Kaitlyn came to consciousness lying down, her eyes still squeezed tightly shut. Light tried to worm its way past her eyelids, but where it came from was unclear. She feared opening her eyes too much to find out.

  Am I… am I dead?

  That didn't seem quite right. She didn't feel any pain—at least, not yet. Maybe she was just in shock? But the idea of looking to check just to see her body in shambles was too terrifying to bear.

  She tried to get her breathing under control, staying as still as possible. If she was injured, then moving too much might aggravate her wounds and worsen whatever damage she'd taken.

  Although… that means I am breathing. And it doesn't seem to hurt when I do.

  Long seconds passed in silence as she worked to get a hold of herself. After the initial wave of panic passed, Kaitlyn realized that there were even more things that didn't add up. It was silent, for one—the sounds of traffic, shouting, or even emergency sirens that she might have expected were conspicuously absent. She didn't hear Vinny, either. Not to mention the fact that it didn't feel like she was laying on hard asphalt.

  Is this… a blanket? Am I in a bed? Maybe I passed out and they took me to the hospital?

  Eventually, the uncertainty became too much to bear. She had to look. She had to know what had happened, what kind of state she was in. Taking as deep a breath as she dared, Kaitlyn hesitantly cracked one eye open.

  The wooden underside of a bunk bed greeted her. Blinking in surprise, she opened her other eye and scanned the room in confusion. Rather than sterile hospital lamps, she found that the source of the brightness filling the room was sunlight streaming through a window—her window. She was back in her dorm.

  Kaitlyn blinked in confusion. Still not quite believing it, she felt her arms and chest. Nothing. Not a scratch or broken limb or even so much as a bruise. Everything was in one piece.

  Closing her eyes again, she pulled up her Progress Report to confirm her suspicions.

  Progress Report

  Current Cycle:

  Cycle 44 (Week 1)

  Endings (15/18):

  Alex (3/3 – Complete!)

  Dinner Date

  Comfort Food

  Rotten to the Core

  Ian (3/3 – Complete!)

  The Road Less Traveled

  A Winding Path

  The Road to Hell

  Philip (3/3 – Complete!)

  Family Matters

  Distant Relations

  Homewrecker

  Vinny (1/3)

  Life of the Party (Locked)

  Designated Driver (Locked)

  Party Crasher

  Elliot (3/3 – Complete!)

  Growing Together

  Fertile Ground

  By the Root

  Other (2/3)

  Best of All Possible Worlds (Locked)

  Under the Radar

  A Terrible Fate

  Achievements (17):

  The First of Many—Unlock your first ending

  What Friends Are For—Unlock a friendly ending for any male lead

  Walking Red Flag—Unlock a bad ending for any male lead

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  Happily Ever After—Unlock a romance ending for any male lead

  From Every Angle—Unlock all endings for a single male lead

  Wingman—Complete the “Rachel and Cedric” easter egg

  A Solid Start—Unlock 5 unique endings

  Dean's List—Ace all five classes

  The Spice of Life—Unlock 10 unique endings

  Team Player—Win first place at the Bara Bash doubles tournament

  Winner Winner—Win first place at a singles tournament

  Chicken Dinner—Win first place at the Bara Bash singles tournament

  Cheater, Cheater—Trigger an essential reboot or game crash

  Employee of the Year—Become an employee at John Avenue Capital

  Miss Moneybags—Earn $100,000 or more in a single playthrough

  Mask of Many Faces—Unlock 15 unique endings

  Trainwreck—Unlock all bad endings

  She opened her eyes slowly to look down at her hands. They trembled in her lap.

  What… what the fuck.

  The truck had been real, all right—but the game had reset before she'd actually been hit. That, or it had decided to be merciful and spare her the pain of the collision. Whichever option was true though, one thing remained the same: she had died. She should have died. And yet, she was still here.

  No. It's not just that I'm still here. I… I think I earned a new ending from that.

  She vaguely recalled seeing an end of cycle screen as she'd braced for impact. However, she hadn't really been certain whether she'd simply imagined it. And she certainly hadn't read the thing, given her more immediate concerns.

  Closing her eyes again, she read over her Progress Report more carefully. There were a few new additions worth noting, her newest ending chief among them. "A Terrible Fate."

  No way… me DYING is an ENDING?! What the actual living fuck, game? Are you serious?!

