Chương 32: Apis Melifera

Ch. 32 Apis Melifera Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Leukemias were blood cancers. This one meant your bone marrow made too many white blood cells. Acute meaning 'fast-growing.' It was a fast growing bone cancer that could spread to the blood and, if aggressive enough, could move to the lymph nodes, the central nervous system, the liver, the spleen and even the testicles. Although I'm not sure my sister had those.

"How is Boba?" She asked. She looked pale.

"She's good. She gets along with… the other dogs."

"What?"

"I said she's good. Mr. Jonson's on my ass about some bullshit but it'll be fine. How are you?"

"I feel like garbage."

"You look like garbage," I said.

"That's what I thought but I wasn't sure until you said something."

"On a scale of litter on the street to the whole dumpster, how much like garbage do you feel?"

"Like… when you pull the bag from the trash and see that there's garbage juice? That's how I feel. Like garbage juice""Disgusting."

"On that same scale, how do I look?"

"You look… you look like something kitchy our aunt got us from her trip to Alcapulco. Like a cartoon bird keychain with a sombrero. Still garbage but…" I trailed off and she smiled.

"Thanks." Apis mellifera. The average honey bee. A flying social insect with a suicide bomb sticking out of it's ass. It's estimated that 5% of the human population had a hypersensitivity to its poison, but only around. 4% of the population is at risk of anaphylactic shock. I continued, "Yeah, anyway. They're telling me it's going to be bone marrow transplants. You excited?" Dory weakly pumped her fists in faux excitement.

"Woo." We sat in silence as she wispily reached for her juice and drank it.

"You know, I'm getting touched by a god, soon?"

"Really? That's exciting. Who?" She asked.

"I haven't figured that out yet."

"So… so you don't have a god who's interested?"

"I'm sure they're all interested, Dor. It's just a matter of what partnership works best for me. One of the union guys said I'm an 'up-and-coming NPC.'""That's amazing."

"Yeah. No, it's really exciting. That's why you seem so so excited. Right?"

"It's just… it's another excuse to put yourself at risk, right?"

"Not an excuse. A reason. So I could make more money."

"Do we need both of us risking our lives?"

"For you," I muttered, wounded.

"You want to do something for me? Go back to law school." I scoffed.

"No. I'm going to keep being a champ and making enough money to pay for your transplant."

"Do whatever you want," She rolled on her side, facing away from me."'Do whatever I want.' Nice. Fine. I want to save your life and I guess that makes me a huge asshole." She didn't say anything.

"Cancer got your tongue?" I said coarsely. Dory rolled back. She'd never looked more tired in her life. She said,"It must be so hard to have a sister who has acute myceloid leukemia. I'm really sorry you have to go through that." I make a sour face and get up so hard my chair falls backward, "Everyone thinks you're the nice one but you're just as big a jerk as me. And it's acute myeloid leukemia. There's no 'c.' I told you not to give up. And what the hell are you doing right now?!"

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Once again, she slunk back to facing away from me, "Do you know how much bone marrow transplants cost?" I let out a deep sigh and gripped my temples. I sat in my chair for sometime in silence as I debated it, but figured… if not my sister then who else?

"I'm working on something. I… I have a plan. Yeah, it's a crapshoot, like all my plans. I don't even know if I should tell you this but… On that alpha pit I went on a bit ago… the massacre? I was there with Spiros. He was dying in front of me and… I killed him. I killed Spiros. I got his powers. I'm a god now. I'm almost at level 50 which means I'll be able to have my first follower. That means you can become a champ. Higher constitution just naturally. Probably access to self heals.

And I'm working on getting a more permanent cure but… that might take a while. And if nothing else… Being registered as a champ will allow me to help pay for some of these bills. Just hang in there, Dor. Dor? You hear me?" I go to shake her shoulder but I can hear the faint sound of her snoring. She'd drifted off. I walked out and someone was there waiting for me to talk about the bone marrow transplant.

She was explaining to me the procedures and the fact that this wasn't a guarantee but it would help stop the aggressive spread of the cancer. The doctor was an older woman, whites streaking in her matted salt and pepper hair. Her glasses were out of prescription by a year and she looked gaunt.

