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I Smashed His Portal to Her
Novelix
Completed
My husband says the antique mirror in our living room leads to the apocalypse—and that he has another wife there. He stole my birthday cake for her. Emptied our savings for her. Let me miscarry alone on the floor because she wanted to watch the stars. When I hemorrhaged, he drained my blood with a needle while our son bit my wrist to hold me still. ""She needs it more. You live in a peaceful world."" So I picked up a twenty-pound sledgehammer and smashed their precious portal to pieces. Now they're crawling back—broke, broken, and homeless. But I've already signed the divorce papers, sent him to a psych ward, and walked away without looking back. You wanted that world so badly? Stay there.
Chapters (4)
第1章
There's an antique mirror in my living room.
My husband and son are always lingering around it.
One day, with my own eyes, I see the two of them touch the mirror, and disappear.
I break down and call the police, but no one believes me.
Between terror and worry, I lost the baby I am carrying.
Then they come back from inside the mirror and see me collapsed on the floor, my lower body soaked in blood.
"Mom, what are you doing here? Aren't you embarrassed?" My son pull away from my hand in disgust.
My husband glanced at me and said indifferently, "Since you've found out, I might as well be honest. We have another home on the other side of the mirror."
"Now you've miscarried, then take good care of my other wife Sage. She's carrying my child too."
I wipe away my tears and walk out the door calmly, stopping at the hardware store and then buying a twenty-pound sledgehammer.
...
The moment I walk through the door, Lucas is already scowling at me.
"Where were you? Why isn't dinner ready? Sage is out there surviving the end of the world, and you can't even handle one simple thing while sitting at home?"
Oliver tilts his chin up and rolls his eyes at me.
"Mom, you're so selfish! If you let Sage go hungry, I'm never calling you Mom again!"
I don't say a word. I take the black plastic bag with the sledgehammer inside and slide it into the very back of the shoe cabinet.
Lucas sighs when I don't react.
"Forget it. You've had it too easy in this peaceful world. You'll never understand how brutal it is over there."
He walks back to the couch and keeps packing things into boxes.
"There's an extreme heatwave in the wasteland. I'm taking apart the AC and the fans. I'll bring them through tonight. You can survive the summer with the windows open."
I walk over and see what he's been packing.
Baby bottles. Burp cloths. A tiny swaddle blanket.
All things I picked out when I was still pregnant. Before I lost the baby.
He notices me staring and pauses for half a second.
"Sage is pregnant. You can't find clean baby supplies in the apocalypse. Yours is gone anyway. Might as well give them to someone who can use them."
He says it like it's nothing.
Before, I would've screamed.
Now I just smile bitterly.
"Lucas, do you even remember how I lost the baby?"
His face darkens.
"The miscarriage was an accident. How long are you going to hold that over me?"
An accident.
Two weeks ago, I slipped while pregnant. Blood everywhere beneath me.
I grabbed his pant leg and begged him to take me to the hospital.
He pried my fingers off.
"Call 911 yourself. Sage said the radiation clouds cleared tonight so that we can see the stars. I promised I'd watch them with her."
I turned to Oliver, begged him to bring me my phone.
He followed Lucas toward the mirror without hesitation.
"No way, Sage is waiting for us. She'll worry if we're late."
That night, I lay in a pool of my own blood for a long time.
The baby didn't make it. And I nearly bled out on the operating table.
"Sage can barely survive over there. Taking care of her is the least we can do."
Lucas tapes the box shut, cutting off my memories.
"Just rest today. No need to cook."
He calls out to Oliver, "Ollie, let's go. Sage got a deer today, we're having barbecue tonight."
Father and son each carry a box and walk toward the mirror on the living room wall.
A flash of light. They vanish.
I stand outside the glass and watch.
Lucas and Oliver shrink down and step into a barren wasteland. At the door of the shelter, a woman with a ponytail comes out to greet them. She ruffles Oliver's hair, then leans against Lucas's shoulder.
The shelter, furnished with everything taken from my home, looks warm and cozy.
A happy little family of three.
I look around at my empty apartment. There's nothing left here that resembles a home.
第2章
The next morning, Lucas and Oliver finally come back through the mirror.
Today is Oliver's parent-teacher conference.
In the classroom, his teacher singles him out, grades dropping fast. She tells me I need to spend more time helping him study.
