I didn’t know what was going on, but my head hurt. A lot.

But at least I could remember my name, Gabrielle, and the basic facts about myself, like my age and where I was from—so that had to be a good sign, right?

I blinked and looked around, trying to find something familiar to latch onto. It was immediately obvious that I wasn’t in my bedroom. For one thing, this place was much bigger and nicer, a room fit for a princess.

I must be hungover. Did I really drink that much last night? Oh god…had I gone home with someone?!

No, wait…that wasn’t right. I hadn’t been drinking at all last night. I could clearly remember being at home and playing my favorite video game: Three Chances for a Kiss.

But how had I ended up here, in some stranger’s bedroom?

I sat up and took in my surroundings, and it quickly became clear that there was something oddly familiar about it all, almost as if I had been here before. Or at least that I had seen it before… “Oh no. The video game!”

It was Lady Odessa Elrith’s bedroom, exactly as it was in the game.

I leapt to my feet and started walking around, taking in the familiar space with fascination. It was just as ornate in person as it had appeared in the game, with pastel wallpaper and a crystal chandelier along with paintings of pastoral scenes and a huge bed draped in light pink silks with a diaphanous canopy hanging above it. It looked like a place where a fairy would go to sleep. I’d often wished I had a place like that to return to every night when I played the game.

There was no knowing how or why I had ended up here, but the only logical explanation was that I was actually somehow in the game itself. “Pretty sure I read a novel like this once,” I muttered, rubbing my head. It still hurt, but the memories were becoming a little clearer. I’d played the game late into the night—like I often did—and then there had been a rumble, an earthquake.

Right…the earthquake, and then something had fallen off the shelf hanging over my desk. All I could remember was the object hitting my head, and then…nothing.

But now I was here in the world of the game, and more specifically, in Lady Odessa’s bedroom. Which could only mean one thing…that I was now Lady Odessa, the heroine of the game!

I didn’t really care if it was a dream or not. Whatever it was, I was kind of relieved. I mean, how often does one find herself in a room fit for a princess and in the body of someone with the world at her fingertips? This was the stuff dreams were made of, and I could almost hear my inner child squealing with happiness. Yes, this is good.

And maybe a less obsessed person would’ve been alarmed, but not me. Well, I might have been if I’d ended up in a different game, but this was actually good news. After all, I knew all the ins and outs of Three Chances for a Kiss. While Odessa seemingly lived a life of privilege, there was a dark side to it all: her infamous brother, Duke Leon Elrith, also known as Duke Inferno, due to his fiery temper and sadistic, cruel, and controlling behavior. The two of them lived together on his estate, and so long as Odessa stayed out of her brother’s hair and didn’t cause trouble, her interactions with the duke could be minimized.

I’d played it so much I was almost sure I’d seen just about every scenario in the game, and I was great at keeping Odessa out of her brother’s way. If I could do it then, I could do it now. And in the meantime, now that I was no longer plain old Gabrielle but the beautiful Lady Odessa, I could live a life of luxury.

But when I stopped in front of the very large, ornate gold mirror, I was stunned to see that it wasn’t the face of Odessa looking back at me, but someone else, someone vaguely familiar.

Why don’t I look like Odessa? This didn’t seem fair at all. Maybe it was because it was morning. Obviously, I’d just gotten up and hadn’t been dressed or made up like Odessa normally was. Which made sense, because the face looking back at me didn’t seem to resemble Odessa all that much.

Had being sucked into the game and becoming the main character simply changed the way she appeared? Or maybe there was an update to the game? There was absolutely no way Odessa would be seen in the plain, ordinary outfit I was currently wearing—but that could easily be remedied.

I looked around the room, once again taking in the lavishness of it all. Someone had brought in a tray with a still-steaming pot of tea and delicate, hand-painted teacups along with a plate of food that looked more like a work of art.

I paused to pick up one of the teacups, turning it over in my hands. It was much finer than anything I had ever seen back in my world. “If I woke up here, then I must be Lady Odessa. I mean, who else could I be?”

And since I was Odessa, I might as well start taking advantage of it. Setting the teacup aside, I strode toward the large, walk-in wardrobe, unsurprised and delighted to find it filled with all sorts of beautiful, fancy gowns in every color imaginable, some encrusted with gems and others made of fabric so soft and light they felt more like air or water in my hands.

I couldn’t be sure where I was in the timeline of the game, but the chances were pretty good that Lady Odessa would be attending a ball soon since there were a ton of them in the game. So much of the plot revolved around romancing the three main love interests, and that frequently meant socializing at fanciful and exquisite galas. It was one of my favorite aspects of the game.

I took my time perusing the selection and pulled out several different dresses—all of them on the fancier side—holding each one up in the mirror. “Wow,” I breathed, admiring one that somehow managed to resemble literal fire with subtle, shimmering fabric fading from red to orange to gold.

“How am I supposed to pick one?” Setting the flame dress aside, I picked up a dark, flowing gown with iridescent jewels sewn into the bodice that made it look like a night sky. Even among all the beautiful gowns, it had an ethereal quality that made it stand out. I could remember Odessa wearing this to one of the final balls in the game’s story and catching the eye of everyone there.

Throwing off my plain clothes, I awkwardly slipped into the dark dress, confused when I realized that the sleeves were way too long, completely covering my hands. When the dress hit the floor, I stumbled on it, finding the train also too long for me.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” I muttered. “Lady Odessa always looked perfect in her outfits.” So did that mean there was a bug in the update? Were the dresses glitching or something? Or was it the character?

Or maybe this one just needed to be adjusted. Figuring that was the most likely reason, I grabbed another dress to try on before slipping out of the oversized one.

I had it halfway over my head when the door to the bedroom suddenly flew open. I screamed, getting tangled in the dress as a young woman burst inside and slammed the door behind her before turning back to me with a look of utter terror on her face.

Her…very familiar face.

I gasped as it finally clicked in my mind. “Lady Odessa?!” But if this was Lady Odessa in front of me, who was I supposed to be?

Lady Odessa rushed toward me, grabbing my hands tightly in hers, clearly frantic and terrified. “Please, Felicity, you have to help me!”

My blood ran cold, and a fear unlike any I had ever known gripped me tightly.

It was obvious now with the real Lady Odessa in front of me that I wasn’t her at all, but who I really was…oh, that was so much worse.

I glanced back, catching the reflection of the two of us in the mirror, of Odessa’s pleading face and my own, familiar but not quite memorable enough for me to put it together right away.

Despite waking up in Lady Odessa’s room, she wasn’t the character I’d manifested as. I was in here for a different, deadly reason. I was Felicity Brekken, the doomed maid and first person to die at the hands of the murderous Duke Inferno.