Dragging Traitors Back To Hell

When we cleared the final Boss of the horror survival game, everyone let out a collective sigh of relief. It meant the nightmare was over. No more fighting for our lives every second of the day. We were finally going back to reality. The moment the golden pillar of light signaled our victory, my boyfriend and my best friend lunged toward the reward chest in perfect unison. "Callie, I'm grabbing the chest!" Cody yelled over his shoulder. "Don't worry, the loot is all yours!" Lexie wasn't about to be outdone. "No way! Only "I" get to spoil my bestie!" It was always the same script with them. Yet when it came time to actually divide the loot, Lexie immediately turned to Cody. "Give all the weapons to Cody. He's the only one who can maximize their damage." And Cody didn't hesitate. "Pass all the defense gear and high-tier healing potions to Lexie. She needs to be fully stacked to keep you safe." They exchanged a quick, knowing smile. Then Lexie reached over, pinching my cheek with a sweet, affectionate grin. "Callie, you've got the two strongest players in the entire game server protecting you. Aren't you the luckiest girl alive?" I watched their retreating backs as they walked away side by side. The pain in my back was so sharp I couldn't even form words. In those final seconds of the battle, the Boss's ultimate attack had slammed directly into my spine. My HP was sitting at a lethal 1 point. In this game system, if you don't heal your HP above 10 before exiting the realm, your body collapses in the real world within minutes. And every single healing potion was sitting in Lexie's inventory. I reached into my pocket, fingers closing around the cold metal of my final item. "Temporal Regression: Reverts the user's current party back to the tutorial stage of the entire game system." "Penalty: All party members suffer a permanent 50% reduction to all stats and talent points." In a deadly game where every stat point meant the difference between life and death, cutting your stats in half was a slow, agonizing suicide. Nobody in their right mind would ever trigger it. Except someone standing with one foot already inside the grave. … "Game Loading..." "Game Start." "Trial: The Unescapable Island." "Difficulty: Tutorial." "Objective: Survive on the island for seven days." "Participants: 3." When we materialized on the beach, Cody and Lexie looked like they'd been forced to swallow broken glass. I ignored them, stepping past the foam on the sand to find the quest NPC to trade for initial clues. Cody lunged forward, grabbing my arm to cut me off. "Callie! Don't you dare walk away!" "Are you out of your fucking mind?" he hissed, his eyes bloodshot. "Do you have any idea what you've just done?!" I took a slow, deliberate look at the two of them. Game rewards could be converted into real-world currency. It looked like they'd lived out their dream of overnight riches over the past two months. They were both decked out in effortless "quiet luxury"—tailored linen shirts and designer shorts. Only I was back at square one, wearing a faded white T-shirt and black sweatpants. The exact outfit I wore the day we were pulled into this game right after college graduation. Lexie tugged nervously on Cody's sleeve, her voice trembling. "Cody, calm down... Callie probably just made a mistake." That only set Cody off further. "A mistake?! Jesus Christ, how do you accidentally reset the entire game?! Callie, do you realize you just signed our death warrants?!" I stared at them in silence for a long moment, then let out a dry, hollow laugh. "Ha." I reached into my pocket and pulled out the artifact. It was almost terrifying that an item this game-breaking wasn't even a single-use consumable. It had been given to me by the near-godlike Boss who had almost wiped our entire raid squad months ago. Before he dissolved into pixels, he sent me a private system prompt: "You will use this." "I look forward to our next meeting." Back then, I thought, "Who would be insane enough to use something like this?" Nobody wanted to restart hell. Nobody could survive a 50% stat penalty. Turns out, the demon was right. I used it. Cody's eyes flared with rage as he lunged to snatch it from my hand. "Why the hell do you still have this?! Destroy it right now!" He seized the artifact and hurled it into the ocean with all his strength. Seconds later, a flash of gray light burst over the water, and the cold metal rematerialized safely in my palm. Cody looked like he was on the verge of a psychotic break. "It's useless," I said quietly. "It's soul-bound to me." Cody clawed at his hair in pure frustration. "Why?! Why would you do this to us?! We were out! We were finally out!" Two whole months had passed in the real world between the end of that match and this reset. Two months, and neither of them had realized I wasn't there with them? That I was lying dead on an apartment floor or rotting in a hospital