Chapter 3

"Damn it." Hannah's face went pale. She stared at her screen, her voice shaking with a kind of panic I had never heard from her before. "She must have hacked it or bought some kind of premium speed pack. Bianca, hurry. We can't stay here."

"What's wrong?" Her reaction scared me.

"Christian's data has a limit," Hannah said quickly. She grabbed my wrist, her grip so tight that her nails dug into my skin. "Whoever reaches the highest intimacy level gets control of him.

"If Ruby gets there first, she can lock him permanently. She could erase us. She could wipe out everything we ever had with him."

Her voice trembled harder, almost breaking. She sounded desperate, almost unhinged. "Hurry. The system is forcing the next mission to start. We have to beat her and finish it first. If we don't, we'll never see Christian again."

Before I could say anything, that same dizzy feeling rushed over me again.

Something cold splashed across my face. It was freezing. I snapped my eyes open. Thunder exploded overhead.

Rain poured down so hard that it blurred everything. I was standing on a slick black road. A broken streetlight flickered in the distance, its light bending in the puddles.

I knew this place. This was the intersection where the accident had happened three years ago—the night that had turned into a nightmare.

[Forced start of three-player competitive instance: Bloody Anniversary.]

[Mission objective: Recreate the truth of the car crash. Find the traitor.]

[Current Betrayal Value: Bianca 30%, Hannah 10%, and Ruby 10%.]

Cold rain ran down my neck and soaked through my clothes. I shivered uncontrollably. Not far away, a black car sat by the roadside. It was Christian's car.

Ruby stood nearby in a red dress, bright and sharp against the storm, like a rose that did not belong there. She was frantically searching around the car, her nails scraping against the metal with a harsh, grating sound.

Hannah stayed back under a streetlight, half-hidden in shadow. Her eyes were cold as she scanned the scene.

"Where's Christian?" I shouted, but the wind and rain tore my voice apart.

"Stop yelling. He's over there," Ruby said. She turned to me with a strange smile and pointed.

I followed her finger. My heart stopped. Christian stood in the middle of the road. He wore the same white shirt from that night. Rain soaked his hair, pressing it flat against his forehead.

He was not looking at Ruby. He was not looking at Hannah. He slowly turned his head and looked straight at me.

"Don't be afraid, Bianca," he said softly.

I ran toward him through the storm. I just wanted to reach him, to grab his hand.

Then I heard it, the roar of a heavy engine in the distance. Two blinding headlights tore through the rain, cutting straight toward us. A massive truck was out of control, charging forward like it was carrying death with it.

"Found it!" Ruby screamed. She yanked something out of the mud by the roadside.

It was a dashcam. It was cracked open and stained with dark, dried blood.

She held it up, her hand shaking. Then she looked at me and laughed, wild and sharp. "I found it, Bianca. I know who the real traitor is."

At the same moment, something in Christian's eyes changed. Just seconds ago, he had looked at me with warmth. Now there was nothing there but cold hatred.

He lifted his hand and pushed me away. I hit the ground hard, landing in muddy water.

[System Warning: Key evidence detected. Christian's emotional preference has shifted. Bianca's Betrayal Value has soared to 70%.]

Thunder crashed overhead, loud enough to shake the air itself. It sounded like a judgment that would never end.

Ruby dropped to her knees in the mud. She clutched the broken dashcam, her fingers digging into it. Mud and dried blood packed under her nails as she fumbled for the reset button on the side. Her fingertips turned white from how hard she pressed.

"It's on! It's on!" she screamed, her voice barely holding together in the storm.

A blurry blue image flickered into the air. Static crawled across it, making it hard to look at.

It was the dashcam footage from three years ago. The hands in it were mine.