Chapter 35 [SAVE DATA CORRUPTED]
[SAVE DATA CORRUPTED]
The world jerked back into existence with the sickening lurch.
Levi blinked rapidly, disoriented by the assault of daylight where there should have been none.
The sanitarium’s exterior loomed before him, bathed in afternoon sun that cast long shadows across manicured grounds.
Not the dark, blood-slick passages where he’d just died trying to hold his intestines in.
It didn’t make sense.
“Dude, you okay?” Jasper’s voice cracked through Levi’s confusion. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” He laughed at his own joke, camera equipment balanced against his hip. “Kinda’ the point of this whole thing, though, right?”
Levi’s fingers instinctively patted his pockets. The journal was still there. Dr. Faine’s leather-bound research notes survived the reset. So had his own crumpled notepad with the moving map sketched across its pages.
But this wasn’t right.
Every previous reset spawned them deeper into the scenario: first the meadow, then the van, then the sanitarium’s entrance, then the safe room. The pattern had been clear: each new spawn point represented progress, proximity to some solution.
This wasn’t progress. This was regression.
It’s like I lost my save file. Why?
“Levi?” Owen called, struggling with an oversized equipment case. “Could use a hand here.”
Elliot supervised from a distance, scrolling through his phone. Maddie was arranging the ghost hunting equipment with surprising efficiency. Tyler carried tripods toward the entrance.
Everyone was alive.
A cold prickle of awareness traced Levi’s spine. He turned, already knowing what he’d find.
Asher stood by the van, expression contorted with barely contained fury. His mismatched eyes burned with an intensity that made Levi’s stomach clench. He dropped the equipment he had been unloading with a loud crash that made the others turn and stare.
“Equipment room,” Asher snapped. “Now.”
Levi started to protest, but Asher’s hand clamped around his wrist. Levi tried to pull away, but Asher dragged him forward with terrifying strength. The others watched with uncertain expressions as Asher hauled Levi through the sanitarium’s entrance and into a small storage room off the main lobby.
The door slammed shut. Before Levi could speak, Asher’s palm collided with his chest, shoving him hard against the wall. The impact knocked the breath from his lungs.
“You fucking left me!” Asher’s forearm pressed against Levi’s throat, restricting his airway. “You died and left me!”
“Asher—” Levi choked out, hands scrabbling at the arm crushing his windpipe.
“No!” Spittle flew from Asher’s lips, his face inches from Levi’s. “You don’t get to talk. You don’t get to fucking die on me!”
Levi drove his knee upward, connecting with Asher’s thigh—not a direct hit to the groin, but enough to loosen his grip. He ducked under Asher’s arm and shoved him back.
“Stop it!” Levi rasped, massaging his throat. “I’m here now, aren’t I?”
Asher lunged again, but Levi sidestepped. His back hit a metal shelf, sending equipment clattering to the floor. Asher’s fist smashed into the wall where Levi’s head had been a second before, leaving a dent in the plaster.
“You promised,” Asher hissed, voice cracking with raw emotion. “You made it seem like we had something, and then you decided to die again!” He swung again, but the movement was clumsy.
Levi caught Asher’s wrist mid-swing, but he wasn’t strong enough to stop the moment. “I didn’t choose to die!”
“Liar!” Asher twisted his arm free and shoved Levi back against the shelves. A toolbox crashed to the floor, spilling wrenches and screwdrivers across the ground. “You’d rather die than be with me. You’ve made that clear enough.”
Something in Asher’s voice made Levi pause. Beneath the fury was a core of raw hurt.
“Asher, listen to me.” Levi kept his voice low and steady, hands raised in a placating gesture. “I didn’t choose to die. Zoe attacked. I reacted.”
“By leaving me!” Asher grabbed a screwdriver from the floor, brandishing it with a white-knuckled grip.
Levi went very still. “Think about what happened,” he said. “Replay it. What exactly did I do?”
Asher’s breathing was ragged, chest heaving. The screwdriver trembled in his grip.
“I pushed you,” Levi continued. “Out of the way. When Zoe charged.”
The screwdriver lowered an inch.
“I pushed you,” Levi repeated. “To save you.”
The screwdriver clattered to the floor. Asher’s fury melted into a wide-eyed stare, his eyes brimming with unshed tears.
“You pushed me out of the way,” he said, his voice dropping to a whisper. “You let that thing kill you instead of me.”
Levi kept his distance, still wary of Asher’s volatile emotions. His throat ached where Asher’s arm had pressed against it. “I reacted on instinct—”
“No.” Asher shook his head vehemently. “Instinct is self-preservation. You made a choice. You chose me.”
