Chapter 2
By Emily's fifty-fifth jump, it was dark.
She entered the peak absurd phase, movements a blur.
Mom had long cried herself out, replaced by overwhelming dread.
How could they not be terrified?
Emily had set things up for her first jump, taking only minor injuries for her scheme.
But jumping from the same height fifty-plus times?
The same wounds reopening fifty-plus times?
Now, Emily was ragged, "artistically" bruised, her body sustained only by the system.
Crawling out of the pitch-black doorway with eerie clicks and creaks, from a distance, she looked like a monkey. Up close, she was basically a zombie.
Who wouldn't tremble?
Only Andrew still ached for his sister. "Mom, Dad, do something. She'll break herself jumping like this."
Couldn't blame him. His glasses were smashed by Emily earlier. Severely nearsighted, he couldn't see clearly what was now crawling on the ground.
Mom's voice was hoarse from screaming, slumped against Dad.
Dad sat cross-legged, chanting prayers.
That was just how it was for business people. They always turned to their faith when things got tough.
By the ninetieth jump, dawn was breaking.
Andrew knelt beside the long, dark red trail Emily's crawling had left.
He looked totally spaced out, like he'd gone blank.
My parents clung to each other, soaked in cold sweat, utterly silent.
On the hundredth jump, the system-controlled ambulance finally arrived.
They dug the barely-breathing Emily out of the depression.
"Family? We need a family member to come," The EMT yelled outside.
Andrew scrambled. "Me. I'll go."
I finally sauntered downstairs from the second floor, pretending to be equally shaken.
I went to help Mom and Dad to their feet.
"Mom, Dad, Get up. Emily's condition is so strange. Can you really let Andrew go alone?" I asked.
They jolted awake. A cherished adopted daughter is still just a daughter. Their son is their true lifeline.
The old pair shakily stood. "Let's go. We have to figure out what happened."
Yeah, go ahead. There's an even better show you simply must see.
Emily, as the original protagonist, clung to life.
Proof of a powerful protagonist halo, hard to kill.
Even so, she had multiple fractures and contusions.
She wouldn't be walking for three to five months.
"It hurts so much. What happened? Why can't I move?" Emily screamed. "My face... my face hurts too. Mom, Dad, Andrew! Why aren't you helping me?"
Emily had never been this badly hurt.
With no memory of the absurd loop, she screamed and cried hysterically.
The trio wanted to comfort her but couldn't overcome the mental image of the zombie-like figure.
Andrew was hit the hardest.
In the ambulance, he'd anxiously leaned in close to Emily's face to call her.
Only to see a blood-smeared face and two bloodshot, wide-open eyes.
He nearly scared himself unconscious.
Only I withstood the pressure.
Walking to the bed, I gently patted the bandages near Emily's shoulder. "Emily, it's okay, you have to hang in there. We are so worried about you."
I suddenly understood why culprits like returning to the scene.
The current Emily was like my own creation; the uglier, the more I liked it.
She even dropped her usual act.
She went off on me, screaming at the top of her lungs.
"Luna? Why are you still here? Was it you? You did this to me!" she screamed. "Mom, Dad! It's Luna. She made me jump. Punish her. Now!"
I explained with perfect calm, "Emily, it's fair for you to blame me. It's my fault for not stopping you. Mom and Dad tried to stop you, but..."
I saw a flicker of lingering fear on my parents' faces.
They instinctively touched their injured spots. The pain had instilled a physical fear of Emily.
Emily, of course, knew none of this.
She only knew her parents hadn't stopped her.
Furious and fearing permanent scars, she lashed out, "Why didn't you stop me? If you had, I wouldn't be like this!"
I was waiting for this. "System, make her say that a hundred times."