Chapter 4 - In The Hospital

Chapter 4: Chapter 4 - In The Hospital

The brute eventually listened to Samantha’s plea and stopped kicking and cussing at Jesse.

He gave Jesse one final look before stepping away into the night with Samantha in tow, leaving Jesse unconscious.

Jesse felt his life flash before his eyes. He was certain he was going to die, and for a brief moment he was ready for the grim reaper to take him to the afterlife to reunite with his mother.

But that didn’t happen.

A soft hand grabbed his arm, bringing with it a sharp wave of cheap, sweet perfume, the exact scent of the woman who’d lured him into the alley to be robbed.

Jesse tried to open his eyes, but his eyelashes were glued together with drying blood. He forced them apart, wincing as the blurry shape of her face came into focus.

’Why did she come back?’

’She already got what she wanted. What else does she want?’

She hauled him up from the cold pavement, gritting her teeth as she draped his arm over her shoulder.

His whole weight collapsed against her. Dragging him out of the alley, she pushed onto the main street, past onlookers who assumed she was just wrangling a drunk boyfriend.

"Don’t die on me," she muttered under her breath, her shoulder straining under his weight. "Just hold on. We’re almost there."

’Why does she even care?’

Jesse drifted, his vision swimming. The small clinic near the bar was only a block away, but he was certain she’d dump him on the sidewalk and run.

Instead, she dragged him straight through the glass doors of St. Nicholas Emergency.

A nurse rushed forward, calling for a gurney. Jesse blinked against the harsh fluorescent lights, and in the second it took for the medical team to grab him, the weight on his side vanished. She was gone.

As soon as the medical team took him into an emergency room and started administering life-saving treatment, Jesse passed out. But the last thing he saw before shutting down was the cyan screen again.

[System Successfully Linked!]

[Rest up, host.]

"Huh..."

---

Jesse woke four hours later in a public emergency room, three other patients on beds around him separated by thin curtains. His head was pounding, his ribs screamed when he breathed too deep, and for a second he had no idea where he was.

[Welcome back, host.]

Jesse jolted. "You. What are you? What do you want from—"

But as he spoke, he realized his lips weren’t moving. No sound had come out. Nobody around him had so much as glanced over.

[Don’t be alarmed, host. It’s one of the features of this system. Whenever you speak to me, it will be mental communication. We’re mentally linked.]

’Mental link,’ Jesse thought. He’d read enough of these stories to know that was actually a pretty good feature to start with.

But why him? He hadn’t had a single stretch of good luck in years. Something had to be off.

[I know you have a lot of questions, and I’ll answer them in due time. For now, I’ll show you your results.]

’What results?’ Jesse asked.

[You spent $2,000. 10X Critical Hit! Earned $20,000! The money has been transferred to account XXX-XXX-XXX.]

[Requirement met: Spent at least $2,000 on a lady you found attractive.]

[You have received 1 Lucky Draw!]

[Do you want to draw?]

[YES] [NO]

Before Jesse could answer, his phone buzzed on the tray beside the bed. He grabbed it with shaking fingers and saw a credit alert for $20,000.

He rubbed his eyes and looked again. Still there. He opened his bank app just to be sure, and there it was in black and white. Twenty thousand dollars, sitting where two hours ago there had been nothing.

[Do you want to draw?]

[YES] [NO]

The system asked again.

’Yes,’ Jesse thought back, giddy despite the pain in his ribs. ’Fuck yes.’

[Congratulations! You have drawn: Charisma Boost!]

[Charisma: There is nothing the user can’t charm his way out of, or into. The universe has blessed you with a Charisma Boost.]

Jesse turned the words over in his head. This would come in handy, getting people to give him what he wanted.

[And what do you want from people?]

I want revenge,’ Jesse said, out loud this time, with the confidence that no one could hear him but the system. "I want to make everyone who’s punished me for my father’s crimes suffer in ways that are nothing short of legendary."

’I’m coming for all of them. I don’t have a list yet. But I’m making one.’

He let that sit for a second before a new thought crept in. Twenty grand wasn’t going to scratch the surface of what he actually needed.

’So the system rewards me for spending money on women?’ Jesse asked.

[Yes. But specifically, on women you find attractive.]

’This is going to be easy,’ Jesse thought.

He was already turning it over in his head, half a plan forming, when a familiar face walked through the curtain.

It was his aunt. Aunt Marie, his mother’s only sister.

She was the only one of his mother’s siblings who visited when Jesse’s mom was in hospice.

’What is she doing here?’ Jesse thought. ’And how did she even know I was here?’