Mom is always very strict with both my elder sisters, Esther and Emily Kingston.

She always wakes them up at 5:00 am to make them study. And if they refuse to wake up, Mom will grab an embroidery needle and stab it into my arm.

When fresh blood spills out, Esther and Emily will both get a fright and scramble to their desks at once to begin studying.

Sometime during the year-end exam, Esther gets one easy question wrong, and I receive ten lashes with Mom's belt. Emily gets only the second-highest score in class, and I am forced to kneel on glass until my knees turn bloodied and torn.

Esther and Emily feel sorry for me and fall to their knees, begging Mom to have mercy on me and promising that they will study hard and make her proud of them. Mom smiles happily and says that this teaching method works very well.

However, after the SATs, Esther applies for a college out of state, and Emily tells Mom that she is eloping with a young man whom she has fallen in love with.

Mom is so angry that she yanks me over and stuffs me into a huge fish tank before beginning to fill it up with water.

She then takes a video of me, threatening to drown me alive if they don't listen to her and do exactly as she says.

The water keeps rising in the tank. I feel scared, but I don't struggle because Mom always tells me that the only reason for my existence is to be made an example out of for Esther and Emily.

She often quotes Shakespeare's "Othello", telling me about how I am the "sacrificial" dog one beats to scare a lion and teach it obedience.

I think that I am considered quite a qualified dog after all, right?

The water in the tank slowly reached my calves. I could hear Esther Kingston, my eldest sister, outside the door, pleading urgently, "Mom, please, just let Elmer out first! We can discuss the college application again later!"

She rushed up to Mom and grabbed her by the hand, her voice beseeching. However, Mom just gave her a side glance before scoffing coldly.

"There is no room for discussion. If you insist on going to a college out of state, then you can watch your brother drown."

She then took out her phone. I was in the center of her phone screen, curling up around myself at the bottom of the tank, my thin clothes all wet and soaked to the skin. The water was icy-cold and made me shiver relentlessly.

"Elmer! You're going to drown if you stay in there like that! Get out of there!" Esther yelled into the house.

I heard her and was just about to get up to push the cover off when I suddenly heard Mom yell, "Don't you dare, Elmer Kingston!"

I flinched and stopped at once, curling back around myself.

I didn't dare to go against Mom. I didn't dare to disobey any order she gave me.

If Esther and my second eldest sister, Emily Kingston, disobeyed Mom in any way, Mom would punish me so that they would feel guilty about it. But if I disobeyed Mom, I knew that she would kill me without any hesitation.

With no other choice, I just rubbed my hands and blew some hot breath on my palms to try and warm myself up.

"Mom…"

Esther's tears began trickling down her face. She gradually fell to her knees and said, "Mom, Elmer is innocent. You can't do this to him."

Mom replied nonchalantly, "I know that Elmer is innocent. But who told you to disobey me? It's only right that the youngest sibling bears all the punishment for what you did wrong."

Esther looked up at Mom with bloodshot eyes. "What do you want me to do before you let Elmer go?"

Mom lowered her head and handed her a brand-new application form for college. "Withdraw your current college application and change it to a local one nearby. I'll let Elmer out after you've done that."

Esther grabbed a pen and hesitated, her tears dripping onto the form.

I knew that Esther had been dreaming of going to that out-of-state college for a long time. That was her dream college.

However, when Mom saw her hesitating, she reminded her with a smile and said, "Not signing it yet? I don't think Elmer can hold out that long. After all, he's not had anything to eat in two days."

Two days ago, Esther had picked out the broccoli in her dinner, and Emily had also peeled off the skin on the salmon before throwing it into the trash. Mom's face darkened in an instant.

She didn't yell at them or scold them. Instead, she kicked me from the dinner table and told me that she was starving me to death.

Esther got a huge fright and hurriedly stuffed everything into her mouth. Emily also ran to the trash, rinsed the salmon skin under the tap, and ate it. However, Mom was still dissatisfied and said that she was going to teach them both a lesson.

And so, I hadn't had a bite to eat since then until now, two days later.

I could still hear Mom's voice outside the house. "I will only feed Elmer after you've properly filled out the form and withdrawn the other one."

Esther took a deep breath, gritted her teeth, and did just as she was instructed. Then, she tossed the pen onto the table.

"Happy now?"

Mom glanced at the filled-out form and smiled in satisfaction. Then, she took out another phone and pointed the camera at the completed form.

"See this, everyone? This is the most effective way to communicate with your children about their college applications. You can try my method too. I promise it works all the time."

Esther caught sight of the phone screen, showing that Mom had been live streaming the whole thing the entire time. She clenched her fists in anger.

"Mom! Are you seriously live streaming this as well?"

However, she couldn't be bothered to continue arguing with Mom anymore. She grabbed the house key to open the door. But Mom snatched it away from her and threw it straight down the drain.

"Mom! What the heck are you doing?" Esther yelled. "I've already withdrawn my college application and changed it to a local one! What else do you want me to do?"

Mom looked at Esther's urgent and heartbroken expression and felt dissatisfied with her reaction.

"Who do you think you're yelling at? If you dare to speak another word to me in that tone of yours, I will lock Elmer up inside the tank for the rest of his life! Wanna bet?"

Esther gasped. She knew that Mom was totally capable of following through with that threat of hers. She lowered her head and apologized to Mom quietly.

Mom's expression finally lifted. She then glanced at her phone, which was still live-streaming, and said, "But well, someone else doesn't seem to care about her own brother's life for the sake of 'love'.

"Everyone, let me show you how to make your rebellious children see the error of their ways, especially if they're already eagerly getting into a relationship before you said they could!"

While speaking, Mom sent a video to Emily of her stabbing the embroidery needle into my head before she trapped me inside the fish tank.

