Chapter 1

I was born with Congenital Insensitivity to Pain (CIP). My adopted little brother, Kian, has a severe form of Osteogenesis Imperfecta—the 'brittle bone' disease.

So, to keep him safe, my sister, Hannah, always used me to set boundaries and enforce rules for Kian.

I did protest, but Hannah always pleaded with me, a look of deep, exhausted helplessness on her face:

“Nick, Kian is our adopted brother, and punishing him directly will only bring judgment and gossip down on us.”

“Plus, he’s so fragile, so much weaker than you! You can’t feel pain anyway, so just think of it as acting, and please, just go along with it.”

When Kian ran off in a crowded shopping mall, Hannah broke one of my legs right in front of him.

When he played with scissors, she chopped off five of my fingers, then had doctors reattach them one by one.

Later, Kian got involved with a delinquent girl and ran away from home.

After Hannah dragged him back, she sliced open several deep cuts on my body and shoved me into the indoor pool where she kept her sharks.

Three sharks circled me. I screamed for her help, but she only focused on reprimanding Kian:

“Mistakes have consequences. You run away one more time, and I’ll throw him back in.”

Kian crumpled in terror, his knees hitting the cold marble floor and leaving a patch of dark bruising.

Hannah immediately rushed to cradle him, her face full of anguish, and then turned to leave.

I sobbed, begging her to pull me out first, but she never looked back.

She had forgotten that Congenital Insensitivity to Pain isn't the same thing as immortality.

You can still die from blood loss.

1

“Hannah, help me!”

Blood poured from the shoulder wound, the metallic scent driving the three sharks into a frenzy as they swam tight circles around me.

I thrashed, scrambling for the pool's metal ladder.

My hand had just clamped onto a rung when Hannah’s dagger slashed down again.

I bit back a cry, refusing to let go.

But the overpowering stench of blood pushed one shark over the edge. It clamped down on my calf, dragging me back into the deep water.

“Nick!”

Kian’s voice was a ragged shout. He instinctively reached out to grab me.

Hannah immediately wrapped her arms around his waist. “Stop. You can’t swim.”

“Hannah.” Kian sank to his knees. “I was wrong. I promise I’ll never run again. Please, let Nick out.”

He was shaking, sobbing uncontrollably, his forehead smacking against the floor with a hollow thud.

“Kian, are you insane?” Hannah yanked him up. “Don’t you know what your body is like? Kneeling like that—your bones could shatter.”

She meticulously checked his body and, sure enough, found a small area of blue-purple bruising on his knee.

Her eyes welled up with distraught sympathy. She swept him up into her arms. “You behave, or I’ll bring out ‘The Iron Jaw.’”

“The Iron Jaw” was the fiercest shark she owned, a killer she’d bought from a slaughterhouse.

Kian instantly froze, too terrified to move.

Satisfied, Hannah carried him toward the exit.

“Hannah, please help me… I can’t hold on…”

I pushed the last of my strength into the plea.

She stopped. A flicker of doubt crossed her face.

But as she was about to turn around, she looked down and noticed a tiny, fingernail-sized scrape on Kian’s forehead.

Panic flared in her eyes. She turned toward me and yelled:

“Every single time I punish you, you intentionally give up early! Can you not, for once, act like a big brother and set an example for your sibling? Do you want him to come back next time covered in scrapes and bruises?!”

With that, she strode out.

She never looked back.

My heart plummeted into an icy abyss.

One thought surfaced, screaming:

My sister is abandoning me.

No. No, she couldn’t be.

Hannah had told me everything she did to me was just an act.

She would come back for me.

I just needed to look a little more pathetic.

Kian just needed to be a little more scared.

Then Hannah would be satisfied. She would look at me.

I yelled a few more times, and then my body was violently wrenched.

I looked down just as a shark tore off my left arm.

The water turned crimson. The sight of that red suffocated me.

Survival instinct screamed at me to get out.

I swam with desperate, flailing strokes toward the exit.

Maybe luck was finally on my side, because I somehow made it through the frantic circle of sharks and grabbed the ladder.

In a surge of pure adrenaline, I clawed my way onto the platform.

But before I could take two steps, a shark launched itself from the water, clamped its jaws around my right leg, and violently dragged me back in.

I struggled to resurface, to breathe.

But I was no match for a shark.

Salty water flooded my nose and mouth, filling my lungs.

I couldn’t breathe.

I was running out of strength.

Everything went black.

2

When I next woke up, I could breathe underwater.

I was wondering if I’d finally manifested some bizarre superpower when I saw my own, broken body not far away.

The three sharks were having a feast, devouring me piece by piece.

First, they tore off an arm, then they ripped open the abdomen, and finally, they swallowed the head.

It was then I understood:

I was dead.

After watching the sharks feed for a while, I got bored and drifted back home.

