As a Serpentine Enchantress, my unique essence, when offered from the depths of my being, possessed the power to heal even terminal illnesses. After I cured Sterling of his cancer, I found another woman in our home. My six-year-old son grabbed a small knife and tried to hack at my serpentine tail. Both his and his father’s faces were twisted with disgust. “You killed Iris! You won’t get to kill Brittany too!” “I’ve already made it official with her. Now get out!” Leo rushed forward, clinging to Brittany’s leg, and spat at me. “I don’t want you, this ugly snake, as my mom! Aunt Brittany is my mom!” I massaged my chest, aching from having given my lifeblood, and my voice was raw with bitterness. “Then let’s get a divorce.” Sterling scoffed. “Our marriage license was fake. What’s there to divorce? Just get lost.” My son threw the toys I bought him directly at me. “Don’t come ruin our home with our new mommy! You’re not welcome here!” The front door slammed shut. I pulled out my phone. “Mr. Harrison, you heard it too. I really should go now.” A weary sigh echoed from the other end of the line. “Ah, Sterling has truly wronged you. Your debt has been repaid. Go, child, go…” **1.** The Serpentine Oracle stared at me, a cryptic smile playing on her lips. “Are you certain of your choice?” Outside the operating room, the red light pulsed, a blinding beacon. Sterling’s vital signs were fading, moment by moment. Cancer cells, like greedy vines, had coiled around him, leaving him with barely a breath. “Are you willing to sacrifice your very essence to unleash the primal power of your serpentine lineage, forever cursed to be half-human, half-spirit, enduring the eternal torment of the backlash?” The Serpentine Oracle’s voice carried a cold, tempting allure. “But your lifeblood… it can save him.” I gazed at Sterling’s pale face through the glass window. Six years ago, the memory of him kneeling in the rain, begging me to save him, suddenly flooded my mind. Back then, he wasn’t the high-and-mighty CEO Sterling he was today. He was just a man pushed to the brink by a terminal illness, clutching my hand, his voice choked. “Willow, if I live, I’ll protect you my whole life.” “I’m willing. Just as long as he lives.” I bit my fingertip and stained the ancient pact. A searing, bone-shattering pain instantly ripped through my entire body. The agony was so intense I couldn’t maintain my human form. My smooth calves merged and elongated, transforming into a long tail covered in shimmering silver scales. In a daze, I felt a warm liquid seeping from my neck. It was my serpentine essence, flowing down my collarbone. The Serpentine Oracle’s final gaze held a touch of pity. “Remember, each act of genuine affection will embed your scales deeper into your flesh; any wound inflicted by him will amplify the agony.” I dragged my serpentine tail, unable to retract it due to the extreme use of my power, and pushed open the front door. The pair of red high heels by the entrance were like a poisonous needle, plunging directly into my heart. “You hideous monster! Get out of our house!” My six-year-old son, Leo, wielding a small knife, lunged at me, his face contorted with hatred. “You killed Aunt Iris, and now you want to kill my Mommy Brittany too? Over my dead body!” I never imagined my own flesh and blood would attack me. I was too slow to dodge, frozen in place, until a sharp pain from my tail jolted me back to awareness. “Oh, Leo, be careful! Don’t let this thing that’s neither human nor beast hurt you.” Brittany pretended to reach out, seemingly to pull Leo away, but her fingers subtly pressed the small knife another half-inch deeper into my scales. I had spent the entire night healing Sterling, exhausting most of my essence. This scene before me now made me feel utterly desolate. The herbal soup I’d woken up at five in the morning to brew was still on the coffee table. It was a special concoction, made with my lifeblood and a rare serpentine extract, meant to nourish Sterling. Its fragrant aroma still lingered in the air. “Who told you to come back! You murderer, how dare you show your face and dirty Brittany’s eyes.” Sterling tenderly pulled Brittany into his arms. The blood-red gem around her neck seemed to pulse like an unstemmed gush of lifeblood. Sterling had bought it at an