Nethersky - Chapter 5

Saddened by the fact that their son’s medicine would soon cease to function, the boy’s parents started putting their nose to the grindstone. They worked long hours and extra shifts for two months, before checking their bank account and finding wonderful news.

They had almost reached the number they needed.

All they needed was one more paycheck, and their boy would be better. Sadly, their efforts were in vain, and they would never see their son cured in their lifetime.

The day before their paycheck was scheduled to be sent to the bank, the boy’s father had to go to an office party, taking the boy’s mom along with him.

The memories suddenly paused and as Yuning was overwhelmed by immense grief he could tell things would go from bad to worst.

And he was right. The memories started up again with a police officer telling the other Yuning that his parents had passed away in a car accident on their way to the party.

Yuning could feel the disbelief coming off of his copy when he was told and couldn’t understand why until unknown information seeped in his mind.

He learned that in the futuristic age which his double lived, where smart cars are everywhere, vehicle accidents were extremely rare, unless an A.I. malfunction occurred.

It just so happened that the boy’s father had forgotten to send in the car’s A.I. for its mandatory yearly tune-up.

This memory relapse resulted in the malfunction of their car’s A.I’s system, and caused their vehicle to crash into the car of another couple who were crossing through the intersection at the time.

Although his double’s parent’s death was instant, it was what happened afterward that was heartbreaking.

While the boy and his little sister were mourning their parents’ loss, the other couple’s family sued them for the damage his parents had caused. The boy tried to fight it, but with the malfunctioning A.I. as evidence, he lost the case, and the money his parents saved for his cure disappeared.

As the memory of the verdict was fading, Yuning could feel the despair that was coming off the boy in waves and couldn’t help but be affected. A new memory appeared and things didn’t seem to be getting better.

Since his double had no other living relatives, there was no one to rely on; he could only depend on himself and his sister. However, his sister was still young, so he knew that it would be all up to him to find a way to deal with the mess they were in now.

However, the boy was without money, a job, and had a terrible illness that made him mute. With all these factors against him, the boy didn’t know what to do, but he knew he had to find a way to get some money so his sister wouldn’t be penniless when he died.

Once he sold everything of value in the home he grew up in, the boy moved him and his little sister to a cheap apartment he found, as he looked for a job. While he did so he began looking for ways to cut their monthly expenses.

The first thing he thought of was his medicine, it was much too costly and even if it wasn’t it wasn’t like it would matter if he took it or not. With the thought of having one less thing to buy, the boy wrote an email to his primary care doctor about why he wouldn’t be able to continue his treatments.

The doctor of the other Yuning had been taking care of the boy since he was young. Seeing how his long term patient was just giving made him feel terrible.

So after doing some research, the doctor sent the boy some information about programs that would be able to help him out. The information he found was for medical assistance, life insurance, and prescription assistance.

When the boy saw the information about life insurance, an idea came to him. From what he understood, he would only need to pay into it for a year, and after a year, if something would happen to him, his family would get a generous sum of five million dollars.

The boy knew that this wasn’t a large sum of money, but his sister would be able to live nicely until she graduated and got a job of her own.

Following his doctor’s advice, the other Yuning signed up for all of the programs sent to him. The medical and prescription aid was something the boy desperately needed and would be very helpful to him during this time.

The medical assistance would cover his hospital visits while the prescription assistance would pay for his drug treatments. Although he would still need to find a job so that he could pay for rent, food and utilities.

Lucky for him he was able to find a good job working from home as a speechwriter, that provided him with free internet and a laptop. He got the job by chance when an old friend contacted him and learned of his situation.

It was a great career for someone like himself, but it wasn’t the best paying job. He only earned around 1,000-2,500 dollars every two weeks, it was barely enough to help them get by.

After a grief-filled year passed, the other Yuning, who was on the edge of depression, decided that it would be best to put the idea he had into motion. The sooner he starts it the better it would be.

Since he knew that the life insurance wouldn’t pay out immediately, he begged his company to give him a high paying speech writing job, the last one he would do. It took a couple of weeks, but they found him one that would pay him over $10,000.

And as soon as he sent the speech and the money was in his bank account, he put his plan into action.

Yuning who was experiencing these memories started to feel a strong sense of regret and shame which made him weary of what was to come.

The first thing he saw was his double quit his job, by telling the company where he was employed that he wanted to find a new career path. Then after shipping back the computer they had given him for work, he then made an account in his sister’s name; that way, once he was dead, the money would be directly put into his sister’s hands.

Once that was taken care of, he used one of the computers at a net cafe that was a block away from his apartment, to search for different ways to kill himself without making it seem like a suicide. It took him quite a while, but he found a way to do so that would be easy and quick.

The method he found was to inject a needle full of air in a vein. This would cause him to have a heart attack and die. Although his death would be painful, he would die quickly, and it wouldn’t be classed as a suicide by the insurance company.

Luckily or unluckily, because of his cancer treatments, Yuning’s double had a lot of needles at home.

Although the boy was regretful that he had to leave his little sister alone in the world, he had no choice with how his cancer was progressing.

After getting a job as a speechwriter, the other Yuning had wanted to hold off his idea for a few more years so he could save up a little more money for his sister, but after a visit to the doctors, he knew that wasn’t an option.

He had learned that because of all the stress he was under, the medical treatments were only barely working, and soon his cancer would become more out of control. The doctor gave him a little over a year to live, and that was when the other Yuning’s decision became final.

However, things went from bad to worst, while picking a day to take his sister out to have one last day of fun together he got a call from the insurance company. They told him that since he didn’t tell them how severe his condition was they were canceling his insurance plan, and would refund his money.

Yuning could feel how utterly devastated the boy was when heard that news, it was like something had broken inside the boy. Dread began to well up, and Yuning began to worry what he would see next.

With his plan ruined now, the boy realized that the only thing he could do was change it. He couldn’t leave his sister helpless and alone in this world, he just couldn’t.

So instead of just killing himself the boy decided that he would kill them both. That way his family would be all together once more, even if it was only in death.

Faster than expected the day he picked to end it all had arrived. Determined to do this, the boy took his sister out, and bought her everything she wanted.

Once the enjoyable day with his sister was over, the other Yuning took her home, made her a delicious dinner before tucking her into bed. Before leaving he set a glass of poisoned water by her bedside.

He knew that she would wake up in the middle of the night thirsty like always. The poison was painless and instantaneous, since he couldn’t bear to see her hurt in any way.

Giving his sister one last smile as he signed goodnight to her, he headed to his room.

He took a long relaxing shower before changing into his favorite pajamas. After glancing at the portrait of his family on the wall one last time he grabbed one of the needles that was for his medical treatment.

Knowing that he had to act fast for he would only have a minute until the air reached his heart, he quickly stuck the needle in a vein underneath his toenail. Then as swiftly as he could, he discarded the syringe in the wastebasket next to his bed and lay back on his bed and waited for his death.

The pain was unbearable and the death that took only seconds seemed like hours, but he knew that he deserved this for what he was doing.

With one last final breath the boy died, and once his soul disappeared it awoke Yuning’s ancient one dragging it back to the living realm.

Yuning never thought he would have the chance to live once more, but it seems that his other self needed him to, since his regret and guilt was too strong.

When that realization took root, he suddenly found himself being pulled once more; this time into a room that was similar to the other two.