Chapter 32
Quick Time Event
The hatch led to a ladder that descended into what looked like another storage room, but this one was different. Well-lit with steady fluorescents instead of flickering lights. Shelves lined with supplies—water, energy bars, basic medical equipment.
Another safe room. Maybe they were closer to the atrium than they realized. Maybe there was still hope.
But as soon as his feet hit the floor, the reality of what happened crashed over him like a physical weight.
Levi sank down right where he stood, his back against a wall, and just stared.
Blood. There was blood everywhere. On his clothes, his hands, his face where it splashed when Asher—when Tyler and Jasper—
They’re dead. The three people who had been working with him, joking with him, trying to figure out the map together. Gone. Brutally murdered while he watched.
And I followed him down here like a fucking lamb.
The tears came without warning, harsh sobs that shook his shoulders as he buried his face in his bloodstained hands.
At least when the others had been there, it felt like there was an inkling of hope.
They came up with the map idea, worked together, and made him feel less alone.
Now they were gone, and he didn’t even know if dying again would bring them back.
What if this time they stay dead?
The thought terrified him almost as much as the possibility of endless loops. Either way, he was trapped—doomed to watch people suffer, or doomed to be alone with Asher forever.
“I miss home,” he said aloud, the words coming out broken and desperate.
“I miss my t-tiny apartment. I miss the rude customers at the coffee shop who complained about m-my foam art. I miss my stupid 178 subscribers who actually gave a shit about my streams. I miss Ethan. God, I miss my brother s-so much.”
Warm hands settled on his shoulders, firm but careful. Asher had sat down beside him, close enough to offer solace but not crowding. He didn’t say anything for a moment, just let his thumbs rub small circles against the tension in Levi’s shoulders.
“Tell me about Ethan,” Asher said. “Your brother.”
“He’s dead,” Levi said bluntly, his voice cracking. “He killed himself and I’m the one who f-f-found him.”
Asher’s hands stilled for a moment, then resumed their careful motion. “I’m sorry. That must have been devastating.”
There was something in his voice, authentic sympathy, maybe, or at least what sounded like it. No platitudes about how Ethan was “in a better place” or how “everything happens for a reason.” Just acknowledgment of the loss.
“He was the only family I had left,” Levi sobbed, the words spilling out now that they started. “The only person who really knew me. And I miss him so f-fucking much it feels like dying.”
Asher’s touch grew more tender, one hand moving to card through Levi’s hair with careful attention. They were both still covered in blood, but the comfort felt real, and he wanted the comfort, even if just for a few minutes.
This is so fucked up. But Levi found himself leaning into the touch, his head coming to rest against Asher’s shoulder.
“Everything is so fucked up,” he whispered. “I don’t know what’s right and wrong anymore. Am I s-supposed to save the NPCs? Am I supposed to sacrifice them to get out? How d-do I get out of the hospital? How do I get out of the game?”
“Maybe the point isn’t to get out of here.”
Levi lifted his head to look at him, confusion cutting through the despair.
“Maybe it’s to find something good in all of it,” Asher continued, those mismatched eyes studying Levi’s face with strange intensity. “Something worth staying for.”
Something worth staying for. The words sent a chill up Levi’s spine. Because part of him—a small, treacherous part—understood what Asher meant. The protection, the attention, the twisted care. It was more affection than he ever had in the real world.
But I want to go home. Even if home was empty and lonely and full of memories that hurt.
“I don’t even know what you are,” Levi whispered. “If I find a way out of the game, what happens to you?”
The question hung in the air between them, loaded with implications neither of them wanted to examine too closely. If Asher was part of the game, part of the simulation, then leaving would mean—
Levi opened his mouth to voice the thought, but Asher’s hand cupped his face, fingers tilting his chin up.
Then Asher was kissing him.
It started intense, almost desperate, like Asher was trying to silence the questions with physical contact. But something shifted. The kiss softened, became exploratory, as if Asher was trying to figure out how Levi liked to be kissed.
Oh. Levi’s thoughts scattered like leaves in the wind. Asher’s lips were warm and careful, moving against his with devastating tenderness. His thumb stroked along Levi’s cheek, then traced the line of his jaw with the same attention he showed during their timed encounter.
Like he’s kissing someone for the first time. The thought drifted through Levi’s mind as Asher’s mouth moved against his with patient exploration. Like he’s learning me.
