Within the crumbling station walls,

The hungry groans of the dead resound

With no promise of escape,

And only remnants of hope remaining,

An iron cage of abject suffering,

A true prison

In such a malevolent nightmare,

There are just two paths to take

Fight to the last breath to survive,

Or fall prey to the eternal appetite

Of the walking dead

Last Heart wasn’t meant to be a horror game. It was created as a dating sim, with the choice between Addi, Lia, Omari, and Kira.

Addi: Caucasian, blonde, pale brown eyes. Loves pink, hopeless romantic, big on cliche boxes of chocolate, definitely wants kids.

Lia: Hispanic, brown eyes, ornately braided hair in ropy cords down her back. Super strict Christian, but very tolerant at the same time. Loves anything related to Hispanic culture. You might want to learn Spanish. She’ll love you even more then.

Omari: African. Her parents, her, and her seven siblings all moved from Africa when she was three. Has an exotic accent. Very flirty. Brown eyes and brown hair fading into blonde. She loves anything and everything food related. If you get her a box of chocolate, don’t expect her to share.

And finally, Kira: black hair, pale skin, black eyes. Edgy by nature. Very nice once you get to know her, but until then she acts like a major bitch. Loves her friends. Very loyal. Reads way too much Stephen King and watches way too much anime. Big on Deathnote. Get her something black for a gift and she will love it. Her and Omari are best friends. Don’t piss either of them off, or she will kill you. No joke.

Andrew logged into the game with a very clear idea as to who he’d pick. Addi. Most definitely. He had a thing for blondes. He had a backup plan too, if that failed. Omari. Then Lia, and then Kira. If all else failed, he’d choose the solitary path, the one that, if you were lucky, unlocked a special character named Wo. Wo was Asian. She had dark eyes and always wore white. She was known between Last Heart gamers on Discord as the love angel.

But she only sometimes appeared, and usually, you’d just have to restart.

Not a horror game, just a semi-inappropriate simulator that caught the attention of teens worldwide.

Andrew logged on and made his character look exactly like him in real life. He hated himself, but he always looked better through cgi than through a mirror. And playing dating sims when you looked like yourself was fun. It made you feel like you had a chance in real life.

Which of course, he didn’t. Not really.

Never had. He was too ugly.

The screen loaded with a picture of the principal.

“Hey, Andrew! Welcome to Last Heart high school! We’re sure you’ll love it here!” He wandered down the barren halls until he got into his class. As always, he was the only one there, aside from the four girls. The teacher started rambling on about math. The school lessons weren’t important. The screen goes black and shows him out in the schoolyard, along with the four girls. He sits alone at one table and, just like the game said, Addi came over. The game instruction manual (which he only read the character summaries) said that Addi would always approach you first, because she was an extrovert. That didn’t mean hit on her instantly: she was just as hard to please as the others. But she’d be the first to talk to you.

“Hey, Andrew. How are you?”

Two options appeared:

One: smile

Two: say I’m fine.

Andrew chose smile.

“I’m Addi.”

One: say hi.

Two: introduce yourself.

Andrew picked one again.

“You don’t talk much, do you?”

One: shrug.

Two: laugh.

Three: I’m just new.

Andrew picked one the third time in a row.

Addi laughed.

“Yeah, I figured. Most people get annoyed by me because I’m such a chatterbox. I do talk too much. Do you think I talk to much?”

One: no

Two: yes

Andrew stares at the screen, not because he was confused as to what to pick, but because of the grammar. In all the reports he’d read there were no reports of grammar errors. But that to should be too.

Ah well. Must be a glitch.

He clicked one. Forth time in a row.

“Well, see you next period, Andrew...”

The screen goes dark again, and then he’s in his dorm. Three options appear:

One: sleep

Two: go stalk Addi.

Three: think

For obvious reasons, he clicked one. The screen went dark with him feeling satisfied about his first day. The next scene showed him at the school. He maneuvered his way through the schoolyard to science class. This time the class was more important. His lab partner was Lia. Lia gave him a glare.

“You do your work, I wo’t fight you. You make me fail, you face my wrath.”

One: nod

Two: say “I’ll try.”

Andrew picked one for the sixth time in a row.

Approximately five minutes had passed since he had started, and he had only clicked one. He stared at the second grammar error. Won’t was missing an n. O and N. On. On what? Were these errors, or was it a message?

The screen went black and it changed to lunch again. Again, Andrew sat alone, and Addi came back to his lunch table.

“Hi again,” she says.

One: say hi

Two: shy

He chose one. She smiled.

“Is it alright if I sit with you from now on?”

One: yes

Two: no

Three: I guess.

This far into the game and Andrew still hasn’t picked a single number other than one.

“Yay! I’l look forward to it!”

