Bleeding To Save My Mothers Soul

When my mom divorced my gambling-addict father, she didnt hesitate for a second. she took my younger brother, Justin, and left me behind in the wreckage.

The thing is, I could see the Truth. Above her head, a floating translucent bara Favorability Meterglowed a steady, mocking 100%.

I refused to believe she didnt love me. I tracked her down to her new house, desperate for an explanation, only to have her slap me across the face so hard my vision blurred.

"Get out of here, you brat! Stop stalking us!"

Maybe she was afraid Id keep coming back, because she and Justin vanished that night. I heard through the grapevine that every house they moved into was more palatial than the last. Meanwhile, my father, Frank, racked up debts he could never pay. Hed swing broken beer bottles at me, leaving me half-dead on the linoleum floor.

While I bled, I imagined Justin lounging in a mansion, enjoying a life I was denied. I had never hated her more.

But at my absolute lowest point, the "Feed" appearedflickering text scrolling across my vision like a glitch in the universe:

[Wake up, Casey! Your mom has stage four stomach cancer. Shes doing this so she doesn't drag you down with her!]

[That bastard Frank bound her to a System. If she doesn't act like she loves the son more, the System will literally electrocute you to death!]

[She loves you more than anything. Shes already written her willeverything goes to you!]

The world snapped into focus. I reached up and caught the beer bottle mid-swing.

If those were the rules of the game, it was time for a new player.

...

The bottle whistled through the air as I wrenched it from Franks grip and smashed it over his head.

[Holy hell, shes finally fighting back! This is what Im talking about!]

[My poor girl... shes so small, but look at her standing up for herself.]

[Am I the only one crying for the mom right now?]

Frank crumpled to the floor, reeking of cheap lager and shouting profanities. "You little bitch! You're gonna pay for that... my head..."

I wiped the blood from my face with my sleeve and picked up a jagged shard of glass from the floor. I held it an inch from his eyebrow. My voice was eerily steady, a cold calm settling over my bones.

"Where are the stomach meds? Give them to me."

[Stomach meds? Shes trying to save her mom. Theres hope!]

Hope? No, it wasn't that simple.

Pieces of the puzzle were finally clicking together. After the divorce, Valeriemy motherhad become a different person. Every time she saw me, she treated me like her worst enemy. Shed go out of her way to dote on Justin right in front of me.

"Get out! This is my house. You don't belong here!"

"Stop crying about 'fairness.' If Id had your brother first, you wouldn't even exist!"

Those words had been knives in my heart. I realized now they weren't meant to wound. They were a shield.

My chest ached so sharply I could barely breathe. While Frank was still dazed from the blow, I snatched his phone. I scrolled through his recent texts with Valerie. It was all about me.

Frank: Send 0-00,000 now. Or Ill break your daughters legs.

Valerie: Leave her alone. Ill send $20,000.

Frank: $30,000.

Valerie: Fine. Just don't touch her.

She had once told me she wished she could kill him. Instead, she was letting him bleed her dry to keep me breathing.

My nails dug into my palms until I drew blood. I was shaking with a grief so profound it felt like a physical weight.

Frank groaned, the alcohol wearing off. He lunged upward, his palm connecting with my face. The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. He threw a bottle of pills at me, sneering.

"That bitch doesn't want you, and you're still worried about her meds? Save your breath. Shes got one foot in the grave anyway."

He stood up, towering over me. "And you... you think you're tough now? Ill show you what happens when you lay a finger on your father."

He grabbed a fresh bottle. It came down again and again. I curled into a ball, clutching the stomach medicine to my chest, refusing to scream. When Frank was sober, he was a monster. He grabbed me by the hair and slammed me into the floor. Shards of glass sliced into my skin.

"Your mother was right," he hissed, his boot hovering over my ribs. "You're a mistake."

He stomped down. I heard the sickening crack of bone. The pain was so intense it turned the world white.

My ribs were broken. I must have blacked out.

When I woke, I didn't care about the agony in my side. I crawled out of that house and staggered toward the address Id found for Valerie. When I finally reached her door, covered in blood and grime, she looked horrified for a split second. Then, her mask slid back on.

"Get lost!" she screamed, her voice cracking with a desperation she tried to hide. "Youre nothing to me! Stay away from us!"

