Immortality Starts With Selling Pills

Chapter 4: Chapter 4: The Childhood Friend Arrives

Cassandra’s eyes went straight to Derrick, wide. This time she saw the difference in her brother, more than she could notice earlier.

Derrick was sitting on the bed, with his back resting against the wooden board, his hands on his lap and his eyes moving between the two of them.

There was a faint trace of alienation and worry mixed in those eyes.

”Did Derrick hit his head?”

”No, Cassie. He just lost his memories for unknown reasons. The doctor said he might gain them eventually.” Rebecca shook her head frantically like she was trying to convince herself and not her daughter.

She proceeded to tell Cassandra everything that happened while hugging her. Rebecca never lied to her kids, not ever.

She has no idea how right she is. Derrick thought.

She knew Cassie was strong, just like her, and she was proven to be true.

Without saying anything, Cassie walked up to him and started inspecting his body. With a serious frown on her face, she looked everywhere.

”What are you doing?” Rebecca asked, not sure why her daughter would suddenly do something like that.

”He is covered in injuries.” Cassie replied without looking at her. It was the same scratches the doctor had dismissed, but she did not. ”I will bring the ointment.”

Without waiting for her mother, she walked out from the room, leaving Derrick speechless. I thought she would be a teenager with drama issues, but she is so caring.

He had seen the worry in her eyes that she was trying so hard to hide. Even though he did not know much about the girl, he could tell they were close.

Cassandra came back as soon as she left. She brought a white tube of ointment.

”What is this?” As she poured out a small amount of slimy blue liquid on her finger, Derrick asked in confusion.

For a second Cassandra was confused by her action, but then her eyes flickered with understanding, and she lowered her head, letting her blonde hair fall on her face. ”It’s a lesser healing medicine. It will patch those injuries in an hour.”

Derrick watched as she applied the gel on the cut of his shoulder and said, ”You don’t have to do it. Let me—”

”Please...” Before he could continue, she looked up and stared at him with the most serious expression she could give him. ”Let me.”

He glanced at Rebecca, but she did not say a word and shook her head. So he sighed and let her do as she pleased.

He watched as the gel worked; the edge of the wound started to bubble, and he felt an itch coming from it.

”Don’t scratch it.” Cassandra had used almost a quarter of the tube for simple scratches. She stood up and placed the ointment on the table beside his bed. ”Did you eat anything?”

”I was going to make something to eat—”

”I’ll cook,” Cassandra announced before Rebecca could finish, snatching her bag back up off the floor like sheer motion could hold off whatever was cracking open in her chest. ”You sit, Mom. You look like you haven’t slept in a year.”

Rebecca opened her mouth to argue and lost.

...

Clank!

Clink!

Dinner passed in fragments Derrick barely absorbed. He looked at his elbow and saw that the scratches were gone and his skin looked flawless.

Cassandra did not speak a word during the meal and kept stealing glances after every few bites, like she needed to keep confirming he was eating properly. Rebecca asked her about her day at school, and she replied absentmindedly.

They were trying their best to make it look like it was any other day in their life even when they also realized how fruitless their efforts were.

This family is holding itself together with tape and hope, Derrick thought, watching them both. And I’m the crack running straight down the middle of it.

After dinner, Rebecca went up to rest.

Cassandra dropped onto the couch across from him, hugging a cushion to her chest like a shield, and just... stared.

”Did you really forget everything?” she asked quietly. ”Even me? E-even our little secret?”

What secret? I guess it’s normal for siblings to have a secret or two.

”I did,” he admitted, because there was nothing left to protect by lying to a fifteen-year-old who’d already seen her mother cry twice in one day.

Cassandra’s face did not change, and she nodded like she had come to terms with it.

”Okay,” she started, making some light conversation with him. ”Okay. So what are you going to do now? You missed the trials. You can’t—”

Just as she was about to finish her question, a sharp noise interrupted their evening.

Knock! Knock!!