bed? Then they had no right to blame me for anything. "Who's 'we'?" I asked softly. Both of their faces froze. Lexie swallowed hard, her eyes darting nervously. "Callie, don't misinterpret this... we were going to cash in all the rewards first and then come look for you. It's my fault—I wanted to surprise you with a massive penthouse. I didn't think about how you'd feel. Are you mad at us?" Cody's face darkened instantly. "Why are you apologizing to her?!" I nodded in mock agreement. "Right. Why apologize to me? It'd be much more practical to just burn incense at my grave." "Callie!" I spread my hands in a helpless gesture. "Surprise. My HP was sitting at 1 point after the raid. I was as good as dead. But hey, I happened to have this brilliant little artifact." Cody stared at me, a sickening mix of disbelief and fury twisting his features. "We had dozens of high-tier potions! We could've healed you back to full HP in a heartbeat! What kind of sick lie are you trying to spin?!" I began to clap—slow, loud, rhythmic slaps of my palms. I burst into breathless laughter. "Right, right! We had so many potions!" I pointed a finger at Lexie. "Except every single bottle was tucked away in "her" inventory!" Then I pointed at Cody. "And she ran off with "you"!" "Did you hear me? You left me behind to bleed out!" An excruciating silence settled over the beach. They exchanged guilty, flustered glances before jerkily pulling their gazes apart. I sneered. Did they seriously think I was going to bless their tragic, star-crossed romance? ... The atmosphere turned suffocatingly tense. Cody and Lexie walked ahead, while I trailed a few paces behind. They had dozens of high-level clears under their belts and thought tackling a tutorial island would be a walk in the park. But they severely underestimated the brutal reality of a 50% stat penalty. It wasn't just their strength, stamina, defense, intelligence, and luck that had been halved. Even their base max HP was hard-capped at 50. When a low-level flying mob swooped down from the palm trees and nipped Cody's shoulder, shaving off a single point of his HP, he completely blew a fuse. "AGHHH!" "Callie!" "We should've let you rot in that last trial!" Lexie didn't offer her usual gentle sweet-talk this time. Her cold, resentful stare said she agreed with every word. I raised my dagger and slashed downward without breaking stride, cleanly severing the head of a mob trying to sneak up behind me. "Finally speaking your mind?" I murmured. Cody's pupils dilated in absolute shock. "Why... why isn't your agility slashed?!" Because I had made a deal with the Devil. The price for ignoring the artifact's negative debuffs? I could never leave this game system alive. I offered them a sweet, empty smile. "It's a secret." Their expressions twisted into something grotesque—a flash of primal fear instantly consumed by dark, ugly envy. They couldn't stomach the thought that the very person they had dragged down into hell was walking around uncursed, standing far above them. In that single shared look, a silent decision passed between them. Their lips curved upward into the exact same insidious smirk. Whenever they plotted to murder another player or steal high-tier loot, they made that exact same synchronized expression. It was a habit born from a trial long ago: "The Mirror Realm". That was a strictly two-player survival trial. Back then, they had used a binding item together. I remembered thinking how selfless they were—that my boyfriend and my best friend both wanted to pair with me, and I spent days worrying about whichever one of them would end up solo. I never imagined "I" would be the one left out in the cold. "The Mirror Realm" was a six-month nightmare. It forced paired players to experience every pain, every secret, and every thought of the other. They learned to read each other's minds, ache for each other's wounds, and know every single vulnerability. And at the very end of the six months, the system forced the pairs to slaughter each other. Some couldn't bring themselves to do it. Some chose to die together. And I? I had my legendary moment in that trial. I fought through as a solo player, killing my final opponent so ruthlessly that my temporary, random teammate stared at me in horror: "Why? How could you cut him down without a single second of hesitation?" I told him: "Because I never forgot that no matter what feelings this game tries to force on us, you were never my real teammate." When I finally exited the portal, I found out Cody had chosen suicide, and Lexie had chosen to follow him into the dark. I stood in the central hub, staring at their grayed-out, lifeless names on the leaderboard for a long, long time. In the end, I entered "The Ten-Thousand Slaughter"—the most brutal battle royale in the game—and bled for weeks to earn two Revival Scrolls. The penalty? I accepted a permanent lock on my stat growth. I could never level up again. When they woke