[https://i.imgur.com/cPe71fd.jpg]

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A LONESOME ROOM. A bed by the side, and only a study table by its side. A fair faced man can be seen with his head bowed in writing, his focus a marvel, while his eyes shined with passion.

Jesse is an inspiring artist yet to have his debut. Second son of a family of seven, he has lived in poverty for so many years. He continues to blame his irresponsible father who left them 3 years ago after handing a huge debt on their heads.

He could not attend College, and he barely finished High School due to several part-time jobs.

Jesse hates people, just as much as he hates his life.

A knock on his door disrupted his concentration. His face wore a deep frown and an unmasked distaste, ruining the previous handsomeness.

Without waiting for his answer, the door opens to reveal his ill-fated mother whose coughing barely left him sane.

"What the fuck do you want?" He quietly asked, awfully rudely. But the recipient appears to be used to his attitude.

She drew herself closer to him, and spoke very softly, "Jes... Can you give mother more money for food? I just realized we ran out for our meals today..." More feats of coughing follows.

Jesse was not surprised. His eyes glowed with so much ridicule as he looked down on his mother. With gritted teeth, he barely said, "I just gave you allowance 2 days ago, which is good for 2 weeks!! Can't I even trust money to you now?"

He felt his heart heavy imagining the hardship he had to go through to earn that much money. Every day, he toils outside with any sort of job due to having inadequate qualification on his education. Only in his rare spare time could he work on his writing hoping for future success as an author.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Fate was always cruel to him. As he waited for his mother's response, he tried to calm his fury down. Then he slowly hears his mother's soft mutters, layered with thick grievances.

"... You don't understand... It was really hard giving birth of you all, but lo---" Her coughing feat interrupted her speech, but it did not lessen the darkness in her eyes.

Seeing his mother like this, Jesse suddenly felt slightly upset as well as a little frightened. His mother appears to be very strange tonight. Something must have happened.

Waving his hand impolitely, he shooed his mother blatantly without respect. "Fine, fine. You go out first and I'll give you the money."

Not wasting any more time, Jesse pushed his mother himself out of his room. He missed the sly look in his mother's eyes when she exited the bedroom. 

Jesse could never trust the members of his family, especially when it came to money. Everyone spends it like running water, forcing him to hide away anything valuable in his room. And whenever he has to leave the house, he only brings a few paper money and coins.

Turning around, Jesse walks towards a side of a wall and slowly peels away an inconspicuous layer of wallpaper. If anyone beside Jesse looks at the wall, they would not have figured out that there was a safe box just behind a very thin layer of wallpaper.

He took out $500 out of the box, carefully counting them over and over again, while mentally noting that he should record this transaction in his personal accounting. Once done, he put up the lock with encrypted security codes and put it back inside the wall again.

'Knock, Knock... Bang! Bang!! BANG!'

Suddenly, a series of loud sounds can be heard on the other side of Jesse's room. He suddenly went frantic as he haven't carefully covered the wall yet. Before he could manage to cover the wall with well-prepared wallpaper, the door to his bedroom has been opened.

Just behind the door was his mother that was no longer coughing with a crazy look in her eyes, and a very wicked smile on her lips. "So that's where you put it... Hahahaha! Give it to me now!!"

"Shit! You crazy woman..!" Jesse just knew he was doomed, so right away, he fished out his phone that looked like the oldest model around, but it's apparently one of the modern cellphones that was pre-ordered to look like an old model.

Just as he got through to the other line, Jesse's mother slammed a heavy object onto his head. Unbeknownst to his mother, the object's sharp edge hit squarely on Jesse's back head, causing instant death.

"Hello, Jesse? What do you need me for?"

"Hello? Hello!"

"Come on, man. Stop pulling pranks in the middle of the night!"

"....Is there really nothing going on? Jesse? Hey!"

"I hope you are not just playing around, man---"

'Tot- tot- tot'

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