"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—!!"
Kade's scream tore through the black, hoarse and broken, echoing across the empty nothing like a soul being ripped out. He collapsed onto invisible ground, clutching his neck—feeling, searching, panicking.
His hands met warm skin. Whole. Unbroken.
He was breathing.
He was alive.
He wasn't supposed to be.
Not after that.
Not after the—
He gagged.
Curling forward, Kade dry-heaved into the dark. There was nothing in his stomach to throw up, but the memory was enough. That sound. That laughter. His body sprinting without a head, until it hit the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
He wiped his mouth with the back of his trembling hand. Sat there. Silent.
Then the words returned. Cold. Familiar.
>Gamer over
>Try again
>Saved files
They floated in the air before him, as if they'd never left.
Kade stared at them. Jaw clenched. Mind reeling.
"What the hell were those things?" he muttered, voice barely above a whisper. "Those weren't just rabbits. They—they watched. They waited."
His stomach twisted again, but not from hunger this time.
He tried to remember details. Their eyes. The way they moved. Their silence. That scream.
No—screams.
Like children.
"No animal moves like that…" he whispered. "That wasn't instinct. That was… coordination."
He bit his lip. Thought hard.
"If this is a game… are they some kind of monster type? An event trigger? I didn't do anything! I just—ate a leaf!"
He paced now, barefoot across the unseen floor, glancing up at the choices.
"Try Again. Saved Files. What even is the difference? Will it change anything?"
Then, quieter.
"Am I supposed to figure them out? Avoid them? Kill them?"
He closed his eyes and breathed.
In. Out.
"I need a plan."
A pause.
His eyes flicked to [TRY AGAIN], but he didn't press it.
Not yet.
The choices still hung in front of him like floating knives.
>Game over
>Try again
>Saved files
He wasn't screaming anymore.
Just breathing. Shaking. Thinking.
"What are my options?" he said aloud, trying to anchor himself. "Let's say I hit Try Again."
That puts him right back in the tall grass, he knows that much. The same damn spot.
Same forest.
Same rabbits.
No—horror rabbits. That's what they were now. Not cute. Not innocent. Not real.
"I go left—into the woods—I get mauled by giggling demon fluffballs."
He swallowed. Rubbed his arms like the cold from that place still clung to him.
"And I go down…"
He trailed off.
The staircase in the ruins. He hadn't forgotten.
It led down. Into black. And stone. And something old.
"And undead," he muttered. "There's definitely something undead down there."
So which was worse?
The outside?
Or below?
He stood again, began pacing the dark.
"If I go into the forest, and the rabbits show up again—I'm dead. Unless I find a weapon. Or shelter. Or civilization. Assuming anything even exists out there."
His voice turned bitter.
"Walked for hours last time. Nothing. Just trees and sky and things that eat your face when the sun goes down."
He clenched his fists.
"Fine. So go down, then."
He paused.
"Except I don't know what's waiting there. The stairs looked endless. The air felt wrong. Something's down there. Something that knows I'm weak. Unarmed."
And then the question slammed into him like a brick:
"What am I even trying to do?"
What's the goal here?
Find people?
Find answers?
Find out?
Because right now, all he'd found was death. Twice. Horrible, mind-breaking death.
So he looked at the options again.
Try Again.
Saved Files.
"…Saved Files takes me to the same place anyway," he murmured. "Just labeled fancier."
So no skipping levels. No safe zones. No cheat codes.
It was back to square one.
The ruins.
The headless angel statue.
Tall grass curling at his knees. Creeping cold threading through the cracks of broken stone.
And horror rabbits with a taste for blood.
But this time, he'd be ready.
Or he'd die again.
And again.
Until he figured it out.
Kade stared at the glowing menu in the void.
>Game over
> Try Again
>Saved Files
He swallowed. Hands still trembling, neck aching from a phantom pain.
"…Screw it."
He hit Try Again.
The void cracked like glass.
And then—
He was back.
Ruins.