This time the grammar error was obvious. ONL. Andrew logged on to Discord.

Hey have any of you seen grammar errors in Last Heart? He sent it and instantly got a reply.

No, says Olli1267. But an anonymous Discord user has a different answer

Anonymous: It’s the 111 glitch.

Huh? Andrew types.

If you click one three times in a row it unlocks a new path.

What do you mean?

It’s basically where Kira becomes a yandere. If you don’t date her everyone else will die in brutal ways.

Oh s**t. Discord censors the words. He closed out the discord server and stares at the screen.

Oh God. What the hell was he going to do?!

There’s only one thing he could do. He had to date Kira.

“Andrew!! It’s dinner time!!” Andrew logged off his laptop and headed downstairs. Anxiously, he ate his dinner.

Why’d he have to pick one so many times?

He didn’t get a chance to get on Discord or Last Heart the rest of the day. As he lay in bed, the anonymous user posted another comment:

If you click one enough times, legend says it happens in real life. Be careful, man.

When Andrew checks the server the next day, the comment is gone.

He yanks on a pair of shredded black jeans and a red Arizona State sweatshirt. He was born in Pennsylvania, but his parents were born in Arizona. He inherited this jacket from his dad.

Math class was boring as ever. His old school has honors programs, but after he got expelled, they struggled to find him a high school. Thin Oak High was the only one they could find, and there were no honors programs.

So he was stuck in Algebra one, even though he’d technically already taken it.

Bo-ring.

He always sat alone at lunch, and was shocked when he found a girl sitting there.

He considered turning and finding a new place to sit, but that would make him look stupid. So, left with no choice, he sat down across from the girl. She had black hair and dark brown eyes, and she stared at him with a piercing glare.

“Who are you?” Andrew asked. The girl looked down.

“I’m Talia. Call me T.”

“So, T. Are you new here?”

“Yeah. First day. I’m guessing this is your normal lunch table?”

“Yeah. I usually sit alone.”

“Me too. So what’s your name?”

“Andrew.” She stuck out a hand. Andrew shook it, staring at the ornate skull ring on her finger. He realized she had about eight piercings per ear, plus a nose ring.

“Did it hurt to get all those piercings?” He asks. She raises an eyebrow and he realizes how weird that must sound. “Sorry. I just... wondered.”

“You’re funny. Nah, didn’t hurt too much.”

“Cool.”

The rest of the classes passed in a blur. Andrew found his way home and logged on to Last Heart. He wanted to find out if what the user had said was true.

When he logged on, he found his character in a different place. It was the schoolyard, except it was nighttime, and Omari and Kira were talking.

There were two options.. sort of.

One: eavesdrop

One: eavesdrop

One: eavesdrop

One: eavesdrop

One: eavesdrop

Andrew stared at the screen in shock.

He clicked on the second one.

Omari: “Kira you know he’ll take you.”

Kira: “how can I be sure?!?!! He spends all his time with that Addi bitch!! And he’s partnered with Lia!! He’ll never notice me!!”

Omari: just ask him! You never know!

Option one: approach them

Option one: approach them.

Andrew stares at the screen.

“What if I don’t want to approach?” He yelled. He clicked the escape key. Nothing happened. He tried clicking various buttons, even the power button. Nothing.

After a few minutes of intense struggle, he clicked the first one.

“O-oh! Hey, Andrew!” Kira says. “What’s up?”

“Not much. Dark out, yeah?”

“eah!” Omari nudges her but Andrew doesn’t notice. He’s staring at the dialogue bar.

ONLY.

An awful idea is forming in his head.

Only me. That’s what it’s trying to say. Only me. She’s jealous.

“A-Andrew? Will you...” She trails off, curing another nudge from Omari. “Willyougooutwithme?” The dialogue bar shows it as one word.

One: yes

One: ya&/)/’s

T)-,-!&@: 01&/!/@/?£\¥\+_o

Staring at the gibberish in the choice box, Andrew clicks yes.

What is happening?

Why is it happening?

The screen goes dark and when the scene shows back up it shows the two of them in the dorm.

“See you tomorrow?” Kira says.

One: of course.

There are no other options.

This game was starting to scare him. Why did he have to click one so many times?

Why did he have to start this?

What did he have to do to end it? The restart button that usually was there all the time had vanished. Maybe because you couldn’t restart while in a relationship.

The screen goes dark again.

The next scene was lunch, apparently skipping the first period anyway.

“Come sit with me, Andrew!” She says.

Option one: sit with Kira

Option two: sit with Addi

Despite really wanting to sit with Addi, he sat with Kira, scared of what she might do. He stared at Addi, sitting all alone at his old table.

Sorry Addi, he thought. I would, but I’m afraid.

“Andrew! My parents aren’t home tonight! Want to come over!”

