[Anh Ngữ] Forget Me - K. A. Harrington (Fasttran)

[Khổng Lồ Một Mắt]

FORGET ME
by K. A. HARRINGTON

Genre: Mystery - Thriller
Fasttran-er: Khổng Lồ Một Mắt


​

Spoiler: Chapter 2

Doritos [tt=dừng lại đột ngột khi cái túi xách đang mở rơi khỏi tay Toni]hit the floor as the open bag fell from Toni’s hand.[/tt] “Whoa . . .”

“Yeah,” [tt=Tôi thở ra.]I breathed.[/tt]

“What? Who?”

Toni continued her one-word questions as [tt=tôi nhấp chuột xung quanh, cố gắng truy cập vào bất cứ điều gì khác trên trang của Even Murphy]I clicked around, trying to access anything else on Evan Murphy’s page.[/tt] But he [tt=vì anh đã bật chế độ bảo mật ở phần lớn thông tin nên thức duy nhất tôi có thể thấy là một tấm ảnh đại diện và tên của thị trấn anh ở -] had a good amount of privacy settings on, and the only thing I could see was that one small profile picture and his town name—[/tt]Littlefield—only fifteen minutes away.

Toni [tt=thọc một ngón tay vào bức ảnh]jabbed a finger at the photo[/tt]. “It’s Flynn. I mean, it is him, right?”

“It can’t be,” I said. “I don’t know.”

“How can you not know?” Toni [tt=rít lên]screeched[/tt]. “FriendShare matched his face to this guy. It’s him! Look!”

I didn’t know how I was staying so calm. Toni [tt=rõ ràng là đang phát điên lên]was clearly going bananas[/tt]. [Nhưng não của tôi giống như là đã đóng chặt hết tất cả cảm xúc để có thể tập trung]But it was like my brain had shut off all emotion so it could focus[/tt]. I clicked on the photo in [một nỗ lực để mở phóng to nó ra]an attempt to enlarge it[/tt], but the resolution was terrible when I tried to zoom in. The face was Flynn’s face. [Đôi mắt xám-nghiêm khắc đó thật khó có thể bỏ qua được. Độ dốc của chiếc cằm anh ấy. Nụ cười một bên ranh mãnh ấy.]Those steely-gray eyes that were so hard to ignore. The slope of his jaw. The sly, one-sided grin.[/tt]

But it couldn’t be him. I [tt=tìm kiếm một quan điểm đúng đắn nào đó để bấu víu vào]searched for something sane to grasp on to.[/tt]

“He’s wearing a baseball hat,” I said quickly. “Flynn never wore hats.”

“He also never said his name was Evan Murphy and he lived in Littlefield. [tt=là một người lén lút yêu thích mũ rõ ràng không phải là bí mật lớn nhất của anh ấy]Being an undercover hat lover obviously wasn’t his biggest secret.”[/tt]
I needed to get away from the computer, from the familiar face smiling at me on the screen. I pushed the chair back and stood up. “It’s just someone who looks [tt=quái đản]eerily[/tt] like him.”

“Not eerily,” Toni said. “Exactly.”

I pulled my hair back and held it at the [tt=gáy]nape of my neck[/tt]. “Could he, like, have a twin living in another town with a different last name?” I said, [nói ra quan điểm của mình]thinking out loud[/tt]. “I know it’s crazy, but what else could it be?”

“He could be alive,” Toni said.

I [tt=vùi mình vào góc giường vì một làn sóng của sự kinh tởm bất ngờ áp đảo tôi.]sank down onto the edge of my bed as a wave of nausea washed over me.[/tt]I put my face in my hands and [tt=day day lên trán]rubbed circles on my forehead[/tt]. Could Flynn really be alive? How would that be possible? And . . . he let me think he was dead? Would he do that? How could he do that?
I dropped my hands and looked up at Toni. She was staring at me with [tt=vẻ mặt đề phòng, có lẽ là chờ tôi chịu thua.]a wary expression, probably waiting for me to lose it.[/tt]

“It’s impossible,” I said.

