My Neighbor Stole My Delivery, Beat Me, and I Left Them Ruined

Ever since I moved into my new place, the neighbors kept stealing my food deliveries and packages.

I went over to have it out with them, and they flat-out denied it. Even after I caught them in the act, they turned it around and picked a screaming fight with me.

The whole family surrounded me and cursed me out, and then they slapped me across the face.

I called 911 on the spot, and their faces changed instantly. They groveled and apologized.

I thought it was over. Instead, they killed me and stole everything I owned worth anything.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day of the fight.

I took out my phone and immediately ordered a package of rat poison.

Slap!

A heavy blow landed across my face.

Before I could react, Clive Lambert already had a fistful of my hair, hitting me from both sides, hard.

Josephine James stood beside him and sneered. "You've still got the nerve to fight with me?"

"A little girl living all alone, and instead of keeping your head down, you dare bare your teeth at me? I have two sons!"

She kicked me savagely and turned to Leonard Lambert. "What are you standing there for? Help your brother beat her!"

Leonard grunted his answer, and his fists came down on me like rain.

I struggled with everything I had, screaming for help.

I knew this family was vicious. If it kept up, they might well beat me to death.

Luckily neighbors from the other floors heard the noise and came running to break it up.

I used the chance to tear myself free, ducked behind them, and called 911.

When Clive saw me calling, he shoved through the crowd, snatched my phone, and smashed it hard against the floor.

Josephine pointed at me and let loose with the filthiest names.

Thankfully there were plenty of neighbors around, so they didn't dare keep hitting me.

The officer arrived soon after.

Clive and the others changed their expressions in an instant.

Josephine stepped forward. "I'm the one who hit the girl. If you're going to arrest someone, arrest me. I'm old anyway. I'm not afraid."

I pointed at Clive and Leonard. "It was the two of them."

Clive rolled his eyes, unbothered. "You got proof? Don't go throwing wild accusations around."

Josephine suddenly covered her face and started sobbing. "I didn't want to hit her. It's just she cursed at me so horribly."

"She called me a thief, said I stole her things."

"I'm an old woman, and she talks to me like that. I couldn't hold it in, so I hit her."

The officer looked at me, caught in the middle. "She is elderly, after all, and you did misunderstand her first. Maybe you could just"

I shook my head. "There's no misunderstanding. They really did steal my deliveries and packages. I have proof."

I pulled up the videos I'd recorded on my phone.

From the first time I caught them taking my food, I'd recorded every single instance as evidence, precisely to stop them from denying it.

But once Clive saw the video, he said at once, "We happened to order delivery too. My mom thought it was ours."

"We're all neighbors. She grabbed the wrong order, that's all. And you had to go calling my mom a thief?"

"My mom was wrong to hit you, but you were wrong to curse at her. If you ask me, you brought it on yourself with that mouth of yours."

I swallowed the anger burning in my chest and didn't argue with him. I just pulled up more videos.

"Grabbing the wrong order once is a mistake. Grabbing it wrong every single time, what's that about?" I asked coldly.

Clive had nothing to say.

Josephine's voice cracked with tears. "I thought you didn't want it, that's why I took it."

"I'm sorry, I apologize, I'll get down on my knees for you."

She actually meant to kneel to me.

The people around us rushed to stop her and started coaxing me. "Come on, dear, let it go, leave a little room for mercy."

I kept my face cold and said nothing.

It was exactly like this in my past life. After the police arrived, the whole family put on their pitiful act, as if I were the one who'd bullied them.

Then Josephine suddenly turned and went back inside, coming out with a bowl of braised pork.

Her eyes brimmed with tears as she said to me, "Dear, I made this myself."

"It's healthier than your delivery, more nourishing than your delivery. Why don't I make it up to you with braised pork?"

I didn't take it.

Josephine cried again. "Take it, please. If you take it, it means you've forgiven me, and my heart can rest. Otherwise I won't be able to sleep, I won't have the face to go on living."

The other neighbors chimed in. "Dear, look how pitiful the old woman is."

"Just let it go. A near neighbor is better than a distant relative."

"She's giving you braised pork, so take it. Give each other a way out of this."

Even the officer coaxed me. "You are neighbors, after all. You'll be seeing each other every day. It's no good letting it turn this ugly."

Reluctantly I reached out to take the bowl of meat.

But the instant my fingers touched the bowl, a jolt of dread went through me, and I snatched my hand back.

I suddenly remembered. In my last life it was on this very day, right after the police left, that I was poisoned.

How had I been poisoned?

Could there be something in this bowl of braised pork?

