After the Love Game Ended, You Vanished From My World

My boyfriend, my best friend, and I were dragged into some kind of relationship game. The system told us that if we cleared every round, we could go home. The first test was simple. Vote for one person to be punished. Sophie clutched my arm, trembling. I patted her hand. "Vote for yourself. If we all do that, it should end in a tie." The votes came in. One each. A three-way tie. Sophie let out a shaky breath, tears still clinging to her lashes. "Cecilia, thank God you thought of that." Then the system told each of us to pick a reward box. Mine contained a small silver shard. A message rang directly in my head. [Ability unlocked: View and alter the outcome of one vote.] I closed my fingers around the shard, smiling as I turned to tell them I’d gotten something useful. Then white light flashed around me. I arrived a few seconds after they did. And before the light had completely faded, I saw them. Sophie had her back to me, tucked into my boyfriend’s arms. "Why wouldn’t you let me vote for her just now?" Her voice was low. "If we vote for her every round, then the two of us can get out safely, can’t we?" He rested his chin on top of her head and lowered his voice. "We’ll vote for her next round." "It’s just a test. Don’t rush." The last of the light faded, and I appeared beside them. Sophie immediately turned around. As naturally as if nothing had happened, she slipped her arm through mine. "Cecilia, what did you get? Neither of us got anything." Inside my pocket, the silver shard pressed into my palm. I smiled. "Nothing." "Mine was empty too." Chapter 1 Then the real game began. [Write down the name of the person you love.] [Your answer will be tied to all questions that follow.] A blank box appeared on the screen. I typed in Zane Jefferson. Beside me, Sophie turned slightly, using her shoulder to block her screen. Zane barely hesitated. When he hit confirm, two words were still visible on his screen. Cecilia Lane. I stared at my own name for a second, my mind going strangely blank. Sophie leaned over and smiled. "You two are so sweet." As she spoke, she reached up and touched the necklace around her neck. Zane’s eyes followed the movement. His gaze lingered on the pendant. My fingers curled slightly. The first round began. Three questions appeared on the wall. [1. Is the person you wrote down one of the three people in this room?] [2. Do you love them?] [3. Have you ever lied to them?] "If they were going to ask us stuff like this, why let us hide our answers in the first place?" Sophie complained under her breath. In the empty room, though, every word carried. I turned toward her. Our eyes met. She gave me an awkward little smile. The system ignored her. [Choose your answers within one minute.] [The person with the most incorrect answers will be punished.] I selected my answers. Yes. Yes. No. Zane chose the exact same three. Sophie glanced at our screens, her lashes fluttering. Then she entered hers. The same answers again. The screens went dark. A second later, Sophie added quickly, "Cecilia, I actually wrote your name." "We’re best friends, aren’t we? Of course I love you most." Her eyes were bright, her smile exactly the same as always. "I love you most." The words sounded just as light and effortless as what I had heard her say earlier. 'If we vote for her every round...' My stomach turned. Then the results appeared. I had gotten one answer wrong. Zane had gotten one wrong. Sophie had gotten two wrong. Silence filled the room for three seconds. Then Sophie shot to her feet so fast that her chair toppled backward. "How is that possible?" "How could I have gotten two wrong?" Zane frowned. "Did the system make a mistake?" [The system follows its own criteria.] [The results are never wrong.] "And why should your criteria be right?" Sophie snapped. "You think you understand my feelings better than I do?" She paused. She claimed she had written my name. But she was looking at Zane. "I love the person I wrote down. I don’t accept your judgment." Then she turned to him. "Do you?" Zane looked at her. Then at the answers on his own screen. After a long silence, he said, "No." "I don’t accept it either." I looked away. [The result is final.] [Sophie, you will receive the punishment.] The color drained from her face. She reached for Zane’s arm. "Zane…" He immediately stood and stepped in front of her. "What kind of punishment?" [Relax.] [This is not a death game.] A shadow appeared silently behind Sophie. It seeped into her body