“There was no [tt=lễ tang]funeral[/tt],” she [tt=phản đối]countered[/tt].
That was true. I’d never met Flynn’s parents. He never wanted to talk about them, and I [tt=cho rằng]assumed[/tt] he never told them about me. [tt=Tôi không bao giờ nghe được lời nào về sự tỉnh lại hoặc đám tang]I never got word about a wake or funeral[/tt], and it wasn’t printed in the paper. Flynn had lived in town only a couple of months, and he didn’t even go to our school. He went to St. Pelagius. He didn’t know anyone in town. I always assumed his family had a [tt=lễ tưởng niệm]memorial service[/tt] back where they’d come from. Somewhere in New Hampshire.

But now my brain was [tt=bối rối]going haywire[/tt]. No one I knew had seen his body. So how did I really know he was dead?

“The last time you saw him,” Toni said gently, “he was still alive.”

“Yeah, but a nurse at the hospital told me he didn’t make it.” Toni shrugged.

“Maybe she was wrong. [tt=Bệnh viện có số bệnh nhân vô cùng nhiều]The hospital has a gazillion patients[/tt]. [tt=Có thể cô ấy đã nhầm lẫn,]She could’ve mixed things up,[/tt] thought you were asking about someone else.”

I paused. That night was such a [tt=mờ mờ không rõ ràng]blur[/tt], especially in the hospital. I hadn’t been allowed past the waiting area. I called my parents. [tt=tôi đã quá kích động, đến mức một bác sĩ phải kê cho tôi kiều thuốc an thần mà mẹ đã đưa tôi họ bắt buộc tôi phải về nhà]I khi was hysterical, to the point where a doctor prescribed a sedative, which my mom gave me when they forced me to go home[/tt]. It wasn’t until the next morning, when I woke and called the hospital, that I found out Flynn was dead.

“But the cops came and took a statement,” I said. As useless as it had been. All I’d seen was a black SUV. I hadn’t seen the [tt=biển số xe]plate[/tt]. [tt=Thậm chí tôi còn không thể phân biệt được chính xác hình dáng hoặc đời xe từ quyển sách mà họ đưa tôi xem]I couldn’t even accurately pick out the make or model from the book they’d shown me[/tt].

“Did the cops say he was dead?” Toni asked.

I searched my [tt=kí ức mờ nhạt]fuzzy memory[/tt]. “I don’t think so. I just remember them asking me to [tt=mô tả chiếc xe]describe the vehicle[/tt].”

Toni sat beside me on the bed and [tt=lướt tay cô lên cánh tay đang nổi da gà của tôi]ran her hand over the goose bumps on my forearm[/tt]. “[tt= đâm xe rồi chạy không cần phải dẫn đến cái chết với trở thành tội ác]A hit-and-run doesn’t have to end in death to be a crimeơ[/tt],” she said. “The police would still come investigate.”

[tt= tôi lắc đầu cho đến khi cổ mình cảm thấy đau]I shook my head until my neck felt sore[/tt]. This was crazy. Crazier than crazy. [tt=thậm chí là chỉ để xem xét đến khả năng mỏng manh rằng Flynn có thể vẫn còn sống… điều này thật dở hơi.]To even entertain the slight possibility that Flynn could be alive . . . it was nuts.[/tt]

[tt=Nghĩ kĩ lại xem, Toni nói trong lo lắng]“Just think it through,” Toni said anxiously[/tt]. “What [tt=bằng chứng]evidence[/tt] do you have of his death? He was alive when they put him in the ambulance. The only person who ever told you he was dead was a nurse, who could’ve been talking about the wrong patient.”

What if he didn’t die? And then he, what? Just . . . [tt=trốn đi]slipped away[/tt]? Became someone else?

