The evening sky was full of stars—
but Layla didn't care.
Dressed in a black hoodie, the girl closed her eyes and quietly hummed along to a song playing in her earphones. The night breeze tousled her hair, carrying with it the scent of exhaust fumes and the endless buzz of city life.
Layla stopped humming. Her fingers pressed pause. She looked left and right—the road was still busy. Her hoodie fluttered in the wind. She let out a soft sigh of irritation.
A few seconds later, the street began to empty.
Without hesitation, Layla stepped forward to cross. She was halfway when—
a truck's engine roared in the distance.
Too fast.
Layla's eyes widened. Her heart skipped a beat. She wanted to run, to jump—but the truck was already too close.
CRASH!
Her body was thrown a good distance. Pain exploded in her head. A high-pitched ringing filled her ears. She forced her eyes open... and what she saw made her breath catch.
The world had stopped.
Smoke from the cars hung still in the air. People stood frozen in place. Birds floated mid-flight. Everything looked like a paused movie frame.
Layla let out a weak laugh.
"So... this is what dying feels like?" she whispered, eyes locked on the unmoving sky.
Then—Ping!—a soft chime echoed.
A pastel-pink holographic screen appeared before her.
On it, a message glowed:
"Do you wish to continue this game?"
Options: [YES] [NO]
Layla stared blankly.
"This is insane," she muttered. "Even at death's door, I'm hallucinating."
Suddenly, the screen flickered. The text glitched, distorting into corrupted code.
Static shrieked in her ears. Thousands of whispers in a strange, inhuman language flooded her mind.
An alarm blared:
BEEP! BEEP! BEEEEEEP!
The screen turned bright red, flashing like a warning light.
Layla panicked. Her hands shook.
Desperate to stop the noise, she tapped [YES].
In an instant—
Darkness swallowed everything.
A sound like a broken TV filled the void.
Her body felt weightless, then—
BACK TO THE BEGINNING
Layla blinked.
The smell of blood and asphalt still clung to her senses.
But now...
she was standing in front of her house.
As if none of it had ever happened.
The truck.
The hologram.
The frozen world.
Like a dream she couldn't wake up from.
Her knees gave out, and she collapsed on the doorstep, clutching her head.
The front door opened.
A woman with auburn hair stepped into the doorway, eyes wide with panic.
"Layla?" her mother called out.
Layla slowly looked up. Her gaze landed on her mother's hand— the wedding ring finger was still bare.
As always. Whenever she asked about her father, the answer was always,
"Later."
Layla didn't reply. She just shook her head.
Her mother rushed over and helped her up.
She supported Layla's trembling body and guided her inside.
"Auntie!" the woman called toward the kitchen.
A woman in her late fifties appeared, wiping her hands with a towel. "Yes, Ma'am?"
"Could you make some warm water? I think Layla's coming down with a fever."
Auntie nodded and quickly disappeared.
Layla collapsed onto the sofa.
Her mother gently touched her forehead, then gasped as she saw the bleeding scrape on Layla's knee.
"What happened to your leg? How did this happen?" Her voice rose, tinged with fear and frustration.
Layla forced a weak smile. "I slipped. It's nothing serious. I'm fine."
Her mother took a deep breath and sat beside her. "I thought something terrible happened." But Layla didn't answer.
Her mind was still stuck on that screen—the question that shouldn't have existed.
If that hologram hadn't shown up...
she would've died.
"Ten minutes earlier."
Screeching tires tore through the road.
The truck driver slammed the brakes. Horns blared all around.
He sat frozen behind the wheel, breathing hard. There was no one on the road.
Nothing, But he could swear—he could swear— he'd seen a girl in a black hoodie step right into the street.
His heart pounded in his chest. Still searching…
Who was that?
Layla chose [YES] for one reason:
She still wanted to live. There were dreams she hadn't reached yet.
But what she didn't know—
was that tapping [YES] didn't just bring her back to life. It trapped her inside a game far more terrifying
than death itself.