I remembered it clearly. Back then I had taken the braised pork too, grudgingly.

And because I loathed Josephine James and her family, the moment I got home I'd thrown the meat into the toilet.

Yet I was still poisoned.

Could they have smeared the poison onto the bowl itself?

The thought made me take a step back.

Josephine James wept. "Girl, do you hate me that much? I'm begging you. Can't you forgive me?"

The officer frowned too, and lowered his voice to me. "Honestly, we can't be here every minute of the day."

"If things go this sour between you and them, it won't do you any good."

I knew what the officer said was true. But I would not walk the same road twice.

The bitter lesson of my last life had already taught me: these people were nothing but wolves that ate their own kind.

You think giving ground buys peace. All it does is make them push further.

So I looked the officer in the eye and said, "I do have the right to refuse their apology, don't I?"

He was taken aback for a moment, then slowly nodded.

I gave the phone in my hand a little shake. "I want them to pay for my phone, cover my medical bills, and swear they'll never steal from me again."

In that instant I saw Josephine James grinding her teeth with hatred.

But in front of the officer she apologized meekly, and she paid.

Once it was all settled, she looked like she still had something to say. I didn't listen to a word of it. I just shut the door and left her outside.

The moment the police were gone, the James family, who had been all humble and downcast, turned vicious again.

The three of them stood outside my door, pounding on it, cursing me at the top of their lungs.

Clive even said, "You'd better not set foot outside, or I'll stab you to death."

A chill ran through me as I listened.

And at the same time, my heart went cold.

The truth was, when I first moved in, Josephine James and I got along fine.

We were neighbors, after all, the kind you can't help running into, so I got to know her quickly, and when we crossed paths we'd exchange a few words.

Once we were familiar, Josephine James started dropping by my place all the time.

I thought she had no sense of boundaries, but I didn't take it to heart.

Bit by bit, though, she was always coming to borrow something.

Today it was vinegar, tomorrow salt, the day after a chair or a stool.

And she never once returned any of it. When I went to ask for it back, she'd always stall and make excuses.

After a while I noticed she was fishing, casually but pointedly, about whether I lived alone, whether I had any family, how much I kept in touch with them.

That was when my guard went up, and I stopped wanting much to do with her.

One weekend she said she'd cooked a whole spread and invited me over for a meal.

I couldn't get out of it, so I went. And who should be there besides her but an old, ugly man.

His eyes were strange, fixed on me the whole time.

At the table, Josephine James went on and on about the man's many fine qualities, hinting that I should date him.

Only later did I learn Josephine James had set me up as a match behind my back.

The old man had given her ten thousand dollars to broker it.

And if it worked out, he'd give her another fifty thousand.

When I found that out, my heart went cold.

I'd treated her as a neighbor, always courteous, giving money when money was needed and a hand when a hand was needed.

And she'd tried to sell me off.

After that I never set foot in Josephine James's home again.

Even when we passed on the street, all I gave her was a nod.

But Josephine James acted as if she couldn't feel it. One day she actually cornered me at the stairwell entrance, wanting to borrow a thousand dollars for medical treatment.

I refused her on the spot.

From that day on, every time she saw me it was nothing but sneers and jabs.

Her sons, Clive and Leonard, always eyed me with the same ugly look.

And after that, they started stealing my food deliveries, stealing my packages, and in the end they killed me.

A pint of rice makes a friend, a bushel of rice makes an enemy. Now I understood the saying in my bones.

Little by little, the cursing outside faded away.

I let out a breath.

It seemed the James family had worn themselves out and gone back inside.

But I knew they wouldn't let me off this easily.

I clenched my teeth and thought: this time, I'm striking first.

I opened the errand app and placed a food delivery order.

Then I got ready to open the door and go find rat poison.

I remembered the building management kept rat poison bait in the corner of every floor's stairwell. I meant to fetch some back.

But I never expected it. The second I stood up, everything went black, and a wave of dizziness swept over me.

My stomach lurched. "What's wrong with me? Low blood sugar?"

Before I could work it out, my body hit the floor, hard.

Right after, Clive's voice came from outside the door. "Ha. She's out cold. I heard her drop."

Then Josephine's voice. "Clive, you really know your stuff. That poison works like a charm."

Clive said, smug, "Course it does. It's what we use at the factory to kill rats. Bunch of different rat poisons mixed together. Works great."

"You spray it in, and in under five minutes the rat's dead."

Only then did I notice it, faint wisps of white gas seeping in under the door.

And I understood. The cursing had stopped, not because they'd left, but because they were poisoning me.