Despite everything—the blood on their clothes, the murders he just witnessed, the moral complexity of their twisted relationship—Levi found himself kissing back.
What’s wrong with me? But the question felt distant, unimportant compared to the warmth of Asher’s mouth and the careful way his fingers cradled Levi’s face.
When they finally broke apart, Asher’s face transformed into something radiant.
“You kissed me back that time,” he whispered breathlessly, his voice filled with awe.
Oh God.
He just murdered Tyler and Elliot and Jasper. He’s covered in their blood.
And I kissed him back.
Before Levi could process the implications fully, Asher pulled him into another kiss, this one hungrier, more demanding.
“More,” Asher whispered against his lips. “I need more.”
His hands dropped to Levi’s waist, fingers slipping beneath the hem of his bloodstained shirt. The touch was electric against his bare skin, and Levi gasped at the contact.
“Asher—”
“I want to touch all of you,” Asher murmured, his mouth moving to Levi’s neck. “I want to learn every inch.”
His hands pushed higher, thumbs brushing across sensitive skin, and he began pressing Levi backward toward the floor with increasing insistence.
No. Fear spiked through Levi’s chest as he realized how quickly things were escalating. This was Asher losing control, taking what he wanted without asking.
“Wait,” Levi said, pressing his hands against Asher’s chest. “Slow down.”
But Asher’s eyes had that familiar hungry gleam, the predatory focus that meant he was done waiting, done being careful. His grip tightened, and he leaned more weight into pushing Levi down.
“You kissed me back,” he said, his voice rough with need. “You want this too.”
His mouth crashed against Levi’s again. Asher’s teeth scraped against his bottom lip, then soothed the sting with his tongue. His hands roamed under Levi’s shirt, alternating between caresses and scratches that left burning trails across his skin.
“Slow down,” Levi gasped between kisses, but his protest turned into a reluctant moan by Asher’s mouth moving to his neck.
“Please,” he tried again, the word coming out breathless as Asher bit down hard on the sensitive skin below his ear, then immediately soothed the spot with careful licks.
“I love hearing you say please,” Asher groaned against his throat, his voice thick with satisfaction.
Levi’s hands found Asher’s shoulders, trying to push him away, but his body was betraying him again, his cock straining the front of his jeans.
The alternating sensations—tender sucking followed by sharp bites, careful touches interrupted by scratching nails—scrambled his ability to make sense of anything.
“Wait,” he whispered, but Asher’s mouth had found his collarbone, biting and sucking marks into the skin there. “Ow, Asher, please—!”
“I remembered,” Asher huffed against his throat, “how much you liked this before the timer went off.”
His mouth moved lower, finding Levi’s nipple through the thin fabric of his shirt. The contact sent electricity shooting through Levi’s core, and he moaned.
This is so wrong. The rational part of his mind was screaming, but his body was responding.
He could taste blood on Asher’s lips—Tyler’s blood, Jasper’s blood—and see it smearing from Asher’s hands onto his own skin.
The metallic tang should have been revolting, but somehow it just made everything feel more intense, more real.
Maybe I should just let him. Maybe it’s part of the game. Maybe fighting just makes it worse.
“Please,” he begged, tears stinging his eyes as Asher’s mouth worked against his sensitive skin.
Asher pulled back just enough to look at him. “Please, what? Please more?” His voice dropped to a whisper as he leaned close to Levi’s ear. “I can give you more. I’ve been imagining all the sounds you’ll make. All the ways I can touch you. All the things I want to do to your perfect body.”
The words sent heat spiraling through Levi despite his fear. Asher’s hand slipped beneath his waistband, wrapping around his cock over his boxers and giving it a few experimental pumps that felt electric and terrifying and overwhelming all at once.
Oh God. His back arched involuntarily, and his nails dug into Asher’s shoulders hard enough to leave marks.
“Asher, please wait,” he gasped, trembling under the onslaught of sensation. “I-I have to tell you—ah, wait, please…”
Asher paused. “What?”
Levi’s face burned with embarrassment, and he had to force the words out past the sob building in his throat. “I don’t want my first time to be on this floor.”
Asher’s eyes widened, then raked over Levi’s face as if searching for deception. A strange look fell over his blood-splattered features—wonder mixed with something darker, more possessive.