like water. Her entire body went rigid. For a moment, it looked as if something had been pulled out of her. [What if your world had never had them?] Sophie looked down at herself. Her arms and legs were still there. She was still trembling. "What does that mean?" Her phone lit up. A notification from the DMV appeared on the screen. [The registration for the vehicle under your name has been canceled.] Sophie froze. It was the SUV she had bought less than two weeks ago. Limited-edition blue. The day she picked it up, she had dragged me into the driver’s seat for a selfie. "Cecilia, we should go on road trips all the time from now on." I had smiled and agreed, genuinely happy for her. Now she stood there staring blankly at her phone. "How is that possible?" "That was my own money…" The system answered. [$260,000.] [Given by them.] My heart seemed to stop. Two hundred and sixty thousand dollars. That was exactly how much Zane and I had saved for the renovations on our new home. Chapter 2 I slowly stood up, the legs of my chair scraping sharply across the floor. I looked at Zane. He turned his face away. "Why exactly $260,000?" I asked. "That can’t be a coincidence." He was silent for a long time, staring at the floor. Finally, he pressed his lips together. "Sophie lives far from work. She has to cram onto the subway every morning. In the summer, she gets to work drenched in sweat. In the winter, her hands crack from the cold." He paused. "She’s your best friend. If you knew what she was going through, you’d feel bad for her too." I braced a hand against the edge of the table and looked down at my fingers. I had kept that money in a separate account. I’d even named it 'Home'. Every month, as soon as my paycheck came in, I transferred half of it into that account. My commute from the station took thirty minutes on foot, with no direct bus. I walked it every single day because I couldn’t even bring myself to spend money on a bike rental. Last winter, the skin across the backs of my hands cracked open in several places. Every keystroke hurt. I kept telling myself I could put up with it a little longer. The money I spent seeing a doctor could buy a few things for our new home instead. Just last month, I had checked the balance and smiled to myself. A few more months, and we’d have enough for heated floors. "That’s not what I asked." I paused and took a deep breath. "That was our money. What gave you the right to take it without telling me?" Zane finally looked at me. There was a coldness in his eyes I had never seen before. "That money wasn’t all yours." "Wasn’t half of it mine?" He suddenly gave a quiet laugh through his nose. "Are you really going to stand there and act like you’ve never hidden anything from me?" I froze. What was he talking about? I stared at him, waiting for him to explain. But he only looked back at me, something unreadable shifting behind his eyes. Sophie spoke up. "Cecilia, don’t be mad. Zane only lent me the money. I was going to pay it back." "It’s just that now…" "My car is gone…" She lowered her voice. "And because half the money was yours, and I wrote your name down, the system must have decided the money counted as something you gave me. That’s why it took the car away." By the end, she sounded almost as though *she* were the one who had been wronged. Nausea rolled through me. I was about to speak when the system cut us off. The second round began. [Choose the scene where you first met the person you love.] [You have one minute to choose.] [Anyone who answers incorrectly will be punished.] I was sent into a room by myself. There were no windows. Only a harsh white light overhead. Two videos appeared side by side on the wall in front of me. Both were filmed from a third-person perspective. There was no sound, and the faces were blurred. But I recognized them anyway. In the video on the left, a little boy was curled up inside a rundown apartment, the door hanging half open. A large man stood over him with a broken beer bottle in his hand. Just as he swung it down, a girl rushed in and threw herself over the boy’s back. Shards of glass flew. One buried itself in the back of her neck. The video on the right was set in winter. Dirty snow was piled at the mouth of an alley. A boy lay facedown on the ground with his eyes closed, dressed in a thin school uniform. His lips were turning blue. Two girls walked past and stopped to talk. The shorter one shook her head at something the other said. Then, in the end, she took off her puffer jacket and laid it over the