing our father, my mother’s furious face finally softened slightly. Richard rushed to the heavy door, his footsteps frantic. "Anna, don't be scared! Dad is here! How are you feeling?" He was an allergy specialist and had brought a full emergency kit with him. The door was locked tight. He whirled around to face my mother. "Victoria, open this door right now! "Anna is severely allergic! If she suffocates, she'll go into shock! Do you want to kill your own daughter?" My mother didn't panic. Her voice was much softer when addressing him, but her resolve didn't break. "Why are you shouting? I know what I'm doing. "There's medicine in the room. If she feels bad, she can take it herself. Stop making a mountain out of a molehill." I looked at the piles of lilies blocking every corner of the room and let out a bitter laugh. Mom, I can never reach the medicine you left for me. Fury exploded in my father's eyes. "Making a mountain out of a molehill? Anaphylaxis can kill someone in minutes!" For the first time, a trace of panic flickered in my mother's expression. My father stopped arguing. He raised his heavy boot and kicked the reinforced metal door. Thud! Thud! The violent impacts made the sealed windows rattle. The doorframe didn't budge. Not even a fraction of an inch. I floated to my father's side, reaching out my translucent arms to wrap them around him. I wanted to tell him to stop wasting his strength. This custom steel door was designed by my mother specifically to punish me. Human hands could never break it down. My arms passed right through his body, grasping empty air. Toby’s eyes were bloodshot as he dropped to his knees again. "Mom, I know you have a spare key! Please give it to Dad! Anna can't hold on much longer!" Brenda pleaded alongside him. "Victoria, stop being so stubborn! Haven't you noticed Anna hasn't made a sound this entire time? What if something has gone wrong?" My father stopped kicking. He turned and glared at his wife. "Open the door now, and we can still save her!" My mother's expression wavered. She let out a heavy, dramatic sigh and turned toward her bedroom. "Fine, fine! You all take her side anyway." Everyone gasped in relief. A moment later, she returned and walked up to the room. She reached out her hands. She didn't use a key. Instead, she slid open the small food hatch near the top of the door and dumped three wild rats straight into the room. Before my father realized what she was doing, it was too late to stop her. "Victoria! Are you out of your mind? Anna is terrified of rats!" Toby screamed in pure horror. "She’s been locked in there for hours! Why are you putting rats in there? What is wrong with you?" Brenda turned and ran out the front door to find help. My mother snorted and kicked the bottom of the door. "Stop playing dead, girl! Speak up, or I’ll throw more in!" Mom, I’m not pretending... I’m terrified! But I could no longer give her an answer. I floated inside the room. The three starving rats had already scampered onto my body, nibbling at my pale face. "Get away! Get off me!" I waved my hands frantically in midair, sobbing and screaming. The rats kept chewing. My father shoved my mother aside violently. "Something is wrong! Anna is terrified of rats, she should be screaming! "You insane woman, give me the spare key right now!" My mother looked uneasy, but she still muttered under her breath. "What could possibly be wrong? She’s probably just asleep..." Right then, a firm, authoritative voice echoed from the apartment doorway. "Is Victoria Miller here?” Chapter 4 Two uniformed police officers walked into the apartment. Brenda followed right behind them, pointing directly at my mother. "She's the one! She knows her daughter is severely allergic to pollen, yet she locked her inside with a hundred pounds of fresh flowers!" My mother looked anxious for a split second when she saw the uniforms. Then she rounded on Brenda, her voice rising to a screech. "Brenda, look at you! Bringing the police into my private family business!" The lead officer looked at the heavy, locked steel door. "This woman called 911 reporting a trapped person in critical condition. We are here to inspect the situation." Toby rushed toward the officers, wiping tears from his face. "Officer! It's my sister, Anna Miller! She's been locked inside for hours!" He laid out every single detail, his voice shaking. The officer’s brows furrowed deeply as he turned to my mother. "Ma'am, is this true? Open the door immediately so we can check on her." My mother straightened her back, showing zero remorse. Instead, she raised her voice, acting entirely justified. "Officer, this is simple parental discipline! It's nowhere near as serious as they're making it sound. "My daughter has a cruel heart. She tried to hurt her little brother, so I gave her a lesson. Educating my own child isn't illegal!" She deliberately shifted her body to block the lock, refusing to step aside. So that was it. To her, all the torture she put me through was just punishment I deserved. The officer’s face turned icy cold. "Normal parenting and child abuse are two very different things." "Knowing your daughter has a severe allergy and locking her in a room with allergen triggers creates a life-threatening situation. “That is child endangerment. "If you hand over the key now, we can resolve this peacefully. If you refuse to comply, we will arrest you on the spot." He wasn't bluffing. Everyone in the room turned to look at her. Yet my mother refused to back down, muttering under her breath. "She's rotten to the core! She was trying to harm him! If I don't control her now, she'll turn into a real criminal when she grows up!" I floated in the middle of the crowd, watching her smear my name one last time. My heart felt heavy and hollow. Just then, a faint metallic scent trickled out from the gap beneath the door into the living room. It wasn't strong, but it reached everyone's noses. As a doctor, my father caught the smell first. He froze, all the color draining from his face. He stared at the locked door, his voice trembling violently. "That's blood. Why is there a smell of blood in there?" Brenda covered her mouth, her eyes welling with tears. "Could it be... the rats?" Toby shook uncontrollably, beating his hands against the door. "Anna, please say something! Talk to me! Don't scare me like this!" The officers' faces turned grim. They stepped closer to my mother. "Ma'am, this situation has escalated. There is evidence of severe injury inside. Hand over the key immediately!" My father's chest heaved as rage tore through him. "Victoria, do you have to wait until she's dead before you give up the damn key?" Every eye in the room pinned her down. After a long, agonizing pause, my mother's tense shoulders finally slumped. She pulled out the spare key. She still muttered defensively. "It's just a tiny issue. You're all making a mountain out of a molehill..." Reluctantly, she stepped forward and slid the key into the lock.