Same broken pillars. Same shattered stone. Same headless angel statue watching over a graveyard of silence.
Tall grass brushed his knees. The cold greeted him like an old friend.
Kade dropped to his knees, gasping.
Still here. Still alive.
He fumbled for his phone, hand shaking as he yanked it from his pajama pocket.
Battery: 54%
"…Always back to fifty-four," he muttered. "Time's not the only thing that resets."
He stared at the screen for a moment longer, thumb hovering over the icons, like maybe he could call someone. A friend. A delivery guy. God.
No signal, of course.
Just ruins, cold air, and a second chance.
He hold the phone tight in his hand and stood.
"Alright," he whispered. "Let's try not dying this time."
Kade turned toward the broken archway nestled beside the headless angel statue.
The staircase yawned open beneath it—dark, narrow, and breathing damp, earthy air.
He hesitated for only a second this time.
Then pulled out his phone again, thumb pressing hard until the flashlight snapped on.
A thin cone of light cut through the black.
Battery: 54%
Still.
Always.
He let out a long breath and stepped forward, the cracked stone groaning faintly under his feet.
Down he went.
The air grew colder with every step.
The light from above faded, swallowed by the depth.
All that remained was the beam from his phone, painting gray walls in shaky light, dancing with every breath and twitch of his hand.
He gripped the device tighter.
He knew what was down here now.
Maybe.
Or at least what might be.
"Okay," he whispered to himself. "If horror rabbits own the forest… then hell owns the basement."
He kept going.
One step at a time.
No turning back.
Because outside, he already died.
And down here?
At least he hadn't died yet.
He followed the same winding path as before—walls narrowing, air thickening, the silence pressing in like a held breath.
Each step felt familiar now. Not comfortable. Just memorized.
Then—crunch.
He froze.
Looked down.
A skull. Same as before. Split down the center, brittle from age or… trauma.
The same spot.
The same sign.
And just like last time, he didn't have to wait long.
Because it was already waiting.
Further down the hall—just past the edge of his flashlight's reach—a figure shifted.
Kade's breath caught.
It was there again.
That same bent thing.
Human-shaped, but wrong in all the ways that mattered.
Its head tilted unnaturally to one side, neck like wet twine. Its eyes were shadowed, but its intent wasn't. The rusted sword dragged behind it with a sound like nails across stone.
It didn't move toward him.
It didn't need to.
Just stood there. Watching.
Waiting.
Like it remembered him, too.
Kade's fingers tightened around the phone.
"No running this time," he whispered.
He didn't believe himself.
Perfect. Here's the next section, setting that tone of desperate resolve:
---
Kade backed up a step.
The figure didn't move.
Didn't need to.
It was a promise. A warning. A nightmare that knew it had time.
Kade's heart thundered in his ears, sweat cold on his palms. He fumbled with the phone—nearly dropped it—then brought up the screen.
The interface flickered.
The menu appeared again, pale against the dark:
Name: Kade Marlowe
Status: Alive (Alert, Determined, Lightly Traumatized))
Inventory:
— 1x Cellphone (No Signal)
— 1x Wireless Mouse (???)
Skills: None
Abilities: None
Options:
— Save Game
__Saved Files [1]
He stared at that last option.
His thumb hovered.
"Now or never," he muttered.
He tapped Save Game.
A second prompt slid into place:
> Are you sure?
Yes / No
He didn't hesitate.
Yes.
The screen pulsed softly. Just once.
Game Saved.
He let out a shaky breath, eyes flicking back to the hall.
The thing was still there.
Still watching.
But now he wasn't just prey.
Now, he had a checkpoint.
Kade squared his shoulders. The fear didn't vanish, but it settled into something sharper. Controlled.
"If I die," he whispered, "I'll come back."
He took a step forward.
"If I die again…"
Another step.
"…I'll come back again."
He raised the phone like a weapon, light flaring against the dark.
"As many times as it takes."
The figure tilted its head the other way—like it was curious now.
Kade stepped into its reach.