PastFate. Future.I wasn't certain of it anymore. Leo's words rang in my head as I walked through the hallways. The death of Celeste, the mocking laughter, the death look—everything was getting to me. I wish it could all stop. But the money, the fame, the wealth, and the power I was gaining through each game were pleasing. I was slowly gaining more fame even though many of the gamers hated me and wanted me gone. Olivia was gone. Zara was having Zack.Derek and Mandy were still planning to kill me, and of course, Eliot's brother wanted me dead. As I walked through the school gates, I forgot my sorrows. Forget about the system and its games. I felt the heavy load lifted off my chest, and then I could breathe again. That is what I feel. ******************************************************************[After three weeks]Grooming. That was what I was going through. The lessons were not easy, but I had to learn fast. The gaming quest was becoming tougher and harder by the day,

The last thing I remembered was the sting—sharp, precise, like a bee's bite with poison laced under its edge. Then the blood, warm and sticky, spread underneath me as the world turned dim and distant. My ears rang, and the hum of students arguing by the board became whispers in a vacuum. Faces blurred, then vanished.I didn’t die—not yet.I woke to a dull white ceiling, blinking lights, and the rhythmic beep of a monitor. The smell of antiseptic stung my nose. My stomach felt heavy, bandaged tight. I shifted, a groan escaping my lips as pain flared like fire through my abdomen.“He’s awake,” a voice said. Not a friendly one.I tilted my head and saw a man standing near the door in a black lab coat, glasses reflecting the harsh overhead light. A name tag read Dr. Venn. He wasn’t a staff member from the school. At least, not the regular kind.“You were lucky,” he said. “A few inches deeper and it would’ve pierced your liver. We removed the blade before it did more damage. You’ve been o

You know that moment you feel scared, your stomach is rumbling, and you feel like you don't know how you are feeling. One moment you feel like taking a leak, and then the next moment you are feeling like taking a shit in the toilet. That was exactly how I was feeling. And trust me, my heart was banging so loud against my chest that I felt like it was going to come out of its place soon. The system alert disappeared from my screen, but its message was still echoing loudly in my head.Kill or be killed.Hunter or prey? I don't know which I was going to be, but I prefer being the hunter. I hated being hunted, and right now, it was going to be bad for me if I was prey. Many of the gamers wanted me dead anyways. Fuck the system! The words echoed in my head, louder than the sound of my heartbeat, louder than the wind brushing past the old observatory. I wasn’t sure if I’d been chosen yet, but the weight of uncertainty was heavier than any label the system could’ve slapped on me. And

Have you ever been in a tight spot and had to choose between taking a man's life? Because that was the spot I was in. Leo's words echoed once again in my ears. The weeks of training and the prep talk to always do what was right were coming back to bite me in the ass. I looked at him; he was not scared, not afraid. Just surrendering himself to me—I cannot believe it was this easy. Was he not supposed to try and fight back? I mean, who wants to die? The thought of officially becoming a murderer gnawed at me. This was not a film anymore or a system trying to take his life for me. I was going to have blood on my hands. The game was becoming tougher and tougher by the day, or should I say as the level kept getting higher. [Ding!] My phone beeped as I saw a list of some of the gamers who were dead already. Prey who couldn't defend themselves against the hunters. I don't know if Derek, Zack, or even Elliot's brothers were [ System voice: Three hours more to carry

The lecturer’s voice echoed in the background as I got carried away with the new mission buzzing on my phone. I don't even know the time zone again, and I don't know how to get back into my world. Everything seems to be in place except me. I was the only odd man out, but I knew my mission. I knew what I needed to do. Still, I couldn’t focus. Not when my world had flipped upside down and the very fabric of reality had blurred like a cracked mirror. Thomas sat next to me, arms crossed, eyes fixed on the front of the class. He didn’t glance my way again. But I knew he had read the message—you are going to die in the next round. His hands were clenched, jaw tight. I could see he was shaking, and he was scared. I was lost for once. If I managed to avert his death, does that mean he was going to be alive in my real world? I looked at him again and saw that he was scared. He just didn’t want to admit it. I looked around the class. Most students were taking notes, doodling in their