Locked Away: A Sister's Love, A Family's Betrayal

I was the daughter my parents prayed for after three years of bitter medicinal treatments. They once treasured me like a precious jewel.

When I casually mentioned wanting to see the ocean, Dad immediately bought plane tickets and flew me to the coast. Mom hand-sewed princess dresses for me, saying I was heaven's greatest gift to her.

Later, Mom unexpectedly gave birth to my little brother.

She kissed my forehead and said love wouldn't diminishit would only grow, with one more person to protect me.

But my brother had severe asthma. He couldn't tolerate even the slightest irritating smell.

That day, I saw my brother sleeping restlessly, so I lit the aromatherapy candle Mom usually used to help her relax.

When Mom smelled the fragrance, her eyes filled with rage. She slapped me so hard I fell to the ground, then grabbed my hair and screamed, "Your brother can't breathe smoke! Are you trying to kill him?!"

I was dragged into the basement home theatera room that had just been soundproofed but didn't have a ventilation system installed yet. The heavy soundproof door was locked from the outside.

"You're so vicious! Stay in this absolutely quiet place and think about what you've done!"

Mom and Dad rushed my brother to the hospital in a panic.

They both forgot.

Once that expensive professional soundproof door closed, not even a wisp of air could get through.

In the extreme oxygen deprivation and darkness, I clawed desperately at the door. As my consciousness faded, I could only think: if I apologize, will they love me again?

**1**

With a loud BANG, the heavy professional soundproof door of the basement home theater slammed shut.

Immediately after, I heard the lock turning from outside.

The sound was particularly harsh in the dead-silent basement, like a death sentence being pronounced.

"Mom! I was wrong! Please let me out!"

"Dad! It's so dark in here, I'm scared! Please, please open the door..."

I ignored my swollen cheek from Mom's slap and the stinging pain where she'd pulled my hair. I crawled to the door and pounded on the cold metal with all my strength.

But this home theater had been specially built for the ultimate viewing experience. All four walls were covered with thick sound-absorbing foam, and even the door seams had the tightest seals.

My cries, my desperate poundingeverything was greedily swallowed by the foam. Not a sound escaped to the outside.

I was surrounded by absolute darkness and deathly silence.

I could even hear my own heart pounding violently from fearthump, thump, thumpso fast it felt like it would jump out of my throat.

"Is anyone there? Help me..."

I called out hoarsely, but only silence answered.

As time passed, the air in the home theater grew thinner and thinner. Without a ventilation system installed, this place was like a completely sealed can.

Each breath felt like inhaling burning flames. My lungs were seared with tearing pain.

Sweat rolled down my forehead in large drops, hitting the cold floor. My vision blurred, and my oxygen-starved brain grew dizzy.

Just when I was about to collapse, I suddenly felt the children's smartwatch on my wrist.

It was the birthday gift Dad had given me last month.

"Anna, if you ever encounter danger, just press this button and Daddy will immediately come protect you."

Dad's gentle words from back then seemed to echo in my ears.

I grabbed onto this last lifeline. With trembling fingers, I pressed the speed dial button for Dad.

"Ring... ring..."

The dialing tone sounded in the silent room. Each pause made my heart skip a beat.

Answer the phone, Dad. Please answer the phone...

Finally, the call connected.

"Hello?" Dad's impatient voice came through, with the chaotic sounds of a hospital emergency room and my brother's weak crying in the background.

"Dad... save me... I can't breathe..." I used every ounce of strength to force these words into the watch microphone.

"Anna Johnson! You have the nerve to call?!" Dad's voice instantly shot up, filled with barely suppressed rage. "Your brother is still being treated! Do you know you almost killed him?!"

"I didn't... I just wanted to help him sleep better... Dad, I feel terrible, there's no air in the basement..."

I begged through tears, which fell in large drops onto the watch screen.

"Enough! How long are you going to keep pretending? It's bad enough you compete for attention at home, but now you've learned to lie too! The basement is hugehow could there be no air? You stay in there and think about what you've done! No one's letting you out without your mother's permission!"

"Beep, beep, beep..."

The call was mercilessly disconnected.

I stared blankly at the darkened watch screen as my last shred of hope died.

Why?

Why didn't they believe me?

Why didn't Dad, who used to love me so much, even have the patience to hear me out anymore?

Scenes from the past flashed uncontrollably through my mind.

When I was five, I ran a high fever in the middle of the night. Dad was so panicked he didn't even put on shoeshe ran two kilometers through the snow carrying me to the hospital. He sat by my bed, gripping my hand tightly, his eyes red as he said, "Don't be afraid, Anna. Daddy's here. Daddy will bear all your pain for you."

When I was six, some kids at preschool bullied me. Mom stormed into the school like an enraged lioness, pointed at the boy's nose and yelled at him, then held me gently and comforted me: "Anna is Mommy's most precious little princess. No one can bully you."

But after my brother Asher was born, everything changed.

They gave all their love and attention to their sickly little boy.

I became superfluousa "dangerous element" who might hurt my brother at any moment.

