Don't Hurt Me Unless You Want Ten Times Worse

I was born unable to feel physical pain. When I was five, my jealous cousin, Chloe, cornered me when no one else was around. She shoved a sharp hairpin deep under my fingernail.

I didn't even flinch. But suddenly, she clutched her own hand, screaming and rolling on the floor in agony.

When I was fifteen, Brittany, the most popular girl in school, pushed me down a flight of concrete stairs.

I simply stood up, brushed the dust off my clothes, and acted as if nothing had happened.

She, however, let out a bloodcurdling shriek, collapsing to her knees as she clutched her shattered legs. Later, my parents took me to see Caleb, a renowned spiritual medium.

He told them I had a unique curse called Karmic Retribution. Anyone who harmed me with malicious intent would suffer ten times the pain they wished upon me.

From then on, no one dared to lay a finger on me. Until the night of my engagement gala.

Julian's precious childhood sweetheart, Lila, deliberately slashed the back of her own hand with a piece of broken glass.

With tearfilled eyes, she looked at me, sobbing. "Maeve, if you don't like me, you could have just said so.

Why did you have to hurt me like this?" Julian immediately pulled her into his arms, shielding her.

He glared at me, his voice sharp and commanding. "Apologize to Lila right now!" I looked at the tiny, superficial scratch on the back of her hand. It was almost laughable.

So, I calmly held out my own hand. "Since you insist I did it, why don't you do the same to me?" Lila froze for a second, then let out a cold, mocking laugh. "You asked for this, Maeve." "Don't regret it." She spun around, grabbed a mug of scalding hot coffee from a nearby tray, and splashed it violently toward my bare arm.

In the very next second, the malicious smirk on her face completely froze. Lila looked down at her own hands.

Her fair skin flushed bright red, and then blisters bubbled up before their eyes. The entire ballroom fell dead silent. Then, a piercing shriek shattered the air. "Ahhh! My hands!

My hands!" Lila dropped the mug, thrashing on the floor in pure agony. Julian's face went pale.

He ripped off his tuxedo jacket, wrapped her up, and scooped her into his arms, running toward the exit.

As he rushed past me, he threw me a look of pure hatred. "Maeve, what kind of sick, twisted trick did you play on her?!" My arm was still stretched out in the air.

My skin only looked slightly pink. I couldn't smell any burning flesh, nor could I feel the heat. So, I answered him honestly. "The waiter just brought that coffee out.

She threw it herself." "Stop lying!" Julian's eyes burned with rage. "If Lila scars from this, I'll make sure you pay for it ten times over!" My mother took two steps to chase after him, but then she abruptly stopped.

She turned and looked at my arm. Her voice began to tremble. "Maeve... put your hand down." "What's wrong?" I asked. "Just listen to me.

Put it down." The moment I lowered my arm, a thick layer of burnt skin slid right off my elbow, peeling away. Raw, bloody flesh was exposed to the cold air.

The surrounding guests gasped, recoiling in horror. My mother's face drained of all color.

I stared at my mangled arm, then looked toward the door where Julian had disappeared. "Oh," I murmured. "I guess I was badly hurt too." Before the words could fully leave my mouth, my vision went pitch black.

When I woke up, I was lying in a hospital bed. My left arm was wrapped so tightly in white bandages that it looked like a wooden log. Dr. Tanner was standing by the bedside.

Seeing my eyes open, he tapped the bed rail with his pen. "Maeve, do you have any idea how long you've been unconscious?" "No." "Eight whole hours!" He was practically vibrating with suppressed anger. "After a scalding burn like that, you waited over twenty minutes to get help.

If you had arrived any later, we wouldn't have been able to save this arm." My mother was sitting by the window, keeping silent.

She had a fierce temper in her youth, and after marrying my father, she became even more untouchable. Right now, she was just staring coldly at the door.

From the hallway outside, Julian's muffled, defensive voice drifted in. "Lila literally went into shock from the pain!

How could I have cared about Maeve first?" "Maeve's arm looked completely fine.

How was I supposed to know it was that serious?" My mother threw the door open. "Get the hell out." Standing behind Julian were two senior members of the Vance family.

Julian clearly didn't expect my mother to humiliate him like this in public. His pride was wounded. "Mrs.

Sterling, I was only worried about Lila." "Who you worry about has nothing to do with my daughter." My mother's voice was ice. "The engagement is off." Julian frowned. "Our families are in the middle of a massive multimillion dollar merger.

