**Chapter 1: The First Fall**

Luca ran, his breath ragged, his legs burning with the effort. The streets of Seraph City blurred around him as he pushed harder, weaving between pedestrians who cursed at his back. He didn't stop. He couldn't. Not after what he'd seen.

Ahead, the towering spires of the Citadel loomed like jagged teeth, cutting into the evening sky. Golden lights twinkled in windows high above, casting long shadows on the streets below. But Luca wasn't headed there. His eyes were locked on the alley ahead—an unmarked, narrow path where the city's secrets were meant to stay hidden.

He skidded to a halt in front of it, heart pounding in his chest. For a brief moment, he hesitated. His mind raced. The message he'd found in his apartment hours earlier burned in his thoughts.

*"You're not who you think you are. Meet me where time bends."*

His hand shook as he pulled the crumpled paper from his pocket, reading the words again. Cryptic, but he knew exactly where it meant. Time bent in this alley—or so the legends claimed. It was a place where reality had thin seams, a crack between worlds where strange things happened, and no one came back the same.

But what choice did he have? Luca had felt it—something was wrong with his life, with his memories. He'd been haunted by dreams that weren't his, faces he had never met but somehow knew. And then there was *her*, the girl with the silver eyes, always slipping just beyond his grasp in his dreams. *Elara.*

Taking a deep breath, Luca stepped into the alley. The city noise behind him faded, swallowed by an eerie silence. The buildings around him seemed to shift, leaning in as if watching him, but he pressed on, the path narrowing with each step.

As the light dimmed, his thoughts flickered back to his mother's last words before she'd died three years ago.

*"You're special, Luca. You'll understand one day."*

At the time, he hadn't understood what she meant. But lately, those words had echoed in his mind more often, a haunting reminder that there was something more to his existence—something he wasn't ready for.

Suddenly, a strange sound cut through the silence. It was low, like a hum, vibrating through the air and into his bones. Luca's pulse quickened. He rounded the corner, and there it was.

At the end of the alley, an old man stood in the shadows. His back was hunched, his coat tattered, but there was something otherworldly about him. He didn't look up, didn't acknowledge Luca's presence. Instead, he stared at the wall opposite him, where an impossible sight flickered—a ripple in the air, like water suspended vertically, shimmering and bending the light around it.

"The Bending," Luca whispered under his breath. It was real.

The old man's voice cracked the silence, raspy and distant. "It's been waiting for you."

Luca's heart froze. "You… you left the message?"

The old man turned slowly, and for the first time, Luca saw his face—aged, with deep lines etched into his skin, but his eyes… his eyes were wrong. Too bright. Too knowing.

"I only delivered it," the man said. "But I've seen you before, boy. I've seen you die a thousand times."

Luca's blood ran cold. "What?"

The old man stepped closer, and the hum grew louder, the air around the ripple beginning to pulse. "You think this is your first life, don't you? That you've only lived once, like the rest of them." He gestured to the busy streets behind them. "But you're not like them, Luca. You're a Looper. And this—" he pointed to the bending light, "—this is your doorway. Your escape."

The words didn't make sense. None of this made sense. "What are you talking about? What do you mean I've died?"

The old man smiled, but there was no warmth in it. Only sadness. "You'll see soon enough. The moment you step through, it'll all come rushing back. The lives you've lived. The ones you've lost. And the one you're destined to break."

Luca stepped back. His mind was spinning, a thousand questions crashing into him at once. He wasn't ready for this. This couldn't be real.

But then, in the depths of his confusion, he saw her.

*Elara.*

She was standing on the other side of the ripple, her silver eyes wide, pleading. She reached out a hand, her lips moving, but the hum drowned out her words.

Luca's breath caught in his throat. He'd never seen her in real life—only in his dreams. But now… now she was right there. Real. Tangible.

And she was calling to him.

Before he could think, before the old man could say another word, Luca ran forward and leapt into the light.

The world exploded.

His body was thrown into a sea of blinding white, his senses assaulted by the deafening roar of a thousand voices whispering all at once. His mind shattered, fragments of memories, faces, and places he had never known flooding in. He was drowning in them, overwhelmed by the weight of infinite lives lived and lost.

And then, just as quickly, it stopped.

Luca gasped, his lungs burning as he came to. He was lying on his back, staring up at an unfamiliar sky. It was dark, stars glittering like diamonds in the distance, but something was wrong with them. They were too close, too bright.

Groaning, he rolled over, his head pounding. The ground beneath him was soft, like grass, but the air was heavy with an unsettling energy. Where was he? How had he—

"Elara," he whispered, his voice hoarse.

He looked around, but she was nowhere to be seen. The ripple was gone. The alley was gone. Everything was gone.

Instead, he was in a place he didn't recognize—a place that felt wrong.

A voice echoed in his mind, cold and distant.

*"Welcome back, Looper."*

And then Luca realized with chilling clarity: this wasn't his world.

This was another life.

And once again, it had begun.