My best friend and I were trapped by a System, forced to seduce the cruel male leads of a novel. My target, Kevin Bright, was disgusted by my affection, calling me a "twisted freak" and an "unwanted stray." Her target, Marcus Blackwood, used her as his emotional punching bag, refusing to even answer her final, desperate phone call. We hit our breaking point. A game of rock-paper-scissors and two faked deaths later, we were finally free, back in our own reality. But now, they’ve chased us here. They’re playing the part of heartbroken lovers, desperate for a second chance. And they think regret is a price high enough to buy back our hearts? ... My best friend and I were shackled to the same System, forced to play a game of seduction inside a novel. Her target: Marcus Blackwood, the impenetrable stoic. Her mission: to conquer his body. My target: Kevin Bright, my cold, distant guardian. My mission: to shatter his heart. But Marcus was an ascetic who spent his days in quiet contemplation, utterly immune to the temptations of the flesh. And Kevin, still obsessed with an old flame, hadn't seen me as anything more than a child in the three years we'd lived together. We were being crushed. I was done. “I’m exhausted,” I messaged her. “I’m tapping out. You?” “If you’re out, I’m out.” It was a deal. We immediately pulled out our phones, calculated our savings, and planned our escape. “But…” I hesitated. “Which one of us… dies first?” “First to die gets to go home. The other one has to clean up the mess—arrange the funeral, tie up loose ends.” Our eyes met across the screen. Stella’s message popped up first. “I’ve had it worse. I’ll go first.” “No way,” I typed back. “Rock-paper-scissors. I can’t stand another second in this godforsaken place.” “Fine. You’re on.” She chose scissors. I chose paper. She won. I stomped my foot in frustration. “Fine! You die, I’ll plan the funeral.” Stella went silent for the next two days. I was morbidly curious about what method she’d chosen to end it all. That evening, just as I was about to call her, my phone rang. It was her. “Alice…” Her voice was thick, the words slurred, nearly swallowed by a howling wind. “Are you drunk?” My heart clenched. “Just a little,” she said, letting out a small hiccup. “Liquid courage… I’m about to do something big.” I shot up from the sofa. “What happened to next Friday? That was the plan!” We had agreed she would go in seven days. I’d handle the aftermath, then follow. “I can’t wait anymore.” The wind tore at her words. “I think today is a good day. I want to die today.” Her voice cracked with a pain so raw it vibrated through the phone. “Alice, I just wanted to see Marcus one last time… I gave him three years of my life. I know him so well I can tell what he wants in bed from a single glance… and I get nothing? I can’t accept it…” “He’s having dinner with her… with Seraphina… He won’t even answer my calls…” “Three years… A dog would have learned to wag its tail for me by now…” “But he still doesn’t want me…” “That bastard, Marcus… he won’t even give me one damn phone call… Since today is Seraphina’s birthday, I’ll just make it my death day. A day he will never, ever forget.” She rambled on, a torrent of broken thoughts, but her intention was terrifyingly clear. She was leaving tonight, and she had wanted one last conversation, one last chance to hear Marcus’s voice. He had denied her even that. “No,” I said, my voice shaking as I scrambled for my keys and sprinted out the door. “You can’t. I’m not ready for you to go. You can’t do this.” “Stella, where are you? Wait for me, please! Let me be with you!” “Alice…” She wasn't listening, lost in her own world of pain. “Jumping is… messy. You’ll have to find the best mortician to make me look beautiful again.” “And don’t bury me. I’m afraid of the dark. Have me cremated, and scatter my ashes in the Veridian River. Make sure Marcus can never find me.” Every word was a needle in my heart. I felt her agony as if it were my own; I had watched her suffer for three long years. A chill washed over me, but I forced my voice to stay calm. “Whatever you want, Stella. I’ll do it all. But you have to tell me where you are. I want to be with you.” “No… I don’t want you to see… It would scare you…” The line went quiet, filled only by the screaming wind. I ran through the streets like a madwoman, shouting her name until my legs gave out and I collapsed onto the cold pavement. A final, soft message came through the speaker. “Alice, I’ll be waiting for you at home.” CRACK. 