Blood on the Altar

Four times I tried to save him, but I still could not change the ending of him giving up his life for the female lead.

He attended Mia's wedding with a forced smile, and then he came home, took a blade, and climbed into the bathtub. The metallic scent hit me before I even reached the bathroom.

Blood soaked the white porcelain. Harrison lifted his heavy eyelids.

His lips curved into a pale, broken smile. "Mia got married… I can't hold on anymore, Gen… But she's happy… I'm so glad she's happy." My throat seized.

Every breath felt like swallowing shattered glass. "What about me?" My voice cracked, barely a whisper in the suffocating room.

His eyes drifted shut. "I'm sorry…" The crumpled sonogram slipped from my numb fingers. It drifted to the bloodstained tile.

He didn't know I had heard that exact apology three times before. But this time was different. This time, I was carrying his child.

The system's deafening alarm pierced my skull, and my world was restarted once again. Chapter 1 My lungs desperately pulled in the air.

When my vision cleared, I was staring at a familiar brick alleyway. Harrison, eighteen years old and bruised, was pinned against the wall.

A drop of blood gathered at the corner of his mouth. His eyes cut through the circle of laughing guys surrounding him, locking dead onto mine.

He wore that faded high school hoodie, taking the shoves and the relentless trash talk without a flinch. He didn't fight back. He didn't even raise his hands to block.

He just watched me. I knew this scene by heart. Every time before, I would throw myself into the fray. I would scream, claw, and shield him from the blows.

But today, my sneakers felt glued to the cracked pavement. Because in my last life, I found his diary. I finally learned the truth about this little alleyway rescue.

He was waiting for Mia. He wanted his shining female lead to pull him from the wreckage, not the pathetic extra who threw herself into the crossfire.

The ultimate tragic second male lead. Even his teenage crush was a quiet, bleeding sacrifice meant only for her.

The system blared in my head, a frantic siren demanding I play my part. I let out a slow breath and stepped forward. The guys noticed my approach.

A sneer crossed the face of a guy with a terrible bleached buzzcut. "Look who it is. The desperate little puppy." "Thinks she's freaking Wonder Woman," his buddy choked out a laugh.

I kept my face blank, walking right past the bleached kid. I stopped directly in front of Harrison and crouched down. He looked down at me.

There was no surprise in his eyes, just a dull, resigned acceptance. He expected me to save him. I reached my hand out toward him. My fingers brushed past his torn sneakers.

I picked up the foilwrapped bagel sandwich resting in the dirt. I brushed a speck of dust off the shiny wrapper. "Thank god it's intact," I muttered. I took a massive bite.

The toasted bagel was still warm, the melted cheese and egg exactly how I requested it at the deli this morning.

He never ate breakfast, so I used to waste my mornings buying him something different every day. Chapter 2 I kept chewing, looking up at the thugs with a full mouth. "My bad.

Wrong delivery. You guys carry on." For a second, the only sound in the alley was me chewing my breakfast. Harrison froze.

For the first time, a crack of absolute shock fractured his usually gentle eyes. The color drained from his face. He pressed his lips into a thin line and turned his head away.

I did not spare him another glance. I kept eating my bagel and walked right past his shoulder.

When Harrison slipped into the classroom just as the warning bell rang, his hoodie was dripping wet. His eyes found mine. His lips parted, a silent word hanging between us.

I broke eye contact. I propped my biology textbook up like a barricade and let my mind drift.

Back when I first accepted the system's mission, I went straight for the easiestlooking target. Redeem the gentle second male lead.

I was naive enough to think saving a kind soul would be simple. My first attempt, I played the loyal friend. I took the hits from his deadbeat drunk dad.

I drained my bank account to cover his mom's hospital bills. I dragged him out of his darkest days and watched him rise into a brilliant, celebrated scientist.

The night before his biggest award ceremony, I bought him a bouquet of flowers. Instead of a celebration, I got an invitation to his funeral.

His final message to me was two words. "I am sorry." But for Mia? He left three solid pages of ink. He wrote out his heartfelt blessings for her newlywed life.

He mapped out her birthday presents for the next decade. He even left a trust fund for her future unborn children. The second time around, the system suggested I try romance.

Harrison was the perfect boyfriend. He was the guy who showed up in pouring rain, tilting the umbrella entirely over me while his own shoulders got drenched.

He was the guy who drove out at two in the morning to buy me cupcakes when my cramps were bad, swallowing all my irrational mood swings without complaint.

He would watch me sleep in the morning light, resting his chin on his hand, smiling before pressing a soft kiss to my forehead. I fell for him.

I accepted his proposal without a second thought. On our wedding day, I went to sleep floating on pure joy. I woke up spooning a corpse. His skin was ice.

An empty pill bottle lay by his stiff fingers, white tablets scattered across the rug. His phone screen cast a sickening blue glow in the dark.

He had just liked Mia's post showing off her marriage license. I unlocked his phone. His drafts folder held dozens of unsent texts.

Every single one was wishing Mia a lifetime of happiness. Attempt three. Attempt four. Always the exact same pattern.