The rage vanished, replaced by a reverent awe.
“We need to focus,” Levi said, seizing the opportunity while Asher was still receptive. “We’re back at the beginning. Do you understand what that means?”
Asher stepped closer, movements hesitant now. “We have time,” he said. “The building hasn’t sealed itself. Night hasn’t fallen.”
“Exactly.” Levi nodded, keeping his voice steady. “This is a strategic opportunity we’ve never had before. We can explore, map everything before the mechanisms activate.”
Asher wasn’t listening. His eyes roamed Levi’s face with uncomfortable intensity. “No one has ever sacrificed themselves for me before,” he said. His palm lifted slowly toward Levi’s face. “No one has ever valued me more than themselves.”
Levi took a deliberate step back. “We don’t have time for this.”
Something dangerous flickered in Asher’s eyes—the rage threatening to return. His outstretched hand curled into a fist. “You owe me,” he said. “After what you did—dying, trying to leave me alone—you owe me.”
Levi recognized the precipice they were on. Asher could snap back into hostility at any moment. The others were just outside, equipment needed unpacking, precious daylight was wasting—and none of that would matter if Asher lost control again.
“A timer,” Levi said abruptly, the solution crystallizing. “Like before.”
Asher’s head tilted. “How long?”
“Five minutes,” Levi offered, knowing it would be rejected.
“Ten.”
“Six,” Levi said, backing up until his shoulders hit the wall.
Asher’s palms pressed against the wall on either side of Levi’s head, caging him in. “Eight.”
“Seven,” Levi said firmly. He pulled out his phone, his hands shaking as he started the timer again. “Seven minutes. That’s it.”
A smile spread across Asher’s face, the last traces of rage dissolving. “Seven,” he agreed, voice dropping to a purr. “Starting now.”
His touch traced the bruising already forming on Levi’s throat—his own handiwork from moments before. “I’m sorry about this,” he muttered. “I was just so...” His fingertips skimmed the tender skin. “The thought of you choosing to leave me again was unbearable.”
The contact was cool against Levi’s heated skin, raising goosebumps in its wake. Asher watched each reaction with hungry attention as his other hand moved to cradle Levi’s jaw with unexpected tenderness.
“You saved me,” he whispered, awe returning to his voice. “You sacrificed yourself for me. I need to show you what that means to me.”
Their lips met, and this time the kiss wasn’t rough.
Levi remained passive, enduring rather than participating, mentally calculating how much of the seven minutes remained.
Asher pulled back slightly, eyes searching Levi’s face. “Kiss me back,” he whispered, a command wrapped in vulnerability. “Please.”
“The timer’s running,” Levi reminded him, a weak deflection.
“And I get to choose how we spend it.” Asher’s thumb brushed Levi’s lower lip. “Kiss me like you want to. Like you choose me.”
The manipulation was transparent, but effective. Levi knew that continued resistance might trigger Asher’s anger again. And beneath that pragmatic concern lurked the treacherous part of him that wondered what it would be like to surrender, just for these few minutes.
To feel something other than terror and pain.
When Levi’s lips parted, Asher made a sound of triumph deep in his throat. His hands slid under Levi’s shirt, gripping his waist with just enough force to make Levi gasp. Asher swallowed the sound hungrily.
“Say my name,” he pleaded, hands skimming lower.
“Asher,” Levi said, hating how the name emerged breathless.
A smile of savage satisfaction crossed Asher’s face. “The timer’s already running,” he said, voice low and urgent. “And I remember how quickly five minutes went last time.”
Before Levi could respond, Asher gripped his shoulders, pushing him down to the floor with surprising care. The concrete was cold through Levi’s clothes as Asher knelt over him, straddling his hips.
“Kiss me back this time,” Asher demanded, leaning down to capture Levi’s mouth again. “Properly.”
When Levi hesitated, Asher caught his lower lip between his teeth, applying just enough pressure to border on pain. “I saved your life too, you know. All those times I could have killed you and didn’t.”
The twisted logic was so absurd that Levi almost laughed. But then Asher’s tongue pushed past his lips, and something in Levi surrendered. He kissed back, matching Asher’s intensity, telling himself it was strategy even as he felt himself melting beneath Asher’s touch.
Asher groaned against his mouth. “Yes,” he breathed. “Like that.”
His hands grabbed Levi’s wrists, guiding them beneath his own shirt. “Touch me, please touch me.”
Levi’s palms pressed against the taut muscles of Asher’s abdomen, skin fever-hot beneath his touch. Asher’s body was a weapon—honed, dangerous, and now arching into Levi’s contact with unnerving vulnerability.