2 At the foot of the Apex Tower, I saw her fall. Like a broken butterfly, she plummeted from the eighteenth floor. A spray of crimson stained the pristine concrete. Stella died right in front of me. I knelt beside her, my hand trembling as I reached out to touch her face, my body wracked with sobs. “You love being beautiful more than anything… how could you choose to go like this…?” I knew, logically, that she wasn't truly dead. We would see each other again in our real world. But watching this, feeling the finality of it, shattered me. I had overestimated my own strength and underestimated how much of my soul was tied to hers. For three years, we had been each other’s only lifeline, the only reason we survived the endless nights of cruelty. At the crematorium, I was the one who pushed her body into the furnace. I watched the flames consume the face that had once been so full of life and laughter. When the attendant handed me the small, heavy box, the tears I’d been holding back finally broke free. “Stella… how could you be so small now…?” Following her wishes, I went to the river and poured her ashes into the churning water. The current seized them instantly, washing away every last trace of her. Just like that, she was gone. “Wait for me,” I whispered to the water. “I’m coming soon.” Stella’s phone, which I’d kept in my bag, buzzed. I pulled it out. A message from Marcus. [The Grand Elysian Hotel. Eight o’clock tonight. Be there.] A cold, bitter laugh escaped my lips. He was always like this. Her feelings never mattered. She was a tool for his release, to be summoned and dismissed at his whim. When he didn't need her, he vanished. When he did, she was expected to drop everything. And for what? Because she loved him? Did that give him the right to trample on her heart? I didn’t reply. I just turned off the phone. He had missed his chance to say goodbye. Now he could live with that regret forever. I sat by the river until dawn, then finally went home. The morning sun felt cold on my skin. I was tired, bone-deep tired. The System demanded I maintain my character’s persona: the hopelessly devoted girl. So, no matter how ugly our fights were, I always woke up at six a.m. to make breakfast for Kevin. The System always offered the same placating line: It’s bitter now, but it will be sweet in the end. Once you succeed, a man like Kevin will worship you. But in three years, all I had tasted was bitterness. Stella’s affairs were settled. It was my turn to leave. I picked up a knife from the kitchen block, holding the cool blade to my wrist. I hesitated. I made a few false starts, then put it back down with a sigh. Kevin despised me. If I died in his house, he would probably be disgusted. He always said I wasn't worthy of the Bright name. That his brother and his wife never should have adopted me, raising a "perverse beast" who would fall for her own guardian. He said I deserved to be abandoned, that I was nothing but an unwanted stray. But it wasn't my fault I was abandoned. If I’d had a choice, I would never have wanted to be a Bright. No one ever gave me a choice about anything. Not even being bound by the System. I collapsed onto my bed and, against all odds, fell asleep. In the hazy twilight of my dreams, the System’s cold, mechanical voice echoed. “Alice Hayes. You have accumulated enough points. The exit portal is now open. Please be prepared to depart by tomorrow night.” Good, I thought. I’m going home. I woke with a start and spent the rest of the night purging the villa of every single thing that belonged to me. 3 I dragged everything out into the torrential rain, dumping it all by the curb for the trash collectors. The downpour washed away everything, including the last vestiges of my obsession with Kevin Bright. From now on, not a single trace of me would remain in this house. Once I was finished, I called a cab to the Veridian River. I took out Stella’s phone and powered it on. A flood of missed calls and messages poured in, all from Marcus. [Stella, you’re late.] [Answer your phone. What game are you playing now?] [Get to the hotel. Don’t make me repeat myself.] Each message was colder than the last. No concern, only commands. I stared at them blankly, then found the audio file of Stella’s final, desperate phone call with me. I sent it to Marcus. After the “message sent” notification appeared, I threw the phone as hard as I could into the dark water. I wondered what his face would look like when he heard it. Would he feel a pang of sadness? A sliver of regret for the way he had hurt her? It didn’t matter. Stella would never see it, and I wouldn't be around long enough to find out. This was just a game, after all. Who cares what an NPC thinks after you’ve cleared the level? The wind off the river was biting. I pulled my coat tighter and took out my own phone, posting one last message to the world. “The world is beautiful, but I won’t be back for a second life. I don’t regret being a Bright, but in death, let me be free. Do not place me in the family crypt. Grant me this one freedom. —Alice Hayes, farewell.” After posting, I dialed Kevin’s number. In my final moments, I wanted to say goodbye to the person who had been the center of my world for so long. But just like Stella, no matter how many times I called, the line just rang and rang. A bitter laugh escaped me. I pushed down the last flicker of hope. I switched to video mode and aimed the camera at myself. On the screen, my hair was a tangled mess in the wind, my face pale but resolute. “Kevin, it’s been fifteen years since the Brights adopted me at six. You told me you would