"If you keep disobeying me, Emily Kingston, I'm going to drive this needle right into Elmer's temples."

After sending out that sinister voice message, Emily's figure quickly appeared in the apartment building hallway.

"Mom. I've already broken up with him. I wasn't even dating him. I was just trying to make you mad," she said apologetically while crying.

Mom reached out to wipe her tears away and said, "Remember that you're not allowed to joke like that with me anymore. If not, your actions will directly impact Elmer's life. Do you understand me?"

Emily hurriedly nodded. "Mom, Elmer's alright, right?"

At this point, the water in the tank had filled up to my chest, and it was starting to get hard to breathe. I kept trying to wiggle around and was just about to try to lift the lid when I suddenly saw Mom glaring at me.

"So, you've also decided to disobey me now as well, haven't you, Elmer Kingston?"

Her face was filled with fury. I wanted to explain myself, but Mom shoved me right back into the center of the tank, splashing water all around.

Esther and Emily heard the commotion inside and tried to open the door, but they heard her say, "Don't come in. Elmer's just changing out of his clothes."

Esther tested the waters and said, "Mom, can we bring him out for dinner later?"

My stomach began rumbling when I heard that. I carefully said, "Mom, I'm hungry."

However, Mom just shoved me back into the tank with a cold expression on her face and said, "Your sisters might have obeyed me for now, but I know that they're only doing so reluctantly.

"You know that you're just a dog, right? So, you'd better be a good dog and fulfill your purpose so that Esther and Emily will never dare to disobey me ever again."

She spoke while caressing my wet hair. "Be good and wait for me to come home. I'll bring home some fried chicken for you."

I nodded at once when I heard the words "fried chicken".

"Okay, Mom. I'll be good. Please hurry back."

Mom smiled. Then, she turned off the tap and covered the lid on the giant fish tank again. After that, she walked out of the door and told Esther and Emily that I was tired and going to sleep.

Neither Esther nor Emily dared to go against Mom, and I gradually heard their footsteps fade away until they disappeared.

My world then plunged into a dark stillness. The only thing I could do was rely on the very small dot of light coming from the infrared camera inside the tank, humming softly to myself so I would be less frightened.

I gradually fell asleep. However, I soon jolted awake when I realized I was choking on water.

It was Mom. She didn't shut off the tap properly.

I stared at the rising water level that was dangerously close to my nose in fear, screaming for Mom, but nobody answered me.

In a desperate attempt at survival, I pushed at the lid above me with all of my strength, but it wouldn't budge.

Eventually, my tears and cries for help soon dissolved into the water.

Mom brought Esther and Emily to a fancy restaurant.

"Let's bring some food back for Elmer," Esther said, looking at Mom and asking her for permission. Mom smiled and nodded.

"I'm relieved to see how well the three of you get along. You really look out for each other."

Esther and Emily pulled their lips into a thin line. I knew that their feelings for me were mostly out of guilt and nothing more.

When we were younger, Mom had always taken Esther's and Emily's studies very seriously. However, they were both quite playful and often sneaked out of the house to play.

When Mom came home and saw that I was the only one left in the house, she asked me darkly, "Where are your sisters?"

"They're playing outside," I replied, proudly showing off the small flower brooch that I had made for her. "Mom, Happy Mother's—"

I hadn't even managed to finish my wish when she tore my clothes off my body and began lashing at my frail body with a leather belt.

"Why didn't you keep an eye on them?"

She lashed at me again.

"Didn't I tell you about the dog that had to fulfill its purpose? What does it mean to be a dog?"

I sobbed and replied, "I-It means to be made a sacrifice… S-So that the lions are taught to be obedient…"

She lashed at me a third time.

"And who's the dog?"

"M-Me, Elmer Kingston…"

Mom continued whipping me with the belt until Esther and Emily finally came home with a jump rope in their hands. They got a huge shock when they saw me lying in a pool of blood on the ground.

"Mom! You… You can't hit Elmer like that… Please…"

Esther was the first to apologize, falling to her knees and grabbing the leather belt from her. However, Mom just gave her a hard look and continued whipping me on the back.

"Did I not tell you and Emily that I would punish Elmer every time you did something wrong? Did you not understand a word I said?"

Esther began to cry and beg Mom for mercy, promising that she would study hard and never dare to sneak out to play again.

When Emily heard that, she hurriedly snipped the jump rope in two and also promised tearfully that she would study hard from then onward.

It wasn't until then that Mom finally dropped the leather belt, smiling in satisfaction when Esther and Emily returned to their desks.

However, Mom's demands only got higher and higher.

If they failed to get full scores in their exams, Mom would beat me up with a stick. If they took a minute too long on their break between studies, she wouldn't let me sleep at night. And if they accidentally tore a hole in their clothes, she would cut up all my clothes and tie me to the front door.

I was on the verge of having a mental breakdown. I cried and asked her why she was doing this to me. It was Esther and Emily who made the mistakes, so why was I the one getting punished instead?

Mom then replied that Esther and Emily were both smarter than me, and she couldn't afford to hit them in case it affected their intelligence. Therefore, I had to be made the scapegoat to force them to study harder.

She told me that they would be my pillars of support in the future.

I then stared at the failing exam grades on my desk and felt a little dazed. Was I really made the "sacrificial dog" just because I wasn't as smart as they were?

…

Just then, Esther and Emily brought up the same topic at the dinner table.

"Mom, you should just punish us next time if we make any mistakes. Please don't hurt Elmer anymore.

"He's always had a weak body. Also… Elmer's sensible and understanding enough."

Mom was stunned for a second. Then, she smiled extremely gently at them and said, "Silly girl. I could never bring myself to beat you."