Mercy

"Is there someone else, perhaps another family member that we could contact?" The lady at the front desk was outside of her station sitting beside Parker who had returned inside with the card shoved carelessly down his pocket and the towel on his head. "Why are you asking me that all of a sudden?" he looked up at her, and she gave him a look from head to toe and then expressed a concerned smile. "Mr Carter, you said you walked all the way to the hospital, and from the weather, before you got here and the direction of your home, it's impossible that you couldn't have found a single person to carry you here, no taxis not any friends, I only assumed that you wouldn't be able to afford her medical bills-" "My sister's fine!" He interrupted her causing the woman to sit up straight and sigh. "She most certainly is not fine Parker, your sister has a tumour in her brain, a large one, we told you this already but that scan alone is twenty thousand dollars, and it doesn't seem like you have enough money to pay for it, health insurance can't cover everything, she needs surgery and she needs it as soon as possible otherwise she will definitely die, and have you ever heard of brain surgery going for less than two hundred thousand?" She asked him and he seemed to suck in a breath instead of firing off a retort. "She's fine... a little rest and she'll be on her feet again." He tried lying to himself, but it just seemed to make him more miserable. "She's fine..." "Do you have anyone to help you?" the clerk asked him again, placing a sympathetic hand on his shoulder after clearly seeing that he was helpless. "What about your parents?" "Our parents are alive if that's what you mean, and they're both healthy too, but they're barely making enough to feed themselves, my sister's been working for herself and myself while I've been wasting away, like the useless piece of rot I am I ignored everything around me... even my own sister..." He held his head and sobbed as he forced the tears to remain in his head and not fall. "So to answer your question, no, we don't have any money, none of us do, and my sister's insurance can't even pay for a quarter of her bills, so what am I supposed to do?" He asked her, and she smiled sadly at him, she knew what he was asking, she knew that he was asking of he should simply give up on his sister and move on, she could see the defeat in his eyes as he spoke, but she chose not to listen to that kind of darkness and instead give him a sliver of hope. "I suppose there are a few ways you could try Mr Carter, I can't say I'd be able to sleep if I watched another young person give up on their family because they couldn't afford to pay for their treatment. "I can't say for a fact that any of these are solid ways and they're not exactly legal you could be getting yourself in trouble even trying to raise this money in such a short time..." "Short time," Parker asked causing her to raise her hand to her mouth and then sigh realising she'd have told him anyway. "The scans, indicate that your sister may have less than two more months to live... unless she gets the surgery on her brain." She explained and Parker's eyes went wide with shock and horror, he leapt into a stand causing the clerk to double back as his feet slapped against the white tiled floors, gone was the pathetic image he had cast before as he seemed ready to charge into any conceivable danger for his sister's sake. "What do I need to do, tell me, anything at all, I'll do it... no matter what..." he slowed down and then looked at his pants horrified and held his face, thinking back to what happened before he returned to the hospital. "Something the matter?" the clerk asked him and he looked at her with the same shock. "I called them... and cancelled it... my spot in the games." He shook with shock and then sat back eyes and mouth ajar. "Pardon?" the clerk was there trying to figure out what he was talking about. "Can I borrow twenty dollars... in silver coins?" He looked at her and her eyes turned as her brows leaned. "Are you serious right now?" she asked him, but staring at the determination on his face she gave in and went for her purse behind her desk. "What is this about?" she asked him. "Did you figure something out?" She didn't fully understand why she even cared, he was a stranger to her, yet she had an urge to help him, which was why in her break while there was another in her post she had spent that time trying to help him figure something out. It was not any kind of attraction. She was a married woman, but for some reason, she just felt like seeing him there in that situation felt wrong, him in the mud like this felt off and made her uneasy, whoever this Parker Carter man was, she saw greater things coming out of his existence and latched on to his life on instinct to be a small part of that, whatever it was. "I need to make a call, but they already told me not to contact them again, so I might end up calling several times, so I need twenty dollars unless you can lend me your phone..." He looked at her hopefully and then felt that hope drain away after she responded by saying "I left my phone at home today... accidentally." "She didn't even think twice about giving him the money, even though his vague response had left her more curious than before about what he had gotten himself into when he had gone missing for hours before returning soaked and tired. He took the twenty dollars and practically raced through the front doors, paving himself to the closest payphone he could find and opening it up, but as he inserted the first coin and turned around there the clerk was again observing him, she almost frightened him being in there with him but just as she felt no attraction toward him, he felt none toward her either, to him she was a kind woman helping him out in his time of need, he planned on thanking her with his all if this gamble worked out. Never before had Parker ever been this disappointed in himself, after the woman had approached him he'd gone and placed around thinking about her offer for hours before calling the number on the card and cancelling his chance at winning a billion dollars on the survival island, not that it didn't make sense, all kinds of people joined that game, and there was ever only one winner, he was desperate though and he knew that for the losers, their families reviewed compensation for their loss as it was an event publicly viewed, rated PG 16 because of the content that sometimes presented itself while the survival games were in process, people died, more than that all sorts of crimes were