His Thirtieth Birthday Curse

The Johnson family was cursed. Every man in their bloodline died before his thirtieth birthday unless he married into my family. That was the only way to break it.

But on the day of my wedding to Anderson, he tore up the marriage contract in front of everyone. For his first love. He destroyed everything we had.

The elders of the Johnson family tried to stop him. Anderson glared at me with pure hatred, his voice cold as ice.

"Georgina, you're nothing but a gold-digging fraud! Your family has been scamming us taking our money, using our men for almost a hundred years. But it stops with me. Your little game is over!"

Alice clung to Anderson's arm and looked me up and down with a dismissive smirk.

"Why are you still standing there? Get out."

"With me here a medical doctor Anderson won't just make it to thirty. He'll live to be a hundred and thirty."

I thought about Anderson's pulse that morning. Faint. Barely there.

I smiled to myself.

Fine. His thirtieth birthday is in three days. We'll see who's right.

It won't be long now...

I turned to leave, but Anderson's mother, Laura, rushed forward and grabbed my hand.

"Georgina, don't go!"

She spun around to face Anderson, her expression hardening instantly.

"Anderson, apologize to Georgina right now. Stop acting like a child!"

Anderson still had Alice's hand locked in his. Laura dropped her voice low.

"You know exactly why the Johnson men have married into their family for generations. Thirty years ago, your uncle broke that rule. He got hit by a truck on his thirtieth birthday and was crushed to death."

"And your Uncle Robert he called off his engagement just like you're doing today, strutting around like nothing could touch him. You know what happened? The second he blew out his birthday candles, he collapsed and bled out right there."

"Your birthday is in three days, Anderson. You're throwing your life away. Apologize to Georgina. Now."

"Mom, enough!"

Anderson cut her off, impatient and dismissive. He pointed at me and let out a contemptuous laugh.

"That was an accident. That was a heart attack. Neither of those things had anything to do with some marriage contract."

"This whole 'curse' thing? It's a scam. A con designed specifically to trap our family. They built it around us."

"And if you actually force me to marry her I swear to God I won't wait for my thirtieth birthday. I'll kill myself right now."

Anderson pulled out a knife and pressed it to his own throat.

Alice dropped to her knees in front of Laura, tears streaming down her face.

"Please just trust science for once. I have monitoring equipment on Anderson. His health is perfect."

"His birthday is in three days. Let us prove it to you. The curse, the contract it's all a lie. I earned my medical degree for this exact moment. Please give me a chance. Give Anderson a chance."

"Mom, if you don't agree"

Anderson dragged the blade across his neck. A thin line of red opened up, and blood ran down his throat, soaking into the groom's suit I had personally chosen for him.

"Fine! Stop just stop!" Laura's voice cracked. She lunged forward and wrenched the knife from his hand. Then she turned to me, guilt written across every inch of her face.

"Georgina... I'm so sorry."

"It's okay."

I cut her off. I let the corner of my mouth pull into a small, quiet smile.

"Honestly? I hope Alice does break this curse. I want our girls to be free. None of us ever wanted to marry into the Johnson family."

I walked away quickly.

Behind me, Anderson's voice followed thick with disgust.

"Manipulative little liar! I feel sick just looking at you. Get out of my sight!"

I jogged out of the banquet hall. The moment I stepped through the doors, I doubled over and coughed up a mouthful of dark, blackened blood.

I should have stayed on the mountain for a few more years before coming down.

But three years ago, Anderson had seen me for the first time. He'd looked me straight in the eyes, grabbed my hand, and said with complete sincerity:

"I like you. Will you be my girlfriend?"

It was the first time a boy had ever confessed to me. I believed every single word.

I had seen the weakness in his body right away.

Because I was worried about him, I knelt before my teacher for seven days and seven nights until he gave me permission to leave the mountain.

Once I was actually with Anderson, I understood just how powerful the curse really was.

My abilities weren't strong enough to fight it directly. The only way to keep him healthy was to drain my own life force feeding it into him, night after night, while I lay awake in agony, my organs burning from the inside until dawn.

I had told myself it was worth it. That you give everything for the person you love.

What I hadn't known was that his confession had been a performance. A means to an end. Before he ever approached me, he had already slept with seven other women.

I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth. I swallowed the dense, aching grief pressing against my ribs and left the hotel.

I thought it was finally over.

But the moment I got back to my apartment, I stopped cold.

The hallway walls were covered in red spray paint. FRAUD. WITCH. SLUT. Over and over again.

And the small room I had carefully made into a home the one filled with everything my mother had left me was completely engulfed in flames.

So many of my mother's gifts were inside that room.

I ran toward the fire like a madwoman. I didn't think. I just ran.