No. I wasn’t going to [tt=bị cám dỗ]be lured[/tt] by Toni’s crazy-talk. She was [tt=khét tiếng là một người chuyên đưa ra những kết luận ngông cuồng nhất]notorious for jumping to the wildest conclusions[/tt]. [tt=một người hàng xóm nói chuyện với người đưa thư quá lâu – ngoại tình! Chim rơi từ bầu trời Guatemala – Alien!]A neighbor talked too long to the mailman—affair! Birds fell from the sky in Guatemala—aliens![/tt] I [tt=thường đảo mắt và cho qua sự điên rồ của cô]usually rolled my eyes and ignored her insanity[/tt]. But I had to admit, this time, [tt=nghe thật lố bịch]as ridiculous as it sounded[/tt], [tt=nó nắm giữ một khả năng cốt lõi]it held a kernel of possibility[/tt].

Or maybe I just wanted it to be true.

Toni walked over to my desk and put her hand on the mouse. “What are you doing?” I asked.

“Sending him a friend request.”

[tt=bằng một cử động nhanh, tôi đứng lên và kéo tay cô ra]]In one swift motion, I rose and pulled her hand away[/tt]. “No, don’t.”

“Why not?”

“If he’s not Flynn, what would we even say? ‘Hey, [tt=đừng bận tâm]don’t mind us[/tt], you just look exactly like this dead kid.’”

[tt=đôi mắt Toni nhìn khắp bức ảnh]Toni’s eyes traveled back to the photo[/tt]. “And if it is Flynn?”

“Then I don’t want to scare him away. I don’t want him to know I found him. Not yet.”

 

[Khổng Lồ Một Mắt]

FORGET ME
by K. A. HARRINGTON
Genre: Mystery - Thriller

Chapter 3
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Spoiler: Welcome!

The next morning I got ready for school on [tt=máy lái tự động]autopilot[/tt]. I showered, dressed, and headed downstairs for breakfast. I passed the long [tt=gỗ cây gụ]mahogany[/tt] table in the dining room that we only used on holidays when my grandparents came to visit from Florida. [tt=Ngày qua ngày, chúng tôi ăn những bữa ăn đơn giản trên chiếc bàn tròn nhỏ tại một góc yên tĩnh của nhà bếp, hoàn hảo cho ba người]Day to day we ate casually, at a small round table in the nook of the kitchen, perfect for three[/tt]. Or two. Or sometimes, just me.

[tt=Tôi ăn một bát ngũ cốc, tiếng leng keng của chiếc thìa vang vọng trong sự yên tĩnh, tôi thả trôi tâm trí mình. Giấc mơ bị gián đoạn khi mẹ tôi bất ngờ vọt vào bếp.] I ate a bowl of cereal, the clinking of the spoon echoing in the quiet, my mind drifting. I snapped out of my trance when Mom bounded into the kitchen.[/tt]

[tt=mẹ đi làm đây]“I’m heading to work,”[/tt] she said, [tt=hôn má tôi trong khi tôi đang rửa cái bát]kissing my cheek as I rinsed my bowl in the sink[/tt]. [tt=một đường tóc màu xám lờ mờ sáng lên, một lời nhắc nhở về thời gian (tuổi tác) và bà đã không còn đủ tiền để đi thẩm mỹ viện nữa.]A line of gray shimmered from the part in her hair, a reminder of the extra time and money she no longer had available to spend at the salon.[/tt] “I made you lunch. It’s in the fridge.”

“You didn’t have to make me lunch, Mom.” She [thức dậy vào những thời điểm rất bất tiện vào mỗi buổi sáng để hoàn tất mọi việc]got up at some ungodly hour every morning to get things done[/tt]—laundry, bill paying, ironing Dad’s shirts before he left for work, etc. [tt=Bà luôn phải tìm cách để cân đối thời gian của hai công việc sao cho đảm bảo việc nhà]Juggling two jobs, she had to find the time where she could.[/tt] “I can do it myself. I know you’re rushing.”