Oliver shoots to his feet. "I don't want her teaching me! All she does is cook and clean! She's useless!"
"Sage lives in the apocalypse, she finds supplies, she kills zombies! She's the real amazing mom!"
Lucas doesn't stop him. He just pats my shoulder lightly.
"Nia, kids say things. Don't take it to heart."
"But he's got a point. All you ever do is fuss over little household stuff. No wonder he doesn't feel close to you."
Oliver tugs on Lucas's hand.
"Dad, I wanna go home and see Sage!"
Lucas nods, makes a quick excuse to the teacher, and leaves with Oliver.
The teacher gives me an awkward smile. Says something about kids having wild imaginations.
All I feel is the urge to laugh.
Five years ago, Oliver got severely ill, almost didn't make it.
Lucas begged me to give up my promotion and stay home full-time.
I spent countless sleepless nights pulling that boy back from the edge of death.
Five years of putting everything on hold, falling completely out of the workforce.
And now they blame me for only knowing "household stuff."
When I get home, Lucas and Oliver are holding fancy flowers and a fruit basket they just bought.
They're about to step into the mirror.
Oliver spots me, then points at my wrist.
"Mom! Give me your watch!"
I instinctively cover it with my other hand.
The second I refuse, he throws a tantrum.
"Why not?! Electronics don't work in the apocalypse because of the radiation! Only mechanical watches can tell time! Sage counts the hours waiting for us every day! She needs it!"
Lucas sets down the fruit basket and walks over. His tone says I'm being unreasonable.
"Nia, tomorrow is Sage's birthday. There's nothing nice to give her over there. That watch is just sitting on your wrist doing nothing. What's the big deal?"
Just sitting on my wrist doing nothing?
This watch is the last thing my father left me before he died.
Sage's birthday gets flowers, fruit, and my father's watch.
But my birthday, two weeks ago?
I cooked a full dinner and waited all day.
They didn't come out of the mirror until midnight.
Lucas tossed me a piece of clothing.
"Happy birthday. Try it on."
I put it on. A crop top.
Oliver pointed at my stomach and burst out laughing.
"Mom looks so ugly in Sage's clothes! There's a gross centipede on her belly! Sage's stomach is so pretty, she has abs!"
So my birthday present was Sage's hand-me-down.
That's my C-section scar, from delivering him.
Lucas sees me still guarding my wrist. His face goes cold.
He grabs Oliver's hand and turns away.
"Let's go, Ollie. Your mother doesn't have an ounce of compassion."
Oliver hugs the bouquet and makes a vicious face at me.
"Sage is so much better! I never want you as my mom again!"
Lucas doesn't look back.
"Yeah... that home is better."
They walk into the mirror.
I walk to the shoe cabinet by the door and open it.
The sledgehammer is right where I left it.
They love that world so much.
Soon enough, they can stay there forever.
第3章
BANG BANG BANG!
The pounding nearly splits the front door in half.
"Lucas! You coward, get out here and pay up!"
Before I can reach the door, it's kicked open from outside.
Three huge men barge in.
"Where's your husband? He borrowed two hundred grand from us!"
"With interest, that's three hundred thousand now. We're not leaving without our money!"
I freeze.
"Two hundred thousand? What did he borrow that much for?"
"Hell if I care!"
The bald one shoves me.
I'm still weak from everything. I hit the floor. My elbow blooms purple on impact.
"A husband's debt is a wife's debt."
"Call him. Now. If we don't see cash today, we'll burn this place down."
They start tearing through the apartment, looking for anything valuable.
I force myself up through the pain and dial Lucas.
It rings forever. Finally, his irritated voice.
"What? I'm setting up a perimeter for Sage. Don't bother me unless it's important."
"You borrowed two hundred thousand dollars?" My voice shakes. "The collectors are here. In our apartment."
Lucas lets out a little laugh on the other end.
"That's what this is about? I converted that money into antibiotics and medicine. There's a plague about to break out. Safe zone spots are limited. These supplies will get Sage a spot."
I'm clenching my jaw so hard it hurts.
"Are you insane? Pay them back. Now."
His voice stays lazy. Unhurried.
"Relax. I've stockpiled millions in supplies over there. Once Sage gets into the safe zone, I can trade for gold easily."
Oliver's voice pipes up in the background, dripping with contempt.
