Chapter 26: The numbers

I am dreaming soundly and without interruptions, but as I sleep I am suddenly crushed by a weight. I can hear what sounds like crying in my dream world. "Cera!! *SNIFFLE* Wake up!!" I am disturbed by the sound of my mothers voice roaring throughout my dream world. "I said wake up!!" The voice speaks quick with frustration and I am hit over the head with a swift strike.

I shoot my eye's open and everything is blurry for a few seconds. "What is a it? I was trying to sleep you know." I rub the part of my head that my mom struck with her fist. I look at my mother and her face is covered in tears and her eye's are extremely red. "What's wrong mom?! Did something bad happen!!" I get up quickly to make sure everything is alright. As I am on my feet my dad comes barging through the door.

He looks at me with slight fear. I don't know what is going on, but I am thoroughly worried. He charges at me and grips my shoulders. "DID YOU DO IT!!?" I have never heard dad yell like this before. I look at him confused since I don't know what he's talking about. He pulls out his phone and shows me the balance of the joint account mom and him own.

I focus my eye's and read the long number, soon I am shocked as well. "I can't believe it went for 506 million UWD's!! I knew it was worth a lot, but I didn't think people would go so crazy over it!!" I cheer to myself in happiness. I actually succeeded in my dream to give my family everything they could ever want or need. I watch dad stumble back after my reaction, he uses the wall to hold himself up. A little while later he quickly moves to the garbage can in my room and proceeds to fill it with puke.

My mom squeezes me harder and harder to the point that I almost cant breathe. "Mom I am losing my breath here." For a small woman she is deceptively strong. After I say that she squeezes me even harder before she loosens up. "I told you we would never have to worry about money again..." I place my hand on the top of her head and I hear her weep harder into my shirt. Now that I think about it the auction probably just ended.

My dad regains his balance and joins mom in giving me a hug. I wrap my arms around both of them and I squeeze hard back. I let my tears fall freely from my eye's and savor this moment of joy. "I hope you have a new home picked out for us dad, and hurry down to the bank and pay off all the debt you guys owe!!! Our new lives start from this day forward!!!" I cry hard as I say those words. My dad pulls away as he laughs joyously.

Mom was being crushed between the 2 tallest people in the house. She moves away and her make up is smeared everywhere. "Can you believe it honey. We won't lose everything now, we can have the life that we could never have." I listen to mom as she continues crying and talking about everything that we wont lose now. I think dad just rushed home and rushed up stairs when he looked at the number in there joint account.

I feel better if they have the money in their account. This way they can take care of all the stuff I don't know about. I have no clue how the housing market or interest rates work. I'm glad that the tax laws were reformed in 2140 and we don't have to give a penny of the money we just made. "What are you guys going to do with that money?" I want to hear the ideas they have and see what they want to do first.

Dad is the first to speak with excitement. "Well the first thing I'm doing is quitting my job at the factory!!" I laugh at his answer, I love how there is no wrong answer here. We can literally do whatever we want. This money will last our family centuries, and knowing mom and dad they will still try and budget.

Mom finishes wiping the smeared makeup off her face with her sleeve. "I don't know what I am going to do Cera....I've never seen so much money in my entire life. The fact that its ours makes me think I'm having a fever dream..." My heart aches knowing that my mom never has had an experience like this. If anyone in the world deserves this money, its this woman. She has done everything in her power to provide a great life for us. Now its my turn to show her that her hard work payed off.

They sit on my bed to relax there shaking bodies. "Do you guys want to go out and eat this morning? We can go to Roberts Food Parlor like we used to before Marcus was born." When Marcus was born that is when the bills started getting really bad. Having 5 mouths to feed was a herculean task with our budget, but they still did it. They did it everyday without showing an ounce of weakness.

Mom gets up from the bed and calls the school Marcus goes to and tells them we are picking him up. I have to ask her even if they are going through a hard time. "Should I go and get Hailey?" I look to mom first, but she doesn't look at me. I turn to dad waiting for an answer. He nods his head yes. I leave my room to go and talk to Hailey since mom and dad have to get the car ready.

I knock on her door and I don't get an answer. I slowly push it open and see that she is just starting to sit up in bed. "Hey, my item sold and we are all going out to celebrate. You coming?" She looks at me like I grew another head. Everyone knew that I was selling an item, but everyone didn't seem to believe that it would be worth this much. I figured it would be worth at least 100 million UWD, but I didn't think it would be worth half a billion.

This type of money can buy anything we want, I could buy us a private island in the Caribbean for 15 to 20 million UWD's. We can buy yachts and helicopters, just thinking about the stuff that we can do is mind boggling. "How much did it sell for?" I new she couldn't resist, I know my sister more than she knows herself.

I walk over and sit next to her on the bed. "It sold for 506 million UWD's, we are going to go pick up Marcus from school so we can go out." She looks the same shade of green dad did when I confirmed the amount to him. She looks at her closet trying to figure out what she wants to wear. "We don't have all day hurry up!" I say loudly as I get up and head to the door so she can get ready.

I close it behind me and I hear chaos in her room from outside the door. I make my way back to my room and get ready myself. I walk downstairs and see mom and dad talking, it looks important so I won't bother them about it. "Hailey is getting ready upstairs and will be down in a minute." I want to also check the forums before we go so I pull out my phone and sit down.

I read about things ranging from the legendary class The Abyss Walker to the guild that got the guild token. It isn't surprising that one of the top guilds got it, the top 50 guilds are so close in value that it is impossible to be the money dominate guild. It really comes down to your members strength and your luck. Based off the weird 506 number I'd say that the timer ran out before everyone was ready to quit bidding. Whoever had the last bid before 00:00:00 would win it.

I hear the click of heals come down the stairs and I look over and see my sister in a beautiful red sun dress since we are getting closer and closer to summer. Today is ranging in the early 70's so I can see why she picked it. "Now that everyone is ready lets go pick up Marcus." Dad gives the order and I follow mom and dad out the door with Hailey behind me.

historical

We spend all morning together going out and buying things after we ate. Marcus got a bunch of toys that he wanted. I'll just say Hailey got the usual girl stuff, and mom and dad actually left us behind to go and get a massage together. I was happy to see them so willing to do stuff with the money, but I could see their fear from all the years of crippling bills. To bad they will have to get used to being rich.