auction last year, claiming it was for his “most precious person.” Brittany feigned weakness, shrinking into Sterling’s embrace, her dress seemingly accidentally sweeping across the coffee table, deliberately knocking over the herbal pot. “Oh, my dress! My dear Cole specifically custom-made this for me. Sister, if you want it, I can let you have it.” Amidst the shattering sound of the pot, I heard the faint crack of my own scales. My lifeblood being so carelessly wasted felt like a blunt knife twisting repeatedly in my chest. Sterling’s gaze pierced me like an ice pick. “You trashy, low-class creature. Always resorting to dirty tricks. Get down on your knees and clean this up for Brittany.” Leo kicked me hard, spitting at me repeatedly. “Big bad monster! Big bad monster! Get on your knees and apologize to Mommy Brittany!” I instinctively curled my tail. The section of my tailbone, covered in fine silver scales, had just endured the backlash of the lifeblood sacrifice. It was now bruised purple, and large pieces of shattered scales, mixed with blood droplets, flew off. The Serpentine Oracle’s warning echoed in my ears again. The pain crawled up my spine, spreading through every limb. Tears streamed down my face uncontrollably. This was the child I had risked my life to give birth to after ten months of pregnancy! This was the husband I had saved by draining my lifeblood, enduring constant backlash, day and night! I humiliated myself, crawling towards Brittany, wanting to demand why she was destroying everything I had! She shrieked as if she’d been electrocuted. “Ah! Her scales scratched my leg!” Leo was distraught. “You actually hurt my mommy! You monster!” He lunged like a furious little beast, hacking at my serpentine tail with the knife, blow after blow. The sharp blade pierced through the scales, digging into my flesh. The pain made my vision swim. But Leo clapped his hands and laughed. “Tear open your snake skin! Let’s see how you can hurt anyone now!” I slumped powerlessly to the floor, the intense pain making it impossible to straighten up. I stared directly into Sterling’s eyes, trying to maintain some semblance of dignity. “Sterling, let’s get a divorce.” Sterling scoffed. “Our marriage license was fake. What’s there to divorce? Just get as far away as possible.” With that, he deliberately tossed a tattered little red booklet onto my wound. Fake marriage license? I froze. Six years ago, on that rainy night, he knelt before me, begging me to save him, saying that if he lived, he would be my true husband. I believed him, sacrificing half of my serpentine life, draining all my power! I fed him the powerful essence from my true form, watching him transform from a skeletal figure to a radiant, healthy man. But my cherished marriage license, like Sterling’s deceitful heart, had been fake from the very beginning. Another scale on my serpentine tail cracked, and I groaned in pain. The Serpentine Oracle was right after all. This bond, bought with my very life, was destined to be a pain that would pierce me to the bone, right from its root. **2.** The stench of blood mingled with the sharp scent of disinfectant, churning in my nostrils. The wound on my serpentine tail was still gushing blood. Every movement felt like countless needles piercing my marrow. The Serpentine Oracle’s warning of “double backlash” was now burrowing into my bones along the cracks in my scales. Brittany smugly stroked Sterling’s chest, her fingertips tracing his collar. That spot, where I used to playfully straighten his tie, was now Brittany’s territory, a symbol of her claim. Brittany chuckled, a sickly sweet sound laced with malice. “Sterling, look at her tail. So many scales have fallen off. It’s disgusting.” Sterling cast a dismissive glance at me, his eyes regarding me like a dirty rag. “You’re frail, don’t look at such vile things.” He raised a hand and beckoned the butler. “Drag her out and dump her in the old family mausoleum.” “No!” I snapped my head up, my tail twitching with urgency. “Sterling, have you forgotten? Six years ago, you were lying in that hospital bed, cancer cells spread throughout your body, and it was I…” “Shut up!” He cut me off sharply, his leather shoe grinding forcefully on my bloody, mangled tail. “If you hadn’t缠 wrapped me with your dark