Returning to Her Madness

That day, Jessica said she wanted apple pie from that old shop on the south side of the city. It had been my favorite dessert two years ago.

I drove out, but when I reached a deserted coastal road, my car suddenly died.

I got out to take a look, and before I could react, someone had already covered my nose and mouth with a handkerchief that reeked of chemicals. Before I blacked out, my only thought about this was that this was so cliché.

-

When I woke up again, I was tied to an iron pillar in an abandoned factory. Several thugs stood around me with cameras, looking me over with malicious intentions.

An old loudspeaker hung overhead, and Henry's smug voice came through it. "Wil, you're awake? Are you very scared right now?"

"Henry, this is illegal," I replied calmly.

He burst out laughing before saying in a sharp tone. "Haha! Who do you think arranged this? Jessica gave her tacit approval!"

My heartbeat stayed steady, and it didn't stir at all.

Henry continued, "At first, she only planned to have someone drag you here and scare you a little. Then, when you cried for help in despair, she would show up like a hero and save you. She thought that after surviving death, you would start depending on her again. She thought it would trigger that so-called 'misattribution of arousal' effect and make you fall in love with her all over again. What a pathetic and laughable woman, am I right?"

So, that was it.

Jessica had actually come up with such a cheap little act to make me feel something and to make me come alive again.

"But… I don't want it to go that smoothly." Henry's tone abruptly turned cold. "I'm going to ruin you right here. I'll have these men ruin you completely and take pictures and videos. By the time Jessica finally gets here, the person she sees won't be the first love she has been obsessed with. All she'll see is a filthy piece of trash! Let's see if she still wants you then!"

The men got their orders and started approaching me.

One of them pulled out a syringe filled with a cloudy liquid and said, "Don't be afraid, bro. This is the good stuff. This thing will make you more… Passionate later on."

I struggled as best as I could, but the powerful men pinned me down so hard I could not move. The needle sank into my neck, and the cold liquid entered my veins. A sense of dread began to rise inside of me.

"System," I called out in my head, my tone still calm. "Check my condition."

The system sounded horrified. "This is bad, host! That's a heavy dose of hallucinogens and aphrodisiac!"

Just as I thought.

A wave of nausea rolled inside of me, and I questioned it, "When you sent me here, you personally guaranteed I would not be put in any danger. Am I supposed to take all of this right now?"

By then, those men had already started tearing at my clothes. Their rough hands scraped across my skin, and I almost retched.

My vision was becoming blurred, and I was losing my ability to reason. Instead, I began to feel a terrifying heat that felt so ominous and foreign.

The system answered shakily. "I... I did promise your safety, but I didn't expect the supporting character to do something this brutal..."

"Then what kind of safety is this?" I shot back at it.

The system suddenly sounded guilty as it tried to bargain with me. "Ahaha... But the three months you promised still aren't up..."

Stay the full three months and carry these memories for the rest of my life? "You failed to protect me first. You need to stop this now."

"System." I tried my best to maintain my last shred of clarity. "Activate the emergency extraction program."

That man's hand was already reaching for my belt, his ugly face filling my vision.

"Extract me. Now." My voice left no room for refusal.

"I'm terribly sorry, Mr. Lane! I'm extracting you immediately," the system said. Obviously, it couldn't take what was happening anymore either.

My vision flickered, and I was back in a dark space in an instant. The discomfort in my body vanished immediately as well.

A massive screen stood in front of me like a movie screen, showing everything that was still happening over the other side.

After my consciousness was pulled out, that body still showed a few signs of life as those men kept venting their primal urges while snapping pictures.

But not long after, once the core of the artificial soul holding that body together was gone, my body's heartbeat stopped before it went completely limp, as if whatever was holding it together had just disappeared.

The men froze in the middle of their carnal rage. They then checked for breath with a shaking hand.

In no time, panic broke out among all of them.

"Holy! He... He's dead?!"

"Dead?!"

At that exact moment, Jessica finally arrived and kicked the factory door open. "Wil!"