  A string of expletives tumbled from her mouth as the realization sunk in. Some distant part of her brain had the good humor to be entertained at Vinny's apparent influence on her language. However, the sheer emotion coursing through her kept her from really appreciating it. Rage, fear, panic, and a whole host of other overwhelming sensations roiled and threatened to make her burst at the very seams.

  Kaitlyn trembled, trying for the second time to get a hold of herself. She closed her eyes, this time to focus on her breathing and keep from hyperventilating.

  This… this is messed up. This is so COMPLETELY messed up. Her hands balled into fists, clenching at the blankets that still covered her. Why… why would they even make this an ending? Who thought that would be a good idea? It's insane. Not to mention… how did it expect me to figure that out in the first place?

  A shiver ran down her spine at the thought. She realized she didn't particularly want to know the answer. Especially not with the possibilities that immediately sprang to mind.

  It took a few more minutes to get a grip on herself—a tenuous one, but a grip nonetheless. That was one of the less pleasant effects of the resets. Even if her body was restored to its previous state and completely intact, her mind certainly wasn't. To her, it had only been minutes since her brush with death. It would take her longer than that to settle down and fully realize that the threat was gone. In the meantime, she tried to distract herself by reviewing the other changes to her Progress Report.

  Looks like I got a few more achievements. One for getting all the bad endings, and one for fifteen endings in total.

  She wasn't sure how to feel about the first one. The fact that she'd managed to unlock all of the bad endings first felt a little… disheartening. At least if it had been friend endings, then she could've felt a little better about it. The other achievement, though, was a bit more heartening.

  At least I'm getting closer to the end… Hopefully. I'm pretty confident that's what it means. I wonder if that's why I'm able to see these locked ending names now?

  Every other time she'd earned five endings, she'd been rewarded for it with some sort of upgrade. The first five had granted her the Progress Report, while the first ten had resulted in the Notes app being unlocked. This time around, it seemed as though her Progress Report had been filled out with a bit more information than ever before.

  She wasn't sure how much it would help. Some of the ending names had certainly given her hints along the way—Ian's and Alex's stood out as notable examples of that—but they'd mostly made sense in hindsight. Whether or not they'd help her figure out what she was doing before having to engage in trial and error was questionable.

  Well, I guess we'll find out. Better to have more information, I guess.

  Once her heart had stopped racing, Kaitlyn let out a long breath. The last loop had not gone at all how she'd hoped or expected. But it had answered a question lurking at the back of her mind this whole time. Now she finally knew what happened when she died in this world. Even if she wasn't sure whether to be relieved or horrified about it.

  Guess that's one more thing that won't get me out of here. Though I guess I should be glad I found out this way, by accident. If I had to go and figure out that ending myself…

  The thought made her shudder. Imagining having all of the other endings completed and bashing her head against a wall, desperately trying to figure out this last one…

  …Yeah, not thinking about that. I'm REALLY glad I found it by accident. Even if I'm still pissed that it even exists.

  Her feet touched down on soft carpet as she flung the covers off to stand. Stretching sinuously upward, Kaitlyn's mind finally turned to thoughts of the future—specifically, what to do with the coming loop. It was then that the wider implications of the loop's premature ending set in.

  Shoot. I… have to do that all again, don't I?

  The realization made her groan. Not the dying part, obviously. She had no plans to repeat that. But establishing a relationship with Vinny would have to start from the ground up. Just when she'd finally started to push past his naturally prickly exterior, too.

  Come on… things were going so well! I felt like we were actually starting to have something there, especially at the end. Heck, I was even excited to go do more things with him! But now…

  She chewed on her lip as she got dressed. It had long been one of her biggest fears—building a real relationship with one of the male leads, then messing up so bad that she lost it all and had to somehow replicate that genuine experience. Up until this point, she'd been fairly lucky and hadn't needed to tread the same path repeatedly—not really. But now?

  There's no helping it, I guess. She straightened her shirt, checking over herself in the mirror. I have to hope that either I can be just as genuine the second time, or I can figure out a different way to bond with him. Guess we'll see how hard that is to pull off…

  Nodding, Kaitlyn straightened and headed for the door. She had a lot of preparation to take care of before heading over to Vinny's again. She just hoped that things wouldn't go too differently than last time.