Dr. Naomi Chan, the family physician Hannah had hired, had just finished examining Kian. She said the bruises on his knees were fine but cautioned against any future impacts.

Hannah let out a sigh of relief.

I walked up to her and said, “Hannah.”

She didn’t respond, turning instead to look at Kian on the sofa.

It hit me then: the living couldn't see the dead.

Kian had stopped crying, but he was sitting there, his eyes vacant.

Dr. Chan was an old friend of Hannah’s and had heard about the latest “punishment” as soon as she arrived.

Naomi couldn’t help but say, “Hannah, wasn’t that a bit extreme this time?”

Hannah’s voice was cold. “If I don’t use heavy methods, how will he learn? He actually tried to run off and elope—you know how dangerous it is out there.”

Naomi replied, “But you can’t just throw Nick into a shark tank! What if the sharks had lost control and actually hurt him?”

“You don’t need to worry about that,” Hannah said dismissively. “Those three are usually quite docile and have never attacked a person. I had a guard watching the feed—if there was any danger, he would have been pulled out immediately.”

I froze.

But, Hannah, was that guard really watching the feed?

Why didn’t anyone come when I was being eaten alive?

Hannah’s only hobby was keeping sharks.

For these three, she’d built a pool in the house that was larger than any public aquarium.

They had dedicated caretakers, a regular animal doctor, and even had their food flown in from overseas.

Because they were raised in captivity, the three sharks were accustomed to humans and had never attacked anyone.

That was why Hannah had assured me before this “punishment”: it was totally safe.

But she had forgotten something.

The moment Kian ran away, Hannah had been planning how to “teach him a lesson.”

She had specifically told the feeders to starve the sharks for a week, just so they would look more aggressive.

But an animal is still an animal. A starving shark won't care if the food is human.

Naomi frowned. “Even so, Nick is a boy. You know how blood attracts sharks—what if he really was bitten?”

“Bitten, not killed,” Hannah snapped, her patience gone. “Did you forget Nick has CIP? Even if his leg was ripped off, he wouldn’t feel it. All his screaming and yelling is just for show.”

Naomi listened, then tried to speak, but stopped herself.

Finally, she sighed and urged Hannah not to be so harsh. After all, I was her actual brother.

Hannah lowered her head in silence for a moment. “You’re right. I was going to…”

Before she could finish, Kian suddenly stood up, his expression calm now.

“I’m going to get Nick back.”

Hannah’s face hardened. “You will not go!”

Kian flinched. “Why?”

Hannah said, “You were gone for seven days. So he gets seven hours of punishment. It’s the house rule.”

3

Hannah wasn’t being truthful—there was no such rule.

She forbid him to go because she saw that Kian wasn’t as scared anymore, so she was raising the stakes on the spot.

It was only to terrify Kian, to make him understand the severity of his mistake.

Hannah is eight years older than I am.

In my mind, she was both our father and our mother.

Our parents died in a car crash when I was eight.

Relatives, desperate to fight over the inheritance, kicked Hannah and me out of the house.

The day we were thrown out, we found Kian, similarly abandoned.

To keep Kian and me fed, sixteen-year-old Hannah dropped out of high school.

She fought in underground boxing rings, delivered takeout, and carried sacks of concrete.

Because all her time was spent earning money, Kian and I had to look after each other.

But Kian’s body was too delicate. A slight bump could lead to a fracture.

A fracture meant a hospital, and a hospital meant money.

Back then, Hannah didn’t have the time or patience to gently guide Kian, so she just constantly warned him to stay still.

Warnings worked once or twice. After that, Kian stopped listening.

One time, Hannah was yelling at Kian and he ignored her, but because I chuckled nearby, she hit me instead.

Kian was terrified that day. He burst into tears and choked out an apology.

From that day on, Hannah learned to "kill the chicken to scare the monkey."

I was the chicken.

Kian was the monkey.

At first, after she hit me, Hannah would apologize. She would gently apply ointment and hold me while she cried.

She would say, “Nick, money is so hard to earn. I truly don’t have the funds to keep sending Kian to the hospital. If you just take a few hits, he’ll behave a little longer. Can you bear it? I promise I’ll go easier next time.”

I knew how hard it was for her to raise both of us, so I lied and told her I had CIP, that no matter how hard she hit me, I felt nothing.

I only wanted to ease her guilt.

I never imagined that later on, even that trick stopped working on Kian—even if she knocked me unconscious, his fear only lasted a little while.

So Hannah became more and more extreme.

Kian runs off, she breaks my leg.

He plays with scissors, she chops off my fingers.

In her mind, I didn’t feel the pain, and the doctors could just reattach everything.

Until today, when she left me to be eaten alive.

She wanted Kian to watch, to be terrified, to never again dare to put himself in danger.

I know Hannah’s original motive was to save money.

