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"Stop moving, or I’ll let the cleaners scrub you off the floor," Vera’s voice crackled through the intercom, cold and sharp as a razor.
I didn't stop. I couldn't. My heart was hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird, and my skin felt too tight for my bones. I was backed into the corner of a sterile, white-tiled corridor that smelled of ozone and old blood. Above me, a dozen security cameras swiveled in unison, their red lenses tracking my every twitch.
"I’m not a monster!" I screamed, my voice cracking. "I’m a person! I just... I keep coming back!"
"A person?" Vera’s laugh came through the speakers, dry and mocking. "Sweetie, look at the monitor. Look at what you are when you aren't pretending to be a girl."
I looked. A massive screen embedded in the wall flickered to life. It wasn't showing a girl. It was showing a creature—a sleek, shadow-skinned thing with too many joints and eyes that glowed like dying stars. It was crouched in the same corridor, in the same position I was, but the screen showed the *truth* of the glitch. I wasn't just a human anymore. I was a bug in the system, a piece of corrupted code wearing a stolen face.
"You're a Level 1 trash mob that forgot how to die," Vera continued. "And you're currently the most expensive piece of evidence in the Maw. Do you have any idea what a 'looper' is worth on the black market?"
"I don't care about the market!" I lunged forward, trying to find a blind spot in the cameras. "I want out!"
Suddenly, the heavy steel door at the end of the hall hissed open. A man stepped through. He didn't look like the security guards. He wore midnight-black tactical gear, a heavy blade strapped to his thigh, and eyes that looked like they'd seen a thousand worlds burn. Kane Draker.
He didn't run. He didn't shout. He just walked toward me with a slow, predatory confidence that made the air feel heavy, like the pressure before a storm. He stopped three feet away, his presence swallowing the corridor. He was too tall, too still, and the smell of him—cold rain and sharpened steel—hit me like a physical blow.
"So this is the glitch," Kane said. His voice was a low rumble that I felt in my stomach more than I heard in my ears.
"Stay back," I warned, though my legs were shaking. "I'll... I'll bite you."
Kane’s lips quirked into something that wasn't quite a smile. He stepped closer, invading my space until I could feel the heat radiating off his chest. He reached out, not to strike, but to grab my chin. His fingers were calloused and warm, gripping my jaw with a strength that told me he could snap my neck without blinking.
"Bite me then," he whispered, leaning down. His face was inches from mine, his breath ghosting over my lips. "Show me exactly how much of a monster you are, Jessa."
I froze. The power imbalance was staggering. He held my face, controlling my gaze, and I was trapped between his body and the wall. I could see the golden flecks in his pupils, the sheer intensity of a man who hunted things far worse than me. For a second, the terror shifted into something else—a jagged, electric tension that made my breath hitch.
"Let go," I hissed, though I didn't pull away.
"Make me," he replied.
"Enough flirting with the livestock, Kane," Vera’s voice interrupted, dripping with boredom. "The containment team is two minutes out. If she’s still breathing by the time they arrive, I’m docking your pay. Secure her. Now."
Kane didn't let go immediately. His thumb brushed against my lower lip, a slow, deliberate movement that felt like a promise of violence or something far more dangerous. Then, in one fluid motion, he spun me around and slammed my face into the wall.
"Ow! You son of a—"
He pinned my wrists behind my back with one hand, the grip like a steel cuff. He pressed his body against mine, crushing me into the tiles. I could feel every hard line of his muscles, the sheer mass of him pinning me down. He leaned in close to my ear, his voice dropping to a dangerous thread.
"Listen to me, glitch," he muttered. "You have two choices. You play nice, and I might keep the cleaners from dissecting you. Or you keep fighting, and I'll make sure you die in a way that actually sticks this time."
I struggled, kicking back at his shins, but it was like fighting a mountain. "I hate you! I hate all of you!"
"Get used to it," Kane said. "Hate is a great motivator. It'll keep you awake when the hunger starts."
"What hunger?" I gasped, my cheek pressed hard against the cold wall.
Kane didn't answer. Instead, he tightened his grip, and I felt something cold slide against my ankle—heavy-duty mana-suppressant shackles. The moment they clicked shut, a wave of nausea hit me. The connection to the dungeon's energy, the strange humming in my blood that let me survive those deaths, vanished. I felt suddenly small. Fragile. Human.
"There," Kane said, stepping back just an inch, though he kept his hand on my shoulder, keeping me anchored. "Now you're just a girl in a very bad place."
"I'm not just a girl," I spat, turning my head to glare at him. "I've died twelve times today. I'm a nightmare."
"You're a curiosity," he corrected. "And curiosities get put in jars."
Just then, a siren wailed—a deep, guttural sound that shook the floor. The lights in the corridor flickered from white to a violent, pulsing red.
"Vera!" Kane shouted, his voice cutting through the alarm. "What's happening?"
"Change of plans," Vera’s voice sounded different now. Not bored. Panicked. "The breach isn't just you, Jessa. Something followed you back through the loop. Something big. And it’s already inside the perimeter."
I felt the floor vibrate. A low growl, something that sounded like grinding stone, echoed from the vents above us.
"Kane, get her out of there!" Vera screamed. "I'm initiating emergency protocols!"
"Wait, what—"
*CLANG.*
With a deafening roar of machinery, the massive blast doors at both ends of the corridor slammed shut, sealing us in. The sound was final, like a coffin lid closing.
Kane looked up at the ceiling. A vent cover exploded outward, and a mass of pale, glistening tentacles—each lined with serrated teeth—slithered down, blocking the only exit.
"Well," Kane said, his hand sliding from my shoulder to the hilt of his blade. "Looks like we're locked in."
I looked at the tentacles, then at the shackles on my ankles. "You're going to let me die again, aren't you?"
Kane didn't look at me. He stepped in front of me, shielding my small frame with his own. "Shut up. And try not to scream when I start cutting."