"Yeah! Gold in the safe zone is basically worthless, like scrap metal."
"Mom, stop freaking out over nothing. You're getting in the way of Dad doing real work!"
They hang up.
The bald guy sees I can't produce any money. He cracks his knuckles.
In the end, I sign over my car as collateral and put my name on a three-day repayment agreement just to get them out.
The front door hangs open. Cold air floods the living room.
I'm standing in the wreckage of my own apartment, trying to catch my breath, when my phone rings again.
It's the hospital.
"Is this Nia? Your mother has gone into sudden multi-organ failure. She's in emergency surgery."
"The procedure will cost approximately fifty thousand dollars. Please come to the hospital to make payment as soon as possible."
My head goes blank.
My mother is in a coma. Besides Oliver, she's the only blood family I have left.
Fifty thousand.
But every cent in our accounts is gone, Lucas "converted" it all into apocalypse supplies.
I have no choice. I call Lucas back, over and over.
Every single call, rejected.
A few minutes later, a text.
"I'm helping Sage move into the safe zone. Busy. Stop calling."
Then another, like he's doing me a favor:
"Handle the debt collectors yourself for now. You live in a peaceful world. Cut me some slack, I'm in a literal apocalypse. Stop bothering me with petty stuff."
第4章
In the silent apartment, I set down my phone.
This time, I don't call back.
Fifty thousand dollars. I call every relative, every friend I can think of. I scrape together thirty thousand.
I cut my waist-length hair to my shoulders and sell it. Two hundred bucks.
Then I go to the hospital and sign up for a high-risk clinical drug trial. I negotiate an upfront payment of eighteen thousand.
That's barely enough to cover the surgery.
Outside the operating room, I lean against the cold wall.
In the glass reflection, I see my choppy new hair, my hollow face.
"Lucas. You owe me. And it's time to pay up."
Mom makes it through surgery. Out of danger.
Between staying at the hospital with her and the drug trial side effects, I go two full nights without sleep. By the time I get home, I can barely stand.
I collapse on the couch the second I walk in. Fever hits hard.
I'm out for two days.
Until I hear frantic footsteps in the living room.
"Quick! Get the equipment out!" Lucas sounds panicked.
"Dad, is Sage gonna be okay?" Oliver is crying.
I force my eyes open. Lucas is holding a blood draw kit, needles, tubes, a collection bag. Stuff he brought back from the other side.
"What are you doing..." I try to crawl backward.
"Sage got infected by contaminated water while scavenging!"
Lucas grabs me off the couch, his eyes wild and red. He holds up the needle.
"The doctor in the safe zone says she needs a full blood transfusion, clean, uninfected, same blood type. It's the only thing that can save her!"
"You and Sage are both Rh-negative. You're the only match I have!"
I'm burning up. I try to fight him off.
"Let go of me... I have a fever... I just did a drug trial..."
The needle is an inch from my vein.
I use every bit of strength I have to pull my arm back.
Then Oliver charges at me, and sinks his teeth into my wrist.
"Don't move, you evil woman! Sage is dying and you won't even give a little blood! I hate you! Why don't you just die instead of her!"
The pain shoots straight from my wrist into my chest. I stop fighting.
I look at my husband pinning me down. My son biting into my flesh.
Something inside me goes quiet, finally dead.
The blood bag fills up fast.
Lucas rips the needle out the second it's done. Blood streams freely from the puncture wound. He doesn't even glance at it.
"Nia, once Sage is stable, I'll come back and buy you some supplements or something."
He grabs Oliver's hand and sprints for the mirror.
"Ollie, the plague is about to hit. We have to get this blood to her now."
Then they're gone. The apartment goes silent.
I lie on the couch.
Blood from the needle hole mixes with the blood seeping from the bite mark on my wrist.
I don't cry.
I just force myself upright, through the blood loss, through the fever.
The sledgehammer is heavy. It takes everything I have left to pull it out of the shoe cabinet.
Inside the mirror, that tiny world is still running. I can see Lucas hanging the blood bag by Sage's bed. Oliver is crying at her side.
What a touching little family.
What a cozy little shelter.
"Lucas. Since you love it there so much..."
I lift the hammer and take one deep breath.
"Then let me do you a favor. Stay in your apocalypse. Forever."
The hammer swings down.
