My Girlfriend's Family Is Gambling for My Life

I spend the New Year at my girlfriend Lucy Greenwood's house. During a game of poker, her whole family keeps helping me win. The more I win, the bigger the smile on her mom Eva Lane's face. I excitedly reveal my hand. "A royal flush! I win!" Eva immediately hands me a stack of cash, beaming. "Wow, Milo, you're really lucky." I assume they like me, which is why they let me win 13 hands in a row. Just then, a quiet voice speaks up. "You still want to keep winning? This game takes lives in exchange for luck… Once you've won enough money, it's time to pay with your life. If you play that card, you'll have to live the rest of your life as Lucy's comatose older brother." Chapter 1 A jolt went through me, and my hand holding the card froze. "Who's talking to me?" I looked around. My girlfriend, Lucy Greenwood, had her head lowered, looking at her cards, while her mom, Eva Lane, and their neighbor, Zayn Garner, laughed as they checked their cards. Nobody answered me. That voice sounded like a hallucination. Did I imagine it? I was about to play my card when that voice rang out from my chest again. "What the fuck? Are you seriously going to play that? You want to throw your bright future away and become a vegetable?" My hand jerked, and I pulled the card back. Lucy looked over, her gaze soft. "Milo, just play whatever cards you want. My mom likes you. She wants you to win more games." Zayn smiled. "Milo, I finally get it now. I'm the biggest loser here. I'm just here to help you win." Eva also grinned. "Milo's really lucky. We're happy just watching him play." All three of them were smiling, their eyes fixed on the card in my hand. An inexplicable chill ran down my spine. My fingers accidentally brushed against something hard on my chest. It was the protective charm my childhood friend, Hector Litt, had insisted I wear before I left. He'd gripped my hand tightly and said, "This trip is dangerous. Make sure you keep it on." The voice came from the charm. "Stop touching me. It's me. I'm your guardian angel! Any later, and you'd be paying for this with your life!" Sweat gathered in my palm. I found the notion of trading my life for luck too ridiculous. The voice said, "This poker table is part of a life-swapping ritual. The whole setup is designed to trade your life for someone else's by having you sit in the west seat and play that card. The moment you do, your soul will leave your body and take the place of that comatose guy in the next room!" My scalp went numb. I quickly pulled my hand back and slapped down another card. "Yay!" Zayn clapped his hands happily. "Finally, a win!" I glanced at Lucy discreetly. She was smiling as she pushed the chips over. "Here, here. I never said I wouldn't pay." Eva paid up happily too. Everything seemed as normal as an ordinary poker game. I secretly let out a sigh of relief. Maybe I'd really been overthinking it. But just when I was about to lower my head to shuffle the cards, I caught a glimpse of Eva looking at Zayn, her expression turning cold and her gaze becoming vicious. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. The voice came again. "Look behind you! That's your soul lamp! The guy lying in the next room has one over his head too!" I turned around under the pretense of getting a glass of water and saw that, sure enough, a candle with a ghostly green flame was burning quietly on the candlestick behind me. The glass in my hand dropped to the ground. Lucy grabbed my hand. "Did you burn yourself? Why is your hand so cold?" My face paled, and my voice trembled. "Why is that flame… green?" Eva smiled kindly. "Oh, that? I bought that scented candle overseas. It's infused with essential oils. That's why when it burns, it's green in color. Take a whiff. It has a woody smell. It's quite calming." A faint, woody scent drifted over, and my nerves relaxed a little. I really was overthinking it! There just weren't that many weird things happening in real life. Maybe I was just too tired from playing cards too long. Also, I just remembered that Lucy didn't have a brother. She and Eva were the only ones at home for the holidays. And we'd only decided to play cards tonight on a whim. We were one player short, so we called over their neighbor, Zayn. He'd even said he couldn't make it because he was busy at first. If he hadn't come, we wouldn't have been able to get the game going at all. How could anyone have set up a ritual in advance? "I'll wash my hands." I stood up, my heart racing. As I walked out of the bathroom, I accidentally bumped my shoulder into the painting on the wall. A hidden door I'd never noticed before slid open a crack. It was pitch-black inside, but I could also make out a faint, flickering light. I instinctively leaned closer when someone grabbed my wrist and yanked me back hard. Lucy practically lunged at me and slammed the hidden door shut. "Don't go in there." Her voice was tense, and she was breathing a little hard. "It's a storage room that hasn't been opened in ages. It's full of dust." Then her voice calmed. "If you want to take a look, I'll clean it tomorrow, then show you the inside." Lucy's concerned words still rang in my ears, but I felt like the blood in my entire body had turned cold. In that split second when the door opened, I saw it clearly. There really was someone lying in the room, with a ghostly green flame burning above his forehead. Chapter 2 I tried to suppress my shock and keep my expression steady as I walked back to the table. But my hands wouldn't stop trembling. I pushed the cards in front of me away, my throat dry. "Lucy, I'm a bit tired and dizzy… I don't want to play anymore." I was about to stand up when Eva grabbed my hand. Her smile remained kind, but she gripped my hand tightly. "It's New Year. How could you stop playing just because you won some money? Come on, two more rounds to make it even." "Yeah, Milo." Lucy looked at me, a barely noticeable urgency in her eyes. "It's still early. Let's play a few more rounds. I'll rub your shoulders for you." Zayn didn't say anything. He just looked at me with a complicated expression on his face. The cards in my hands felt ice-cold, and the chill seeped through my palms into my heart. Something was seriously wrong. I suddenly remembered what Hector had said