The Girl They Threw Away

The noose bit my neck.

My mission, set by a mysterious 'System' to save my dying real-life self, was to win 'absolute devotion' from four men.

I'd failed.

Framed by Seraphina Bellweather, the 'heroine,' my ex-boyfriend, mentor, brother, and childhood friend had all publicly abandoned me, branding me a manipulating pariah.

Four years of hell followed, my attempts at escape through death repeatedly thwarted.

Then came the chilling truth: fail here, and my real body would die, fueling Seraphina' s power.

Imprisoned in her brutal 'wellness center,' her torturous 'treatments' slowly broke me.

My heart burned with injustice.

How could these men, once my world, so easily condemn me, blind to the manipulative monster orchestrating my downfall?

Was I doomed to perish, or could I reclaim my fate?

I refused to be her sacrifice.

When they visited, seeing me as 'unstable,' I seized my chance.

With a silent, deadly strike, I exposed Seraphina' s true nature and delivered a fatal blow.

As they grappled with their guilt and betrayal, begging me to stay, I took my final leap-claiming my freedom, and sealing their 'absolute devotion' in death.

The old rope bit into the skin of my neck.

I kicked the wobbly crate away.

It was Thanksgiving break, the campus deserted, this ancient oak tree my silent witness.

My mission here, in this world, was to win absolute devotion from one of four men.

Years I'd spent. Years.

Pres Ashford, the campus king, my ex-boyfriend, was the latest failure.

He' d dumped me publicly, influenced by Seraphina Bellweather.

The System, the entity that sent me here, had rules.

Failure with all targets meant I could "die" in this mission world and return to my original one.

Sick, dying in my real life, but home.

This was my only way out now.

My last target, my last hope for the cure, gone.

So, let this be it. Let me go home.

The pressure built, my vision started to blur.

Almost there.

A sudden jerk. Air rushed into my lungs.

I coughed, hands clawing at my throat.

Someone was holding me up, cutting the rope.

Ethan Vance.

He dropped me to the ground. I lay there, gasping.

He stood over me, his face cold, a mask of disgust.

"Pathetic," Ethan said, his voice flat.

"Your dramatics won't work on me, Elara. You're not worth my notice."

He turned and walked away, leaving me on the damp earth.

Not worth his notice.

Four years ago, I was everything to him.

I tutored him when he was struggling, a brilliant mind no one saw.

I helped him get the scholarship, the one that changed his life.

He' d looked at me with such gratitude then, a warmth in his eyes.

Then Seraphina happened.

The frat party. The drugs. The assault.

Seraphina, the designated "heroine" of this world, another player like me, but one the System favored.

She framed me. Made it look like I was the monster.

Pres dumped me, his family' s influence ensuring my public disgrace.

Alex, my brother in this world, the fiercely protective medical resident, disowned me. Said I shamed our name.

Jake, my childhood friend, my first love here, publicly denounced me.

And Ethan? Ethan, who I pulled from the margins, turned me over to campus security.

"Harassment," he' d called my desperate pleas for him to believe me.

That led to the run-down dorm, the menial jobs, the constant whispers.

Four years of hell. Four years of Seraphina' s manipulations, her perfect victim act.

Now she was back on campus, supposedly "recovered."

Pres wanted her, only her.

And I was finally, completely, cast out.

Ethan' s words echoed. "Not worth my notice."

He was right about one thing, my dramatics wouldn't work.

But my death would.

He hadn't saved me, he'd just delayed my exit.

I saw him again near the edge of campus, by the main gate.

He had my meager bags, the few things I owned in this world.

He threw them onto the sidewalk, outside the university grounds.

"Get out," Ethan said, his voice devoid of any emotion.

"And if you're so determined to die, do it far away from here. Don't stain the campus, don't upset Seraphina."

He wanted me to die.

An opportunity.

The bridge over the campus river was just a short walk away.

I didn't even look back at my belongings.

I walked to the bridge, the cold November air biting at my face.

The river below was dark and fast.

I climbed onto the railing.

And jumped.

The shock of the icy water stole my breath.

It pulled me down, the current strong.

This was it. This had to be it.

Then hands grabbed me, strong, furious.

Ethan. Again.

He dragged me to the riverbank, sputtering and coughing.

He was soaked, shivering, his face a mixture of fury and something else I couldn't name.

"What the hell are you doing?" he yelled, his voice raw.

"Are you trying to make Seraphina feel guilty? Is that your game now?"

I was too weak to stand, waterlogged and freezing.

I looked up at him.

"Death," I managed to choke out. "It's what you wanted for me."

A flicker. Just a tiny flicker in his eyes.

The Ethan from before, the one who remembered I saved him from his own kind of drowning.

It was gone as quickly as it appeared.

He was just angry.

But I saw it.

He left me there, shivering on the bank, and stalked off.

I wouldn't give him a third chance to "save" me.

My brother Alex.

He lived off-campus. He was a medical resident at the university hospital.

He once said he' d do anything to protect me.

Maybe he' d be the one. Maybe he' d help me end this. Or at least, not stop me.