THE DEADLINE GAME

Arden Vale, a twenty-one-year-old horror novelist, dies in a mysterious bus accident after discovering her boyfriend’s infidelity with her sister, Lira. She awakens on Bus 000, a participant in The Deadline Game, a lethal survival contest for forty-seven recently deceased souls. To earn resurrection, they must navigate seven nightmare stations inspired by Arden’s own horror novels, forcing her to confront her creations. Paired with Kael Draven, a dead soldier who resembles a lost love, Arden finds The Codebook, a magical notebook that manifests her writings into reality. As the competition intensifies and players perish, Arden uncovers the grim truth: Kael is a manifestation of her guilt and grief, her sister Lira masterminded the scheme for revenge, and the Game’s Conductor is a future iteration of Arden trapped in a cycle. To break free, Arden must relinquish her memories, face her deepest fears, and make a devastating choice: alter reality to save Kael, or dismantle the Game permanently, dooming them both. Her death was not an end, but the beginning of an eternal struggle.