You can't just throw away our future over an accident." "An accident?" My mother turned to me. "Maeve, did she throw that coffee with malicious intent?" "Yes." "How can you be so sure?" Julian sneered from the doorway. "Lila's hands are mutilated, yet Maeve is still trying to frame her?" My mother took a deep breath. "Listen to me carefully, Julian.

The Sterling Group can pull out of the West Side Development project at any second. And this wedding? It's dead." Julian's expression darkened instantly.

The room fell into an incredibly tense silence. Finally, one of the Vance elders nudged Julian from behind.

Reluctantly, Julian walked up to my bedside. "I'm sorry." The apology was mumbled, forced, and stiff.

I looked at him calmly. "Who are you apologizing for?" "Lila just lost her head in the heat of the moment." "Is she awake?" I asked. "Yes." "Then tell her to come here and apologize herself." Julian closed his eyes, exhaling a frustrated sigh. "All ten of her fingers are severely burned.

She can't even hold a cup of water right now. Maeve, you're lying here looking perfectly fine. Why do you have to push her into a corner?" Suddenly, Caleb's words echoed in my mind.

The deeper the malice, the worse the backlash. Lila's injuries were ten times worse than mine.

That meant the damage she wanted to inflict on me was far worse than just peeling a layer of skin. She wanted to ruin my life.

That night, Lila actually showed up. She was sitting in a wheelchair, both of her hands completely mummified in heavy gauze.

Julian pushed her wheelchair into the room, his face written with impatience. "Lila has something to say to you." Lila's eyes were red and swollen.

Her voice was barely a whisper. "Maeve... I'm sorry." "I... I was just too in love with Julian. Seeing you two get engaged...

I just lost control of my emotions." She peeked at my bandaged arm. "I've already received my punishment.

Can you please forgive me?" Before I could even speak, Julian cut in to finish her thought. "She won't touch you again, Maeve.

This matter ends tonight." I looked at Lila. "Did you grab the kettle yourself?" "Yes..." "Before you threw it, did you know the water was freshly boiled?" Her lips trembled.

Julian gripped the handles of the wheelchair tightly. "That's enough, Maeve." "I'm asking her, Julian." Lila bit her lower lip and nodded. "Yes...

I knew." Two of our family lawyers were standing right outside the door.

Just as my mother was about to wave them in to serve the papers, Julian stepped right up to my bed, blocking them. "Maeve, are you seriously going to send her to prison?" "She almost ruined my arm." "She saved my life!" Julian's voice dropped to a desperate, harsh whisper. "When I was sixteen, I was dying.

Lila was the one who donated her bone marrow to save me.

I swore to her that I would protect her for the rest of my life." I noticed a silver dogtag pendant hanging around Lila's neck.

The silver tag jingled softly against her chest as she breathed. Engraved on it was a fourdigit number: 0716. I stared at it for a few seconds.

Those numbers looked incredibly familiar. When I was fifteen and hospitalized, I had received an identical tag.

But after my family moved houses, I couldn't find where I had misplaced it.

Sensing my intense gaze, Lila quickly tucked the pendant back into her collar. "Maeve, this is just... a personal keepsake." Julian stepped directly in front of her, blocking my view. "Have you stared enough?" With that, he reached out to snatch the settlement agreement sitting on my nightstand.

I pressed my hand firmly onto the papers. "Don't touch my things." Julian grabbed my wrist, his grip tightening with force. "Your father is still negotiating the West Side project.

Do you really think he'd agree to ruin a billiondollar deal over a minor burn?" In that exact split second, his malicious intent flared up. Snap.

Julian's index finger instantly popped out of its socket, dislocating backward. He froze in shock, his face contorting. Lila shrieked, her face turning pale.

I looked at his unnaturally bent finger and warned him softly. "Julian, you just tried to hurt me." "I was just trying to grab a piece of paper!" he roared, clutching his hand. "The Karmic Shield felt your malice.

It knew you wanted to use force to coerce me." Julian violently yanked his hand back, terror flashing in his eyes. "What do you mean, Karmic Shield?" My mother looked down at him with utter disgust. "You're welcome to try hurting her again." He didn't dare move.

From that day on, Julian finally began to believe in the curse that governed my body.

He immediately had Lila moved out of the Vance estate, and he fired every single staff member who had witnessed the incident at the engagement party.

