Chapter 4Escaping My Mother's Afterlife

"I told you to visit my dreams and check in every day! Why didn't you listen? Huh? Your wings got tough, so you thought you could rebel even in death?!"

My mother's interrogation crashed down on me.

Her nails dug deep into the cotton stuffing of the toy, sending spikes of pain through my soul. I could barely force a voice out.

"I told you, I'm never checking in with you again! I'm already dead... why should I still follow your rules?"

"How dare you talk back to me?!"

Her pitch skyrocketed.

She violently hoisted the teddy bear into the air, forcing my "eyes" to stare directly into her furious, contorted face.

"I didn't burn a single cent for you these past two months just to punish you and teach you a lesson! And what happened? You didn't starve to death, did you? I knew it! The Afterlife doesn't force you to spend money! You lied to me to squander my cash! Thank God I didn't spoil a debt-collector like you!"

A coppery taste of despair surged in my phantom throat, but I couldn't even manage a whimper.

—How laughable.

She'd rather believe the bullshit of a random occult scammer than believe her own daughter when I said, 'It hurts so much.'

"But I really didn't expect you to be this stubborn."

Her tone carried the cruel amusement of a cat playing with a mouse.

She dropped me back onto the table, poking my "face" over and over again.

"Two whole months, and you didn't visit me to say hello even once! You completely abandoned your filial duty! Fine, you won't come? If you won't come, I have ways to make you come! From now on, every single day! I will have the Medium drag you up here! You will respectfully greet me just like before, report on your reflections without missing a syllable, and listen to my lectures until your deeply ingrained flaws are completely fixed!"

Every single day?

The words drove through my soul like an ice pick.

A drowning, absolute terror, far deeper than death itself, seized me.

"How is that possible? I'm dead, you're alive. We're separated by life and death! How can you just pull me up whenever you want?"

"It's all thanks to the Medium's vast powers."

My mother smugly pulled out a stack of dark yellow parchment, covered in twisted sigils drawn in blood-red ink.

"Do you know what this is?"

She waved the parchment in front of my face.

"A 'Soul-Binding Sigil.'

"Burn one a day, and no matter where you are, you will instantly be summoned before me."

Her fingers brushed against the teddy bear's fur.

The movement was gentle, but laced with a terrifying possessiveness.

"I know you always loved sleeping with this ratty old doll. It's covered in your essence. It's the perfect vessel to trap your disobedient little soul! Daughter... do you finally understand your mother's 'good intentions'?"

I felt an icy, agonizing dread wash over my entire being.

With these cursed sigils, my soul was nothing more than a kite on her string.

When she wanted me, I had to come.

Trapped in this tiny stuffed animal, forced to listen to her lectures and curses.

This was even more hopeless than when I was alive...

"Now, just like before, give me a status report on your friends in the Netherworld.

"What do those ghosts do for a living? How is your relationship with them? Tell me everything! Don't you dare hide anything, and don't you dare associate with those trashy, low-class wild ghosts! Do you hear me?"

I just felt like laughing.

—Mom, do you even know?

I wander the Netherworld homeless. I drift from place to place.

I am the trashy, low-class wild ghost you're talking about.

And you made me this way.

"The sigil's time limit is almost up. Hurry it up," the Medium reminded her from the side.

Only then did my mother reluctantly stop talking.

But before I vanished, her freezing glare locked onto me.

"I am extremely dissatisfied with your performance today! But considering you haven't had any 'living expenses' in a long time, I'm sure you've suffered a bit...

"I will still burn today's twenty Spirit Dollars for you. Remember, tomorrow! I expect a proper report! Or else..."

Twenty Spirit Dollars?

My head jerked up.

No! Absolutely not!

I only had one month left before I could collect my Netherworld Welfare!

If she resumed burning money, I wouldn't meet the welfare requirements anymore!

"I don't want it!" I screamed with every last ounce of strength I had. "Take your filthy money back! I won't check in, and I won't take your living expenses! I'm cutting ties with you, and I will never use another cent of your money!"

"Cut. Ties. With. Me?"

My mother enunciated each word slowly, her smile suddenly turning grotesque.

"Don't think I don't know what you're plotting. The Medium already told me. The Netherworld has a welfare system. If nobody burns paper money for three months, you can claim it."

She leaned in close to the teddy bear, dropping her voice to a sinister whisper:

"But don't even dream of getting it. I am your mother. Every single Spirit Dollar you get must come from me. If you think you can escape my control, keep dreaming!"

The welfare... she even knew about that!

My soul collapsed entirely, the last shred of my strength violently ripped away.

There is no despair deeper than this.

My body suddenly felt weightless, and I plunged heavily back down to the Netherworld.

Lying in my palm were 20 Spirit Dollars—the "living expenses" my mother so graciously bestowed upon me.

They felt like glowing branding irons, burning through my hand, burning away my final, desperate sliver of hope.

The welfare... was gone.

And tomorrow, the day after, the endless tomorrows...

That daily "check-in" would follow me like maggots on a corpse, an inescapable shadow.

At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to die a second time, just to find release.

But I couldn't.

I was already a ghost. There was nowhere left to run.

I couldn't even find an escape in death...