She gave me a little smile, but it [tt=vừa đủ che đậy cho sự kiệt sức của bà]barely disguised her exhaustion[/tt]. That’s how my family operated. Always polite and pleasant, [tt=không bao giờ thừa nhận những cảm xúc thật sự bên dưới những nụ cười thường trực]never acknowledging the real feelings beneath the perma-smiles.[/tt] Even I played along. Whenever college came up, I always told my parents I was only a junior and I’d worry about it next year. But the truth was, I worried about it now. A lot. Thoughts of choices and applications and financial aid sometimes [tt=khiến tôi mất ngủ]kept me up at night[/tt]. But I didn’t want to add more to [tt=hàng đống Thứ Phải Lo của họ]their stack of Things to Worry About[/tt]. For all I knew, that could be the thing to finally bring the pile crashing down. I preferred our [tt=truyền thống của sự tự kiềm chế dễ chịu]tradition of pleasant denial[/tt].

Mom reached out and [tt=vén những sợi tóc đằng sau tai tôi]tucked a strand of hair behind my ear[/tt]. “I’m working [tt=làm 2 ca]double shifts[/tt] today, so I won’t be home for dinner. And Dad . . . well, you know his hours. So making your lunch was the least I could do.”

She [tt=cạy móng tay và gượng cười, nhưng tôi biết bà cảm thấy có lỗi]picked at a fingernail and forced a smile, but I knew she felt guilty.[/tt] She hated that I was here alone so much.

“Don’t worry about dinner,” I said, grabbing the paper sack from the fridge. “Toni and I have plans anyway.”

[tt=Những lời nói dối của tôi tuôn ra thật dễ dàng khi tôi nghĩ rằng nó sẽ giúp mọi người cảm thấy tốt hơn]Lies flowed easily from me when I thought they’d make people feel better[/tt]. Maybe I’d ask Toni to go out for pizza to turn it into a truth.

“Great,” Mom said cheerily. “You girls have fun!”

I kept the perma-smile on until she walked out the door.


River’s End High School was built [tt=khi thị trấn đang phát triển mạnh]when the town was thriving[/tt]. As things went downhill and people moved away, our schools [tt=thưa thớt đi]thinned out[/tt]. Teachers were [tt=sa thải]laid off[/tt]. Classrooms were closed and locked, their [tt=ống khói lò sưởi bị đóng lại để tiết kiệm tiền]heating vents shut off to save money[/tt]. [tt=Đôi khi tôi thấy mình giống như những căn phòng không được sử dụng này, với những cái bàn trống và bảng trắng xóa, cảm nhận luồng không khí lạnh thấm dần qua khe cửa]Sometimes I found myself drawn to these unused rooms, with their empty desks and blank boards, feeling the draft of cold air seeping out from under the crack of the door[/tt].

This morning I went right to my locker. I was there for only thirty seconds before Toni appeared, from out of nowhere. She had this way of moving silently, like a ninja.

She leaned into me and whispered, “How are you doing . . . ?”

I took a deep breath. “It’s all I can think about, but I don’t know what to do. The first step would be figuring out if Evan is a real person. It could be a fake profile page or something. If only I had a mutual friend in common, I could try to find out more, but I don’t.”

Toni smiled. “I do.” “What?”

“Last night, I logged in to my account at home and brought up Evan’s page. We have one mutual friend.”

I closed my locker and held my books to my chest. “Who?”

[tt=Nhỏ nhăn mặt xấu giống như vừa chịu một nỗi đau ác liệt] She grimaced like she’d just taken a bite of something bitter.[/tt] “Reece Childs.”

Ugh. I rolled my eyes. “Too Cool Reece?”

