I'm My Brother's Cautionary Tale

My mother was an education expert who believed in the teaching method of using others as a cautionary tale. She had high hopes for my big brother, Joe, and I was used as a tool to discipline and educate him. Every time Joe did something wrong, my mother would double the punishment for me to make him remember his mistakes. When we were young, Joe touched a socket with a wet finger. As such, my mother tied me to a metal chair that was connected to electrical wires. I convulsed and started foaming at the mouth and lost control of my bowels. It scared Joe so much that he never touched another socket again. Another time, Joe saw a homeless dog and reached out to pet him. As a result, my mother found a ferocious mongrel and locked me up in a metal cage with it. I was badly bitten by the dog and wounded all over. Since then, Joe never touched another animal. My mother's methods took a turn for the worse before Joe took his SATs. He could not take it any longer and said, "I want to cut all ties with you after my SATs. I'd rather die than live as your puppet!" Joe's words prompted my mother to grab me by the hair and lock me up in a coffin. "How dare you threaten me with death? You should learn what death really looks like today!" However, my mother forgot that I had asthma. I smiled with relief as my body started becoming lighter. Mom, this would be the last time I would serve as my big brother's cautionary tale. Chapter 1 The moment the coffin closed above me, I was enveloped in endless darkness. I could hear the metallic lock clanging outside and my mother's icy voice, berating, "Open your eyes and look carefully at what death really is, Joe! Let’s see if you’ll talk about death so lightly in the future." My big brother, Joe Hastings, slammed the coffin frantically. "Let Janine out, Mom! She has asthma. Let her out and we can talk things out." My mother grunted. "It doesn't matter if she has asthma. She won't die just because I put her in a coffin. I'm an education expert. What can go wrong with disciplining a child? It's your sister's duty to serve as a cautionary tale for you. Tell me now. Will you dare do it again?!" Yes, I was used as teaching material to discipline Joe. This had been my duty since I was born. When Joe stayed up all night playing video games, my mother would turn on the light at the highest voltage and audio with the highest decibel for me. I was tortured for three days and three nights without rest, breaking me down mentally and putting me on the verge of dying at any time. Once, Joe went against her and ate an extra popsicle stick, so I ended up being locked in the freezer, nearly freezing to death. This continued until Joe could no longer endure my mother's suffocating love. He hated how she would sit on her high horse proclaiming that she was an education expert. He hated how he was under surveillance 24/7 and he hated how she would draw up his schedule down to the very second with a sense of perverted obsession. Joe broke down completely. He destroyed all the surveillance cameras in his room and roared, "I can't take it anymore! I'd rather die than continue being your puppet!" To help Joe learn to have an 'appreciation for life', my mother grabbed my hair and dragged me down to an abandoned basement of an escape room. My weak calls for help and the sound of scratching could be heard coming from inside the heavy coffin, and tears started streaming down Joe's face. He stopped fighting against my mother and he fell heavily on his knees, crying and begging my mother frantically. "I was wrong, Mom! I admit my mistake. I won't talk back ever again. Janine's asthma is acting up, and she doesn't have any medication with her. Please let her out!" Chapter 2 Joe begged my mother, pleading with my mother until his voice became hoarse, but my mother was not moved. "Let her out? Not so easily. Didn't you just say that life is not worth living, Joe? I'll make an example of Janine for you to see so you can judge for yourself whether it's better to live or to die! "Watch her for 24 hours and not an hour less! I want your gratitude to me ingrained into the very core of your soul!" The oxygen in the coffin started to thin as I struggled. I tried taking in deep breaths, but started wheezing from my asthma instead. I felt despair when I realized I could never escape by myself. If I could not get out, it would not be long before I died in this coffin. I stopped scratching the inside of the coffin and started slamming hard against the coffin walls instead, while making weak attempts to call for help. "Joe… Help me… It's so dark in here…" My voice echoed in the dark basement, and Joe went crazy with anxiousness. He suddenly stood up and tried to break the lock. "What are you doing?!" My mother pulled Joe away when she saw what he was doing, and she started crying when she saw his palm bleeding. "You're just hurting me, Joe! Who do you think I'm doing all this for? I'm an education expert. Would