"They didn't even listen..." Samantha whispered, her voice raw and bitter. The police had left hours ago, their hands empty of any evidence to support her impossible story. All they had was security footage—enough to confirm Nick's death as a clear-cut suicide. Nothing more. Nothing strange.
Just another tragedy.
Heather sat beside Samantha on the couch, gently wrapping her arms around her daughter. "Oh, Sam... it's okay," she murmured, holding her close.
"It's true, Mom... everything I said... it's true."
"I believe you, Sam. I believe you."
—
"You're late, Dye." The manager at Starbucks snapped as Liam entered the store. "I'm cutting your pay for this. Now get your ass in here."
Liam gave him a cold look. "I'm not here to work," he said flatly. "I'm here to order."
The manager blinked. "Excuse me?"
"I quit. I want a coffee."
His defiance caught the manager off guard. The manager stepped forward as if to intimidate him—but the height difference didn't work in his favor.
"You quit just like that?"
"Resignation doesn't require permission," Liam replied. "I want a coffee."
The manager gritted his teeth, barely containing his fury. "Fine. Order at the counter."
Liam added boldly, "I worked thirteen days this month."
"You'll get your pay with your drink," the manager spat.
Liam walked out minutes later with a steaming cup of coffee and a few hundred dollars in his wallet. Most people would feel a sense of liberation after quitting a job they hated—but Liam felt nothing.
Tyler's empty seat haunted him. The dorm room felt colder now, the campus quieter. He had no desire to return to either.
Instead, he wandered the city streets, head down, earphones in, trying to drown out the world.
"Watch it!" someone barked after he brushed shoulders with a stranger. Liam said nothing and ducked into a quiet alleyway to escape people.
There, atop a dumpster, sat a black cat.
"Meow~"
He ignored it.
The cat's meows grew louder. Sharper. Hostile. Until finally, with a snarl, it leapt.
It knocked the coffee cup from his hand, scalding liquid splashing across his shoes.
"Argh," Liam muttered, wincing.
The cat clung to his arm, claws digging deep. Pain flared. Blood dripped. He threw it off violently—hard enough to slam it into the wall.
The cat yowled but didn't stop. It pounced again, teeth bared.
Liam dodged.
But something inside him snapped. The attack, the posture, the memory—it was just like that moment in the game. He was no longer in the alley. He was back on the island. Back in the nightmare.
Jus like last time, he didn't hesitate.
With a surge of rage, he lashed out—a heavy kick directly to the cat's head.
**Thump.**
The cat hit the wall and crumpled.
Reality returned in a flash. Liam staggered back, gasping, one hand pressed to his face. He felt the burn in his muscles, the tremble in his bones. The trauma still clung to him.
He knelt beside the cat. No breath. No movement.
Dead.
He placed the body gently into the dumpster. It wasn't the guilt of killing a cat that broke him—it was the memory it had awakened. Tyler's death. The helplessness. The rage.
If killing that cat could've saved Tyler, he would've done it a hundred times more.
He lowered the dumpster lid—and froze.
Behind it, sprayed in bright red graffiti, were the words:
[Would You Rather?]
Liam staggered back, chest heaving. He rubbed his eyes, hoping he imagined it.
But the message remained.
He tried avoiding the question by looking down—but saw the blood from his arm forming letters on the pavement.
[Would You Rather?]
He looked up again.
The message on the wall had changed.
—
"I believe you..." Heather whispered, brushing Samantha's long black hair back from her face.
"I was terrified, Mom..." Samantha sobbed, her tears soaking into Heather's shirt.
"You don't have to be afraid anymore. It's over now. You'll never have to go back there."
"I'm sorry... I didn't want to cry, I just..."
"It's okay. Are you alright?"
Samantha nodded, wiping her eyes. "I'm okay, Mom. I promise."
Heather smiled gently. "Good. Can I ask you something?"
"Yeah... sure."
—
The new graffiti on the wall now read:
"Would you rather spend a night in an abandoned city during a zombie apocalypse, or aboard pirate ships surrounded by sea monsters?"
Liam stared in disbelief.
"What the fuck?" he muttered.
Samantha stiffened from her mother's unexpected question.
"…Huh? …M—Mom?"
Heather's eyes were distant now. Empty. Her expression unreadable.
Samantha's heart dropped.
"…Mom?"