[tt=hắn đáng giả để tốn năm phút trò chuyện nếu chúng ta có thể tìm ra ai là Evan]“He’s worth talking to for five minutes if we can find out who Evan is.”[/tt]

Reece was the party king and [tt=bước nghênh ngang trong hội trường với một dáng vẻ quá mức kiêu ngạo, tán tỉnh các cô gái và gọi to những "người anh em" của hắn]walked the halls with an over- confident swagger, flirting with girls and calling out to his “bros.”[/tt] He was [tt=một trong những kẻ giả dối nhất trong lớp. Một trong những gã đần độn cao cấp nhất.]one of the fakest people in our grade. A douche of the highest order.[/tt] Toni and I had nicknamed him “Too Cool Reece.” Online he friended anyone he’d ever met and even some people he hadn’t. He sent me a friend request once, and I ignored it. [tt=tôi hơi kén cá chọn canh về những người có thể chấp nhận vào danh sách bạn bè]I was picky about who I approved[/tt]. [tt=trong khi đó]Meanwhile[/tt], Reece had thousands on his list.

[tt=Nhưng dường như một trong họ là Evan Murphy]But apparently one of them was Evan Murphy.[/tt]

[tt=tôi mím chặt môi, nhất quyết]I drew my lips tight, determined[/tt]. “Fine. When are we doing this?”

Toni [tt=ra hiệu]motioned[/tt] over my shoulder. “How about now?”

I turned around and, sure enough, there was Too Cool Reece [tt=uống ừng ực nước từ vòi phun]taking a gulp of water from the fountain[/tt]. He dried his mouth with the [tt=mu bàn tay]back of his hand[/tt] and started to walk away.

“Hey, Reece, wait up,” I called.

[tt=hắn nhìn chúng tôi qua vàng trên cặp kính mát Aviator của mình. Nghiêm túc chứ? Ngoài trời thì đầy mây, chẳng phải mùa hè, và hắn đang ở trong nhà.]He looked at us over the top of his Aviator sunglasses. Seriously. It was cloudy out, not summer, and he was inside.[/tt] “What’s up, ladies?” [tt=hắn kéo dài âm cuối giống như là có tổng cộng 10 âm zs]He stretched out the last syllable like it contained ten zs.[/tt]

“Do you know Evan Murphy?” I asked, [tt=đi thẳng vào vấn đề]getting right to the point.[/tt]

He [tt=ngửa mặt lên và nhăn nhó]scrunched his face up[/tt] as he thought. “Sounds familiar . . .”

“You’re friends with him on FriendShare,” I added.

[tt=hắn ve vẩy căp lông mày]He wagged his eyebrows[/tt]. “You hunting for a new boyfriend, Morgan?”

[tt=Toni bực mình rút điện thoại ra và đưa lên luôn]Toni had been fiddling with her phone and now she held it up.[/tt] “This guy. You know him?”

[tt=Reece cúi xuống để bù đắp cho sự khác biệt về chiều cao]Reece bent down to make up for the height difference.[/tt] “I can’t really—”

[tt=Toni bật ra một tiếng thở dài trầm trọng hơn]Toni let out an aggravated sigh[/tt]. “Take the glasses off, cool guy. Come on.”

[tt=hắn tháo kính ra và móc nó lên chiếc cổ áo bó sát hình chữ V]He pulled his sunglasses off and hung them on the collar of his tight V-neck.[/tt] He took Toni’s phone and stared at Evan’s profile photo. “Oh yeah. We played in the same summer baseball league a couple years back. Cool guy. Power hitter. Lives in Littlefield.”

Flynn [tt=có một thân hình thể thao nhưng chưa bao giờ đề cập đến bất cứ sở thích nào về thể thao. Mặc dù điều đó không có nghĩa là anh không thích bất cứ môn thể thao nào.]had an athletic frame but never mentioned any interest in sports. That didn’t necessarily mean anything, though.[/tt]

Reece started typing something into Toni’s phone. “Um, what are you doing?” she asked.

“Just giving you my digits.”

Toni grabbed the phone out of his hands.

“So the guy’s name is really Evan?” I asked.

Reece gave me a strange look. “What else would it be?” Toni and I [tt=trao đổi một cái nhát mắt]exchanged a glance[/tt]. “Did you ever meet Flynn, my boyfriend?” I asked.

