All Chapters of Wanted My Life, Settled For My Body: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Raven looked at Darren, carefully. She hadn’t looked at her relationship carefully like this, in a long time.She was an orphan. Alone, for too long. So when Darren barged into her life, she grabbed onto the illusion of having a “family” of her own, too tight to see all the red flags. The countless rain checks Darren took for Emily. The phone calls from Emily that could pull Darren out in the middle of the night, once even DURING sex.How could she have not seen?It was never about Darren having a struggle between her and Emily, because he would always have chosen Emily over her. Time after time.Even on a life and death matter, even if it was basically murder, when he tricked her into giving her own life for Emily.“Raven, you are the best gamer I have ever met. You are a survivor. An expert in horror games! You will be fine in the game--”“In a supernatural, lethal game where your precious Emily almost died in,” Raven looked at Darren with calm eyes, “What was the candy you forced m

“Rose, don’t be so mean,” The leader of the group smiles, walking toward Raven, “She looks like a girl with a brave soul. I myself have not seen a newbie who didn’t get hurt by the wall.”He called the fog “the wall”. Raven noticed. If she had touched the fog, her hand would be like the man on the ground now--Cut and bleeding.The leader of the group held out a hand to Raven for a handshake, his smile friendly and warm, “Call me James. I have been through 3 worlds now -- ohh, that’s what we call the game module.” He gestured around with his chin, “The game, don’t you find it too realistic for a game? Almost like...”...like it was cut out of the real world.“Apophis,” Raven shook James’s hand, forming a cute but polite smile like meeting a fan, “You might have heard of me, hopefully? I’m a gamer on Twitch.”Raven hated exchanging names. After all, in real life, names were linked with one’s criminal record.James let out a short laugh: “Using a false identity is smart. After all, you

Inside the building was worse than the yard. The walls were stained with something Raven chose not to identify. And the smell—that faint, sweet-rotten smell that clung to the back of her throat—was stronger here. Real. Constant.The Matron led them turned onto a dark corridor. James was front, and he pulled himself to a halt at the sight in the corridor, so did everyone after him, at the creepy view in front of them--With rooms on each side of the building blocking the little sunlight this world had, the corridor was ever so dim with the few light bulbs over their heads barely glowing.But it was the children that scared them.The children from the yard had gathered here already, standing stiff in the dark corridor, one beside each door. Six blank faces turned slowly toward the players.The matron didn't seem to notice a thing. She walked on with that fake warm smile and assigned each player to a room—each with a child standing beside it."You three here. You three there. And you—" A

Instantly Raven elbowed the door shut, and the omen feeling faded hugely. But it wasn’t gone. It was lurking behind the door.“Why are you still up, little one?” A rotten voice came through the door. Against the moonlight through the little window on the door, Raven could see the shape of her nurse hat.Raven didn’t respond.The most common trick in the book of orphanage nurses -- fishing with a question.“I know you are up, little one,” The nurse urges, this time there was dark fog oozing into the door.“I was sleeping, auntie,” Raven faked a timid tone like a scared kid would be like, not realizing she used what she called the nurses back in her day in the orphanage.The fog stopped.“You are not in bed,” The nurse said, “Naughty kid would be puni--”Before the nurse could sentence Raven, she quickly replied with a prepared story: “My bed was wet again, auntie. It was Annie. It must be.”Annie was a bully in Raven’s orphanage, five years older than her with a shitty character. Annie

Raven thought about sneaking out for clues, or testing the boundary of the game, but Ta-mew snuggled beside her. If the system’s strategy was using the cat to divert players from doing the quest, then... job well done.In the end, Raven closed her eyes for a couple of hours next to the crib. She wanted to keep the crib within reach just in case the nurse came back.The nurse never did. Nor the fog.No night kill?Raven woke up to the daylight probing into the window. Ta-mew was nowhere to be found.A pity. Raven wasn’t going to catch the cat for 10 gold, not after she suspected that the “duchess” might not be Ta-mew’s real owner. But she did want to make a friend, especially with such a handsome and smart one.“Maybe it was for the best,” Raven mumbled by the window after a quick scan outside, “Take care of yourself, cutie.”Ta-mew made her first night in this lethal game a lot more bearable.The Dormitory Rules said sleeping in a little was tolerable, but Raven left the room at 6 sha