Mom, I'm a Ghost Now

I was terrified.  It was my father's enemy.  He wanted revenge on my father. "And you, you offended someone you shouldn't have," he said, his words confusing me. "What a pity. You just started high school, right?" he added, holding up my broken school ID card. My eyes pleaded with them for mercy, begging to be let go. "Look at the way this girl is looking at me, like she's trying to seduce me..." My mouth was tightly sealed, and I could only shake my head desperately, a cold fear washing over me. "Tell you what, I'll give you a chance. Call your father. If he's willing to pay a ransom of 2 million dollars, we'll let you go. Otherwise, we'll do whatever we want with you. How about that?" a greasy thug with a floral arm tattoo said slyly. The kidnappers forced me to call my family.  I was worried that my father, David, and my brother, Samuel, would be hurt by these vicious kidnappers, so I shook my head desperately in refusal.  I was immediately slapped several times; my head spun, my face swelled instantly, and the corners of my mouth began to bleed. "Damn it, you ungrateful b***h," the kidnapper growled. ‘How does he know my father's cell phone number?’ I thought groggily. Then he dialed the number.  The ringing stopped, the call connected, and my heart pounded nervously.  They tore off the tape covering my mouth. It was Samuel who answered the phone.  "Hello, who is this?" It was our home phone. The kidnapper took the phone. "Is this David? Your daughter is in our hands." Samuel scoffed, "Layla, have you resorted to hiring people to act out this play? Having someone kidnap you?" "How much do you want? A million? Five million?" "I didn't, Samuel, help me." I cried out, scared and helpless. "Samuel, come on, let's light the candles..." I heard Chloe's voice.  They must be having a birthday party.  My heart felt like it was being pierced by many needles at the same time, a dense, spreading pain. "A sympathy ploy? Do you think that will make me forgive you? You shouldn't have done it this way. Mom died to save you. You are guilty of a heinous crime. Even if you die outside, it wouldn't be enough!" He hung up the phone forcefully. Mom... "Your family really hates you! Imagine what they would do if they knew you were really dead." The kidnapper's laughter made me tremble with fear. Everything that followed was a nightmare... ‘I don't have a mother anymore, and my dad wouldn't care. Samuel only recognizes Chloe as his sister.’   ‘He would be happy if he knew because he always wanted me to give way to Chloe.’ ‘What are my father and brother doing?’  Although I was dead, I was still concerned about the only family I had left.  I floated home. ***** Bright lights, a warm atmosphere, a warmth I hadn't felt in my home since I was ten years old.  My father and Samuel were celebrating Chloe's birthday.  The birthday cake shimmered in the candlelight, the sweet smell mingling with the sound of laughter to create a beautiful picture. Chloe, dressed in a white dress, stood in the middle, her eyes curved in a smile, like a real little princess.  My father and Samuel surrounded her, talking and laughing.  They were as happy as a real family, something I hadn't felt since I was eight years old. Chloe was my nominal younger sister, the apple of my father and Samuel's eye, the girl my mother started sponsoring the year I was born.  She was born on the same day, in the same month, of the same year as me.  She grew up in a poor mountainous area.  My mother said that she sponsored a younger sister to accumulate blessings for me.  This unrelated sister looked a bit like my mother, so David and Samuel treated her very well, much better than they treated me. And me? I looked like my father.  I often wished I looked like my mother.  Maybe then David and Samuel wouldn't hate me so much. Chloe was very good at making people happy.  With a face similar to my mother's, she easily won the love of my father and Samuel.  And me? I only reminded them of my dead mother. Bitterness spread in my heart, and I couldn't stop crying.  It was already ten o'clock in the evening, and they were getting ready for bed.  No one mentioned me.  David looked at his watch, a little irritated. Chloe pursed her lips and said cautiously, "Layla hasn't come back yet. Do you think something happened?" Samuel rubbed her head. "No, today is a special day. Layla is probably off fooling around somewhere. Maybe she feels too ashamed to come home. Chloe, don't worry about her." Hearing this, I choked back a sob. I was dead, but they thought I was just too ashamed to come home. Dad frowned and didn't say anything.  He had received a notice to go to the police station.  Someone had found a female body at the garbage dump, and he had gone out early to check on the case.  In recent years, the security situation in Chicago had been improving, and there hadn't been any such vicious murders in a long time. I floated over and looked at the torso of my body.  It was black and blue and emaciated, inhuman.  The once youthful girl had now become a grotesque sight.  If a child saw it, they would surely cry in fright. My father and the other police officers set up a cordon around the garbage dump.  After I was dismembered, the murderer dumped my body in various garbage cans.  Two hours later, the rest of my torso was collected from the garbage cans, but my head was still missing. Everyone present gasped when they saw the dismembered body.  Even the experienced police officers couldn't help but vomit when they saw the pieces of flesh. Samuel, a leading figure in forensic medicine, was urgently called in to work on the case.  I watched with my own eyes as he pieced my body together, piece by piece.  My body was black and blue, covered in dense, crisscrossing wounds.  On my slender hands and feet were shocking bloodstains and bruises. I stared at a mole on the palm of my left hand.  It was a mole that formed when I was a child, during a moment when Samuel and I were playing, and I accidentally stuck a nail in it.  My father beat him up for it, and Samuel blamed himself for a long time. Now Samuel suddenly stopped and stared at the palm of my hand with sharp eyes.  My heart tightened.  Would Samuel find out?  Did he still remember what happened when we were kids? Samuel's colleagues noticed him staring intently at that spot and asked excitedly if he had found anything. Samuel came back to his senses and shook his head hesitantly.  "It's nothing. I just thought it looked familiar." I laughed bitterly to myself.  I should have known.  Samuel hadn't looked at me properly since that year when I was ten.  Maybe he'd already forgotten. But they couldn't find my head, and the DNA test would take at least three days.  They still couldn't confirm my identity. "Preliminary judgment is that the deceased is a female between the ages of 14 and 16, and the time of death is no more than 24 hours."  Samuel calmly analyzed the cause of death, frowning slightly, his eyes filled with pity and regret. He concluded that the deceased was still alive when she was being tortured.  It was an extremely cruel murder. Samuel was just being objective and calm.  He didn't know that the deceased who had suffered so much was his sister, the one he had always hated. At the same time, my father was also carrying out his criminal investigation.