One minute, my phone would buzz with a text from him asking what I wanted for dinner, babe. An hour later, I would come home to a crime scene. He had already stepped off a roof.

Until this last time. The night before he died, he had his lips pressed to my stomach. He kissed my skin, whispering about our future together.

I had already opened the system interface, typing up my formal application to stay in this world forever. But the moment Mia got her happily ever after, Harrison ended his own life.

Like a machine completing its final directive. Chapter 3 The memory of that crimsonsoaked bathroom tile crashed over me.

The world I had desperately held together shattered into dust. I had tried so hard. I had monitored every single plot point where Mia might trigger his depression.

I had glued myself to his side. But you cannot stop a landslide with your bare hands. I finally understood. The tragic, gentle second male lead exists only to bleed for the heroine.

He cannot be saved by an extra. I was so deeply, boneachingly tired. I could not save him, and I did not want to try anymore. I had submitted my mission abort request overnight.

The system was currently sighing its way through the bureaucratic chain of command for approval. The bell rang.

Our homeroom teacher stood at the front, announcing a new seating arrangement based on our class ranks.

When it was Mia's turn to pick a lab partner, her gaze drifted between Harrison and Winston.

Harrison watched her, his knuckles white as he gripped the hem of his faded shirt. "I will sit with Winston," Mia said softly.

Harrison's hand, halfway to pulling out the chair beside him, froze in midair. He dropped his gaze. His shoulders slumped, the devastation practically radiating off him.

I knew this beat perfectly. In my past lives, I would have marched right over.

I would have announced loudly that I was choosing Harrison, desperate to stitch his shredded pride back together. But this time?

I spotted the empty desk next to Connor, the school's notorious resident delinquent. I walked straight over and dropped my backpack onto the chair.

The scrape of my chair woke Connor up. He shot me a venomous glare. "Keep it down, would you?" I completely ignored him, calmly taking out my notebooks.

In my peripheral vision, Harrison sat alone by the window. The seat next to him remained empty. He looked like a tragic painting.

When the next bell signaled a break, Harrison walked over to my desk. "Gen, why didn't you—" Before he could finish, Connor stormed back into the classroom. "Gen, let me copy your calculus homework, hurry up!" Connor demanded, reaching across my desk to grab my binder.

Suddenly, Harrison stepped right between us. He physically blocked Connor's reach. A sharp flicker of irritation cracked Harrison's perpetually gentle mask.

He shoved his own calculus notebook into Connor's chest. "Use mine." Connor blinked, caught off guard. He mumbled a rough thanks, slumped back into his seat, and started scribbling.

The lunch bell shrilled. Students flooded out of the room toward the cafeteria. Harrison stayed planted by his desk, his eyes tracking my every move.

I knew exactly what he was waiting for. Usually, right at this moment, I would pull two insulated lunch bags from my locker and slide one onto his desk.

His mother was bedridden with a chronic illness, and he worked late shifts just to keep the lights on.

In my past lives, that pathetic, bruisedpuppy look broke me every single time.

This time, I walked right up to Connor. "Weren't you buying me lunch?" Connor scratched the back of his neck. "Oh right.

Let us go, they opened a new taco stand in the cafeteria." I followed Connor out the door. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Harrison just standing there.

The rims of his eyes were flushed red. He looked completely lost. The next day at lunch, he waited again.

When I walked right past him for the second day in a row, his voice cracked. "Gen…" I did not even break my stride.

I grabbed a friend from the next classroom and dragged her down the hallway toward the cafeteria.

Chapter 4 On the third day, he finally cracked. "Let's go grab lunch." His voice was low. Probing. I raised an eyebrow.

Before I could even open my mouth, Mia burst through the classroom door. Her eyes were red and swollen. She had obviously been crying. Harrison stiffened.

Panic instantly erased his tentative demeanor. "Mia, what's wrong?" "Winston…" She choked back a sob. "He promised to study with me at the library. He blew me off for basketball.

Again." "Hey, don't cry. He probably just lost track of time." Harrison shoved a tissue into her hand.

His tone was sickeningly sweet. "But this is the third time…" "I will take you to the library.

I have a few books to return anyway." They bounced the tragic dialogue back and forth, completely trapped in their own world. I became totally invisible.

I did them a favor, slipping out of the room and clicking the door shut behind me. Our senior class camping trip was supposed to be the final hurrah before graduation.

I fully planned to skip it. But Connor spent the entire morning buzzing in my ear like a defective mosquito. "It is our last senior trip, Gen. Come on.

Throw me a bone here." I finally caved just to shut him up and dragged myself onto the chartered bus. The cabin was deafening.

I did not even notice Harrison sliding into the empty aisle seat beside me until the bus lurched forward. A sickly flush stained his cheeks.

Clammy sweat glued dark strands of hair to his forehead.

He weakly tugged my sleeve. "Gen… I feel so dizzy." I threw him a deadpan sideeye. "I can tell." My icy reaction caught him off guard.

A flicker of deep, bruised hurt crossed his eyes. "You used to… you always packed Dramamine for me…" He sounded delirious.