committed, people generally did whatever they wanted to on that island, W.I.P had created a world where no laws existed, and then thrown one hundred desperate people in it telling them to be the last to survive, obviously it was a nightmare, but the ratings were so high and the profit the company drew in was so plentiful that they got away with airing it online, and nobody could do a thing about it. Parker dialled in the barely visible number from the crushed card into the machine and then called, but as he had expected, it went right to voicemail. "The number you are dialling does not exist, please check your digits carefully and try again." Came a voice from the other end, and his heart sank. "A dollar per call," Parker said to the woman whose name he had yet to hear and gave her the next eighteen dollars to hold on to as he placed the other in the machine and called the number again, but once more there was nobody on the other end and it went right to the auto answer telling him to check and try another number. "Could it be that they've changed the number?" The clerk asked and Parker shook his head in the negative. He was many things but incompetent was not one of them. "She told me that the number will remain usable until a week from now, I think it is working..." They stood out there for a total of fifteen minutes calling the same number after that, hoping someone would answer. "This is the last one." The woman gave Parker the coin and watched as his hand shook when he inserted it, dialled in the number, and then paused on the call button then erased the number. "What are you doing?" She asked him, and he looked at her as the last drop of water let go of his hair and fell on his nose. "They won't answer me, they're deliberately ignoring calls to that number, I'll use this one to call my parents instead, I tried earlier, but they did not respond, and then my phone stopped working because of the rain..." "You're giving up then?" She asked, and he sighed and looked at the phone in his hand. "I can't do anything, maybe if I find someone I can trust, I could sell my kidneys and liver, and my heart is pretty healthy too, maybe all my organs would be enough to pay for her surgery, and any other surgery afterwards, what's left she could use to get a fresh start away from our parents and without me in her life to hold her down..." "Parker that's wishful thinking..." "How else am I gonna make all that money?" He turned to her and she paused. "I have nothing and nobody to turn to, I don't know jack s**t about gambling and I've never even gambled successfully once in all my life, I owe loan sharks too, I owe them nearly a hundred thousand dollars in debt, with that money my sister can have a fresh start away from the life I lived, away from the life I forced her to live, it just makes more sense!" "Losing your life makes no sense at all!" The clerk snapped back at him. "There is always an alternative!" She yelled, and Parker huffed through his nose and sighed. "That may be the case for you... but just look at me, these pants are the only pair I own, I have no shirt because the only one I had was in the laundry, my sister ended up here because I sat on a toilet seat for hours playing mobile games and ignored her, ignored her health and her existence... what you see, what I have here before you is all I have, there's nothing I own besides my body, so I should use it to make at least this much right." He turned to the phone and dialled his home number then waited as the phone rang three times. "This is the Carter household." Came a voice he didn't recognise, and he froze. "Hello?" The man on the other end called out. "Who is this?" Parker asked almost as if he was going to faint. "Ah sorry, I don't actually live here I'm working a crime scene right now, do you know the Carters, do you perhaps know the whereabouts of the two siblings belonging here?" He asked, but Parker had already dropped the phone upon hearing the crime scene. Aside from his sister's blood, there should have been nothing else there, so hearing that he'd lost his cool completely and gone in a panic attack, it was the clerk holding the phone and listening to the man speak. "Did something happen at the carter residence?" She asked. "My name is Ti-Sue, I'm... a family friend and also staff of the Jacobson's hospital a few miles away, is there some way I can help?" "I'm sorry to ask this of you, but if you do get in contact with Parker Carter or his younger sister please direct them to the morgue, even though we are fairly sure these are their parents, we still need them to identify the bodies, as well as claim them for burial... Ti-Sue held her mouth and looked at Parker sitting on the floor of the booth, shocked to see him staring right back up at her, and when he saw her; this woman he'd just met started crying on his behalf, Parker screamed out and beat against the ground knowing for a fact what the news was going to be. Ti-Sue hung up after his outburst and leaned against the wall of the booth as he grabbed her leg and cried on her, the only person who he'd seen actually care about him. 'I've never seen someone this unlucky in all my life..." She thought as she placed her hand on his head to comfort him, but amidst that, the payphone began ringing, odd because they are never used to receiving calls, only to make them. "Hello?" Sue answered cautiously. "Give the phone to Parker Carter please." Came the calm and demanding tone of a woman, and she was so shocked that she did so without hesitation. "It's you right...?" Parker took the phone, sobering up as best as he could in a sniffle. "You're the lady from W.I.P. right?" he asked. "Correct, Carter, it seems you have a tremendous amount of karma weighing on you that you cannot escape... not without a little help, we have observed you since you began calling, and the higher-ups have sympathised with your desperation, with the sudden death of your parents it seems you are truly in a tight spot, so consider this a hand of mercy extended to one's self..." " Okay," Parker responded drily waiting for her to get to the point. "Parker Carter, a spot has miraculously opened, for the first time ever there will be a hundred and one participants. Will you accept this invitation, and become a participant in the upcoming Survival island event?" She asked. Parker dried his eyes with the towel he picked back up off the ground and then looked up at Ti-Sue... "I accept your invitation." He responded and there was a moment of silence. "Congratulations Mr Carter, welcome to the Eclipse Games. May luck be your future friend."