The flames hit me the second I stepped forward. They climbed up my body without mercy. The skin on half my arm burned away, leaving raw flesh underneath. When my tears fell onto the exposed wounds, the pain was so sharp and sudden it stole the air from my lungs.

Anderson appeared behind me with Alice wrapped in his arm. I don't know when they had arrived.

He stared at the bloody ruin of my arm. His eyes were lit with amusement.

"I always figured you were some kind of all-powerful witch. Turns out you can feel pain just like the rest of us?"

"Anderson how dare you burn my things?! Without everything in that room, you would have been dead years ago!"

"I said enough."

Anderson stepped forward and wrapped his hand around my throat.

"Don't you ever mention your filthy tricks around me again. The sight of them makes me sick."

"I'm not just burning your stuff. I'm going to make sure the whole world sees what you really are."

Before I could process what was happening, dozens of reporters flooded into the narrow hallway. Cameras and microphones shoved into my face from every direction.

"Georgina! You've been taking money from the Johnson family for three years. Do you feel any remorse at all?"

"This is fraud. Do you understand that? You could go to prison."

"She was trying to trap Anderson into marrying her what a piece of work! Stop interviewing her, just hit her!"

A woman in the crowd grabbed my already-ruined arm. The pain exploded through my entire body. I slid down the wall and crumpled to the ground, and then the kicks and punches started coming from everywhere at once.

Anderson laughed, pulled Alice closer, and walked away.

That night, I was trending.

[Anderson Johnson's ex-fiance exposed as con artist drained nearly 0-0 million from the Johnson family in just three years. Shameless!]

[The Johnson family curse was a hundred-year scam finally debunked thanks to Dr. Alice! Respect science!]

I staggered out of the building still wearing my burned and shredded wedding dress.

I tried to buy a change of clothes. My bank account was frozen.

The automated voice on the phone was flat and impersonal.

"Ms. Georgina, your account has been flagged for suspected fraud activity. We have no choice but to freeze it. We appreciate your understanding..."

I counted the cash in my pocket. Barely anything. I found a small motel and walked toward the front desk.

The owner spat at me before I could open my mouth.

"You're that scammer from the news, aren't you? Get away from my property."

I hadn't eaten in over a day. The burns on my body had already started to fester and weep. I pressed my palm to my own forehead and felt the heat radiating off it.

My legs gave out. I sank down next to a trash bin in the alley and couldn't get back up.

People walked by. Some recognized me. They threw rotten eggs. They poured garbage water over my open wounds and laughed.

I thought about the quiet mountain. I thought about my teacher.

But I couldn't leave yet. Tomorrow was Anderson's birthday.

When Anderson had grabbed my throat earlier, I had felt his pulse. Chaotic. Unraveling. Barely holding together.

I needed to be there to see it.

That thought pushed me upright. I pressed my hand against the wall and forced myself forward.

Then the world went black.

I came back to consciousness surrounded by the familiar smell of herbs.

I forced myself to sit up through the full-body ache and found my teacher, David, sitting beside me, carefully treating my wounds.

"David, I can't go back yet"

David looked at me with quiet, heartbroken eyes as he worked on the infected burns.

"I know. You need to wait until his birthday..."

He didn't finish the sentence.

A crash outside cut him off. The door flew open, kicked in from the outside, and a group of men poured into the room.

They grabbed me. The one in front drew a knife.

And drove it into David's heart.

I screamed and lunged toward David.

The moment I got to my feet, Anderson walked through the door and backhanded me across the face. I hit the floor.

He stood over me, his eyes full of contempt.

"So this is where you've been hiding. Should've known you'd have a den somewhere."

Anderson pressed his boot down onto David's wound still bleeding and snarled.

"Talk. Was he the one behind all of it? Was this his scheme?"

"Let go of him!"

I crawled to Anderson's feet on shaking arms and grabbed his ankle.

"If it wasn't for David, you would already be dead. Let him go!"

Anderson looked down at me trembling at his feet. A slow, ugly smile crossed his face.

"Sure."

He pulled out his phone and dropped it in front of me.

"Record a video. Admit you're a fraud. I'll let the old man go."

"Georgina don't." David stared at me through blood-red eyes, shaking his head over and over.

Before he could say anything more, Anderson yanked the knife free from David's chest and drove it in again this time near his carotid artery.

A geyser of blood erupted instantly.

I threw myself toward David, but Anderson caught me and held me back.

"Not going to record it? Then we'll just sit here and watch him bleed out."

"I'll do it. I'll record it. Please just stop"

Anderson watched the video back and smiled. Satisfied. He agreed to take David to the hospital.

The ambulance had barely pulled up to the emergency bay when a young nurse rushed straight at me and shoved a thick stack of forms into my arms.

