Chapter 33: Home Invasion
I was killed. The thought echoed in the empty void of Adam’s consciousness. But when? How? He was utterly bewildered. He couldn’t comprehend what had just transpired.
From his perspective, one moment he was opening a bedroom door to check on Sophia. The next, he was dead. The seamless transition from life to oblivion, without any warning or apparent cause, sent a chill through him, a fear more profound than any he had felt before.
A stark, terrifying realization washed over him. The bad luck, the curse, the relentless pursuit that had defined his life had now followed him here. It had invaded Sophia’s home. It had tainted her sanctuary.
The thought filled him with a potent mixture of guilt and dread. He still didn’t know who had killed him. He didn’t know what kind of weapon or power could simply erase him from existence by opening a door. This new, unknown variable made him deeply anxious about the future he was about to be thrust back into. The loop he was about to relive was now infinitely more dangerous.
His eyes snapped open. The first thing he saw was the faint, pre-dawn light filtering through a window. The second thing he saw was the ceiling of a room he now recognized all too well.
He was back in Sophia’s bed. The realization hit him like a physical blow. He shot up into a sitting position, his heart pounding in his chest. He looked around the room, his eyes wild with a new kind of panic.
’What was it that made me die so suddenly without even knowing it?’ Adam’s eyes are open but the same scene that happened to him in the last loop is still going on in his mind.
He remembered the system window’s message: "New Respawn Point Located." Now he understood. The checkpoint had moved. It had moved from the teacher’s office to this room. To this bed.
His gaze fell on Sophia, who was still sleeping peacefully on the floor beside the bed. A wave of despair washed over him. He smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand, a gesture of pure frustration and self-reproach.
"No, no, no, no," he muttered under his breath, his voice a low, agonized whisper. He had brought this curse directly to her doorstep. Now, she was at the very center of his revival point, a fixed point in the storm that raged around him.
He couldn’t stay here. He had to get out. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and jumped to the floor. His sudden movement startled Sophia. Her eyes fluttered open, her face a mask of sleepy confusion. But Adam didn’t have time to explain. He ran to her bedroom door, wrenched it open, and charged out into the hallway.
As he did, he nearly collided with Sophia’s younger sister, who had just stepped out of her own room. Her eyes were still heavy with sleep. She was rubbing them with the back of her hand, completely unprepared for the sight of a strange boy bursting out of her sister’s room.