The walk to school is a blur. The streets, the faces, even the sounds—they all blend together in a monotonous rhythm. Yet, as much as I hate the repetition, there's a small comfort in its predictability. Until I see her.
It happens just as I'm about to turn the corner near the school gates. A girl stands in the distance, her back to me, her long hair swaying gently in the breeze. My heart lurches. It's her. The girl from the dream.
Every instinct screams at me to look away, to keep walking, but my feet betray me. As if pulled by an invisible thread, I take a step closer. She turns, her eyes meeting mine, and for a moment, the world stops.
The bell rings, breaking the spell. She walks into the building without a word, leaving me frozen in place. My heart pounds as questions flood my mind. Who is she? Why does she feel so familiar? And most importantly, why do I get the sinking feeling that she's the key to everything?
I take a deep breath and follow her inside. The loop has started again, but this time, something's different. This time, I'm going to find out why.
Chapter 1: Theories of a Broken Clock
[21:30:00] Loop Reflection.
That night, I found myself glued to the TV. It was an old program I had seen before—a late-night science show about phenomena that defy explanation. The host, a bespectacled professor with a voice like gravel, leaned toward the camera and asked the audience a question that chilled me to my core.
"What if time isn't a straight line? What if it's a loop, and some of us… fall into its cracks?"
I shifted uncomfortably, the flickering glow of the screen painting shadows across my room. The professor continued, gesturing toward a diagram of intersecting circles.
"There are countless stories of individuals experiencing time loops. Some call it a glitch in the universe, others believe it's tied to alternate dimensions. Imagine walking the same path, living the same day, again and again. What if these loops aren't random? What if they're trying to teach us something?"
The image switched to an artist's rendition of two dimensions colliding, people falling through the gaps like leaves in the wind. It felt disturbingly familiar. Too familiar. My throat tightened as I stared at the screen. Was that what was happening to me? Was I caught in one of these loops, doomed to repeat the same moments until… what? I learned some cosmic lesson?
"Ren!" my mother's voice snapped me out of my trance. "Turn off the TV and go to bed. You've got school tomorrow."
[22:00:00] Cycle Preparation.
School tomorrow. The same school. The same faces. The same girl. My hand trembled as I reached for the remote, turning off the screen. The room plunged into darkness, but the professor's words lingered in my mind, etched like a scar.
What if they're trying to teach us something?
I lay awake for hours, staring at the ceiling. The show had given me more questions than answers, but it had also planted a seed of hope. If time was a loop, there had to be a way to break it. And if this girl—the one from my dreams, the one I saw at school—was the key, then I needed to figure out why.
No matter how many loops it took.
[23:59:59] Cycle End. Reset Pending.