"Before we did the transplant-" She said.

"I can donate."

"Of course. We would just need to test if you're compatible."

"We've got the same blood type."

"It's not blood. It's something called HLA. It's human leukocyte antigens. Since you both are siblings, there's a 25% chance of a full match. So we're hopeful. Schedule a blood test soon."

"Will this… help?" I asked.

"Yes it will help."

"Much?" A beat of silence as the doctor made a determination of how much I could take to hear, and she said, "maybe." I thanked her, she left and a much younger woman, came in. This one with a much fuller head of sharp black hair. She wore a smart pantsuit and looked to have a healthy tan. She chewed gum as she talked.

"For something like a bone marrow transplant, this bill is an estimation. We'll still have to see if you two are compatible, and if you two are not matches, then she'll have to wait for the donor. So, take a look." She handed me a sheet and I looked at the bottom of an entire chart. The bill read: $107, 600. 61"That's with the copay?" I asked.

"Yes," She said, "The other options are more chemotherapy. But this is not something we can wait out."

"Okay," I said.

"Okay?"

"Okay. Yeah, you expect me to do some mental calculus to find out if my sister is worth that much? Fuck it. I sign off."

"I understand. I'm told that your sister is too weak to take the HLA test today, but if you'd like to fill out hers and your forms, we can get yours done today and have the results in a few days. This is for you, and this is for her. Please turn them into the front desk when you're done and we'll call your name for the blood test." I filled out my form, then I filled out my sister's. Under 'Allergies,' I wrote 'Bee stings."

When I showed up to my place, Spiros was in the fridge drinking from my pomegranate juice that I paid 8 bucks for.

"Bro!" I screamed as I yanked it away, "Stop eating my food. You said you don't even die. You don't have to eat!"

"I grow peckish," Spiros said.

"Peckish isn't even that hungry!" The three dogs started barking at him when they saw that it was okay for me to bark at him. So I had to put the dogs away because it'd been a few days since I told the landlord I'd dealt with the problem. He said, "I needed something to wash down the beef jerky."

"Right. Well, stop eating my food, you stupid horse."'"I'm not a horse, I'm a dragon deer." I pulled Spiros out of the fridge and placed him on the counter. Then I slammed the fridge shut.

"Tell me about evolve points." His eyes went wide, "Why do you want to know about that?"

"I received one. Sounded awesome so I absolutely brained a demon lady to get it."

"That's exactly what you get when you kill a demon, or a special kind of monster. They are rare and they're how us gods developed our unique characteristics. It imbues you with some power they have. Which one did you kill?"

"Anubis. Turns out her weakness was dragonfire. Can you believe that? I was the perfect counter to her void magic." He strutted on my kitchen counter, "Good show, useless boy. You defeated a demon lordess. Albeit one of the smaller ones."

"What do you mean?"

"Anubis is on the lowest pantheon. Her strengths lied in her cunning and political prowess. But in a one to one match, you were the perfect counter and defeated her. Don't expect to be so lucky with the next one. Still… I'm impressed."

"Yeah, Be impressed. I also have 20 regular points as well. Speaking of…" I opened up my system and fed the 20 points into mana. Then I looked at my spell list. A new category was added. Voidlight: Conjure two void balls from your hands.

"Oh, hell yeah. Next thing… I need a god," I flipped through the system to the 'rankings' tab.

"Why? You already are one. And you have me. That's two gods."

"But I can't reveal that I'm the new Spiros. And I need to join the union as a champion so I can make some real money. It'll be a ruse. So I need to team up with a god and pretend. But here's the rub. I can't just have any old god, right? They all have their own wants. So.. I can't team up with, say, Ozid. Because he, presumably, also wants to be at the top of the food chain."

"Right," Spiros said, "Why would he work with you to keep your secret? If that's the case…" I scrolled down. And down. And down. I scrolled aaaall the way down to where I rested at the very bottom.

"I'll need someone so far out of the race that they have no hope of winning." I clicked on the name right above me. I then switched the screen to show Spiros.

"Tell me everything you know about him."

"Oh no."