The Laughing Skull

Jason Reed had been my boyfriend for seven years. He suddenly disappeared, and the last place I was able to trace him was Melvaris. That night, I received a video call. In it, a man holding an electric baton yelled, “Bring 50 million dollars as ransom to the industrial zone. Otherwise, don’t expect him to return alive.” Jason was beside the man. He was covered in blood. He pleaded desperately, “Clara! Save me! They promise to let me go if we give them the money!” Without thinking twice, I did as I was told. However, when I arrived, I was drugged and knocked unconscious. In the end, I was tortured to death. What hurt the most was not that. Jason took one-third of the ransom I had prepared. Then, he returned to Caldovia and married Hannah Blake, the student who had received financial assistance from my family. But when I opened my eyes again, I found myself back on the day he went missing.

I wish my husband were dead. I married him to save someone I loved. Now I’ve been trapped in this loveless marriage for years. He parades his mistresses right in front of me. Strikes me if I say something he doesn’t like. When he’s away on one of his business trips, I head to a bar to blow off steam. My intention is to go home alone, but that changes when I see him, the sexiest man ever. He buys me a drink. Stares at me in a way my husband never has—or any man ever. He doesn’t say much, but when he does, it’s all the right things. Asks if he can take me home, and I want to scream my answer at the top of my lungs. But I decide to tell him the truth instead. “I’m married.” My husband isn’t faithful to me, but he’s dangerous. Dangerous, as in, he kills people. Lots of people. “And my husband is someone you don’t want to cross…” “I’m not someone you want to cross either.” His stare doesn’t falter with the information. On his right hand is a diamond ring, carved into a human skull. Built like an ox, he looks like he could be dangerous too. The energy he emits from his strong body is subtly hostile, but not directed at me. “Let’s go, sweetheart.” I should say no—but I don’t think I can.

Having grown up together, Selena Campbell and Frederick Lancaster were childhood sweethearts known as the perfect golden couple. To support him, she planned every step with painstaking care and calculated each move to perfection. She eliminated every obstacle in his path and paved the way for him to become the only Warbringer in Aurensia. Selena thought their love would eventually lead to marriage. But one day, a plain-looking young woman suddenly walked into Frederick’s life. At first, he said, "A mountain girl like her? She's beneath you, hardly even worth a second glance." Later, he said, "She's simple-minded and naive. Don't bother with her, Lena." But Selena slowly came to realise that the way Frederick looked at her was growing colder by the day. And when he looked at that young woman, there was a spark in his eyes—like he'd come alive again, full of the passion and recklessness of youth. One day, Frederick turned to her with a weary look and said, "Selena, how's our picture-perfect life treating you? Because honestly... I think I'm getting a little tired of it." That very night, Selena tore up the betrothal contract and left without a backward glance. "You won't survive without me!" Frederick roared furiously. But Selena smiled softly. "No. You're nothing without me, Your Highness."

When Eloise Garpin, my daughter, comes back from kindergarten, she tells me that her teacher, Karen Linsell, has given her class a weird assignment. Apparently, everyone is to record their mothers' menstrual week. But what makes things weirder is that whenever I'm on my period, John Garpin, my husband who's often busy with work, keeps offering to pick Eloise up from kindergarten. One day, I come across a post on a social media app. "What should I do? I've fallen in love with my student's rich father! Oh dear, I really like him so much! You have no idea that his taut and slim waist looks so seductive! Every time I see him, I can't help but moan!" Someone begins admonishing her out of fury the moment they see the post. "What the hell? Are you itching to become a mistress? You really are shameless! Goodness, you're so disgusting! I can't believe you call yourself a teacher!" Unexpectedly, the original poster doesn't care about the comment at all. She even posts a photo featuring the aftermath of her carnal fun with the man. "So what if I am? Anyway, we regularly sleep together every month whenever he picks his daughter up during his wife's period. This is so thrilling!" I'm stunned when I see the million-dollar custom watch strapped to the man's wrist in the photo. And today… happens to be the first day of my period.

After the Ritualist declared that Amber would not live past 18, I, a perfectly healthy girl, became the Misfortune Vessel. When Amber broke a leg, my left leg was crippled. When Amber tried to kill herself with shards of glass, the tendons in my hand were severed. I could no longer hold a pen. From childhood to the present, every wound meant for Amber landed on my body. She never stopped testing how far she could go. Skydiving from two miles up. Chasing sharks in deep water. Survival expeditions to the extreme North. Every choice courted death. I cried. I screamed that it hurt. My brothers refused to allow it. "Enough already. It's just a small injury. How could it hurt that much? You're too delicate." "If it hurts, then endure it." So I endured until the day I turned 18. That was when the Shared-Sense System found me. I enabled family sharing, and every single one of them went insane.

The story can be seen to be a bit horror based if you are to talk about the genre but still you will find a lot of comical reliefs once you give the story a try