Every single day, he came to the hospital. But he always stood exactly six feet away from me. Sometimes he brought flowers; sometimes he brought gourmet soup.

But he never touched me again. I thought he had finally learned to fear the consequences.

Three days later, he told me that Lila was being sent abroad. "Once she's gone, we can start over, Maeve." I looked at him. "Are you really willing to let her go?" He fell silent for a moment. "I owe her my life.

I will repay that debt with money. But our marriage... our marriage will only be about the two of us." His eyes were incredibly sincere when he said that.

My mother happened to be out of the room. I stared out the window at the falling white blossoms. The heavy, locked door in my heart cracked open just a tiny bit.

On the day I was discharged, Julian had an emergency business trip.

He said there was an incident at the Vance Group's South Bay logistics park, but promised he'd be back by evening to pick me up.

Before leaving, he sent over a master keycard. "Our new house is still being renovated, so go to my penthouse at South Bay first.

This card opens every door owned by the Vance Group." I took the card. He looked at my bandaged arm, whispering, "I've warned Lila.

She won't show her face again." But barely thirty minutes after Julian left, I received a text from Lila. It was just a single photo.

In the photo was the silver dogtag pendant engraved with 0716, lying next to a yellowed, faded thankyou letter.

Her text read: I've decided to leave everything related to Julian behind. Maeve, I'm already on my way to the airport. I left his things in a locker at the South Bay logistics park.

Please pass them to Julian for me. Once you have this, I will never return. I showed the message to Tess. Tess was a personal security assistant my father had placed by my side.

She only cared about two things: making sure I ate, and checking my body for new injuries.

She read the text and shook her head immediately. "I'll go grab it." "No, she specifically asked for me." "Then it's 100% a trap," Tess said firmly.

I stared at the silver tag in the photo. "That thankyou letter... I've seen it before." When I was fifteen, I spent two months in the hospital.

Because I couldn't feel pain, my family was always terrified I'd have internal bleeding without knowing. They made me do fullbody checkups every year.

During that specific stay, the bone marrow registry contacted my family. My profile was a perfect match for a boy dying of leukemia.

My father was completely against it, fearing the procedure would harm me. But Caleb, our family mystic, told him: The Karmic Shield protects those of pure goodwill.

Doing a good deed will only strengthen her blessing. So, I snuck out and signed the consent forms myself.

After the donation was complete, the hospital staff handed me an anonymous thankyou note from the recipient.

At the very end of the letter, a line was written in messy, shaky handwriting: Once I survive this, I promise I will find you.

The handwriting in Lila's photo was an exact match to that letter.

Tess's face shifted in realization. "Wait... the person you saved back then was Julian?" "I don't know," I murmured. "Then you definitely can't go!" I grabbed my coat. "You're coming with me." Before Caleb passed away, he had warned me: The shield can block malice, but it cannot stop you from walking into a trap of your own free will.

I was never a gambler. But that letter was connected to a tenyearold life debt. And it held the answer to why Lila dared to act so untouchable. I had to see it with my own eyes.

The South Bay logistics park was newly built, and the massive area was eerily empty.

When Tess drove up to the gate, a security guard stopped her. "Only Maeve Sterling is registered in the system today.

No other visitors allowed." I showed him the master keycard Julian gave me. The security gates slid open immediately.

Tess strapped a smart thermal band onto my wrist. "I'll wait right here at the gate. If you aren't out in five minutes, I'm calling the cops and busting in." I nodded.

Lila was standing right by the entrance of a massive warehouse. She hadn't gone to the airport.

Both of her hands were still wrapped in thick gauze, but the silver tag was gone from her neck. "I knew you'd come, Maeve." I looked past her into the dark warehouse. "Where is it?" "Inside." She pointed to a heavy, industrial steel door. "My hands are useless right now, so you'll have to grab the box yourself." Behind that door was a massive, commercialgrade walkin freezer.

At the very end of the metal shelves sat a small cardboard box.

I stood at the threshold, refusing to take another step. "Bring the box out to me." Lila smirked. "What's the matter, Maeve?

Are you scared of me?" "I just don't like dealing with pests." "There are security cameras everywhere, and you have your little voodoo curse anyway.

What could I possibly do to you?" She lifted her heavily bandaged hands. "I've already learned my lesson, haven't I?" I looked up at the security camera in the corner.

The red recording light was flashing. The heavy freezer door was propped wide open. I swiped the master keycard, walked into the freezing vault, and approached the cardboard box.

