Betrayed...

“I said no!” I spat out and what followed was a hard smack straight against my cheek.

My lip tore, and I tasted copper, but the defiance in my eyes did not recede one bit.

“Say it, you bitch!” a deep irritated voice barked at me, attempting to raise his hand once again, but I only turned my face to glare at him.

“I said no!” 

Standing in front of me were my supposed boyfriend, Jayden, and my supposed best friend, Karen. 

They wanted me to take the blame for Karen’s massive screw-up. She was the one who didn't lock the back gates before lights out, which resulted in the zombie invasion this morning.

​Now, they wanted to tell everyone it was my shift and that I had slacked off. Isn't that the same as asking me to die? The stronghold’s leader would throw me out into the wasteland without a second thought, and I'd be eaten alive by the zombies outside. There was no way in hell I was going to give them that satisfaction.

Once again, his hand smacked across my face. It hurt. It hurt so much. My cheeks were stinging, burning, but I bit my lips and held my tears, refusing to give them the satisfaction of watching me fold for them.

My hands were tied behind me to a pole with a zip tie, so I couldn't even escape if I wanted to.

​To think Jayden would ever raise his hands on me just for Karen.

​Well, I was the dumb one here. I noticed it two weeks back when we first reunited with Karen. Since that day, he had been acting weird, treating Karen as if she was the one he had spent the last five years surviving hell with.

​I became completely invisible to him the second the girl he used to cheat on me with showed up. If that was the case, then what was the point of everything we went through?

​I knew he had been cheating on me back before the world ended. But before I could even confront him, the apocalypse hit. I foolishly thought that because we faced pure horror together side-by-side, his view of me had changed. I thought I had finally become the most important thing to him.

​But I was wrong. Foolishly, miserably wrong. I didn't know if I had stuck to him all this time because I was just terrified of venturing into this broken world alone, or if I was just that desperate to be his one and only lover.

​Regardless, I failed the moment Karen showed up, and now I was regretting it to my bitter bones. Men don't change, and love is absolute bullshit.

“Oh, Amber, why are you being so difficult?” Karen sighed, crossing her arms and looking down her nose at me. “It’s just a little lie. If you just take the blame, the leader will just give you a light punishment. But if we all get dragged into this, Jayden will lose his position in the vanguard!”

​“A light punishment?” I choked out, a bitter laugh bubbling past my bleeding lip. “Karen, the gate was breached! People died this morning! If I take the blame, they aren’t going to dock my rations, they are going to throw me to the zombies. You want me to die so your precious Jayden can keep his title and you remain Miss little innocent queen? Never!”

​Jayden stepped forward, his boots heavy against the dusty floor. The warm, familiar expression he used to wear when looking at me was completely gone, replaced by a cold mask.

​“It’s for the greater good, Amber,” Jayden said, his voice flat, devoid of any of the affection he had promised me over the last five years. “Karen is too fragile to survive outside the walls. You’re tough. You’ve been through the trenches with me. If you just cooperate, maybe I can find a way to sneak you some supplies after they exile you.”

​“You’re a liar,” I hissed, glaring up at him. “You never intended to help me. I saw the way you looked at her when she arrived. You’ve been waiting for a reason to get rid of me, haven't you?”

​Karen sniffled, stepping closer to Jayden and wrapping her hand around his arm. “Look at her, Jayden. She’s completely crazy. She’s going to ruin everything for us. If she tells the leader the truth, we’re both dead anyway.”

Jayden’s eyes locked onto mine, and right then, a chill went straight down my spine. The look in his eyes changed. It wasn't just frustration anymore. It was a dark, murderous resolve. He reached into his belt, his hand wrapping around the hilt of his knife.

​“Jayden…” My voice trembled as a cold sweat broke out across my forehead. I pulled frantically against the zip tie, the pole creaking behind my back, but I couldn't budge an inch. “What… what are you doing?”

​“You forced my hands, Amber,” Jayden said, stepping into my personal space. His shadow completely eclipsed me. “If you had just lied for Karen, you wouldn't have had to end up like this.”

​Panic flared violently in my chest. He wasn't planning on letting me get exiled. He wasn't even going to let me speak to the stronghold's leader at all. He was going to murder me right here, in this abandoned area, and frame it as a tragic mercy killing.

​“No! Let me go! You scumbag, let me go!” I screamed, kicking my legs out wildly and twisting my torso back and forth, desperate to break the restraints.

​“Shut up!” he roared.

​Before I could twist away from his reach, Jayden lunged forward. He slammed his heavy body weight against mine, pinning my legs with his knees and cutting off my movements. 

I opened my mouth to scream again, to alert anyone down the hall, but his hand slammed violently over my mouth, gagging me instantly.

​I thrashed beneath him, tears of rage and absolute terror stinging my eyes as I pulled against the pole until my wrists bled. 

I tried to bite down on his fingers, but he pressed harder, cutting off my air. He leaned his face down close to my ear, his breathing heavy and completely hollow.

“You should've thought better,” He growled in my ear. 

​Before I could even process the sheer weight of his betrayal, Jayden bared his teeth and sank them deep into the side of my neck, biting down with a brutal, sickening force that tore right through my skin.

Where was the love? Where was the support he had shown me all these years? How could he just… how could he just do this to any human being, let alone me?

​As I choked on my own breath, Karen stepped up. She picked up the knife, a twisted, gleeful smile on her face. She wanted to do the honors.

​Leaning down, she whispered right into my ear, "Stupid Amber. I've been the most important to him from the start. Even when you two were sleeping in the same bed, I was right there, sucking him off. You're nothing, and this is where you end."

​With a sudden, brutal thrust, she stabbed the knife straight into my neck.

​A wave of bitter, hot betrayal flooded my entire body. ‘Yes, I know. I always knew he was cheating with you, but this… this definitely crossed the line.’

​As the pain coursed through my body, blood gushing out of my neck and mouth, the light began to fade from my eyes and the darkness started pulling me under.

“Let's tell the stronghold leader that she got bitten by a zombie and we killed her before she transformed.” Jayden said as he spat out the traces of my blood from his lips, and Karen giggled, leaning her body into his.

“It was with great torture that I had to cut my best friend's last breath,” she said with a mocking sorrow and then they began walking away.

‘Ah…’ as I listened to their fading footsteps and my vision completely faded, one final, burning thought consumed my mind: ‘If I ever have the chance to go back, I'll make sure to ditch that scumbag and prepare for the worst. I don't need love. I just need… someone who can protect me. Because in this cruel world… I cannot protect myself.’

​With a violent gasp, I bolted upright.

​I was heaving, drenched in cold sweat, and completely panicked. My heart was racing like a drum in my chest, my body wouldn't stop trembling, and my throat felt very dry, like I had walked through a dessert.

​What just…?

​My hands flew to my neck, frantically searching. There was nothing. No blood, no stab wound, no bite mark.

​I looked around. I wasn't in a dark, dirty room in the stronghold. I was sitting on the couch of a clean, intact living room. My living room.

​I… I was safe? Was that all just a horrific nightmare?

​I swallowed hard, trying to catch my breath. There was no way it was a nightmare, all that gore, that panic… five years and then that betrayal… 

Before my brain could fully process what was happening, a sharp ping echoed in my head, and I looked around, confused. What was that just now? I thought I just heard— A glowing game like window interface suddenly materialized right in front of my eyes:

​[Congratulations, Host. You have been reborn.]