They had a visitor.

With a frown on her face, Cassandra slowly stood up. ”I’ll get it—”

”I’ve got it,” Derrick said, already moving, some instinct from eleven novels’ worth of plot twists whispering that whoever was on the other side of that door was not going to be good news.

Could it be loan sharks? Or someone who is out to get me?

Please don’t let it be—

Creak....

He was right.

Standing on the front step under the weak glow of the porch light was a girl about their age. She looked sharp-eyed, pretty in a way that clearly took effort, and absolutely furious. Her hair matched the color of her face, red in anger.

A young woman, my age. Clearly she looks angry at me and wants to murder me. If I am not wrong...

”You are... Gwen?” he said slowly, testing the name Rebecca had given him.

That was, apparently, exactly the wrong thing to say.

”What? You want to pretend you don’t know me?” The girl’s face twisted, hurt flashing under the anger for half a second before she buried it.

She shoved him into the house without waiting for an invitation, jabbing one finger straight into his chest hard enough to make him take a step back.

”You promised me,” she snapped, her voice cracking down the middle.

”You promised we’d test in together. Why weren’t you there? Why did you just... leave me standing there like an idiot in front of everyone?”

”Did you know how people were bad-mouthing you for chickening out, and I was the one who stood up for you? But you—”

”Stop it.” Before she could continue to blame Derrick, Cassandra got up and shoved herself between them; her eyes were colder than anything else. ”Gwen, you should stop. You may be our friend, but I won’t let you speak to my brother like that. He is not at fault here.”

Cassie was angry.

Even though she knew Gwen’s emotions were justified. She could not let a woman come in her house and call her brother a liar or worse.

Gwen froze. Her eyes flicked between the two of them, disbelief curdling fast into something colder. ”You two...”

She thinks we’re lying, Derrick realized and stepped forward to clear everything up. Even though he did not care about Gwen or what she thought of him. He could not let Cassandra be blamed for standing up for him.

”You must be Gwen,” Derrick said again, flatly. Honestly, it was the only way he knew how to say it.

Something in her face broke.

She laughed. It was a short, ugly nothing, like a real laugh at all. She was laughing at Derrick or herself; no one knew.

”Wow,” she said. ”Wow, okay. Th-that’s low, even for you. Acting like you don’t know me. Are you going to say you have amnesia or something? You even got Cassie to lie for you.”

”How disgusting. Save your words and don’t ever talk to him. Only came here to hear your explanation, not an excuse.” For a moment she would have believed Derrick had she not seen him standing unscathed.

There were no signs of injury on his body, which only made her believe that he was lying.

”I thought you were my friend and you would never lie to me.” She looked at Cassandra and blamed her as well.

Slam!

Without waiting for him to explain, Gwen slammed the door shut on her way out. The impact was hard enough to knock a framed photo crooked on the wall.

Derrick stared at the space where she’d been standing.

Beside him, Cassandra stared at the closed door with an indifferent look on her face. She did not seem a little bit bothered by the fact that she had just lost a friend.

”Are you not going to chase after her?” she asked quietly. ”She’s not going to believe you unless you tell her everything.”

”No. I don’t think she would even listen if I tried. What about you? It seemed like you were close to her as well.”

She shrugged and said, ”I don’t see any point in being friends with someone who hates you. If you two make up, we will naturally be okay.”

Derrick exhaled slowly. His sister was quite a character. I have never seen anyone like her.

He did not intend on having the same relations as the old Derrick had unless they were worth keeping. For now, Gwen was looking for her childhood friend, and he was not him.

Great. Day one in a new world, and I’ve already made an enemy out of my dead body’s childhood best friend.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, gold text flickered patiently, waiting.

[Mission 1: Investigate the death of the original host. Status: Active.]

Yeah, yeah, Derrick thought. I’m getting to it. Even if you had not said anything, I was going to find the bastard who did this to such a sweet family and bring him to justice.