I opened it. Inside, there was nothing but an old, cheap wool scarf. Thud. A heavy, echoing bang resonated behind me. The steel freezer door had slammed shut.

Through the small doublepaned glass viewing window, Lila was waving at me with a sweet smile. I walked over and mashed the emergency exit button.

Nothing happened. "Did you cut the power?" I asked through the glass.

She grinned, holding up a thick black power plug. "Maeve, your little curse only triggers when someone touches you with malicious intent." "But I didn't touch you at all." A blast of freezing, icy air began to pour from the ceiling vents.

The temperature display on the wall began to plummet. 14 degrees... 0.4 degrees... 18.4 degrees...

Lila pulled out her phone, pointing the camera right at me through the glass. "You used Julian's master keycard to walk into his family's freezer of your own accord." "By the time they find your frozen body, the footage will show you breaking in to steal.

As for why the door shut? A tragic equipment malfunction. That's all." I touched my arm. I couldn't feel the biting cold. My healing burn didn't ache either.

But I could see the tips of my fingers turning a ghostly, bloodless white. "Lila, you're trying to freeze me to death." She pressed her face closer to the glass, her eyes filled with maniacal glee. "I wonder if your precious curse can save you from hypothermia?"

Outside the window, Lila pressed a remote control. The temperature on the wall display plunged to a lethal 28 degrees. I looked down at my thermal wristband.

My body temperature had dropped below 95 degrees. The device began to emit a sharp, highpitched warning beep. I pressed the emergency button to contact Tess. No signal.

Lila tapped her other phone mockingly. "The warehouse is equipped with signal jammers, sweetie." "As for that little assistant you brought?

The security guards are currently 'interrogating' her for trespassing." Her smile grew sweeter and sweeter. "Maeve, who are you waiting for? Julian?" I didn't answer.

She dialed a FaceTime call on her phone. A few seconds later, Julian's face appeared on the screen. He was sitting in an airport lounge. "Lila?" "Julian!

I came to the warehouse to pack up my last few things, but Maeve suddenly showed up and followed me here..." She spun the camera toward the window, showing me trapped inside the icy vault. "She locked herself inside the freezer and is demanding I hand over my silver pendant!" Julian bolted upright from his seat. "Maeve!

What the hell are you doing in there?!" I raised my stiff hand, tapping weakly on the glass.

My movements were sluggish, my muscles freezing up. "She locked me in." "Julian, you know I can't even twist open a bottle cap right now!" Lila sobbed, thrusting her bandaged hands toward the camera. "How could I possibly slide that heavy steel door shut?" Julian turned his glare back to me. "Maeve, just tap your keycard against the inner sensor!" "She cut the power." "Then wait for the maintenance crew to get there!" "She set the freezer to negative twentyeight degrees," I said, my breath fogging heavily in the air.

Julian hesitated for a fraction of a second. Lila immediately burst into hysterical tears. "Julian! She has that terrifying curse!

If I tried to hurt her, I'd be the one dying right now! Do you really think I'm that stupid?

Maeve is just trying to make you think I'm a monster!" Julian pinched the bridge of his nose, looking incredibly drained. "Maeve, I've already dispatched a team to your location." "Stop terrorizing Lila." I stared at his face through the screen. "Julian, my core body temperature is dropping." "Those smart bands glitch all the time." "You believe her over me?" "I believe what makes logical sense, Maeve." With that, he hung up the call.

The moment the screen went black, the final crack in the door of my heart sealed shut forever.

Lila lowered her phone, bursting into triumphant laughter. "Do you see now?" "Even if you freeze to death in there, his first instinct will still be to ask if I was scared." I slid down against the metal shelves, sitting on the icy floor.

My breathing was becoming incredibly slow and shallow. Seeing that I had stopped responding, the smug grin on Lila's face slowly began to falter. "Why aren't you screaming?

Aren't you terrified?!" "I can't feel fear if I can't feel the cold." "Then just die quietly in there!" She sneered, pressing the remote control once more.

The temperature display flashed to a horrific 32°F. Suddenly, the highpitched beeping from my wristband stopped.

Lila blinked, confused. "Did the battery die?" I closed my eyes slowly. "No.

It just sent my GPS coordinates and a medical distress signal to my mother." Almost instantly, a loud crash echoed from the warehouse doors outside.

Lila whipped her head around, her face twisting in sudden terror.