“[tt=chưa]Nah[/tt]. I heard about the car thing, though. Sorry.”

Not exactly the most delicate way to say it, but the thought was there. “Um, yeah. Thanks.”

“Is that all?” Reece said, staring at Toni like he hoped we weren’t done with him.

“Yeah,” I [tt=lẩm bẩm]muttered[/tt].

He looked Toni up and down. “If you ever want to hang out . . .” He made the “call me” sign with a hand up to his ear, then turned around and joined the masses.

[tt=thô thiển. Toni khoanh tay. "Thật là ảo tưởng sức mạnh mà."]“Gross.” Toni crossed her arms. “What a toolbag.”[/tt]

I let out a long breath. “Well, now we know that Evan exists. He’s a real person and has been for at least two years. And he lives in Littlefield just like his profile says.”

“[tt=nhưng vẫn chưa loại trừ được khả năng Flynn là anh ấy]But that still doesn’t rule out the chance that Flynn is him[/tt],” Toni said.

[tt=trượt quyển sách sang cánh tay và dùng khuỷu để kẹp nó lại]I slid my books into the crook of my arm[/tt]. “How so?”

“You never went to Flynn’s house. Flynn didn’t go to our school. How do you know Flynn wasn’t Evan the whole time? Playing some game, telling you lies.”

[tt=tim tôi nặng trĩu với suy nghĩ ấy. "Tại sao một gã lại làm thế? Để lừa ai đó bằng nặc danh? Tin tớ đi, anh ấy không đi xa đến thế đâu.]My heart sank at the thought. “Why would a guy do that? To anonymously hook up? Believe me, he didn’t get far.”[/tt]

“Maybe he wasn’t happy with his life in Littlefield. Maybe he just wanted to feel like someone else for a while. Even if it was only a few hours a week.” The way she said it made it sound like something she’d consider.

I took a moment to play with the idea, think about how it could’ve happened. The day we met, Flynn was alone in King’s Fantasy World. I went there to take some pictures and found him [tt=lang thang xung quanh ngôi nhà vui vẻ]hanging out around the fun house[/tt]. He didn’t know me, I didn’t know him, so maybe he thought it would be fun to try out a new name, [tt=một nhân dạng mới]a new identity[/tt]. [tt=Chúng tôi tâm đầu ý hợp]We hit it off[/tt]. We met again and again, and the lies built up. Until the night that he decided he didn’t want to be Flynn Parkman anymore. Maybe living a double life was fun at first, but then it got tiring.

Maybe that’s why he wanted to break up with me.

And then a car hit him. But he survived. His parents brought him home from the hospital, and all he had to do to make Flynn go away was to never step foot in River’s End again. Never see me again. And, just like that, Flynn would no longer exist. Problem solved.

When I thought about it that way, it was pretty easy.

[tt=tôi bắt đầu cảm thấy chóng mặt và lờ mờ nhận được hơi thở hổn hển như vận động viên ma-ra-tông của mình. Tôi dựa vào tường để chống đỡ.]I started to feel dizzy and was dimly aware of the fact that my breathing sounded like a marathon runner’s. I leaned against the wall for support.[/tt] The conversations passing us in the hall blurred together.

Toni took my books from me. “Are you okay? Do you want to go to the nurse?”

“No,” I said, though my voice sounded far away. “I’m fine.”

There was a small possibility that Flynn was alive. Out there. Living another life. With [tt=một cái điếng người]a jolt[/tt], my ears cleared, and the tunnel vision relaxed. [tt=những điều mờ mịt trong đầu tôi được thay thế bằng một ham muốn cháy bỏng để có được câu trả lời.]The fog in my brain was replaced with a burning need for answers.[/tt]

I would not be satisfied until I knew the truth.

[tt=Đôi mắt Toni trông có vẻ quan ngại]Toni’s eyes were lined with concern[/tt]. “What do you want to do?”

I pushed myself off the wall and took my books back from her. “I want to find out if my ex-boyfriend was a liar.”