I threw the pills over the gate and looked her right in the eye. "Don't worry," I said, my voice cold. "This is the last time. When you die, don't expect me to show up for the funeral."

Liar, I thought as I walked away. You aren't dying. Not if I have anything to say about it.

Mom, I think Ive figured out how the game works. Just don't give up yet. Okay?

For the next two weeks, I hid from Frank in a cramped, moldy studio apartment I rented with cash. I spent the time nursing my ribs and analyzing the "System" Frank had shackled to Valerie.

The rule was simple: If Valerie wasn't "good" to Justin, I got hit with a lethal dose of electricity. I checked Justins Instagram. It was a highlight reel of excessluxury watches, designer sneakers, expensive cars.

I used to hate her for that. I didn't realize that every time she spoiled him, she was buying my safety.

A bitter laugh escaped my lips. But what if I flipped the script?

[Oh my god! What is she doing with those electrodes? Is she going to shock herself?]

[Stop! This is insane! She's trying to force a system backlash!]

I didn't hesitate. I pressed the electrodes against my own skin and flipped the switch.

White-hot agony ripped through my nervous system. It felt like my very soul was being shredded.

A new post popped up on Justins feed: "Wanted the limited edition Nikes. The old lady actually said no for once? What the hell is her problem..."

I collapsed on the floor, gasping for air, a weak, triumphant smile on my pale face.

It worked. If I shocked myself, the system registered the "damage" as having already happened, or perhaps the feedback loop was glitching. Either way, Justin lost his influence. Valerie was getting her free will back, bit by bit.

Hang on, Mom. Im coming for you.

A few nights later, I was in a dimly lit, velvet-draped VIP lounge at an upscale club. I was curled into the lap of a powerful man named Victora pharmaceutical bigwig who supposedly held the patent for a new, experimental cancer drug.

The room was filled with the sound of clinking glasses and predatory laughter.

"V, this little kitten is pretty cute," one of his associates teased. "Why don't you let her try your new 'blue candy'?"

My heart hammered against my broken ribs. Victor pulled a small blue pill from his pocket.

"Swallow," he commanded. He pinched my jaw so hard I thought the bone would snap. I couldn't fight back. I swallowed, and within seconds, my eyelids felt like lead.

Rough hands began to wander over me. I felt myself slipping, my vision blurring into shadows. Just as I was about to give up, the door burst open.

Valerie stood there. She looked at me with a perfect imitation of disgust, though I saw the flicker of raw agony in her eyes.

"Victor," she said, her voice smooth as silk. "Im sorry my club didn't provide enough entertainment. This girl is trouble. Let me swap her out for someone more... compliant."

She waved a hand, and several scantily clad girls stepped forward. I pushed them away and stood up, swaying on my feet.

"Victor is my client," I spat, staring at my mother with faux-malice. "Since when does the madam steal business from her own girls? Thats pretty low, don't you think?"

Valeries breath hitched. She looked like she wanted to scream, to grab me and run. Instead, she raised her hand to slap me.

Before she could, Justin appeared in the doorway, leaning against the frame with a smirk.

"Well, if it isn't my pathetic sister. I didn't realize youd sunk this low just to get a meal..."

Valerie barked at him to shut up, her voice sharp as a whip. Justin looked stunned. While he was distracted, I reached into my sleeve and touched the electrodes hidden there.

Steady, Mom, I thought. Don't let them see you crack. The rules are changing.

The tragedy hit sooner than I expected.

Frank found me. He realized I was the only leverage he had left to squeeze more money out of Valerie.

I was visiting my grandfatherValeries fatherwhen Frank showed up. He was drunk, his eyes bloodshot from a losing streak at the track. He tackled me to the ground and screamed into his phone.

"Valerie! Send me half a million right now, or your daughter dies today!"

Grandpa tried to intervene, swinging his cane, but Frank shoved the old man hard. He fell, his head cracking against the stone steps of the porch.

"Grandpa!" I screamed.

Valerie arrived minutes later, tires screeching. she sprinted to my grandfather, shielding him. "Youre dreaming, Frank! Youre never getting another cent from me!"

Frank froze, then let out a manic laugh. He hauled me up by my hair and slammed me back down. I felt my partially healed ribs give way again. The world spun.

