Saving My Girlfriend's Roommate Destroyed My Life

My girlfriend, Layla Tanner, and her roommates want to sneak into the old condemned dorm on campus to mess around with a spirit board. Feeling scared, she asks me to come keep her company. The moment I get there, the whole building collapses. I call 911, contact the student advisor, and start digging through the rubble like my life depends on it. I manage to pull Layla's roommate, Tracy Maynard, out first. She's badly injured and completely naked. But in a situation like that, nothing else matters. I carry her to safety, then go straight back into the rubble to search for the others, pushing myself until I finally collapse from exhaustion. But when I come to, what's waiting for me isn't gratitude. It's an accusation. Tracy tells everyone I stripped her naked and sexually assaulted her under the guise of rescuing her. Layla immediately takes Tracy's side and breaks up with me. Overnight, my reputation is destroyed. I get expelled, and the whole internet comes for me. My parents can't withstand the pressure. They fall seriously ill and die one after another. Then Tracy's father decides to make me pay for what I supposedly did to his daughter. One night, he follows me home and stabs me more than 20 times. He then leaves me to die a brutal death in absolute despair. When I open my eyes again, I'm back on the night the abandoned building collapses. Chapter 1 "Ugh!" I involuntarily dropped to my knees, dry-heaving and gasping for air. It felt like I had suddenly woken from a nightmare. The image of Tracy Maynard's father stabbing me like a maniac flashed through my mind, and waves of phantom pain tore through my body. My phone pinged, and a message from my girlfriend, Layla Tanner, popped up. "Mark, I'm really scared. Can you come keep me company?" Only then did I slowly come to my senses and realize I'd been given a second chance at life. In my previous life, when I got this message from Layla, I rushed over right away, only to arrive at the scene of a dorm building collapsing. All I could think about was saving people. Before anyone else from school showed up, I managed to pull Tracy, one of Layla's roommates, out. Then, together with the others, I dug out Layla and her other two roommates before passing out from exhaustion. And how did Tracy repay me? By accusing me of sexually assaulting her! There was no way I'd misremembered it. Tracy was completely naked when I found her. However, Layla and the others swore up and down that they'd only been playing with a spirit board and that Tracy was fully clothed when the building came down. The whole thing quickly blew up, and I was slammed all over the internet. Under mounting pressure, the school expelled me. Layla, who was also someone I grew up with, sided with Tracy and dumped me. And because of her, the scandal spread all the way back to our hometown. People talked trash about my parents behind their backs. Soon, they couldn't hold their heads up anymore, and within three years, illness took them both, one right after the other. And in the end, I met a gruesome death at the hands of Tracy's father. All that pain I'd suffered turned into intense anger and confusion right then. They said they were playing with a spirit board, so why was Tracy naked? Layla and I had grown up together. So why would she lie through her teeth and back up everyone else's false testimonies? Why would she help Tracy frame me, especially when I was the one who dug them out of the rubble? This time around, I wasn't going to run. I was going to find the truth. I put away my phone and headed straight for the abandoned building. Just like in my previous life, the building collapsed the moment I arrived, crashing down with a deafening roar. And just like before, I called the police, notified the student advisor, and got to work on the rescue. But this time, I turned on my phone's camera and hit the record button before slipping it into my breast pocket. Before long, I'd dug Tracy out. Her right leg was pinned under something heavy, and the flesh near her hip was black and blue. That area looked like it was on the verge of going necrotic. She looked battered and in agony. Her face was pale beneath the layer of dust, and her eyes were filled with fear and despair. But the moment she saw me, a glimmer of hope appeared in them. "Help me… Mark, please help me…" Chapter 2 In my past life, I didn't think twice before helping Tracy when she cried out in pain. If I hadn't gotten there when I did, her right leg would've gone completely necrotic, and she'd have been crippled for life. I'd saved her from a lifetime of disability, only to end up losing everything and watching my family fall apart… "I'm getting you out right now. Don't move. This chunk of concrete on your leg is too heavy. I can't just heave it off in one go." I kept a cool head and paced myself, making sure I didn't run myself into the ground as I had in my previous life. I could never forget what happened. In my previous life, I tore my hands raw and bloody trying to save Tracy, nearly dislocating both arms in the process. Still, I fought through the pain and managed to pull her out. As that pushed me to my physical limit, I passed out in the midst of the rescue efforts afterward. I probably missed something crucial while I was out cold, so when I was swept into the storm of public opinion, I had no way to prove my innocence at all. This time, I needed to gather as much information as possible. "Tracy, Layla said that you guys were playing with a spirit board, so how'd you end up naked? "Your leg's the worst of your injuries, and you don't seem to be in any immediate danger. If you're worried about modesty or your reputation, I can wait for the others to get here, and we'll dig you out together." I never stopped working while I talked, so Tracy could never claim I'd left her there to