"His condition is critical. You need to go pay the deposit. Now."

My frozen bank account flashed through my mind. I stood there, unable to move.

"What are you waiting for?! He's going to bleed to death!"

The nurse kept pushing. I turned slowly and looked back at Anderson.

"Anderson my accounts are all frozen. Could you"

Anderson laughed and pulled Alice closer.

"Sure. But people who need favors need to act like it."

He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Your family has been robbing us for a hundred years. A video isn't going to cover that debt. Get on your knees. Apologize to me and to every ancestor of mine you scammed."

I looked at David. He was soaked through with blood. I couldn't wait another second.

I dropped to the floor in front of Anderson.

"I'm sorry. I lied to you. I deceived you"

Alice cut me off with a sweet, practiced pout.

"Sorry isn't enough, sweetheart. You need to kneel properly."

"Why are you looking at me? Alice told you to kneel. Are you deaf?"

I went all the way down under Anderson's mocking stare.

Then Alice slapped me across the face. Three times.

I scrambled back to my feet and ran to David's side, screaming at Anderson.

"That's enough! Go pay! Now!"

"Of course. Just let me run home and grab the checkbook..."

Anderson started to walk away. I grabbed his ankle. I dug my fingers in and stared up at him.

"You planned this. All of it. You"

"That's a terrible attitude for someone asking for a favor. Do you want the money or not?"

My fingers went slack.

"Yes. I want it. Please. Please just hurry"

Anderson came back an hour later. He flipped the payment receipt into my lap.

I stumbled to the nurse's station and pressed it into her hands.

She looked at it. Then she let out a long, quiet breath.

"It's too late. He's gone."

I stopped shaking. Something cold and still moved through me. I walked back to Anderson and swung at his face as hard as I could.

"You did this on purpose! You killed him! You killed David, you piece of"

Anderson caught my wrist. His eyes went hard.

"Kill you? Georgina, pay back what you owe my family before you make threats."

He threw a stack of billing statements at my feet.

"Our family has been supporting your people for nearly a hundred years. You admitted on camera that it was a scam. So now it's time to settle up."

"And if you can't pay"

He held up his phone. My recorded confession lit up the screen.

"This video goes out to everyone. And I don't just mean you. David. Your whole family. All of it goes public."

I was shaking so hard my teeth were clicking together.

"I'll pay you back. Wait until after your birthday. I promise I'll pay every cent."

"After my birthday?"

Anderson let out a short, contemptuous laugh.

"Why would I wait that long? You have money and you're just stalling me?"

"Anderson, I don't have money. My accounts are frozen."

"Fine. If that's how you want to play it"

His men came out of nowhere and grabbed me. They zip-tied my wrists and shoved me into a car.

I didn't understand at first.

Then the car turned onto a narrow mountain road, and every drop of blood in my body rushed to my head.

That was the road to my mother's grave.

In my family's tradition, the dead are always buried with a piece of jade. Irreplaceable. Priceless.

I had told Anderson that secret on the day we set our wedding date. I had trusted him with it.

Anderson dragged me to my mother's grave and waved his hand at the men behind him.

"Dig."

"You're disgusting, Anderson!"

I lurched toward him, but the dirt from the excavation hit me before I got close. I stumbled and fell.

Not far away, Anderson held up his phone.

"Georgina. Stay still. One wrong move and that video is live."

I watched them uncover my mother's bones.

And the jade. Still beautiful, even after fifteen years in the ground.

Anderson snatched it up with gleaming eyes and stuffed it into his jacket. Then he picked up my mother's remains and threw them aside. Scattered them across the dirt like garbage.

"Anderson, you'll regret this!"

"I don't think that's your call to make."

Alice glided forward and pinched my jaw between her fingers, tilting my face up toward hers.

"Anderson's thirtieth birthday is in a few hours. Tonight, the world finally gets to see your little trick exposed for good."

An hour later, Anderson brought me to his birthday party.

His heartbeat was displayed on a massive screen at the front of the hall a live EKG feed for the whole room to watch.

Everyone in Indiana knew the Johnson family curse. The hall was packed. People had come from everywhere to witness the moment. Was the hundred-year curse real, or had it all been a lie?

Alice took Anderson's hand and walked him up onto the stage. She gestured at the enormous clock behind her.

"In less than one minute, I will break this curse right here, right now. Everyone, watch."

The hall went completely silent.

Every eye moved between the clock and the EKG on the screen.

The clock's hands hit twelve.

The heartbeat on the screen was strong and steady. Anderson stood tall, his color perfect.

The room erupted.

Even Laura broke down in tears of relief. She was already climbing the steps to the stage, reaching for Anderson

And then Anderson collapsed without warning.