up, neither Cody nor Lexie ever spoke of what happened inside "The Mirror Realm". They just called me their savior. They swore they would spend the rest of their lives protecting me. "Protecting me" became the ultimate excuse. It gave them endless hours to whisper to each other under the guise of "discussing strategy." It gave them secrets I wasn't allowed to know, telling me to "just relax and wait for us to carry you." They were attached at the hip. When I asked about it, they laughed with casual condescension: "Oh, please, Callie, we're going into active combat. You get to clear the game without lifting a finger—why are you complaining?" In those moments, I felt no jealousy. Only humiliation. I was a veteran player. I survived "The Ten-Thousand Slaughter". I was no weakling. How dare they talk down to me? But with my stats locked, higher-level trials meant I was genuinely in danger. I had no choice but to swallow my pride, enduring their veiled insults, their patronizing smiles, and their subtle moves to strip away my share of drops under the banner of "keeping me safe." Enduring humiliation is a required course in survival games. And now, I mirrored their smirk right back at them. I've watched them do it so many times, I've mastered it. Cody cleared his throat, trying to sound authoritative. "Callie... we're a team. In the past, you were weak, so we protected you. Now that we're... well, shouldn't you be the one protecting us?" He swallowed the word "weak," his fierce pride refusing to admit he was the helpless one now. I nodded cheerfully. "Sure. Weaklings stay behind me." Their faces turned thunderous. In perfect sync, they took a step back. I rolled my eyes. I swung my dagger, cutting through low-level mobs like butter. Experience points and contribution scores flooded into my system window. Even with me clearing the path, stray attacks managed to shave Cody and Lexie's HP down to 30 each. And this was only Day One. The trial lasted seven days. Time moves fast in the realm. As physical endurance dropped, hunger set in. A system notification popped up: "Supplies are hidden in the underground cellar." Looking down at the pitch-black, bottomless hole in the dirt, both of them turned to look at me. I was the only one who could go down. I gripped the mossy ladder rungs and descended for ten minutes until my boots hit stone. The supply crate for a tutorial quest was ridiculously generous—none of the late-game desperation where ten players murder each other over a single hardtack biscuit. I packed every single supply into my dimensional inventory. Lexie's voice echoed from above, thin and nervous. "Callie? Are there supplies down there?" I didn't answer. I unwrapped a pork floss pastry and took a slow, savory bite. Cody's voice turned sharp with impatience. "Callie! Throw the supplies up first!" I popped the cap off an electrolyte drink and took a long sip. "Callie, listen to me!" Cody yelled, his voice turning vicious. "If you know what's good for you, you'll toss the food up right now! If you don't, we'll seal this trapdoor shut!" "The exit portal is at the island's entrance. If you get trapped down there, you'll rot in this trial until you die!" I wiped my mouth casually. "And if I throw the food up, what's stopping you two from breaking your word?" "You don't have a choice! Callie, you owe us!" Cody screamed into the pit. "If it weren't for you, why the fuck would we be stuck in this godforsaken hellhole again?!" Having eaten my fill, I leaned back against the cool stone wall, letting Cody rave and curse above me. Eventually, his throat gave out. His voice dropped into a tight, desperate plea. "Callie... please come up. Lexie and I have critically low stamina. We need food." I remained dead quiet. Cody lost his mind. He turned to Lexie. "Let's find a torch. We'll burn this cellar out and force her up, then search for another supply spawn." "Wait, Cody! Callie's still down there!" "Screw her! She doesn't give a damn about us!" I chuckled softly in the dark cellar. Classic good cop, bad cop routine. Lexie started crying down the shaft. "Callie, please come up! I can't hold Cody back much longer—" "ROAR!" A giant nocturnal beast spawned outside. The sound of brutal, panicked fighting broke out above. It took everything they had to barely slay the creature. "System Notice: Night has fallen. Nocturnal beasts are active. Temperature dropping rapidly. Players lose 1 HP per hour without shelter. Nearest safe haven: The Cellar." Cody and Lexie scrambled down the shaft like panicked rats. But as soon as Cody grabbed the slippery, mossy rungs, his weakened hands lost their grip. He nearly plummets straight into the dark pit. If his stats hadn't been halved, a fall like that would be nothing. But with his current stats, hitting the stone floor would shatter him like glass. "Callie!" he screamed in terror. I smiled up at him from the dark. "Hey there!" "Ready to toss that torch down yet?"