boy. I watched the video on the right several times. Then I chose the one on the left. When I stepped out of the room, Zane and Sophie were already waiting. Zane’s expression was ice-cold. "You saw that, and you seriously have nothing to say?" His voice was pulled tight. I stopped in front of him, my hands curling into fists. "What exactly do you want me to say?" He gave a humorless laugh. "Just because you couldn’t see anyone’s face, you think you can act like you did nothing wrong?" "Fine. Treat me like that." "But Sophie too?" "Isn’t she supposed to be your best friend?" My throat tightened. "If you have something to say, just say it." "That puffer jacket—" Sophie grabbed his sleeve. "Zane, forget it. It was a long time ago." His chest rose and fell sharply. Then the system announced the results. [Cecilia: Correct.] [Sophie: Correct.] [Zane: Incorrect.] [Zane Jefferson will receive the punishment.] Zane spun toward the system. "I didn’t get it wrong!" Chapter 3 His voice echoed through the empty room. Zane stared at the system, then turned to Sophie, speaking faster and faster. "You were right. This system’s standards are completely screwed up!" "Yeah, I liked that girl when I was a kid, but that was years ago. The question asked when I first met Cecilia." "That was in high school. In the winter!" My heart jolted. So the boy lying in the snow really was him. And when Zane first approached me in high school and asked, "Were you the one who saved me back then?" He hadn’t been talking about what happened when we were children. Suddenly, I understood what he meant when he accused me of lying to him. That puffer jacket hadn’t been mine. The figures on the screen remained silent and faceless. "I didn’t choose wrong! Why the hell am I being punished—" Zane’s voice cut off. The color began to drain from the fingertips of his right hand, spreading slowly up his palm and into his arm. His skin turned a pale bluish white. His fingers curled stiffly, his hand looking almost like a plaster cast. Zane stared down at it, his pupils contracting. He tried to move his fingers. Nothing happened. "My hand…" "I can’t feel it." Sophie rushed over and wrapped both hands around his frozen one, pressing it against her chest to warm it. They leaned their heads together beneath the cold steel light. They looked almost like a painting. And I was standing outside the frame. Watching. [What if your world had never had them?] [The puffer jacket was given to you by them.] Zane jerked his head up. "I knew it! You’re a garbage system!" "Cecilia fooled you too!" "That jacket belonged to Sophie!" He turned towards me, anger burning in his eyes. "I get it now. What kind of system is this?" "First it punishes Sophie, then it punishes me." "You and the system planned this together, didn’t you?" "Yes, Sophie and I are together now. You found out, so this is your way of getting revenge, right?" His voice ricocheted around the room. I said nothing. Sophie was still holding his hand when she looked up at me. "Cecilia… I really didn’t mean for any of this to happen." "Last month, I saw Zane wearing a puffer jacket that looked a lot like the one from back then, and I just happened to mention it." "If I’d known that was the reason you two got together, I swear I never would’ve said anything." "I didn’t mean to expose your lie." "It’s not your fault." Zane wrapped his good arm around her shoulders. "She’s the one who’s been lying from the beginning." Sophie shook her head, tears falling onto the back of his hand. "But the puffer jacket really was mine." "And you didn’t choose wrong." "The system never should’ve punished you, especially not by taking away your hand because of that jacket." The puffer jacket. Again with the damn puffer jacket. Suddenly, I was exhausted. That winter, if I hadn’t stopped… If I hadn’t insisted… Sophie never would have given him her jacket in the first place. But I couldn’t be bothered explaining anymore. They wouldn’t believe me anyway. "When did you two get together?" That was the only thing I wanted to know. Sophie froze for a second. Then she lowered her head and said nothing. Zane lifted his chin. "Last month." "After I found out the truth, I got together with her." Last month. Suddenly, everything that had happened since then came rushing back. Zane kissing me. His fingers threading through my hair. His lips brushing the corner of my mouth as he whispered, "Good night, Cecilia." Sophie linking arms with me every day when we went to lunch. Resting her head on my shoulder and