magic, why would I ever get involved with a monster like you?” “Iris was killed by your dark magic back then, and now Brittany is pregnant with my child. Are you trying to pull the same trick again?” Iris? My heart felt like it had been hit by a massive stone. That gentle, kind woman who used to secretly bring me healing salves… she had an accidental fall from a building. How had it become my fault? “Daddy, hurry and kick her out! I don’t want to see her for another second!” Leo ran over, brandishing the knife. Drops of blood from the blade fell on my hand, burning like fire. He suddenly remembered something, then rushed into the bedroom, emerging with a metal box. He slammed it hard into my face. The box burst open, spilling its contents onto the floor—my collection of shed serpentine scales from the past six years. Each piece had been meticulously cleaned and strung together with gold thread into protective charms. When he was little, he always wore them around his neck, saying, “Mommy’s scales protect me.” “These disgusting things! I’ve wanted to throw them away for ages!” Leo stomped on the specimens, as if crushing a pile of garbage. “Mommy Brittany said wearing them would turn me into a monster!” I looked at the crushed scales and suddenly laughed, though tears streamed uncontrollably down my face. So, six years of mother-son affection, in his eyes, was nothing more than the “mark of a disgusting monster.” Brittany suddenly let out a dramatic gasp, clutching her lower abdomen and frowning. “Sterling, my stomach hurts a little…” Sterling’s face immediately darkened. He yanked me up, his grip so fierce it felt like he would crush my bones. “You jinx! If anything happens to Brittany or the baby, I’ll skin you alive!” He flung me towards the door. My tail slammed against the doorframe with a sickening crack, as if my tailbone had fractured. The excruciating pain made my vision blacken. In a haze, I saw a red booklet, sealed away, on the hallway cabinet. It was a marriage certificate. In the photo, Sterling had his arm around Brittany, smiling so tenderly—a smile I had never seen directed at me. “See?” His voice was laced with ice. “*This* is legitimate. The one in your hand was just a trick to get you to use your powers to save me.” I used the wall to prop myself up. The blood from my tail left dark red streaks on the floor, like a desperate, bleeding serpent. “Sterling,” I rasped, each word tearing at my chest. “When I saved you, I expended ninety percent of my power, almost struck down by heavenly lightning. You promised you’d protect Leo and me for life.” “Witchcraft!” His eyes burned with malice. “Take your tail and get out of my sight!” Leo suddenly picked up a piece of broken glass from the floor and fiercely stabbed my uninjured tail tip. “Get out! Don’t you dare hurt my Mommy Brittany!” Amidst the shattering of scales, I finally, utterly, woke up. The Serpentine Oracle’s pact burned in my veins. So, for six years, what I’d given half my life for was nothing but a cruel deception. The child I’d fought to bring into this world had become the sharpest knife plunged into my heart. I dragged my broken tail towards the door. As I passed the red high heels, I glanced at them again—the heels were caked with dirt, as if they’d just come from a cemetery. The door slammed shut behind me, shaking my tailbone with another jolt of pain. I slumped against the wall, pulling out my phone. Blood from my fingers smeared the screen, and it took several tries to dial the correct number. “Mr. Harrison,” I whispered, staring at the closed door, hearing Brittany’s sweet-talk and Leo’s laughter inside. A metallic taste flooded my throat. “You heard it too. I really should go now.” A weary sigh echoed from the other end of the line. “Alas, Sterling has truly wronged you. Your debt has been repaid. Go, child, go…” I hung up, looking at my phone’s screensaver—a photo of Leo at three, fast asleep on my serpentine tail, his face flushed, clutching one of my silver scales. I wiped away my tears and tossed the phone into the trash. **3.