The Monster They Made Me A Family's Reckoning

"Lily, get some good rest." She smiled at me. "Listen to the doctor and the nurses, and take your medicine on time."

Before Mom even finished, Dad had already turned and started walking away.

Mom took one last look at me, linked arms with Rose, and followed him.

"Dad! Mom! Rose!"

I pressed myself against the glass and shouted, "You said you'd pick me up next week. You have to come next week!"

My breath fogged the glass in a small white patch, then quickly faded.

They disappeared at the end of the hallway.

My heart felt hollow.

They left.

That pretty little snake was taken away too.

I told myself it was okay. As long as those monsters were gone, I wouldn't be a lunatic anymore. If I wasn't a lunatic, I could go home.

Here, I had to receive treatment every day. The doctor said that as long as I behaved and listened, those monsters would definitely be killed.

But I had behaved, and today I still saw the little snake.

I asked the doctor urgently—what exactly would it take to completely kill the monsters? Mom was coming next week to take me home, and I didn't want to bring the monsters back with me.

The doctor looked at me strangely. In the end, he kindly told me that starting today, my dosage would be increased, and by next week I could go home.

"That's great," I said happily. "Dad and Mom and Rose will definitely be so happy too."

"Good child."

He praised me and turned to see his next patient.

I ate and ate, and hoped and hoped, and finally it was the day Dad and Mom and my younger sister were coming to take me home.

I waited from morning until noon, and from noon until afternoon.

Until the hallway lights came on.

Head Nurse Patterson came to do her rounds. I couldn't help asking, "Did you see my dad and mom? And my younger sister—they said they were picking me up today."

I didn't like the way she looked at me, like I was lying. "Lily, no one came to see you today, and no one handled your discharge papers."

"Impossible." My voice went sharp with panic. "They said so. Mom said it herself, and Rose agreed too. They said as long as I drew the monsters and burned them, they'd come take me home. I counted the days—today is the seventh day."

Head Nurse Patterson frowned. "Enough. If they didn't come, they didn't come. Don't make trouble."

She stopped looking at me and walked away.

"But—but they promised." I curled up at the foot of the bed, biting my fingernails. "Mom wouldn't lie to me. She said she'd make braised pork for me."

But even after I'd bitten all ten fingernails down to nothing, they still didn't come.

The moon outside the window was very round. I stared blankly as it split open with a crack, silver magma flowing out from inside, transforming into a dress studded with starlight.

The little snake emerged from the ground. When it touched my skin, its beautiful wings rotted away, its gorgeous scales peeling off.

In the corner, a little fairy that had just been born was swallowed by a mass of black fog and turned into a puddle of stinking water.

"Get away."

I held my head and let out a low, painful roar.

It was all because of you. All because of you that Dad and Mom didn't come.

I wanted to go home. I wanted Mom to bring me braised pork with a smiling face. I wanted Dad to praise me for being sensible. I wanted my younger sister to stop looking at me with the eyes she used for monsters.

I thought for a long, long time, and finally came up with a plan to kill them completely.

I've been carrying out this plan for a week now.

Dad and Mom and my younger sister still haven't come to see me.

Tonight, from the seam of the mattress, from the inner layer of the pillow, I found one, two, three, four, five…