Option one: yes

Option 1¥]€]+•: 8&1!-¥£]!]*

He clicked the second one as an experiment.

“You’ll come? Yay!!” Addi stared at him. There was anger in her eyes.

Another black screen, and now he was alone with Kira, in her bedroom. Kira’s bedroom was painted black and she had skulls built onto the edges of her bedposts.

“Do you think I’m beautiful?”

One: yes

9/!/: 0&1!

He clicked one, not wanting to take the chance of upsetting her.

The screen went black again before reaching a screen he didn’t know existed.

Y0U W1N TH3 G4M3... PL4Y 4G41N?

- yes

- no

Andrew stared in disbelief before exiting and logging on to Discord.

@Anonymous I JUST GOT A WIN SCREEN ON LAST HEART AFTER SAYING YES TO KIRA

Anonymous: wow that’s weird. I’ve never heard of that happening

Andrew0.0: I thought this game was unwinnable!!

Anonymous: it was. I guess not anymore.

Andrew0.0: this is crazy!! OMFG!! Best glitch ever tho

Anonymous: good mate. See if you can do it again!

Andrew0.0: on it!

He clicked replay right as his mom called him downstairs. Ah well. Now that he knew how to win, he could do this all day!!

Anonymous: hey @Andrew0.0 I think you should stop playing if you don’t then you might end up with the bad ending... and did you get the comment where I said it happens irl? That doesn’t work with the win screen... it only works with bad endings... be careful fam.

Just like last time, the comment vanished before Andrew could read it.

Yet another school day loomed before Andrew. He would have skipped if he thought he could get away with it. Besides, with the good luck on the game he felt confident. Probably misplaced, but whatever.

T was waiting for him at the lunch table and as soon as he sat down began talking.

“Wassup?”

“I just beat an unwinnable game,” Andrew said. “It’s a pretty stupid dating game. But I won even though it’s not supposed to be winnable.”

“You must be a ladies man.”

“Yeah. Me and Lady Imaginary.” T cracked up.

“Same here. Me and Lady Imaginary.”

“Uh oh,” Andrew says. “I think she’s cheating.” T laughed.

“Well I guess I’m single then.”

“Guess we both are.”

“Oh the tragedy.”

Andrew didn’t bother logging on to Last Heart. His mind was buzzing.

T was pretty hot. And she was the only one in the school who tolerated him.

Maybe love wasn’t imaginary after all.

The ambulance paved his way to the school. He was terrified. Was it T? Please make it not be T. Anyone but her.

It wasn’t her. It was a girl named Mia. She got hit by a car. Andrew was shocked to feel relieved.

“School’s cancelled for the day,” Mrs. Rodney says. T approaches Andrew.

“This shit’s crazy,” she says. “Stupid drunk ass bastard.”

“So the guy was drunk?”

“Yep. Awful. Didn’t know her.”

“Of course you didn’t know her. You’ve only been here for two days.”

“Did you know her?”

“No.”

“Hey, want to hang out? Since we don’t have school?”

“Sure,” Andrew says. “Help keep our mind off it, right?”

“Right. Follow me. My house is just a couple blocks away.”

“Cool.”

Her house was very nice. It was three stories of modern design combined with Victorian architecture that could have easily been tasteless but managed to jump off that raft. It was beautiful.

"Nice house," he said, even though nice was an understatement.

"Thanks. Mom's an interior designer."

"Well, she's good at what she does."

"For sure."

That night, Andrew stares at his ceiling. T was so nice to him.

And he had her number now. A major victory.

He couldn't sleep. And he didn't want to play a fake dating game.

Not when it was happening in real life.

It was when he arrived at school to the music of ambulances for the second day in a row that he knew something was wrong.

This time it was a suicide. Some girl named Karina slit her wrists in the bathroom and bled out.

Something bad was happening. Andrew could feel it.

Him and T spent another day together, talking and joking and laughing.

It was fun. Fun enough that he forgot all about Last Heart and the deaths. They took several stupid pictures of them doing stupid things, and then sank into an intense game of truth or dare.

"I dare you to go outside and yell 'I shit my pants' naked," Andrew says with a grin.

"I'll do it if you do it," T says. "As long as we don't do it at the same time. And don't use your phone."

"Ew," Andrew says. "No way. That's disgusting."

"Agreed."

In the end no one actually did it. They joked about the reactions of the neighbors, but didn’t actually do the act.

A week later half the school was dead.

Andrew and T hadn’t been to school in that long, hanging out with each other every day until the fateful day. The one Andrew has expected for the past eight days.

T died.

He’s alone. Everyone he knew— gone. Just like that.

In another month the school shut down completely. Andrew spent all his time in his room, staring at Last Heart.

He tried as hard as he could, but he never got the good ending again.

Everyone always died.