** Just as I stepped out of the apartment building, the intense pain in my tailbone worsened dramatically. The Serpentine Oracle’s curse, branded beneath my scales, flared with heat. This was the backlash from excessive use of my essence. I stumbled, leaning against the wall, my vision swimming. I had to get to a hospital, even if just to deal with the bleeding wound. I flagged down a taxi and managed to gasp out the name of the nearest hospital before the pain stole my words. The driver kept glancing at me in the rearview mirror, hesitating, likely shocked by my blood-streaked serpentine tail. At the hospital, the emergency room buzzed with chaotic activity. I had just reached the triage desk when I heard a familiar voice. “Doctor! Quickly, my wife! She’s having severe abdominal pain!” It was Sterling. He was carefully supporting Brittany, his tension something I’d never seen, not even when I almost perished saving his life. Brittany leaned into his embrace, her face ashen, weakly whimpering, “Sterling, I’m so scared… will the baby be okay?” Doctors and nurses immediately crowded around them, asking questions in a flurry. “Quick, stretcher! Prepare for examination!” I bit back the agonizing pain and nausea, managing to say to a nurse, “Help me… I’m in so much pain…” The nurse looked at my bloody, mangled serpentine tail, then at Brittany, surrounded by the crowd, and her expression turned difficult. “Miss, it’s not that we don’t want to help you, but all the doctors have been called by Mr. Sterling to treat his wife.” “I can’t wait. I just need one doctor to help me,” I ground out, the pain in my tailbone almost making me black out. Just then, Sterling saw me. His eyes hardened, and he roared at the doctors, “Don’t mind this monster! Save my wife first! If anyone dares to treat her, they won’t work in this hospital again!” The doctors exchanged uneasy glances, but in the end, no one dared to approach me. I leaned against the wall in despair, feeling my life force draining away little by little. The Serpentine Oracle had said that when my serpentine essence was fully depleted, that would be the moment my soul scattered into nothingness. “You persistent, wicked creature, still trying to cause trouble!” Leo suddenly rushed out from the crowd, holding an iron rod, and fiercely swung it at my serpentine tail. “Leo!” I stared at him in disbelief. This child, whom I had carried for ten months, this child, for whom I had used my scales to ward off disaster, was repeatedly attacking me with such cruelty. The moment the iron rod struck the wound, the backlash of the curse erupted with a roar. I felt like I was thrown into a vat of boiling oil, screaming in agony. My vision went black, and I almost collapsed. “You deserve it! Who told you to bully Mommy Brittany!” Leo saw my wretched state and, not feeling satisfied, raised the rod to strike again. Just as I was sinking into despair, a hand firmly gripped Leo’s wrist. “How can such a young child be so vicious?” I looked up and saw a man in a white coat, his demeanor gentle, yet his eyes held a sharp, all-knowing insight. His name tag read “Dr. Julian, Head of Surgery.” His gaze fell on the wound at the tip of my tail, and he frowned slightly, seeming to recognize the faint golden covenant patterns glowing beneath the scales. “Who are you? How dare you interfere with the Sterling family’s business?” Sterling demanded, furious. Dr. Julian ignored him. He gently helped me up, his fingertips inadvertently brushing over the curse mark on my tail, and murmured, “I know this kind of pain. Just bear with it.” His voice was soft, yet it carried a reassuring strength. Dr. Julian ignored him and gently helped me up. “Miss, are you alright? I’ll arrange surgery for you immediately.” “No!” Sterling blocked him. “A monster, she’s dead anyway, why waste time?” Dr. Julian frowned. “In a hospital, there are only patients, no monsters. Mr. Sterling, please step aside.” He helped me, firmly bypassing Sterling. “Besides, you seem to forget, if it weren’t for this young lady six years ago, you wouldn’t be alive today.” I looked at Dr. Julian and gave a mocking smile. In my most desperate moment, my so-called family had all abandoned me, even adding insult to injury. Only a stranger, who seemed to know about the Serpentine Oracle’s curse, had resolutely extended a helping hand. “Thank you,” I said weakly. Dr. Julian simply nodded, speaking gently. “Don’t worry, I’m the best surgeon. Not only can I treat your wound, but I also know how to temporarily suppress the