I harm you?" My mother wiped away her tears and said threateningly, "Go sit in the corner right now and write a five-thousand-word essay reflecting on your behavior! I won't let your sister out if you don't finish it!" "Mom…" "Start writing now!" I could hear Joe’s despairing voice outside the coffin, along with the rustling of pen on paper. I lost all hope. There was no more oxygen inside the coffin and I started to hallucinate. It felt like millions of bugs were gnawing into my limbs in the dark and all I could do was lie down inside the coffin with my mouth helplessly agape. When I stopped struggling inside the coffin, I finally felt the intense pain coming from my broken fingernails, which were hurt from all the scratching. I started convulsing and could only allow the pain to agitate my dulling brain. That was when I heard a huge crash. The door to the scary basement was kicked open. "Are you crazy, Sharon?" My father's anxious voice was heard. "I thought something didn't feel right, and I wouldn't have found this godforsaken place if not for the GPS on Joe's phone." He hurried to the coffin and started slamming it. "Janine! Can you hear me, Janine?" I no longer had the strength to answer. All I could do was open and close my mouth like a fish on land. "She lost consciousness! Sharon, that coffin is made of pure wood and doesn't have any ventilation. You're murdering our daughter!" My mother pushed him away and spread out her arms protectively in front of the coffin to stop him from coming forward. "Go away, Edward! Our children turned out this way because of your weak and unprincipled character. Your son was just talking about dying, and I'm trying to save his life! As for Janine… I'm an education expert. Do you think I have no limits? There is ventilation underneath the coffin." Ventilation? Hah! I had felt all around the coffin when I was struggling earlier. There were a few holes beneath the coffin, but they had been sealed with duct tape. My father looked at the ugly expression on my mother's face and decided not to waste his time talking to her. He reached into her pockets forcefully to search for the key. Chapter 3 My father tried to hold down my mother using brute force, but she suddenly exploded with strength as she resisted violently. Joe tried to help my father hold my mother down, but he held back in fear of hurting my mother. All he could do was cry desperately, "I'm begging you, Mom! Give the key to Dad!" Just as my father was about to take control over the situation, my mother suddenly screamed like a madwoman and managed to free one hand to take out the key from her pocket. "Give me the key, Sharon." My father reached out, but my mother suddenly smiled gleefully and swallowed the key while my father and Joe looked on in horror. Gulp! My mother swallowed and opened her mouth to show my father and Joe, tauntingly, that it was empty. "Look, I've swallowed the key. If you want to save her, go ahead and kill me to dig the key out of my stomach!" All of my hopes were dashed at that moment. I closed my eyes in despair and slowly curled into a ball. My tears, which were mixed with the dirt in the coffin, streamed down my face. "You're mad, Sharon!" My father was trembling with anger as he kicked the furniture around him. After that, he ran off to find tools to cut the lock while tearing up. Time passed slowly. It had been several minutes, and my father had not returned. I was slowly losing control of my body as I was claustrophobic, and there was a lack of oxygen. My bowels were the first to go, and the dirty liquid drenched my pants and shirt. The coffin was filled with the stench, and my consciousness teetered on the brink of life and death. My life started to play in my mind like a movie as I remembered the beatings I suffered for the trouble Joe caused, and the permanent look of disgust my mother had for me. … I smiled bitterly. I could no longer make another sound. This was probably the last time I would be used as educational material to discipline my brother. Just as I was about to close my eyes, a loud voice pulled me back to consciousness. "What are you doing?! Are you trying to destroy this place?" It was the voice of the escape room owner, who had rushed downstairs to check on the situation. Joe felt a surge of hope as he quickly grabbed onto the man. "Sir, my sister has been locked up inside the coffin. Please save her. I'm begging you!" The owner was scared out of his wits as he turned pale and yelled at my mother. "Madam, that coffin is made of solid wood and is completely sealed. Even the vents have been sealed up! You can't put a live person in there! Someone might die!" My mother refused to believe him. She had one hand on her waist as she pointed at the owner's nose with her other hand and yelled back, "Stop your nonsense! You're just trying to con us out of our money by scaring us about your coffin. I'm warning you not to poke your nose into our business. I'm an education expert and I'm