saying, "Cecilia, you’re the best." My stomach lurched. I bent over, bracing my hands on my knees as I dry-heaved. Nothing came up. I wiped at my lips with the back of my hand. Once. Twice. The skin split. The metallic taste of blood seeped into my mouth. Zane’s voice came crashing down from above me. "What the hell is wrong with you?" "You think I wanted to kiss you? "I’ve wanted to tell you the truth for ages!" The fluorescent light buzzed overhead. I could feel his eyes fixed on my mouth. Hot. Furious. I didn’t look at him. I didn’t argue. I simply turned to the system. "Continue." Chapter 4 The third round began. An old living room seemed to seep out of the walls, splitting the space in two. Faded floral wallpaper. A wooden coffee table with chipped paint. Empty beer bottles scattered everywhere. Zane went rigid. He recognized this place. A humanoid robot stood in the middle of the room, dressed in ordinary clothes and gripping half of a broken beer bottle. It paced around aimlessly. Every few steps, it raised its arm and brought the jagged bottle down. Then raised it again. Sophie screamed. "I thought you said this wasn’t a death game!" The system offered no explanation. [Vote for the person who will enter the room.] Just like the trial round. Sophie visibly relaxed. She opened her mouth, about to say something to Zane, but then stopped and glanced at me. "Cecilia," she said, "Zane was just angry earlier. I believe you. I don’t think you really teamed up with the system." She paused. "But I’m kind of curious. That reward box earlier... did you really get nothing?" Before I could answer, she turned toward the system. "System, what did Cecilia get?" Then she caught herself. "Oh, wait. If you really are working with Cecilia, you wouldn’t tell me anyway." "Unless you actually gave her something useful—" [Cecilia received a reward.] Sophie froze. So did I. I had assumed the system would keep it secret. [Sophie received nothing.] [Zane received nothing.] [Cecilia received a reward.] [The details of the reward cannot be disclosed.] The system gave everything else away without hesitation. Sophie blinked. She lowered her head, the faintest smile touching her lips. But when she looked up again, she was back to looking hurt. "Why would you lie to us?" "Was Zane right after all? Did you really make some kind of deal with the system?" Her voice wavered. "Does your reward let you avoid punishment or something?" Then she turned to Zane. "Zane, she already has a reward. Let her go in this round." "I already told you." I looked straight at Sophie. "If we all vote for ourselves, no one has to go in." "Cecilia... would you really vote for yourself?" She shook her head as if the very idea frightened her. "I can’t take that chance." She wasn’t really talking to me. She was saying it for Zane to hear. I knew exactly what she was doing. Zane stood there staring into the room. The robot moved again. The jagged edge of the bottle cut through the air and scraped a thin strip of paint from the wall. His shoulders twitched. "What if someone really got hurt..." His voice was barely audible. "Your hand is already like this, and you’re still worried about someone else?" "She didn’t even care when you got hurt!" Sophie raised her voice, her eyes instantly filling with tears. Zane looked back at me. Then at the robot. [Voting begins now.] Inside my pocket, I crushed the silver shard. [Reward activated: View and alter the outcome of one vote.] A cold sensation slid across my eyes. Two lines of text appeared in front of me. Sophie: Cecilia. Zane: No selection. He hadn’t chosen yet. I watched his profile. His eyes stayed fixed on the robot, his lips pressed into a thin line. His good hand rose toward the screen. His finger hovered over my name. Then pulled back. The robot turned. The jagged edge of the broken bottle caught the cold light. Zane closed his eyes for a second. Then he made his choice. Himself. I suddenly smiled. He hadn’t voted for himself because he was worried I might get hurt. He did it because he knew Sophie would vote for me. He simply didn’t want to carry the guilt of helping her do it. If I voted for myself, then going into that room would be my own choice. If I voted for Sophie, the vote would end in a tie. If I voted for him... No. He didn’t think I would. He still believed I loved him. How ridiculous. I spoke silently to the system. [Can I invalidate one vote?] [Yes.] [Then invalidate his vote for himself.] This room had been built for us from the start. I pressed my choice. Zane Jefferson.