Rain poured over us in a steady curtain as we stood before the forest's edge. The trees swayed in slow, synchronized motion — as if aware of our arrival. Everything felt eerily identical to before, down to the smell of wet bark and iron in the air.
Time had repeated.
But this time, we remembered.
We knew the first step.
"Do you guys… remember it too?" I asked, glancing at each of them.
Theo nodded, his expression grim. Mira followed, her usual sharpness softened into unease.
"More importantly," Theo muttered, voice low, "we all saw Yuwon, right?"
"Yeah," Mira said. "The one who warned Yuwon was… him. But how's that even possible?"
I avoided their eyes. I have a faint idea, but telling them will only complicate things further.
Silva's voice cut through the tension like a blade.
"No matter."
It was sharp — sharper than I'd ever heard her.
For the first time, there was something beneath her tone. Frustration? Fear?
"We know what to do. Get to that shack and cut its power before the loop resets. Move."
We obeyed without question.
Mud splashed under our boots as we entered the forest once more, passing the first tower without even glancing at it. The red light flickered behind the mist like a dying heartbeat.
Theo and Mira took the lead, moving briskly through the overgrowth. For the first time, Silva hung back, walking beside me.
The silence stretched between us, heavy and electric. The forest whispered in static, faint distortions humming between the trees.
Then, softly, Silva spoke — her voice low enough that only I could hear.
"You sacrificed yourself, didn't you?"
Her words hit harder than the rain. I turned my head slightly, meeting her calm, unblinking stare. Her expression didn't move, but her voice… carried something fragile beneath it.
'She's sharp. I really can't fool her, huh?'
"I don't remember doing it," I said quietly, "but I can feel it. It must've been the me from the very first timeline — the one that didn't make it through."
"...It may have been another timeline," she murmured, "but it's still you."
I nodded. "Yeah. If my notes in the database were right, it means I sacrificed half of my soul — merged it with the anomaly so it wouldn't destroy everything."
For a while, neither of us spoke. Only the steady patter of rain filled the air, each drop sounding too loud, too delayed.
Then, finally, Silva's voice returned — soft, deliberate.
"You're going to die if the anomaly ends without returning that half to you."
I had known that for loops upon loops. I had accepted it long ago. But hearing her say it — plainly, without hesitation — sent a cold ripple down my spine.
"I know…" My voice cracked slightly. "But if I hadn't done it, we'd all be dead by now. Please don't tell the others. They don't need to carry that weight."
For the first time since the loop began, her expression changed. A faint flicker of sadness crossed her face — pity, maybe, or something close to regret. Then she did something unexpected: she reached out and patted my head.
It was so gentle it almost broke me.
'This again…'
"The sun doesn't worry," she said quietly. "So you don't have to either. I'll make sure you get out of this anomaly in one piece, Yuwon."
Oddly enough, it worked. The tension in my chest eased, just a little.
"Thanks," I said.
We walked in silence after that. The fog thickened, wrapping around us like a slow breath. The forest tilted again — subtly, unnaturally — and the faint outline of the old wooden shack appeared through the mist.
It looked the same.
Maybe too much the same.
When we stopped before it, none of us spoke right away. The air here always felt… heavier. Like stepping into a memory that didn't want to be remembered.
"Remember," Silva said finally, voice back to her commanding calm. "First step: cut the power inside. Once we do that, we leave. Fast."
Theo adjusted his gloves, forcing a shaky grin. "Right. In and out. What could possibly go wrong?"
Mira gave him a look that could melt steel. "You had to say it, didn't you?"
I stared at the shack as thunder rolled far away — a single deep sound that seemed to echo twice.
This was it again.
The start of the same mistake.
The same salvation.
[■■rn b■c■ ■■W!]
The distorted warning bled through the earpieces like a dying signal — urgent, breaking apart syllable by syllable.
"The anomaly's panicking," Silva said, voice clipped. "Let's get this over with."
We pushed forward.
The shack's door creaked open with a splintered moan, heavy with damp rot. The smell hit first — old metal, mildew, and ozone, as if lightning had struck here and never left. Dust motes swirled through the beam of Silva's flashlight, and the floorboards bowed beneath our steps.