I just saw my brother coughing and unable to sleep. I remembered how Mom would light that aromatherapy candle whenever she had a headache, saying the scent helped her relax. I thought it would help my brother feel better too. I really never meant to hurt him.

I don't want to die... I really don't want to die...

I threw myself at the door again, desperately clawing at the seams, trying to create a gap for air to get through.

My fingernails broke off. Blood ran down the door panel. The pain shot through my fingers and made my whole body shake, but I didn't dare stop.

"Mommy... Daddy... Anna was wrong... Anna won't make brother angry anymore..."

"Please... let me out..."

My voice grew weaker and weaker until it became meaningless mumbling.

My eyelids felt heavy as lead. I finally couldn't hold on anymore and slowly slid down the cold door panel to the floor.

In the last moment before losing consciousness, I seemed to see a beam of light.

Mom pushed open the door and walked toward me, backlit. She crouched down and gently touched my bleeding fingers, her tears dropping onto my cheeks.

"Anna, my baby, I'm sorry. Mommy came too late..."

I tried so hard to smile, to tell her I forgave her.

As long as you can love me like before, I don't mind suffering a little.

But that beam of light gradually dimmed, and Mom's face became blurry.

I fell completely into endless darkness.

**2**

I seemed to have a very, very long dream.

In the dream, there was no suffocating pain, no terrifying darknessonly lightness and freedom.

When I "opened" my eyes again, I found myself floating in midair.

I looked down at myself. My body was semi-transparent, emitting a faint glow.

Am I... dead?

This thought had barely crossed my mind when a familiar sound of the door opening interrupted it.

Mom and Dad came home from the hospital with my brother.

"Mom!" I instinctively called out and tried to throw myself into her arms.

But my body passed straight through hers.

She couldn't feel me or hear my voice.

Mom carefully placed my sleeping brother on the sofa, covered him with a thin blanket, then let out a long sigh of relief.

"Thank God, the doctor said Asher only had a mild asthma attack. If we'd gotten there any later, the consequences would have been unthinkable." Mom's voice still trembled with lingering fear.

Dad lovingly put his arm around Mom's shoulders and comforted her. "It's okay now. Asher has divine protection."

Mom took a deep breath. Her originally gentle eyes instantly became filled with poisonous hatred. She said through gritted teeth, "It's all that wretched girl Anna's fault! She's just jealous that we treat Asher well, so she came up with such a vicious way to hurt him!"

"To be so cruel at such a young agewhat will she be like when she grows up?! She's rotten to the core!"

Hearing Mom's words, my heart felt like it was being stabbed with needles.

I'm not rotten! I didn't try to hurt my brother! I just wanted to help him!

I floated in front of them, shaking my head desperately and explaining loudly, but they couldn't hear anything.

Dad frowned and sighed. "Come on, she's still just a kid. Maybe she was confused for a moment. We've locked her in the basement for so longshe's probably scared enough. Go get her and have her apologize to Asher. Then we'll call it even."

"Apologize? What good is an apology? Who's going to suffer for what Asher went through?" Mom's voice shot up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

She stomped angrily to my first-floor bedroom door and pounded on it hard.

"Anna Johnson! Get out here! Don't think you can avoid responsibility by hiding in there playing dead!"

"Your brother almost died because of you! Can't you even say you're sorry? Did a dog eat your conscience?!"

I floated beside Mom, looking at her face twisted with anger, feeling deeply powerless.

Mom, I'm not in my room.

I'm in the basement, in that soundproof room you locked with your own hands.

I'm already dead.

But of course there was no response from the room.

Mom's fury was completely ignited by the silence. She turned around, her eyes searching everywhere in the living room, as if looking for something to vent on.

Suddenly, her gaze fell on the exquisite cat bed on the balcony.

Inside slept a beautiful Ragdoll cat named Snowball. I'd found her as a stray in the bushes on a rainy day. She was dying then, and I used my allowance to take her to the vet and nursed her back to health until she became this white, plump, adorable cat.

Mom used to love Snowball too, saying she looked like a little snowball.

But now, Mom's eyes were filled with disgust.

"We have someone with asthma in this house, and we're still keeping this furry creature! Anna just doesn't want Asher to be well!"

She strode over and grabbed the cat bed, ignoring Snowball's terrified cries.

"Mom! No! Please don't hurt Snowball!" I desperately rushed over, trying to stop her.

But I could only watch helplessly as she opened the balcony window and, without hesitation, threw the cat bed with Snowball inside from the fifteenth floor.

"Meow"

Snowball's piercing shriek cut through the night, then abruptly stopped.

I floated in midair, staring into the bottomless darkness outside the window, feeling my very soul trembling.

Dad stood in the living room, watching all this, only frowning slightly.

"Well, it needed to go anyway. Asher's allergic to cat fur." He spoke in a flat tone, as if what had been thrown out was just a piece of worthless trash.

"Forget about that girl. Let her go hungry for a couple mealsshe'll realize her mistake."

They turned and went back to the master bedroom, closing the door.

The living room returned to dead silence. Only I remained, drifting alone in this home that had once been filled with laughter and joy.