His voice dropped to a feverish whisper. "That time my fever spiked… you ran through the pouring rain to the pharmacy… When my stomach ulcer flared up, you sat up all night just to rub my stomach…" My lungs locked.

The blood roared in my ears, completely drowning out the chatter of the bus. Those things had not happened. Not in this timeline. Those were fragments from my past lives.

I mentally slammed the system's panic button. Nothing. Just a dead dial tone whining in the back of my skull. A violent jolt snapped my spine back against the seat. Tires screeched.

Someone screamed from the front row. "Rockslide!" The heavy bus fishtailed, tipping dangerously to the right. Gravity vanished.

The aisle transformed into a chaotic blender of flying backpacks and shattering glass. Harrison's fever broke instantly.

He launched himself over the back of the seat directly in front of us, tackling Mia to the floor. He curled his entire body over hers like a human shield.

I slammed hard against the window pane. Connor lunged across the aisle.

He threw his heavy arm over my head, grounding me against the violent shaking and taking the brunt of a flying metal thermos with a sharp grunt. "Lab partner!" Connor yelled over the crunch of twisting metal, baring his teeth. "You owe me math homework!

Every single day until graduation!" The bus ground to a brutal halt. Dust choked the cabin. We stumbled out through the emergency exits into the blinding sunlight.

Winston already had his arms wrapped tightly around Mia. She did not have a single scratch. Harrison was not so lucky. A jagged shard of metal had sliced his forearm open.

Bone flashed white beneath the torn flesh. Dark blood rapidly soaked his gray sleeve. He sat alone on a boulder by the shoulder of the road.

He clamped a makeshift tourniquet over the gash, his dim eyes locked onto Mia and Winston.

Connor nudged my ribs with his elbow. "Hey." He jerked his chin toward Harrison. "You're not going to check on your boy?" Chapter 5 I was busy dabbing antiseptic onto his scraped arm.

I clicked my tongue. "Worry about yourself, tough guy." I pressed the alcoholsoaked cotton swab directly onto his skin.

Connor practically jumped out of his skin, letting out a string of curses. I rubbed my ringing ear. That was when I felt it. A heavy stare boring into the side of my head. I turned.

Harrison was staring at me. His lips were pressed into a tight line, the rims of his eyes flushed a harsh red.

I broke eye contact and turned back to Connor. "Gen…" His voice was rough, barely scraping past his throat. "I can't tie this bandage with one hand.

Can you help me?" A harsh, incredulous laugh punched its way out of my chest. "Not my circus, not my monkeys.

Go ask the girl you threw yourself in front of to play nurse." The pathetic, woundedpuppy look vanished from his eyes.

A spark of genuine hope replaced it. "Are you… are you mad because I've been spending time with Mia?

I swear, she and I are just—" "You two could be mother and son for all I care." I cut him off dead in his tracks. "Excuse me. You're blocking the light." He froze.

His arm dropped limply to his side. The halftied tourniquet came undone as he just stood there, letting the deep gash bleed freely while I walked away. The ride back was heavy.

The chaotic energy from earlier was completely gone, leaving everyone exhausted and silent. Then, Winston suddenly stood up.

Five hundred dollars from the senior class fund was missing. "It was in the front pocket of my duffel before we boarded." Winston tore through his bag, his jaw clenched tight.

The cabin erupted. Someone from the back shouted. "Search the bags!

The cash has to still be here!" Amid the chorus of angry agreements, Harrison instinctively wrapped his arms tighter around his wornout backpack. It was a micromovement.

But in that hypertense environment, it was a glaring red flag. "Harrison. What's in the bag?" one of the guys demanded.

All the color drained from Harrison's face. "Just my textbooks…" "Let's see it then." A couple of guys swarmed him, violently ripping the canvas bag from his grip.

The zipper busted. The contents spilled across the dirty aisle floor.

A few cracked textbooks, a peeling fauxleather wallet, and a thick stack of crumpled bills. "What's this?" Winston snatched the cash off the floor and quickly thumbed through it. "Exactly five hundred." Panic seized Harrison.

He shook his head frantically. "That's not the class fund!

That's my mom's prescription money for the month—" "Drop the act." A girl sneered from the window seat. "Everyone knows you're broke.

Where else would you get five hundred in cash?" The entire bus glared at him. The disgust in the air was palpable.

Desperate, his eyes locked onto Mia. "Mia," his voice came out as a broken rasp. "You know. I just got my paycheck from the diner yesterday…" Mia looked back at him.

Her eyes were swimming with profound disappointment. "Harry… I really didn't think you would sink this low. If you needed money, you could have just asked us.

How could you steal the class fund?" The light in Harrison's eyes shattered. His mouth opened, but his throat seized. Not a single sound made it past his lips.

Watching him drown in panic, a ghost of a memory surfaced. In every single past life, I would have thrown myself into the fire for him here.

I would have been his fiercest defender against the whole world. But this time… I didn't want anything to do with him.

Still, I wasn't going to play dumb when I knew exactly what happened.

I let out a slow exhale and pointed a single finger toward the overhead luggage rack. "Is that stack of paper up there the cash you're crying about?" Chapter 6