Grief welled up in me.

A whole second life, and I'd still ended up walking the same road to the same grave.

Last time, I'd gone to bed right after the fight with them, and died in my sleep, poisoned, never knowing what had happened.

This time, waiting on the delivery, I knew the truth. And it changed nothing. There was nothing I could do.

A rustling started outside. They were prying at the door.

I heard Josephine, worried. "If we go in, won't we get poisoned too?"

Clive said, "Relax. This stuff breaks down with water. We hold a wet towel over our mouths and noses, and we're fine."

"Once we're in, open the window first, let the poison air out. Three minutes and it's clear."

Hearing that, a thread of hope for survival stirred in me.

I dragged myself toward the bathroom, but my body weighed a thousand pounds, and every scrap of strength I had moved me only a few inches.

And the lock was already turning. Any second now, they'd have the door open.

Just then, footsteps sounded in the stairwell.

Josephine said in a panic, "Trouble, it's the delivery guy. Let's hide."

Leonard swore. "Ordering food this late. Just let her eat herself dead."

Right after that, I heard the door next to mine.

Josephine's family, going home.

A few seconds later, the delivery driver knocked on my door.

I wanted to answer. Not a sound would come out.

Outside, the knocking grew more impatient, until he was nearly pounding on it.

I seized the chance and threw everything I had into crawling toward the bathroom.

I kept cheering myself on, silently. "It takes five minutes to kill a rat. I'm a full-grown person, it'd take longer. There's still a chance. I can't give up."

The driver started calling me. My phone was on the table, way out of reach.

I heard him outside, thoroughly annoyed. "Order food, nobody's home, won't pick up the phone. Who eats the cost when this goes missing?"

By then I'd reached the bathroom.

Cold water poured over my head, and my mind snapped a good deal clearer.

My whole body was still weak, but I could move now.

I fought my way to my feet and got the door open.

The driver was already gone. The food sat outside my door.

I crept to the corner of the stairwell, fetched the rat poison bait, mixed it all into the food, and eased the door shut again.

Then I opened the window to air the place out.

As the poison thinned, my head cleared more and more.

I gathered a few things, meaning to run. But just as I reached for the door, I heard Josephine's voice.

Josephine James was already out there, right outside my door.

She said to Clive, "The delivery guy's gone. Hurry up and pry the lock."

Clive gave a low chuckle. "See how well my poison works? That delivery guy banged on the door forever and never got it open."

"I figure she's dead already. We go in, take whatever we want."

I wanted to hide, but there was nowhere in the apartment to hide.

And once they were inside, they'd come looking for me.

If they saw I was still alive, how could they let me go?

At that thought, I steeled myself.

I took a fruit knife and hid it against my body, then lay face-down in the living room and played dead.

Not long after I dropped down, the door opened.

Leonard let out a startled gasp. "She's dead, right?"

Clive slammed the door shut. "Obviously. I've used this stuff at the factory plenty of times. Works great."

Leonard rubbed his hands together. "This little thing's pretty cute. You mind if I cop a feel?"

Josephine kicked him. "Can you show some backbone for once?"

"I'm warning you both. Nobody messes around. Leave a fingerprint or a hair behind and it's prison for us."

Clive and Leonard mumbled their yes-ma'ams.

I cracked my eyes open a sliver and saw all three of them wearing shoe covers and rubber gloves.

Once inside, Josephine and Clive started rifling for valuables.

And in Leonard's hand was the food delivery I'd just ordered.

Josephine shot him a look and said, annoyed, "What are you doing with that?"

Leonard said, "I'm hungry, and she just ordered it. Free food, why not?"

Josephine snapped, "Go eat it outside. Don't leave any traces in here."

Leonard grunted and carried the food out to the stairwell.

The smell drifted in fast, and Clive sniffed. "Is that duck soup?"

Leonard said, "Yeah, braised duck."

Clive said, "Duck soup's my favorite. Save me some."

He strode out and started fighting Leonard for it.

Josephine cursed. "Two good-for-nothings."

She didn't go out, though. She was busy stuffing my computer, my phone, and my jewelry into her bag.

Outside, Clive and Leonard had already finished the duck soup.

They helped Josephine dig around my place for anything valuable for a while, and then both of them suddenly started saying, "My stomach hurts. Ugh, it really hurts."

Josephine cursed, "Lazy mules always got the most excuses. Two useless animals, what could you two ever pull off?"

"You need to take a crap, go home and do it. Do it here and you leave evidence."

Clive and Leonard clutched their stomachs and ran.

Soon I heard agonized screams coming from Josephine's place.