Chapter 2

That was the cactus Sylvia and I had bought together at the store when we first started high school. We each bought one, and the cacti were meant to symbolize our unbreakable, evergreen friendship.

Mine had long since withered and died from neglect. Hers, however, was so lush that it looked like it could drip with moisture. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but there was an indescribable sense of eeriness to that little succulent plant.

As the first mock exam approached, Sylvia honored her promise. She set aside two precious hours every day to help me review key points and go over practice papers.

She explained everything in meticulous detail. I tried desperately to focus, but my eyelids constantly glued themselves shut, no matter how hard I struggled to keep them open.

My mind was a blur. Those formulas and theories looked like incomprehensible scribbles to me. They jumped and spun before my eyes until they smeared into a congealed mess.

"I'm sorry, Sylvia, I…" I pinched my thigh, trying to stay awake.

Sylvia closed the book and patted my shoulder gently. "It's okay. You're too tired. Get some sleep first. We can continue after you wake up."

I practically collapsed onto the desk and fell into a deep sleep.

In my dream, I returned to my middle school days. Back then, I had been a standout student. I won gold medals in national Olympiads in math, physics, and chemistry with ease. In the eyes of my teachers and classmates, I had been a surefire candidate for getting into top colleges.

But all of that changed after Sylvia and I both enrolled in Southend High School. I became drowsy, lazy, and unable to muster interest in anything.

Thinking back to that time, I could now see that it was probably just the beginning of my life being stolen.

As expected, my first mock exam results were disastrous. I became the biggest joke in the entire grade. Jeffrey walked past me with Sylvia beside him, clearly relieved that he had gotten rid of a burdensome friend like me.

My parents called, their voices filled with nothing but disappointment. "We've already found you a job at an electronics factory in the south. Don't bother repeating a year. Just drop out and come back to work."

Dad's voice sounded aged and exhausted. With that one sentence, he condemned my entire life.

I hung up without crying. Frankly, I didn't even have the strength to shed tears.

I started packing my things. I threw the brand-new textbooks and exercise books into a cardboard box one by one.

Sylvia walked over and grabbed my hand to stop me. "Lav, are you just going to give up?"

I laughed mockingly at myself. "What else can I do? I'm useless."

Sylvia cried out emotionally in protest, "You're not! You've just temporarily lost your rhythm. You were so amazing in middle school. I believe you can turn things around."

I thought back to how I used to dominate academic competitions and sweep up gold medals at national Olympiads. How had I ended up in such a state?

Once again, my gaze unintentionally fell on the tiny cactus on her desk. There seemed to be something buried in the soil. One of its exposed corners gave off a faint green glow.

It looked very familiar.

In the next second, I realized it was the emerald pendant my grandmother had given me. I had worn it during the high school entrance exam, believing it would give me good luck and get me into Southend High School.

But after I started high school, it had disappeared. I had searched everywhere for it, but I never found it. In the end, I had no choice but to accept that it was gone for good.

Why was it in Sylvia's cactus pot?

A ridiculous and terrifying thought began to form and take over my mind rapidly. I made an excuse to go to the washroom with my heart pounding uncontrollably against my ribcage.

When I returned, I took advantage of the moment Sylvia went to wash up and walked over to her desk. My hands were trembling as I carefully used a pen to push aside the soil at the base of the cactus.

The familiar emerald pendant finally came into view. On the back of it, a line of tiny rune symbols had been carved in red ochre.

I recognized those symbols.

My maternal grandmother was a somewhat well-known expert in the mystic arts back in my hometown. I had lived in her house for some time as a child, so I knew a bit about these things.

It was an ancient spell for sharing fates. To put it simply, it could form a close link between two people so that their luck and energy became interconnected.

One person's misfortune, fatigue, and illness would be transferred to the other. The one transferring away all the negativity would also gain the other person's energy, intelligence, and even… their life.

So I hadn't been born lazy, and I certainly wasn't some hopeless failure. It turned out that Sylvia had stolen my energy, my talent, and the brilliant life I was meant to have with vicious black magic.

She slept only three hours a day but always had an unlimited reserve of energy. Since the start of high school, she had ranked first every single time and won all the awards. She became the golden girl.

I, on the other hand, had become the fuel for her success. I was the unfortunate soul being drained of all my life force by a malignant parasite.

I didn't make a fuss or expose Sylvia. Instead, I buried the emerald pendant and smoothed the soil, as if nothing had happened.

Back at my seat, I looked at my reflection in the mirror. I saw a pale, haggard face devoid of life staring blankly back at me. Beneath this face, there had once been a vibrant, radiant, proud, and confident soul.

Now, I was going to take back everything that belonged to me.