Ficorpio
Chapter 1
I was browsing a Parents’ Association forum on the Dark Web when I saw my mother posting question after question.
[Can you kill a child who won’t listen?]
[My kid weighs about 265 pounds. How many trash bags would I need if I cut him up?]
For a long moment, I couldn’t process what I was seeing.
A friend had sent me the livestream, warning me that it was full of deranged parents discussing ways to murder their own children.
But why would my mom be there?
I checked three times in a row. The pink lotus avatar. The username, Still Water. The IP address matching mine.
Every detail pointed to Claire Bennett.
And while I was messaging Lucas, more questions appeared under her account.
[There are still a dozen or so trash bags at home. Is that enough for the body?]
[He’s pretty noisy. Should I give him sedatives before I kill him?]
[If I make it look like an accident, would it be easier to stage a fall or electrocute him?]
The questions made my skin crawl.
Worse, dozens of other parents answered them with horrifying seriousness, offering suggestions as though they were discussing a recipe.
My mother’s account went quiet for a long time, as if she were taking notes. Then, just as Adrian Vale announced that the session was over, she posted one final message.
[Thank you for the suggestions. For now, I’m planning to electrocute him with a hair dryer. I’ll try it tonight and share the results.]
The livestream shut down.
I was still staring at the black screen, too stunned to move, when someone knocked on my bedroom door.
My mother’s gentle voice came through it.
“Sweetheart, are you still playing games?”
“Mom’s about to start dinner. Go take a shower first. Your dad should be home soon, and then we can eat together.”
I hurriedly closed the Dark Web window.
But my eyes landed on my chat with Lucas.
When I hadn’t answered him, he’d assumed I didn’t trust his skills. He had even used IP geolocation to pinpoint the account’s location.
The marker sat directly over the Bennett Home.
We had three computers in the house. One in my room, one in my mom’s bedroom, and my dad’s laptop, which he usually took to work.
Which meant there was a very real chance that account belonged to my mother.
A chill ran down my spine.
Everything in those messages fit me exactly: the weight, the loud personality. All of it.
Could that account really belong to my mom?
But Mom had always been the definition of a gentle, loving parent.
Chapter 2
When I was little, I got into a fight over a swing and split another kid’s head open. My dad was so furious he said he’d kill me, but Mom threw herself over me, crying as she protected me.
When I got older, I turned rebellious and spent every day at internet cafes. Mom was the one who begged Dad to give me another chance.
Later, I failed to get into high school and refused to repeat the year. Mom still insisted I stay home. She even helped me take time off to get my head straight.
The neighbors all said I was an ungrateful little bastard. That I must have done something right in a past life to get a mother like mine.
How could someone like her want to kill me?
Then I remembered Mason Reed, the rebellious kid next door. His mother was always screaming at home about wanting to kill him.
Maybe the geolocation was just off. Maybe the accounts had been too close together, and we’d gotten the wrong house.
I shut down the computer and let out a breath.
Mom had already run me a bath. By the time I climbed out of the tub, most of my panic had faded.
Then I reached for the hair dryer.
The words from the livestream flashed through my mind.
My hand froze in midair.
For as long as I could remember, Mom had done everything for me ahead of time. She squeezed toothpaste onto my brush before I washed up. She set out the hair dryer before I took a shower.
But the electrical connection in front of me was soaked.
How could Mom possibly not have seen that?
And the method was exactly what that account had described.
My legs gave out beneath me. I hit the floor hard.
I couldn’t lie to myself anymore.
My mom really was trying to kill me.
What was I supposed to do now?
The droplets on my skin slowly dried, but I stayed curled up in the corner, trembling so hard I could barely think. I couldn’t tell whether I was cold or terrified.
I remained there until the bathroom door was shoved open. My dad stood in the doorway, staring at me in shock.
“What are you doing crouched in the corner without any clothes on?”
“I called you to dinner forever ago. Didn’t you hear me? And why didn’t you dry your hair?”
I finally came back to myself. Tears spilled from my eyes as I pointed shakily at the hair dryer.
“Dad… help me. I’m scared.”
He looked at me with open annoyance, but the moment he saw the hair dryer, his eyes widened. He immediately stepped in front of me.
“Claire! The hair dryer’s rigged. It’s leaking electricity. Go shut off the breaker!”
The lights went out.
Only then did Mom hurry into the bathroom in a panic.
“Oh my God! Ethan, are you all right? Put some clothes on before you catch a cold!”
Chapter 3
A wave of revulsion ran through me. I couldn’t take the fear anymore. I sprinted to my bedroom, pulled on some clothes, and rushed for the front door.
Dad grabbed my arm angrily. “Dinner’s ready. Where do you think you’re going?”
“You two eat. I’m staying at a friend’s tonight.”
I jerked free and headed outside, with Dad’s furious roar following me.
“You little brat! You’re getting more outrageous by the day!”
Then he shouted at Mom, “See what happens when you spoil him? What are you going to do about this now?”
Mom stayed silent.
The quieter she became, the more frightened I was.
I ran all the way to Lucas Parker’s place. I didn’t even stop to change out of my slippers before telling him everything that had happened.
“No way,” Lucas said. “Your mom’s always been so good to you. Why would she want to kill you?”
“Could it have been a coincidence?”
“What about the IP location? Was that a coincidence too?”
Lucas fell silent.
He cleared some space on his bed so I could lie down and rest, then went back to check everything again. But the result was exactly the same.
This time, he also ruled out the neighbors.
While I was leaving, he had run into the neighbor’s kid at the internet café downstairs. Mason Reed told him his mom had cut off the home internet to stop him playing games. She had even sold their computer two weeks ago.
All of this had left me wound so tight that I kept trembling until midnight, when I finally drifted into a restless sleep.
By the time Lucas woke me, it was morning.
His face was pale with fear. He pointed at the computer, which was still open.
“I followed your instructions and got onto the Dark Web,” he said. “I found the livestream again. They’ve started broadcasting.”
He swallowed and glanced toward the window.
“You’d better get up and look. Your mom… I think she’s downstairs.”
I shot upright. The image on the screen nearly stopped my heart.
A group of masked women stood clustered together. They were dressed in plain clothes, each holding a little grocery cart. At a glance, they looked like ordinary suburban mothers heading out to buy groceries together.
But the message scrolling through the livestream was horrifying.
【That child is too naughty. Let’s kill him together.】
Lucas stumbled over to the bed and took a furtive look at the screen.
“Oh, God. They really are downstairs! What if they came to kill you?”
“Should we call the police?”
I hurriedly pulled out my phone and dialed. But in the blink of an eye, the group of mothers had entered the apartment building.