But once she had money, the time and emotion she had invested in Kian far surpassed anything she’d given me.

Perhaps she didn’t even realize it herself:

In her heart, Kian had become far more important than I was.

Kian was watching the clock.

The moment seven hours were up, he pulled Hannah toward the shark room.

“Hannah, time’s up. It’s time for Nick to come out.”

Hannah allowed herself to be dragged. “What’s the rush? Your brother isn’t going to run anywhere.”

Though she said that.

When the massive pool doors opened, the thick, metallic scent of blood hit them first.

When they saw the scene inside the pool, Hannah and Kian froze simultaneously.

4

After a few seconds, Kian trembled as he asked, “Hannah, where is Nick? Why is he gone?”

He frantically searched the edges of the pool for any sign of me.

Hannah, however, regained her composure faster. She walked onto the platform, looked around, and motioned for Kian to follow.

“Kian, look.”

She pointed to two bloody footprints on the platform. “These must be Nick’s footprints. He’s already climbed out and left.”

“Really?” Kian stared at the prints, still shaking. “Then where is he now?”

Hannah paused. “The hospital, I guess. He always goes to the hospital by himself when he’s hurt.”

It was true—unlike Kian, because I had claimed I felt no pain, no matter how severe the injury, I always walked to the hospital on my own.

Kian begged Hannah to go find me.

“Hannah, please. If I don’t see Nick today, I won’t be able to sleep tonight.”

Kian’s tears finally softened her. She looked at the water and a hint of worry crossed her face, too.

“Fine,” she said, stroking his hair, and called the kitchen to prepare food. “We’ll go to the hospital to see Nick now! Even though he got lazy and didn’t stick it out this time, he must be hungry after running off for so long. We’ll go check on him.”

I floated in the air, a lump in my non-existent throat.

But I can’t feel hunger anymore, Hannah.

Before they could even leave, the housekeeper rushed in. “Miss Ellis, there’s a girl with red hair outside insisting on seeing Master Kian.”

Hannah’s face darkened. She strode toward the main door.

I followed to see who it was.

Standing outside was Delaney, the red-haired girl Kian had run away with.

The moment she saw Hannah, she started yelling, “Give Kian back to me! What right do you have to keep him locked up?”

Hannah fixed her with a stare. “How did you find this place?”

“Your address wasn’t hard to find!” the girl snapped, holding her head high. “You control freak, how dare you tear us apart? Kian and I are in love!”

Hannah slowly turned and looked at Kian behind her, her voice terrifyingly calm. “Kian, you two are in love?”

Anyone who knew Hannah knew that the quieter her voice was, the more furious she was.

Kian immediately shook his head. “N-no! She’s lying!”

He told the girl, “Delaney, just leave. I don’t want to be with you anymore.”

Delaney’s eyes widened. “No! Kian, is she forcing you? Come with me—”

She reached out to grab Kian, but Hannah snatched her wrist and, with a sickening snap, broke it.

Then, Hannah kicked the girl away like trash and told the bodyguard, “Throw her out.”

Delaney’s screams were muffled as she was dragged away.

Kian was shaking uncontrollably.

Back in the living room, Kian was still preoccupied with me. “Hannah, I swear I won’t see her again. Let’s go find Nick.”

“And you have the nerve to mention him?” Hannah’s expression was one of pure disgust. “I just said I felt bad for him and wanted to bring him food, and he immediately sells out our address to that girl! No wonder he ran off so quickly, he must have been complaining about the punishment.”

“It’s humiliating. When will he stop using these childish stunts to seek attention?”

Kian’s face went white. “N-no, it wasn’t him. It was…”

He wanted to say he was the one who told Delaney, but the words caught in his throat and he swallowed them back.

Because it didn’t matter what he said—the only one Hannah would ever punish was me.

Delaney’s appearance reignited Hannah’s anger.

But since I wasn’t home, she wouldn’t punish Kian, so she sent people to the hospital to find me and bring me back.

She told Kian to go rest and went to the home gym herself, putting on boxing gloves to take her frustration out on the punching bag.

She was only halfway through her workout when the housekeeper came to find her again.

Hannah looked up. “Did you find Nick?”

The housekeeper said there was no news yet. The animal keeper had reported that the sharks seemed ill—all three were lethargic and refusing to feed.

Hannah loved those sharks above all else. She rushed to the pool and called the animal doctor for an emergency checkup.

The commotion woke Kian, too.

He heard the sharks were sick and followed her.

Half an hour later, the three sharks were tranquilized.

Several animal doctors descended into the water with sonar devices.

When the first shark’s abdomen was scanned, everyone recoiled in horror.

They scrambled back onto the platform and rushed toward Hannah.

“M-Miss Ellis…” they gasped, out of breath. “What did you feed them? There is something in one of the shark’s stomachs—”

“It’s a human head!”