All Chapters of Real Sacrifice in a Fake Apocalypse: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

"I specifically told you to prepare the best imported anesthetic, Dr. Loden. Terence will be fine, right?" my mother, Cassandra Ellis asked. "As long as he's willing to get on that operating table for my sake, I'll take it as proof that he passed the test and that his love for me is genuine."I've watched him face many hardships, after all. He doesn't deserve to be my son if he's unwilling to make such a small sacrifice."Mom sounded perfectly healthy as she spoke to the person on the other end of the line. In fact, she even sounded a little at ease.Meanwhile, I stood at the door.The serum that I got by putting my life on the line slipped from my slackened fingers and shattered when it hit the floor.It turned out that the apocalypse and the man-eating zombies weren't real.For the past month, I had carried Mom with me as we hid in the sewers and ate expired food. I had even given up my kidney without any hesitation, but everything had just been a farce that she designed to tes

"You… What are you…" Baldie stammered as his cigarette slipped from his fingers."Call her now," I repeated, sitting down on the cleanest slab of stone that I could find.The pain that was radiating from my waist was beginning to numb. That side of my shirt was already thoroughly soaked, sticking to my skin.Mom arrived ten minutes later.She had dropped the act. The artificial marks of zombification had been wiped clean, revealing smooth, rosy skin that made it blatantly obvious she was well cared for.Her assistant, Richard Peterson, and a group of muscular men trailed behind her.Mom barely showed any remorse when she spotted me sitting on the slab. On the contrary, the way she looked at me gave off the impression that she was scrutinizing me as if she were superior to me."I guess there's no need for me to keep up the act any longer since you've discovered the truth, Terence," she said, "The zombies and the apocalypse aren't real. I also didn't get bitten by a zombie."I lo

The ambulance lurched violently as the wheels drove over the rubble-filled ruins.Black spots exploded in my vision when the ambulance rattled, and a metallic taste surged up my throat.Mom knelt next to me, gripping the edges of the stretcher as if her life depended on it. Her knuckles had turned white from the amount of force she was exerting."Drive faster!" she shouted at the driver.The driver didn't even bother turning to look at her when he anxiously shouted back, "The roads are broken, Mrs. Sawyer! There are potholes everywhere! I can't drive any faster even if I wanted to! The entire ambulance will go flying if I do!"The roads were broken. To create the so-called apocalypse—to make me believe that the world had been overrun by a zombie outbreak—Mom had destroyed all the roads that led toward the city, leaving a single, thin path that was riddled with potholes.The real doctor, Brandon Loden, was crouched next to me at that moment. He was sweating profusely as he gave

Mom slapped herself again. It didn't take long before her face began to swell.The actors were scared out of their wits. They stood on the sidelines, not daring to say a single word or leave.I floated in the air and watched the scene unfold. A deep sense of helplessness spread through me.I wondered why Mom was hurting herself. It didn't matter how much she slapped herself. It wouldn't reduce the pain that I was forced to endure in the past.Just then, the sounds of a commotion resounded from the end of the hallway.A few bodyguards approached Mom while hauling a man with them.The man was covered in filth, and a pair of handcuffs had been clapped around his wrists.It was the doctor who had operated on me.Mom's eyes immediately turned bloodshot when she spotted him. She snatched a bat from one of the bodyguards before she lunged at him."You're the one who cut Terence's kidney out! I'm going to kill you!" she shrieked as she smashed the bat against the doctor's leg.The do

Mom froze in place as she stared at the empty bed.A long time passed before she suddenly burst into laughter."He's gone? So… I endured that procedure for nothing?"Her smile morphed into a grimace as she brushed her fingers across the wound on her waist."Did you do this on purpose, Terence? You didn't want to give me a chance to atone for my sins. You think I don't deserve it, don't you?"I floated next to the bed and took in Mom's manic expression.It wasn't that I didn't want to give her a chance to atone for her sins. It was just that even hell would have rejected her kidney. Besides, the transplant was hopeless to begin with. My body was already past the point of no return. I would still die even after the transplant, so it was pointless for me to receive it.…My funeral was a grand affair.Mom was dressed in black. She knelt before the altar and kept knocking her head against the floor.Her forehead was a gruesome sight. The scabs that formed over the open wound ke