backlash of this pact.” He paused, then added, “My ancestors had a pact with the Serpentine Oracle, a vow to protect her descendants.” I smiled faintly. Behind me, Sterling’s enraged shouts and Brittany’s feigned dissuasion echoed, but I no longer cared. Inside the consultation room, Dr. Julian closed the door and began to meticulously treat my wound. “Hold still, it might hurt a little. But you’re safe with me. Even if I have to snatch you from the jaws of death, I promise I’ll save you.” I nodded, watching his focused profile, a warmth spreading through my heart. Perhaps, my life still had a chance. Just as I began to relax, Brittany’s piercing scream cut through the closed door. “Help! My baby! Blood, there’s blood everywhere, Sterling…” Sterling kicked the door with furious force, pounding it like a drum. “Willow! Get out here! If Brittany loses the baby, I’ll make sure you pay with your life!” **4.** My tail tip suddenly twitched. Dr. Julian’s hand on the back of my neck tightened. “Don’t move, the bone fragments will embed deeper.” His fingertips, stained with my blood, dripped red, like scattered plum blossoms, into the tray. “The serpentine curse is dangerous. We need to debride the wound immediately.” “Debride?” I gave a self-deprecating laugh, the movement tugging at my wound with excruciating pain. “He probably won’t even let me leave this room alive.” The backlash from my once beloved was more than I could endure in my current state. No sooner had I spoken than the consultation room door was violently thrown open. Sterling stormed in, clutching the hospital director’s collar. The director’s white coat was creased, still stained with Brittany’s ‘blood’—a color so vividly bright, it looked like freshly opened antiseptic. “Dr. Julian, please be accommodating,” the director said, rubbing his hands obsequiously. “Mr. Sterling is offering an additional one million. Could you… perhaps ask this lady to leave?” “One million?” Dr. Julian set down his probe, the clinking of instruments as cold as ice. “Is that enough to compensate her for six years of lifeblood, or to settle the Serpentine Oracle’s pact?” He looked up, his gaze sweeping over Sterling. “Six years ago, when you were in the ICU, you knelt and begged her to shed her blood to save your life.” Leo also squeezed through the door, clutching the treatment cart, and picked up a pair of surgical scissors, gesturing with them. “Monster, watch me cut off your serpentine tail! Mommy Brittany says if it’s cut off, she won’t hurt anymore!” “Leo!” I cried out in alarm, the pain in my tailbone suddenly turning numb. “See? Even our child knows who the real threat is.” Sterling’s eyes were poisoned with venom. “Willow, crawl out yourself, and I’ll leave you with a whole body.” “Sterling, are you truly unwilling to open your eyes and see?” I stared intently at the wall behind him, where Brittany was feigning weakness, leaning against it. “The ‘blood’ on her dress… isn’t that the antiseptic from the nurses’ station down the hall?” Brittany’s face instantly paled, but Sterling backhanded me. “Shut up! Still trying to sow discord.” My cheek burned, and the taste of blood filled my throat. I licked my lips and suddenly laughed. “Sterling, you’ll spend your entire life living in her lies.” Dr. Julian, quick as lightning, snatched Leo’s wrist. The tip of the scissors was barely an inch from my scales. Leo thrashed wildly in his arms, spitting on the doctor’s face. “She killed Aunt Iris! She’s a wicked, bad woman!” “Iris?” I stiffened. So this was the poison Brittany had been feeding Leo. Brittany suddenly covered her mouth, tears streaming down her face. “Leo, stop talking. She won’t admit it.” Sterling’s face turned iron-gray instantly. He grabbed my throat with both hands, his grip tightening. “I was going to spare your life, but it seems I was too soft-hearted.” Dr. Julian tried to intervene, but Leo bit his arm, holding on tightly. Just as the feeling of suffocation surged, a stern male voice echoed down the hallway. “You savage, let go!” Sterling’s hands, clutching my throat, froze abruptly. His strength drained away, bit by bit. He turned back in shock, and when he saw Mr. Harrison leaning on his cane, his Adam’s apple bobbed, unable to speak a word.
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