“Five minutes left,” Asher murmured. His free hand worked at Levi’s belt. He guided Levi’s hand lower, past the waistband of his own jeans. “Feel how much I want you.”
Levi’s grip curled reflexively around Asher cock, drawing a hiss and a shudder of pleasure from the man above him. The sense of power he felt in that moment was strange, knowing he could reduce this predator to shuddering need with just a touch.
“You’re perfect,” Asher moaned, rocking against Levi’s palm. “So fucking perfect when you stop fighting me.”
He shifted backwards, working Levi’s jeans open with desperate urgency. “I’ve thought about this since the barber shop,” he confessed, breath hot against Levi’s exposed skin. “I’ve wanted to taste you so bad.”
Levi’s head fell back against the wall, a groan escaping his throat as Asher’s mouth closed around him. The sensation was electric, pleasure spiking through his nervous system with such intensity that for a moment, he forgot where they were—forgot everything but the wet heat and suction.
His hands tangled in Asher’s blonde hair, guiding him with unconscious pressure. Asher made a sound of triumph, deep in his throat, the vibration alone making Levi tighten his grip as he saw stars.
It shouldn’t feel this good. It shouldn’t.
But Levi was so tired of pain. So exhausted by fear. So desperate for any sensation that wasn’t terror or agony. And this—this moment of pure, physical pleasure—was the only respite in an endless nightmare of death and resurrection.
Fuck it.
He surrendered, hips rising to meet Asher’s mouth, all pretense of reluctance abandoned. Asher responded with renewed enthusiasm, one hand gripping Levi’s hip with bruising force while the other continued to guide Levi’s touch against himself.
The timer, the strategic advantage of daylight, the need to map the building—all of it faded beneath the wet sounds of Asher swallowing him down and Levi’s barely stifled moans.
He could feel his orgasm building, his toes curling in his shoes as he tried to hold it back.
He wanted to drown himself in the heat of Asher’s mouth like Asher had drowned him all those deaths ago, just a little longer.
“Asher,” he moaned, “slow down or I think I’m—”
“Yes,” Asher gasped, pulling back just long enough to look up at Levi, “Cum in my mouth, I want to drink—”
The storage room door swung open with a cheerful creak.
“Hey, Levi, Asher, we need the—OH MY GOD!”
Maddie’s shriek was followed by Jasper’s bark of surprised laughter.
“Dude! Lock the door next time!”
Levi’s face blazed with heat as he shoved Asher away and frantically worked to close his jeans. Asher, in contrast, rose from his knees with infuriating composure, a slight smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
Maddie covered her face with her hands, but her giggles leaked through her grip. “I am so, SO sorry,” she managed, though she didn’t sound particularly sorry. “We just needed the EVP recorder from the equipment room.”
“Take your time,” Jasper added with a theatrical wink. “I’ll tell the others you’re doing some, uh, calibration.”
They retreated, closing the door behind them with exaggerated care.
Levi slumped against the wall, mortified and tense and relieved all at once. The relief curdled as he looked at Asher’s face.
Because Asher wasn’t angry. He was pleased. Practically glowing.
“They think we’re together,” Asher said with dark delight. “The timer isn’t up, by the way. You still owe me three minutes.”
“Not here,” Levi snapped, pushing past him to grab the doorknob. “We need to get to work before night falls.”
Asher caught his wrist, spinning him back. “You enjoyed it,” he said, not a question but a statement of fact. “You wanted it.”
“That’s not—”
“You didn’t push me away, Levi. You pulled me closer.” Asher’s grip tightened fractionally. “You threaded your hands through my hair and guided me where you wanted me.”
“We have work to do,” Levi repeated, pulling his arm free. “If you want to survive another loop, you’ll focus on that instead of—this.”
Something dangerous flickered in Asher’s eyes, but he inclined his head in a gesture of temporary surrender. “I’m keeping track of those three minutes,” he said. “With interest.”
Levi retrieved Dr. Faine’s journal from his pocket, his hands shaking as he flipped through the pages. “There are areas mentioned in here that we haven’t explored yet, and I think—”
“You’re beautiful when you’re strategizing,” Asher interrupted, leaning against the wall. “I like watching your mind work.”
Levi ignored the compliment, focusing on the journal. “We need to find a way to the basement. I think that’s our objective. If we can get there—”
“We will,” Asher said with quiet certainty. “Together.”
The word hung between them, loaded with implications Levi wasn’t ready to examine. He pushed past Asher and opened the door, determined to use every moment of daylight they had left.
Behind him, Asher followed with the patient certainty of a predator who knows exactly where his prey is going.
And how much time he has to catch it.