always protect me, that you would be my hero…” “When I was in middle school and those boys cornered me after class, you fought them off. You said no one was allowed to bully your family.” “You took me to the amusement park, on the Ferris wheel… you sang to me at the very top… Every moment of joy, every flutter in my heart during my youth… it all came from you…” My voice started to break. “Kevin, you were the one who came to me first. You gave me every reason to dream, only to turn on me, to change completely the moment you realized I loved you.” “You were disgusted by me. You avoided me. You thought my love was repulsive and you stood by while others mocked me for it…” “You always said my love was twisted and sick, but… I just loved you. That’s all it was.” I took a deep breath, steeling myself. “Kevin, I couldn’t choose my family or where I came from. But I can choose to leave.” “From now on, there will be no Alice Hayes in this world… You’re free…” I pressed send, sending the 2-minute, 17-second video to Kevin. A wave of relief washed over me. I dropped my phone onto the sand. Facing the icy waves, I walked step by step into the deep. The water rose past my chest, then to my neck, until finally, it swallowed me whole. In the utter silence that followed, the abandoned phone on the beach lit up one last time. The caller ID read: Kevin. 4 Kevin watched the video again and again, his thumb compulsively hitting redial. “The number you have dialed is currently unavailable…” The cold, automated voice was a hammer blow with every syllable. He gripped the phone, his knuckles white. “Alice Hayes! Still playing these ridiculous suicide games! How absurd!” He called his assistant, forcing the words through gritted teeth. “Get a team to the coast. Find Alice Hayes and bring her back to me. Now.” The ferocity in his voice was a desperate attempt to crush the panic blooming in his chest. He tried to stand, but his legs felt weak, unsteady. “Sir, where are we going?” his driver asked, helping him into the car, his own face etched with worry. “Home.” She had finished her little drama. She would have to come home now. She was too tenacious, too full of life to do something so permanent. He just had to wait at home, and she would come back. She had to be bluffing. She had to be. At the villa, Seraphina Vance was watching TV in the living room. She looked up in surprise as he stormed in. “Kevin, you’re home early.” She moved to take his coat, but he grabbed her wrist, his grip like iron. His voice was a raw rasp. “Where is Alice?” Seraphina cried out in pain, tears welling in her eyes. “Kevin, you’re hurting me.” He snapped back to reality and let her go. “Sorry…” He didn’t have the patience for this. He turned and rushed upstairs. Alice’s room was pristine, sterile, and empty. All the gifts he’d ever bought her, all her belongings—gone. “Housekeeper! Where are all of Miss Hayes’s things?” The housekeeper flinched at his tone. She had never seen him so enraged. “Miss Hayes said she no longer liked them, sir. She had them all cleared out.” “When?” “She’s been clearing things out for a few days. The last of it was taken this morning.” The words stole the strength from his limbs. Kevin slumped against the wall. Every excuse, every bit of denial he had clung to, crumbled to dust. A terrifying dread grew inside him, a black hole threatening to swallow him whole. He frantically called his assistant again. “Have you found her?” “Not yet, sir…” The sound of the howling wind came through the phone, a phantom chill that seeped into his bones. Why does my chest ache like this? The video wasn’t real, right? She just went out with her friend, right? Her friend! Of course! She and Stella Gordon were inseparable. She had to be with Stella. Kevin shot upright, his fingers fumbling as he found Marcus Blackwood’s number. “Marcus, where is Stella? Is she with Alice?” Marcus’s hand trembled around his own phone. At the question, a shimmer of moisture glossed his eyes. Where was Stella? He didn’t know. He was sitting in a reception room at the city police department. On the table in front of him was Stella Gordon’s death certificate. She had died on Seraphina’s birthday, on the very night he had deliberately ignored her endless stream of calls. When he first received the audio recording, he’d dismissed it as another one of her desperate ploys for attention. But when she never answered his return calls, a cold panic had set in, driving him here to file a missing person’s report. Only to be told the person he was looking for was already gone. Officially. Permanently. He couldn’t name the emotion that gripped him. He just knew that the recording of her last words had become a scythe, each word carving a fresh wound into his heart. “She’s… gone,” Marcus said, the two words costing him all his strength. He sat frozen, unaware that tears were streaming down his face. The news struck Kevin like a bolt of lightning. The word gone echoed in his mind like a nightmare. How could this be?
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