Chapter 1Immortality Is Your Final Punishment

Callum traded his mind to save my life. At least, that’s what I believed. To repay that debt, I forfeited my ticket home, choosing to stay in this simulated reality just to nurse him back to health.

But three years into my self-imposed exile, the man who supposedly couldn't tie his own shoes drove a black SUV straight into me.

As I lay broken on the asphalt, he stepped out of the car, his hand entwined with his "eternal flame," the girl he’d never been able to forget.

"I’ve waited so long for this day," he said, looking down at me with eyes that were chillingly sharp. "Once you’re gone, Becca and I can take your place. We’ll have the Program. We’ll have forever."

It was a masterclass in deception. He’d never been brain-damaged. He’d been a predator in a coma, waiting for the perfect moment to steal the very System that kept me tethered to this world.

What he didn’t realize was that I wasn’t staying for the perks. I was staying for the punishment.

I closed my eyes and whispered to the void, “There are new candidates ready to take my place. Two of them, actually. Can you let me go now?”

* * *

“So, it was all an act? Every single second of it?”

I was lying in a pool of my own blood, my vision blurring as I stared up at Callum. He was holding Becca close, his dark eyes devoid of the warmth I had spent three years trying to coax back into them.

“Every second,” he confirmed. The tenderness was gone, replaced by a cold, efficient cruelty. “If I didn’t play the fool, how else was I supposed to keep you here? You needed to feel sorry for me. You needed to feel responsible.”

“I should thank you, though,” he added, his voice dropping an octave. “If you hadn't let slip how the Program works, I never would have found a way to save Becca.”

Becca shivered in his arms, her face a pale, sickly ivory. She was his high school sweetheart, the one who’d been fighting a losing battle with leukemia for years.

Callum used to tell me, “Her being sick has nothing to do with us, Rose. That part of my life ended a long time ago.”

I realized now that he’d spent those three years orchestrating this. Every "stupid" smile, every "accidental" touch—it was all a blueprint for my murder.

Suddenly, a white-hot agony tore through my chest. This wasn’t from the car crash. It was the System.

In this reality, my "Assignment" was to make Callum love me. If his heart turned cold, the Program punished the host. It was a failsafe designed to ensure the Traveler never gave up.

“It hurts...” I gasped.

The sensation was like being pulled apart by horses. I’d felt it many times before, but you never truly get used to your soul being shredded from the inside out.

“Is it really that bad?” Callum asked, watching me with clinical curiosity. “You’re a Traveler. Can’t you just tell your little computer to turn off the pain receptors?”

His indifference was the sharpest blade of all. I remembered the nights he’d spent tucked into my side, whispering that I was his whole world. I’d fallen for it. I’d loved him so much I told him about the System—the secret of the universe—because I thought we were a team. I just never told him about the punishments. I didn't want him to carry that guilt.

The agony spiked. I bit my lip until I tasted copper.

“Stop... please, just stop talking,” I wheezed. Every word of his rejection was a new physical blow.

Becca stepped forward, looking down at me with wide, faux-innocent eyes. “Does it really hurt that much, Rose?” She turned to Callum, her voice a fragile trill. “Maybe we should forget about the immortality. I don't want to cause her pain.”

“No,” Callum snapped, his gaze softening instantly when it landed on her. “You’re not like her, Becca. She’s a Traveler. Even if she ‘dies’ here, she just goes back to her original world. But if you die, you’re gone forever. Don’t waste your pity on her.”

When Callum wasn't looking, Becca leaned in, a triumphant glint in her eyes. She whispered, “Did you know? I told Callum that if he said he hated you, it would make you suffer. He’s been practicing those lines for weeks.”

She smirked. “He doesn’t love you. He never did. I’m the lead in this story, Rose. You’re just the understudy.”

Callum pulled her back into his embrace, his touch reverent. “I finally closed on the estate at Laurel Ridge,” he told her. “It’s going to be our home. Forever.”

I’d told Callum once that in my real world, I was an orphan with nothing. My only dream was to have a house with a porch and a garden. He’d bought that estate for me—or so I thought. I’d spent months picking out the tiles, the curtains, the life I thought we’d lead.

And now, he wanted me dead so he could move her into my dream.

I let my hand fall limp against the cold pavement. “I’ve found them,” I said to the System in the silence of my mind. “The new hosts. Take them. Just let me go.”

Callum, if you don’t want me, then I’m done wanting you.