Chapter 2

Kieran pov

I jolted awake, gasping for air.

I wasn’t in the wreck. No fire, no seatbelt cutting into me. Instead, my hands clamped a steering wheel. I was inside a moving truck, driving it.

“What…?” My voice shook. Everything felt like I just woked up from a bad dream.

My body didn’t feel like my own. My feet pressed the pedals without my actions, and the truck only sped faster. I yanked the wheel nothing. It wouldn’t respond. What’s going on, how did I get here.

Then I saw something coming in front.

Up ahead my car.

The same car my parents left me. The same car I had just died in. I began to feel confuse. What the fuck is happening.

The car swerved across the road. Through the windshield, I saw myself inside pale, broken, my eyes hollow like I was already gone.

“No!” I slammed the horn, the truck’s blare since it's the only thing that seems to obey me. I screamed until my throat got sore, pounding the wheel. “Get out! Move!”

The other me didn’t react. Didn’t hear me.

The truck roared forward, unstoppable. The distance shrank with every seconds.

My chest crushed under panic. I fought the brakes, the wheel, anything, but nothing answered. My breath shattered into sobs.

Finally, I gave up. I couldn't watch me kill my other self.

I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for the accident to happen again.

Silence. Suddenly, the truck lowered it's speed.

My eyes snapped open.

The road was empty. My car was gone.

The truck kept moving, steadily..

My breath came rough and shallow. My hands trembled against the wheel.

“What the hell is happening…?”

Then suddenly,

“HELLO.”

A voice.

Neither coming from outside nor inside.

A cold, mechanical voice seared into my head with the words, visuals displaying:

《SYSTEM INITIALIZED》

You are dead, Kieran.

I froze. My blood went ice cold.

《SECOND CHANCE PROTOCOL ACTIVATED》

Survive the Trial.

Find the True Lifeline.

Failure = permanent erasure.

My heart thudded so hard it hurt. “Who… who are you?”

The voice continued calmly.

《RULES TO JOIN THE SURVIVAL GAMES》

Rule1: The road ahead is endless. Do not leave the truck no matter what.

Rule 2: If you see yourself again do not look twice.

Rule 3: If the lights go out, pray they come back. If they don’t come after 3 seconds… close your eyes and count to 10.

Rule 4: At Mile 50, something will run beside the truck. Never, ever look at it.

Rule 5: At 3:00 a.m., the call will come from the phone beside you. Don’t answer. Don’t read any messages.

I turned to look beside me indeed there is a phone.

Rule 6: Always stare at the road. There are dangerous curve ahead.

The beginning of the game is at the end of the road. Miss it, and your second chance dies with you. Good luck.

The voice stopped.

My throat tightened. “Wait! Who the hell are you? Where am I?!” My voice cracked, echoing in the cab. “Answer me! Why me?!”

Silence.

I slammed the wheel, my desperation and anger rising. “Say something, damn it! What is going on?!”

Nothing.

“The beginning of the game is at the end of the road. Miss it, and your second chance burns with you.“ i muttered i have to get to the end of the road.

The truck roared louder, and the road stretched into an endless black void.

I gripped the wheel, my knuckles white. My voice cracked. “This… this can’t be real right.” i questioned myself.

My hands were welded to the wheel, my breath ragged in my chest. Every bump on the road made me flinch.

The dashboard clock blinked: 2:47 a.m.

I swallowed hard. The rules burned in my skull like a brand.

At 3:00 a.m., the call will come. Don’t answer.

Thirteen minutes before that.

My eyes darted to the rearview mirror empty road. My pulse eased for a second.

But then the truck lights flickered.

A hiss of static filled the truck, like an old radio struggling for signal. The dashboard screen glitched, green lines distorting across the digital display.

My chest locked tight.

Rule 3… If the lights go out, pray they come back.

The headlights cut out.

Instant black.

The kind of dark that suffocated. The darkness swallowing me whole.

My voice stuck in my throat. As I counted under my breath, heart hammering so hard I nearly missed my own voice.

“One… two… three…”

Nothing. Still dark.

I shut my eyes tight, my nails were digging into the wheel. “Four… five… six…”

Something scraped along the side of the truck. Metal-on-metal. A claw, or a blade, dragging across the doors.

“Seven… eight…”

A whisper seeped in, right by my ear.

“Let me in.”

“Nine… ten!”

The headlights snapped back on.

My eyes shot open. The light was back. The truck surged forward. The scraping sound was gone.

But my palms were slick with sweat. My whole body shook.“is this some kind of horror game.“ i muttered.

I sucked in breath after breath, my chest screaming for air.

The clock blinked. 2:58 a.m.

Two minutes until the call.

My throat went dry. My hands clenched the wheel tighter.

Then

BRRRRING.

The phone mounted on the dash lit up, screen glowing a sickly green.

CALLER ID: UNKNOWN

The ringtone cut sharp and shrill through the truck. Over and over. Louder each time.

I shook my head violently. “No. No, I’m not answering. I’m not.” It’s like the ringtone is initiating me to answer it.

The phone rang again. Louder.

The phone screen glitched, letters tearing across it like claws.

ANSWER ME.

I turned my head away, eyes locked on the road. “Neither looking nor touching it.”

The ringing stopped.

I let out a trembling breath. Relief. For just a second.

Then the phone buzzed. A text notification flashed across the screen which made me turn to it.

MESSAGE: We’re in the backseat.

My breath stop in my chest.

Slowly, unwillingly, I glanced into the rearview mirror.

Two silhouettes sat in the backseat. Perfectly still and silent.

Emily and Darius.

Their eyes glowed pale white in the dark.

My grip faltered. “No… you’re not real. You’re not ”

Emily’s lips curled into a smile in the mirror. Her voice slithered, soft but cruel, the same way it had back in the bedroom.

“Drive, Kieran. Or we’ll make you crash again.”

I didn’t look away.

I couldn’t.

Emily’s ghost-white eyes stared at me through the rear-view mirror. Darius sat beside her, head tilted unnaturally, like his neck had been snapped and he didn’t bother to reset it.

They sat like passengers.

Dead ones.

Both smiling like they knew something I didn’t.

My pulse hammered in my skull.

“You’re not real,” I whispered, begging, trying not to believe.

Emily’s voice seeped forward, softly, honey: “You should’ve died with us.”

Darius’s head twitched once a sickening crack like bone shifting back into place.

I gasped and snapped my eyes away from the mirror.

Hands clenched on the wheel. Muscles locked. My teeth were grinding. What did they even mean by I should have died with them. They chased me away and I’m the one who ended up dead and in this sick game.

I have to focus. Continue driving. Don’t look back. Don’t think anymore.

The truck howled against the road.

Silence swallowed the truck again.

The clock blinked as i looked at it.

3:01 A.M.

The call was over. I survived the rules. I turned behind.