disciplining my daughter. An outsider like you shouldn't concern yourself with any of this. I'll bear all responsibility for what happens to her!" The owner realized the severity of the situation when he saw how stubborn the mad woman was and realized that there were no longer any sounds coming from inside the coffin. He knew that a life was involved, and if anything happened in his place of business, he would not only have to abandon the escape room and quit the business, but he would also be unable to escape from the responsibility of harming another human life. He took out his phone without hesitation. "Hello, is this 911? There is someone…" When my mother saw him making the call, she lunged at him and bit his arm, and the pain prompted the owner to release his phone. My mother snatched the phone and smashed it against the cement floor, breaking it into pieces. That was when my father dashed into the basement, covered in sweat, with a fire axe in his hand. Chapter 4 The owner wanted to fight it out with my mother when she smashed his phone, but she refused to back down and ended up in a scuffle with him. My father glanced at them, but did not stop the fight. Instead, he raised the fire axe and aimed it at the lock on the coffin. My mother caught what he was doing from the corner of her eye and screamed, "Don't you dare, Edward!" She quickly abandoned the fight with the owner and stumbled over to the coffin. She sprawled over it and made sure her neck was right where the lock was. "Go ahead! Chop me up too if you dare! I'll kill myself if anyone dares to interfere with disciplining my son!" The axe paused mid-air, while my eyes widened in the coffin as I breathed my last. All of my pain vanished, and my body felt extremely light as I started to float. I floated out of the coffin and quietly stayed in the basement, watching the drama unfold in front of me. It was nice. I was finally released from my pain. Joe seemed to sense something, and he dashed forward to press his face against the coffin. After that, he sobbed out loud in fear, "Dad… Janine is not making any sounds. She's not heaving anymore! Why aren't there any sounds coming from inside?" My mother continued to stubbornly sprawl herself across the coffin while sneering with disdain. "Go ahead and continue pretending! That little wretch has always loved playing tricks like this by acting like the abused victim. Does she think she can trick me with this little scheme of hers? I'll stall as long as I can, and we'll see how long she can take this!" Joe broke down crying. "Mom, Janine isn't breathing anymore! Please, just move aside!" My father flung the fire axe to the side and plopped down. "Sharon, Honey… Please move aside and let me save Janine from that coffin." Even the owner chimed in, "Madam! You can't do this to me. What am I supposed to do if someone dies in my escape room?" However, my mother refused to budge. This continued until footsteps were heard coming from outside. "Who called 911? Why was the line cut off halfway through the call?" The owner scrambled to run out while speaking incoherently. "It was me! I made the call! Help! There is a mad woman inside who locked her daughter up in a sealed coffin. She might die inside!" Two police officers came forward immediately to pull my mother, who was still creating a huge scene, away from the coffin. She kept screaming, "Let go of me! I'm an education expert! It's not illegal for me to discipline my daughter!" The lead officer looked at her sternly and said, "Don't you know that this can be considered attempted murder? That man over there. There’s no need to hesitate. Break the coffin open with that axe!" My father did not hold back as he picked up the fire axe from the ground and swung it twice at the lock on the coffin, but the old-fashioned lock was surprisingly sturdy. All the axe did was leave several scratches on it. "Where's the key?! If this coffin is not opened, everyone here needs to come with us as suspects of a major criminal case!" My mother refused to back down. "Stop scaring me when all I'm doing is disciplining my children." The police officers ignored her excuses. They took out their handcuffs to cuff Joe, who had a hopeless look on his face. My mother finally panicked. "Officers, my son is about to have his SATs. He can't afford to have a criminal record! Stop! Wait! I have the key!" She took out another key from her pocket, which looked just like the one she had swallowed. My father turned red with anger. "I can't believe you had a spare key all this time! How can you be so cruel, Sharon?! I want a divorce after we get Janine out of the coffin!" My mother rolled her eyes. "She's only been locked in there for just a few minutes…" While she was speaking, my father and the police officers worked together to open the coffin. My mother approached the coffin while speaking, and she looked inside. Her smile froze when she glanced inside, and the expression on her face turned to one of fear and despair.