Page 2 of Crazy as Hell

Naomi had none of that.

She had no fucking clue who, or what, was hunting her. Every death was different. Sometimes it was violent. Sometimes it was so random it bordered on absurd. There was no pattern she could decipher, no face she could blame, no enemy she could confront. Just the terrifying certainty that, sooner or later, death would claim her again.

The sound of thunder booming overhead was loud enough to draw Naomi’s attention away from her morose thoughts and toward the window closest to her bed. The rain hadn’t started yet, but it was only minutes away.

After waking from her last death, she’d simply turned off her alarm and gone back to sleep. She no longer felt panic or fear when she woke after dying again. There was only a resigned acceptance that she was now back at the beginning of the death cycle.

When she woke again, she was a little disappointed to discover that she’d only slept for another hour. Remaining in bed, she mentally prepared to face reality again. Avoiding campus and skipping magical testing was a given, but she still had to decide whether she wanted to chart a new course during this round or revisit her previous one.

Another violent crack of thunder made it sound like the dark sky was tearing open. The entire apartment building trembled from the force of it, and the windows rattled in their frames. For now, she was safe. However, remaining hidden inside her apartment would only buy her a little time.

The following week, another violent storm would roll through the area, causing power outages throughout the city. Entire neighborhoods would lose electricity for days. Water would pour through her apartment complex, flooding hallways and seeping into dozens of units. By the time it was over, most of her belongings would be ruined beyond saving.

Property damage was the least of her worries, though.

If she remained in her apartment during that next storm, she would end up getting hit by falling debris. Or get pierced by broken glass. She’d even gotten electrocuted in her own bathroom once. If she used the elevator, it would malfunction, sending the car plunging several stories before she ever reached the lobby. If she decided to leave through the underground garage in order to save her car before the flooding became too severe, she would end up drowning in the concrete tomb.

While death was inevitable, the only thing she could do was learn from her mistakes and try to avoid dying the same way over and over again.

When the rain began splattering the windows, Naomi finally decided to drag her ass out of bed to take a long, hot shower. Washing away her last death was always a must, even if the remnants were only in her memory. As she took her time shampooing her hair, she started planning.

After living so many different lifetimes, there was a list of things she felt she had to do and others she knew she had to avoid. Then, there were the times when she blew everything off and dedicated the entire cycle to relaxing and pretending her life didn’t suck.

However, her fun never lasted for long.

During one cycle, she booked an entire month at a fabulous five-star resort on a tropical island, blowing all her scholarship money and savings in one go. For weeks, she had done nothing but bask in the sea and sun, eat elaborate meals, and get massages. But her vacation had been cut short when a devastating hurricane struck the island, and hundreds of people died when the hotel collapsed, including her.

In another loop, she spent a few months backpacking around Europe, visiting museums and eating her weight in local cuisine. Regrettably, her trip ended when she was kidnapped by human traffickers while she was in France. Not wanting to experience any more of that particular scenario, she had quickly reset the timeline by attacking her captors and forcing their van off a cliff.

If she was going to die, at least she got to take them with her.

She had died aboard a luxury cruise ship in the middle of the ocean. She had also been killed when a ride malfunctioned at a crowded amusement park. She had even sought refuge at an isolated mountain retreat deep in the Japanese countryside, convinced that disappearing from civilization would finally keep her alive.

It hadn’t.

Location didn’t matter one damn bit. To test that theory, she’d traveled to all six realms. Every destination ended with another death, and another reset back to the beginning. In some strange way, it was almost comforting to know geography had nothing to do with it.

Her curse didn’t care where she went.

Whether surrounded by thousands of people or completely alone, fate always managed to find her.

The most disturbing discovery hadn’t come from one of her violent deaths. It came from surviving. During one of her earlier loops, nothing had gone wrong. She avoided every known danger, stayed away from the people whose actions had previously led to her death, and spent two uneventful years living as cautiously as possible.

There was no attack.

No accident.

No mysterious illness.

She just went to bed one night, then found herself back at the beginning of the loop.

Nothing had killed her. At least, nothing she could identify. It was as if reality itself had quietly decided her time had expired and automatically reset her existence. At first, she was left feeling completely baffled. Maybe she’d been poisoned without realizing it. Or perhaps all of the magic she had been using had finally caught up to her.

After reaching the end of a few more cycles, she was finally able to confirm her suspicion.

Two years.

No matter what she did, no matter how perfectly she avoided danger, no matter which realm she called home, two years was the absolute limit. If someone or something didn’t kill her first, the curse would end the loop on its own. She would simply fall asleep, only to wake back up on the same miserable morning where it had all begun.