"Fine. Then all three of you die today."

Frank stepped toward Valerie, his face a mask of pure malice. "You really thought a divorce was that easy? I told you, that System is tied to your life force. Its tied to your cancer. You can't delete it. You can only... transfer it. Like a cell."

My heart stopped. Transfer?

[Casey, get out of there! Run! Hes going to kill you!]

[This is unbearable. Why won't her mom save her?]

[Shut up! You think its easy for a mother to watch her child suffer when she's paralyzed by a curse?]

Frank swung a heavy fist toward Valerie. I don't know where the strength came from. I lunged forward, throwing my body in front of hers. I took the blow full in the face.

The world turned to static. I collapsed.

Frank stopped, surprised. He kicked my limp body. "Still protecting her? After she threw you away for the boy? She doesn't love you, kid."

I struggled to my knees, spitting blood. I looked at Valerie with a gaze like ice.

"You think I did that for her? Grandpa likes his porch clean. I just didn't want her trashy blood staining his stairs."

Valeries lip trembled. She reached out, her fingers twitching as she held my grandfathers arm. She said nothing, but her eyes were a deep, agonizing red.

I didn't look back. I pressed the electrodes in my sleeve. I kept pressing until my skin charred, until the pain was so great I started seizing on the ground.

Frank finally got scared. If I died, his leverage was gone. The System would have no target.

The distant wail of sirens echoed through the neighborhood. Frank panicked and bolted into the trees.

Valerie tried to help me up, but I flinched away. "Don't touch me! I don't have a mother!"

I managed to stumble around the corner of the street before the copper taste in my throat became a flood. I vomited a massive amount of blood. A sudden, sharp pain exploded in my stomacha pain I recognized from Valeries medical files.

[Oh god! The System found the loophole! Its transferring the cancer to Casey!]

[Is this what Frank meant by 'transfer'? This is devastating.]

[This mother-daughter bond is breaking me. They're both trying to die for each other.]

Good, I thought, slumped against a brick wall.

If the cancer moved to me, Valerie would be healthy. The System would lose its grip on her life. It didn't matter if I died. Between the shocks and the beatings, I was already a ghost.

But Frank wasn't done with me.

A few nights later, I was working a shift at a dive bar. As I was closing up, a group of local thugs walked in. The leader had a buzz cut and a jagged scar running from his eye to his jaw.

Frank stepped out from behind them. He grabbed my collar and shoved me toward the scarred man.

"Victor, use the girl to clear my thirty thousand in debt. Shes all yours."

The man, Victornot the CEO, but a street-level butcherpinched my chin, inspecting me like livestock. "Thirty? She looks like shes about to keel over. Twenty, max."

Frank got desperate. "Shes sturdy, I swear! She can work. Come on, thirty!"

The men laughed, their eyes full of a dark, predatory hunger. I lunged forward and bit Victors wrist as hard as I could.

"You little bitch!"

He grabbed me by the hair and yanked my head back until I thought my scalp would tear. I gritted my teeth, refusing to give him a sound.

"Shes got spirit. I like that," Victor grinned, showing yellowed teeth. He tossed me to his crew. "Have some fun, boys. Just don't break the merchandise too fast."

They swarmed me. Frank watched with a smile, then turned and walked out of the bar, rubbing his hands together.

Hands tore at my clothes. Someone pinned me to a table. The smell of stale beer and sweat was suffocating. I felt a surge of nausea. I turned my head and sprayed a mouthful of blood directly into the face of the man holding me.

He recoiled, wiping the gore from his eyes. I laughed, a raspy, jagged sound.

"My father lied to you. Im not worth thirty thousand."

"I have terminal stomach cancer. Its in my blood. If you touch me, youre dead men walking."

The thugs froze. They scrambled back, looking at each other in terror.

Victor stared at me for a second, spat a curse, and kicked me hard in the chest. A rain of blows followed. My vision began to fade. I felt my ribs snapagain.

It was fine. It was almost over.

Just as my consciousness began to flicker out, the front door was kicked off its hinges. Valerie stormed in, flanked by a dozen suited men. Her eyes were glowing with a murderous, unholy rage.

"If any of you touched my daughter," she whispered, her voice vibrating with power, "you aren't leaving this room alive."