before I left. "Milo, if anything feels off, come back immediately. I have a bad feeling Lucy is up to no good." I absolutely couldn't keep playing anymore. I'd get some sleep and leave first thing in the morning. "I'm really tired. I'm done playing!" I yanked myself free and turned to leave. "Don't go!" All three blurted out at once. There was obvious anxiety on their faces. That confirmed my suspicion, and I hurried toward the room. The protective charm against my chest suddenly burned hot. Its voice rang out in panic. "Don't leave! If you stop the game now, your soul lamp will go out immediately! Do you want to end up in a coma?" I froze, unsure whether to walk away. "Uh, Eva, Lucy." Zayn suddenly spoke up. "Just let Milo rest in the room for a while. I have some calming essential oil. Apply it to his temples and let him relax before coming back to play, okay? It'll only take a few minutes." Lucy and Eva exchanged glances. They seemed to think Zayn's suggestion was acceptable. Eva let go of my hand and smiled. "Alright. Zayn, take care of Milo. Come back soon. We'll be waiting." Zayn took my hand, and we quickly walked over to the room at the end of the corridor. The moment the door closed, his smile vanished. "Did you realize something was amiss?" His voice was low as he gripped my arm. I stared at him suspiciously. "I didn't want to come over at first." Zayn's expression became grim. "But I had no choice. When my grandpa fell sick last year, they paid my bills. I owe them big time. They told me I just had to play poker with you and keep you happy. I didn't know this was a life-swapping ritual!" His voice trembled. "Eva isn't just an ordinary businesswoman in Toria. She's a famous witch over there. Lucy's brother has been in a vegetative state since a car crash two years ago, and no treatment has helped. "Eva became obsessed with finding someone to trade lives with her son. Do you know what the requirements are?" Zayn stared at me, his words deliberate. "The man must be born during the witchiest hour of the night, with blessings written in his birth chart. He also needs a red birthmark on the back of his left shoulder." My mind went blank. The witchiest hour of the night? My grandma, Eliza Kushner, used to stroke my head and sigh. "You were born during the witchiest hour of the night, yet you carried blessings within you. Your misfortunes and blessings go hand in hand. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing…" And I'd had a red birthmark on the back of my left shoulder since I was a child! Chapter 3 I suddenly remembered that when I first met Lucy, she was known in school as the ice queen, keeping everyone at arm's length. A guy as ordinary as me would never have caught her attention. But everything changed after I joined the mountain-climbing trip she organized for the club. I sprained my ankle then, and she helped me to the lounge to rest. While I was changing, my shirt slipped down, giving her a glimpse of the red birthmark on my left shoulder. She paused. Lucy must have seen my birthday on the club profile because, from that day on, she started asking me out to dinner, sending me good-morning and good-night messages, and even looking at me with a burning intensity. This New Year, she even held my hand and practically begged me, "Milo, my mom isn't in great health, and she has always wanted to see you. Come and spend time with me, okay?" I'd lain awake at night more times than I could count, wondering how someone as dazzling as her could ever choose an ordinary guy like me. It turned out that it had all been planned from the start. My heart felt like it had been soaked in ice water, leaving me frozen and aching. "Milo." Zayn's cold hands closed around mine. "I can't bear to see you being set up in this way. We'll have to break out of this trap. When we get back, pretend nothing's wrong, but keep feeding me winning cards. Let me win. Once I win enough rounds, it'll disrupt their ritual. Then we'll find a chance to escape!" His gaze was sincere as he held my hand. "Just trust me this once, okay? I'll help you." It was like I had finally found a lifeline while I was at my most desperate, so I nodded in a daze. What else could I do but trust him? When we got back to the table, Eva asked me with a smile, "Do you feel better now?" "Yeah." I forced a smile and sat back down. As my fingers touched the table, I instinctively brushed against it and felt an odd bump underneath. I pretended to check my cards and looked down, wanting to take a closer look. My heart clenched at what I saw. Beneath the table's dark wood grain, I found rows upon rows of twisted, bizarre runes carved into the surface. And right below the table, in the shadow beside my legs, stood a palm-sized, pitch-black tower that looked downright sinister. Was this the tower Zayn had told me about, the one that could change someone's luck? Cold sweat trickled down my back, and I no longer doubted what Zayn had said. As the next round began, I clenched my fists and started deliberately playing the cards Zayn needed, just as he'd told me to. Zayn showed his hand. "Yes!" "I win! A flush!" The chips in front of Zayn quickly piled up. Lucy's smile slowly faded. As Eva sorted through her cards, she kept smiling, but her eyes grew colder by the second. She shot a piercing glance at Zayn and me every so often. The atmosphere at the table grew strange and tense. Just as I broke up another good hand and played another card that Zayn needed, Eva finally spoke. "Are you having fun giving him the winning cards?" Her voice was quiet, but the air around us went still. Lucy put down her cards too and watched me silently. The tenderness in her eyes was gone, replaced by a deep, chilling scrutiny. Zayn immediately jumped to my defense. "Oh, Eva, I just suddenly became lucky. It was the same for Milo earlier…" Just as I agonized over whether to keep going, that familiar voice spoke from the protective charm again, dripping with more scorn and icy contempt than ever before. "Idiot, you actually believe him? Zayn and that old hag are on the same side. He isn't their neighbor, but that old hag's disciple! He wants a share of your blessings too and 30 years of your lifespan to repair his damaged soul! Every card you gave him was like handing him your life on a silver platter!"