Chapter 325: Turns Out Things Aren’t So Bad After All

"Pretty nice, don’t you think? Took me months of saving up my punctuality bonuses to afford it. You have no idea how much work it took to get it."

Mark’s voice came from right behind her, startling her so badly Mary nearly jumped off the bed.

She spun around quickly, heart pounding, and found him standing right behind her.

He held the first aid kit in one hand, gazing with obvious pride at the same computer Mary had been eyeing just seconds earlier.

"Y-yeah, it’s... it’s really nice," Mary answered hastily, looking away from the computer and failing miserably to hide her nervousness.

Mark, though, didn’t seem to notice a thing. He walked over with the first aid kit, letting out a tired smile as he gazed at the PC with a mix of pride and something like genuine affection.

"It’s honestly the best thing I own," he said, dropping down beside her on the edge of the bed. "Actually, it’s pretty much the only good thing in my whole life."

"..."

"Work’s shit, this apartment’s a dump, and don’t even get me started on the debt," he confessed, his tone dropping. "But when I turn that thing on and get to play for a while... I don’t know, it’s the only thing that makes everything else feel like it’s worth it."

Mary stayed quiet, watching him.

And she couldn’t help feeling a pang of guilt twist in her stomach, because just a moment ago she’d been plotting how to steal exactly that from him.

The one good thing that guy had in his life.

But beyond the guilt, what really hit her was how much she recognized herself in his words.

She had a computer too, old and noisy, that she clung to the exact same way.

It was her only refuge, the only place where she could disappear for a few hours, escape her mother, the beatings, that miserable life, and pretend to be someone else in a world where things didn’t hurt so much.

Both of them, each stuck in their own hole, clinging to the same thing just to keep from sinking completely.

Mark let out a long yawn that broke the silence.

"Ugh, sorry," he said, rubbing his eyes. "I’m beat, and I’ve got to be up early for work tomorrow, so let’s hurry this up, okay? Here, let me get a look at your face."

With a clumsiness softened by exhaustion and alcohol, he started tending to her wounds.

He cleaned the dried blood off her nose, carefully disinfected her split lip, and went over the bruises on her arms one by one, applying ointment where it was needed.

And as he worked, they chatted about nothing in particular, with an ease that Mary found both strange and comforting at the same time.

"Hey," she said at one point, more relaxed now. "So what do you do with the computer? You know, do you game, stream, that kind of stuff?"

"Game, mostly," Mark answered, not looking up from her arm, already slurring his words with sleepiness. "Most of my free time gets eaten up by this online game... don’t know if you’ve heard of it... Eternal Conquest Online."

Mary froze for a second.

"Eternal Conquest Online?" she repeated, and suddenly all her wariness vanished at once. "No way! I play that too! I’ve been hooked on it for years. You’re serious?"

For the first time in a long while, something lit up inside her.

A genuine emotion, almost childlike, the joy of finding someone who shared the one thing that brought her any happiness in life.

"What server are you on?" she asked in a rush. "What’s your username? We might have run into each other and not even kno—"

But she never got to finish the sentence.

Because, without any warning, Mark collapsed forward and fell on top of her, knocking her onto her back on the bed under his full weight.

And in that instant, Mary’s whole world froze.

All the warmth from a second ago evaporated, replaced by a cold, familiar terror, a thousand thoughts exploding in her head all at once.

She was about to be raped.

How had she not seen it coming?

How could she have been so stupid, so naive?

A stranger invites her up to his place, acts nice, disarms her with a couple of sweet gestures, and in the end this is what she gets in return.

The first time in years she’d let her guard down, dared to trust someone even a little, and this was what it earned her.

Mary squeezed her eyes shut, braced for the worst, and bitterly hated herself for letting herself be fooled.

But then, in the middle of that panic, she heard something.

A snore.

A deep, heavy, absolutely ridiculous snore, vibrating right against her shoulder.

Mary opened her eyes, confused, and turned her head as best she could.

Mark had passed out completely.

The exhaustion and the alcohol had finally caught up with him, and he’d dropped off instantly, collapsing on top of her without the slightest bad intention.

Little by little, the tension drained out of Mary’s body, and she let out the breath she’d been holding.

With no small effort, she managed to wriggle out from under him, and sat there for a moment on the bed, watching him sleep, his goofy face slack, mouth hanging open, snoring away.

"...Guess not everyone’s as terrible as I thought," she murmured to herself.

It was a new thought, almost strange, for someone whose whole life had taught her exactly the opposite.

Her gaze drifted back to the computer, still glowing in its corner.

The option was still there. She could take it.

It would solve her problem for the night, keep her mother calm for a good while. But no matter how much she thought it over, she couldn’t do it.

Not after what Mark had told her, not after learning that machine meant exactly the same thing to him that hers meant to her.

But then she noticed something that had gone unnoticed until then.

The bottle Mark had been carrying, now sitting abandoned on a small table, was a bourbon.

And the seal was still intact.

Mary picked it up, weighed it in her hand for a moment, and decided that was something she could take.

It would be enough to keep her mother happy that night, which was all she needed to avoid another beating.

Before leaving, though, she did something even she hadn’t expected.

She settled Mark properly on the bed, arranged his head on the pillow, and draped a wrinkled blanket over him so he wouldn’t get cold.

Then, bottle in hand, she left the apartment, closing the door carefully behind her.

When Mary got back to her own place, her mother greeted her at the door, as charming as ever.

"Well?" she snapped, grabbing her arm the moment she walked in. "Did you bring what I asked for, or am I going to have to teach you another lesson?"

Mary simply held up the bottle of bourbon.

Her mother’s face transformed instantly, shifting from threat to a greedy smile.

She snatched the bottle out of her hands, inspected it eagerly, and let out a satisfied laugh.

"Now that’s more like it!" she exclaimed. "See, you can be useful when you actually try."

"I’m going to my room," Mary said flatly, slipping off down the hallway.

Her mother, already uncapping the bottle, fired one last comment at her back.

"Well, well, well... guess you did end up sucking a few dicks after all, huh?" she said, with a laugh dripping with malice. "That stupid little smile you’ve got can’t mean anything else."

Mary didn’t bother answering. Didn’t even turn around.

She just walked into her room, closed the door behind her, and dropped onto the bed.

In the silence of her room, she raised her arms and studied the bandages Mark had put on her.

She stared at them for a long while.

"Tomorrow... I should go thank him tomorrow," she murmured quietly, before closing her eyes.