Inside, the equipment still hummed faintly.
A cluster of ancient radios lined the wall, some cracked open to reveal their copper guts, others flickering weakly with static — flickers that pulsed in sync with my heartbeat.
"Looks like it's still drawing power," Theo muttered, crouching by a tangled junction box. "I'll handle this—"
"Negative," Silva interrupted sharply. "You follow my lead. No improvisations."
He raised his hands in mock surrender. "Got it, boss."
Mira stepped closer to one of the old transmitters. The glass on its dial had fogged from the humidity, but she wiped it clean with her sleeve, revealing a faintly glowing frequency display.
"…Nine-point-one-one," she read softly. "The same number from the previous logs."
"Signal-Nine," I murmured.
Silva's eyes flicked toward me, just briefly. "So the source hasn't changed. That means the power relay's behind this wall."
She knelt, brushing moss from the wooden panels until her fingers found a metal hatch. Rust flaked away as she pried it open, revealing a dim compartment lined with faded wires.
"Alright," she said. "Yuwon, Mira — stabilize the feed on my mark. Theo, you'll pull the primary breaker."
Theo exhaled, half a laugh, half nerves. "Pulling random rusted switches in haunted shacks. Classic Thursday."
"focus. Mark," Silva ordered.
Mira held the wire steady. Sparks hissed, brief and sharp, illuminating her face in red. Theo yanked the main lever down —
—and every light in the shack died at once.
The silence that followed was absolute. Even the rain outside seemed to halt.
Then came the echo.
Not from outside — but from behind the walls.
A low, rhythmic pulse thudded through the shack like a heartbeat beneath the floorboards.
Theo's voice wavered. "…Please tell me that's residual power."
"No," Silva said, standing slowly. "That's something else."
The air grew heavy. Each breath came with resistance, like inhaling water. I felt it again — that pull in my chest, faint but insistent, like a hand gripping from somewhere deep within the anomaly.
A faint, familiar voice broke through the silence:
[Yo■ c■■'t ■u■■ it. Y■u ar■ it.]
My reflection shimmered in the cracked metal casing beside the power box.
I stumbled back, pulse racing. "It's me again—my voice—"
Silva's hand shot out, steady on my shoulder. "Stay grounded, Yuwon. Focus."
But the reflection moved on its own. Its lips kept moving after mine had stopped.
And as the last fragment of power drained from the shack, the reflection whispered, perfectly clear now:
[You think you're cutting power to the shack.
But you're cutting power to yourself.]
The remaining lights flickered one last time — then went dark.
A surge of static roared through the earpieces, deafening and all-encompassing.
[■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■]
Mira shouted something, but the sound warped, stretched thin like magnetic tape unraveling. The walls rippled as if the shack were melting.
[■■■■■]
[Y■■ ca■■]
[Tw■]
[C■res]
[L■ft]
"Get out!" Silva commanded, voice distorted but unyielding. "Everyone, out—NOW!"
Theo kicked the door open, and we stumbled into the rain. The forest outside was wrong — the trees bent inward, forming concentric spirals toward the shack. Their bark shimmered faintly with red veins pulsing in rhythm with the static.
Behind us, the shack's windows glowed faintly from within — as though something had awakened inside.
Silva turned to me. "Report. What did you s—"
I dropped to the ground before she could finish and vomited until my throat burned raw. My body convulsed as if rejecting something unseen. When it finally stopped, I was drenched in sweat, trembling, my ears ringing.
Theo rushed forward, crouching beside me. "Yuwon—hey, hey! Are you okay?"
I forced a breath, the world tilting around me. "I'm fine," I lied hoarsely. "Just dizzy."
Silva's eyes lingered on me, cold and calculating, but underneath — a flash of concern she didn't voice.
I swallowed hard and stood on shaky legs. "Let's hurry. We have to find the remaining two cores before it stabilizes."
'The source of this Anomaly-, its core— is the part of my soul that had merged with it. And I lost part of it just by cutting a third of the anomalies source.'