die. However, most of my attention was on her face as I watched her every reaction. The moment I pointed out that she was naked, a look of panic crossed her face. For a moment, it even seemed to overpower the pain she was in. And the moment I suggested "waiting for the others", Tracy outright shrieked, "No! Get me out of here now! I feel like I'm dying! Nothing else matters as long as you get me out of here!" By this point, the footage I'd recorded was more than enough to prove my innocence. What happened in my previous life was not going to happen again. But this was only the beginning. This time, I was going to get to the bottom of everything. Tracy never answered why she was naked. The constant pain was clearly pushing her toward her breaking point, so I couldn't exactly keep pressing her. After slowly prying away the rubble trapping her and getting her out, I didn't stop to bandage her wounds or carry her somewhere safe and flat as I had in my previous life. Instead, I left her there despite her being on the verge of passing out and went to rescue the others. By then, people from the school had started arriving, so I was careful to avoid physical contact with Tracy as much as possible. When the student advisor, Dale Noble, rushed over to check Tracy's injuries, I even gave him a heads-up. "Tracy isn't wearing any clothes. You might want to take off your jacket and drape it over her first." Dale froze for a beat, then quickly did as I said. A good half hour later, the others and I finally dug Layla and her two other roommates out. The three of them had been huddled in the corner of a dorm room, and none of them were hurt. The second Layla spotted me, she bolted over and threw her arms around me, squeezing tight. "Mark, oh my gosh, I was so scared. I really thought I wasn't going to make it out of there…" I knitted my brows. Her reaction told me something. Right now, in this very moment, she was still genuinely grateful to me and saw me as someone close to her. So what happened later in my previous life? Why did she turn on me? Chapter 3 Layla had a carefree, adventurous streak and was always looking for something exciting to do. She often went clubbing with Tracy and the others. I was the type who put my studies first. As such, Layla and I kept getting into more and more conflicts. But since we'd grown up together, that history alone kept our relationship going. In my previous life, the adrenaline wore off, and I passed out from exhaustion right after rescuing Layla. Since I had blacked out, I had no idea what happened afterward. So this time, I conserved my strength and stayed on my feet until the rescue was over. I saw with my own eyes that, besides the four girls from Layla's dorm, six male students from the same department were also rescued. And Tracy's clothes were actually found in the room where those male students had been trapped. I was the only one who noticed, so I quickly pulled out my phone and recorded it as evidence. Even so, I didn't breathe a word about it. I took Layla with me and drove her to the hospital. Layla was still shaken up at this point and answered almost every question I asked. I first checked that she was okay, then casually steered the conversation toward their séance. "Were you guys still messing around with the spirit board when the building collapsed? You weren't all together, though. You were split up into three different areas." As if the horror of the building collapsing had suddenly come rushing back to her, Layla trembled and clung tightly to me. "Using the spirit board was so scary. We didn't dare keep going. By the time I texted you, we'd already switched to playing a different game." I nodded. "Oh yeah? What game?" Layla was about to answer when she seemed to have remembered something. Her whole body went stiff. She then shoved me away hard and bolted into the street to flag down a taxi, like she was trying to escape. I chased after her and asked, "What's wrong?" She shook her head frantically. "I've got stuff to deal with, so I won't be going to the hospital. Mark, just go. Don't follow me!" I clenched my hand behind my back into a tight fist. She was scared. But of what? Of the game she was too afraid to talk about? Was this the reason she would eventually side with Tracy, frame me, and destroy my family? I fought to keep my emotions under control as I reached out to hug her. "Layla, whatever it is, you can tell me. I'll help you." She pushed me away again and blurted out a rushed, "No, it's fine," before jumping into the taxi. I stood there watching it tear off down the road. I checked my phone. It was 2:00 am. At this time in my previous life, I was still unconscious. By the time I woke up, I was already facing accusations of sexual assault. Since Tracy had no idea I'd recorded everything, she would definitely try to frame me again. By the time I went to my morning class the next day, the news of the dorm building collapsing had already blown up online. The rumble of excavators could be heard coming from the direction of the rubble. It seemed like the school was already scrambling to get ahead of the situation and contain the fallout. Hardly anyone in the classroom was paying attention to the lecture. Everyone was talking about what had happened the night before. My roommate, Benjamin Stout, who was sitting next to me, wasn't in the mood to study either. He nudged me. "Mark, there's no way I can sit through this lecture. Let me borrow that recorder you usually use to record lectures." I casually turned him down. "I forgot to bring it today." Right then, Layla and Tracy barged in with a whole crowd behind them. Layla planted herself front and center and, in front of everyone, threw the accusation at me. "Mark Burnett, Tracy is my roommate! How could you take advantage of a lady when she was helpless and do something as disgusting as sexually assaulting her?"