"!!!"

The incoherent sound of someone yelling in the background alerted me that I wasn't alone. Everywhere was dark and I couldn't see a thing.

'Oh!! My eyes were closed,'

Hehe...

"******" I heard the voice again, but my body was too weak to react.

"Big brother!! Wake up!!"

My eyes sprung wide open to the sound of a familiar voice.

It was my sister.

"Please.....wake up!!" She yelled again.

I slowly turned my gaze to my right to see my little sister clutching tightly to my hand with tears drizzling down her cheeks.

"Ugh!! My head," I groaned, trying to raise my body to recall what had happened before this moment.

While sitting on the cold, pristine white tile, I could see crimson liquid dripping down from my chin.

"Blood?" I was surprised.

I placed my hand on my head to confirm if it wasn't an illusion.

"It is real," I muttered, recalling the cause of it all.

I was hit with a mug.

"Big brother.....HIC....HIC.... he's hurting mom," Alice said, increasing the pitch of her cries.

I patted her head to ease her worries a bit.

"It's okay. Your big brother is going to take care of it," Alice sniveled as a clear mucus slid down one of her nose holes.

She nodded, and her cries halted as well.

I dragged my body up, my entire weight feeling unbalanced, as I feared I could topple back down any second.

The piercing pain on my forehead intensified, but the cries and screams from the other room made me uncomfortable.

I have to do whatever it takes to keep going.

"I'm coming, mom," I muttered softly.

"Alice?" I called.

Alice turned towards me, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Hide in the wardrobe and don't come out until I say so,"

Alice immediately placed both hands on her mouth.

Her eyes widened as she nodded in response.

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She ran straight to the wardrobe and hid from plain sight.

"Good girl," I commended.

I drifted my gaze towards the entrance of the room, where the loud cry of my mom reverberated around the living room.

There was only one person who could cause so much harm to everyone in the house, and that's.....

"Derek," I uttered with rage.

Our house was cramped with limited space in it.

It only had a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a bedroom. Alice and I sleep on a futon every night in the living room, while my parents share the bedroom.

The latter only occurs when Derek isn't drunk, like right now.

I entered the living room, seeing Derek pointing his finger at Sophia and arming his hand to strike her as usual.

Her dress was tattered with bruises scattered all over her body and several drops of crimson liquid scattered around the pristine tile.

"Please…. please forgive me. I didn't do anything wrong," Sophia cried, trying her best to maintain a distance away from Derek.

Derek is a drug addict and a thug, and so nights like this aren't new to any of us in the house anymore.

Regardless of her plea for mercy, Derek was hell-bent on relieving his anger on her.

"You crazy b****. I'll make sure you never do anything ever again," He growled, rolling his hand into a fist.

"Stop!!" I yelled, accompanying it with a run as I dashed toward Derek.

I tightened my grip around his waist, yelling for him to stop.

"What the h***!!" Derek cussed.

"Get off me, you useless piece of s***," He landed an elbow attack on my bleeding head.

*Bam!!*

My body unconsciously fell numb, and I unwittingly loosened my grip around Derek.

He grabbed hold of my skinny hands and easily freed himself from my grip, tossing my weightless body away from him.

I skidded away on the tile before hitting my weakened body on the wall.

"Brother!!!" Alice yelled my name.

"Alice?" I asked in surprise.

'What is she doing here?'

"Alice!! Get back inside now!!" Sophia yelled in fear.

"But?…" Alice, a five-year-old girl, shuddered upon hearing her mother screaming at her. She instantly ran back into the room in fear.

"That's it!! I've had it with you all!!" Derek, still feeling drunk, staggered towards the kitchen to pull one of his hidden weapons from the cabinet.

My eyesight was blurry, but thankfully I'm still awake.

"I will be ending you all tonight!! Starting with that annoying brat," Derek declared, stumping towards his bedroom, where Alice was currently hiding.

"No!! Please stop!!" Sophia tries to get up, but her legs were numb as well.

She turned towards me in desperation. "Ace!! Stand up!!!..... Your sister needs…"

Whatever words she uttered next instantly vanished right after she made mention of Alice.

In my weakened state, I dragged myself up before lunging toward Derek.

Upon reaching his bedroom door, he abruptly turned to see me running toward him.

And like a rocket, I launched myself, headfirst into his stomach.

*Pow!!*

The impact made Derek unwittingly pull the trigger before smashing his head on a white ceramic vase.

"Ace!! Ace!! Are you okay?" Sophia ran to pick me up from the floor.

She spun me to take a look at my face, placing my head on her lap.

I could see the tears streaming down her cheeks.

I tried to lift my arm to wipe her tears, but she grabbed my weakened hand and wept even more.

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry…" She kept repeating the same words while holding my hand firmly yet gently.

'This isn't right. She can't be here,' I muttered to myself.

"Mom?" I weakly called.

Sophia leans closer to listen closely to what I had to say.

" What about Alice? How is she doing?" I asked.

Her eyes widened, and she looked into the bedroom before placing me down gently and rushing in to hug Alice.

"It's now or never," I said, forcing myself to get up from the floor before removing the key from the inner part of the door and locking both of them from outside.

"I'm sorry, Mom," I said regretfully while hearing the groans of Derek behind me.

"Huh?! Ace!! What are you doing?!" She yelled.

"Open the door!!...*sobs*...*sobs*..... Open the door!!" She cried, banging the door with every strength she could muster.

"Ugh!" I heard Derek's groan once again.

"You ungrateful bastard. I'm going to..."

*Pow!!* *Pow!!*

The sound of gunshot filled the room and silence reigned in the house.

___

The total number of players currently in the game: None…

The number of deceased players: None.

The total number of deceased players: None.