The darkness wasn't truly dark.
It was like a thin cloth draped over the world you could feel shapes behind it, but never see them.
Elara opened her eyes.
Or… she felt like she did.
Because what she saw wasn't shadow, wasn't the office ceiling, wasn't a dead lamp.
She saw only two things:
Black.
And Aiden's breathing beside her.
"Elara."
His voice was hoarse, almost a whisper floating inside an empty room.
"What… just happened?"
Elara jolted, trying to sit up, but her body felt submerged.
Not in floor.
Not in air.
In something that had no direction.
Aiden held her hand. His grip was strong too warm for a place this cold, like the air after a storm.
"Easy."
His breath quivered through the space between them.
"If you panic in the dark phase, it might pull you."
"Phase… what?" Elara whispered.
Aiden swallowed, shoulders tightening, even though she couldn't see him.
"This is the part you never saw in the previous loops," he said slowly.
"This is the gap. The space between a day that doesn't exist."
"The space… between Tuesday?"
Aiden paused.
His silence was a nod.
Then suddenly.
A faint sound. Something crawling.
For two seconds, Elara felt every hair on her neck stand.
"Aiden."
"Don't look at anything. Don't let go of my hand. Don't sharpen your hearing."
"That's literally impossible," Elara hissed in fear.
"Trust me."
Aiden's voice dropped, low and intimate.
"If you really hear what's out there… you won't come back."
Something scraped.
Slow. Heavy.
As if something walked dragging something bigger than a human body.
Elara shivered.
"Aiden…" she whispered, "What is that?"
Aiden exhaled long, like someone who'd been holding back an answer for an inhuman amount of time.
"Elara."
He tightened his grip.
"The thing walking out there… is why only the dead can remember Tuesday."
Elara froze.
"…does that mean I…?"
Aiden squeezed her hand fast, hard, like he was holding back more than fear.
"No. You're not dead."
His tone sharpened commanding.
"But you're very close."
Elara's heartbeat skipped.
"When the loop resets…" Aiden murmured,
"you don't just go back to morning. Your body your soul passes through this place."
Elara held her breath.
"And this place…" his voice stiffened, "…takes something from those who have died before."
Elara swallowed. "Takes what?"
Aiden didn't answer.
Because right then, the scraping stopped.
Stopped.
Exactly.
Behind her.
Elara slapped her free hand over her mouth, shaking.
"Aiden…"
Aiden forced his voice steady.
"Elara, listen. Listen carefully."
Air tightened around them like someone inhaling beyond the cloth of darkness.
"If that thing touches you, the loop will think you've already died."
Elara turned toward Aiden though she could only feel him.
"And if I die…?"
Aiden spoke softly too softly to be comforting:
"If you die… I'll be alone again on Tuesday."
Elara's fingers slackened.
The way he said it broken, raw, painfully quiet.
It was the sound of someone who had spent years, decades, or God knows how long waking up alone in the same day.
And losing the only person who could remember it with him…
was something he couldn't survive again.
The creature moved.
Close.
Its dragging tore through the dark like nails scraping bone.
Aiden yanked Elara into his chest.
Warm. Strong. Shielding.
"Elara, don't let go of me."
His breath faltered.
"Whatever happens don't let go."
"Aiden… I'm scared."
"I am too."
He pulled her tighter.
"But if we survive twelve more seconds… we go back."
"Twelve seconds?!" Elara almost sobbed.
"Eleven."
Aiden cupped her cheek with one hand.
"Focus on me. My voice. My breathing."
The dragging neared.
Something sniffed.
Ten seconds.
Nine.
Eight.
Elara shook so violently her teeth clicked.
"Look at me," Aiden urged.
"I can't see anything!"
"Then feel me."
The creature lifted something.
a heavy, wet, cold limb.
brushing the air behind Elara's neck.
Seven.
Six.
Five.
"Aiden…" Elara's voice broke.
Aiden pulled her face to his chest, shielding her with his whole body.
"It's okay."
He whispered with a conviction that made the darkness itself tremble.
"I'm here. I won't let you disappear."
Four.
Three.
Two.
The world swallowed light.
then exploded it back.
Morning. Light. Oxygen. Reality.
Elara shot awake in her bed.
Her skin damp with cold sweat.
Her phone buzzing too brightly with her alarm.
Tuesday.
Morning.
Elara rubbed her face.
Her hands trembling.
But the most shocking thing wasn't the shaking.
Or the cold.
It was the long red mark on her wrist.
shaped like Aiden's grip.
Too real for a dream.
"Aiden…"
The name escaped her lips.
And when she opened her phone screen.
she froze.
A message.
From a number that never texted her before.
Just three words:
"Don't go home late."
—A.V.
Elara's breath hitched.
Aiden NEVER sent her a message in any previous loop.
Never.
Not once.
Which meant.
Aiden remembered.
Aiden was aware.
Aiden intentionally sent a message before the loop erased everything.
Not only that.
The timestamp read:
00:00
The exact moment the loop reset.
Elara trembled.
If Aiden managed to send a message in the last second…
there was only one explanation:
Aiden died first.
Right before the world pulled them back.
And only the dead
can send something between loops.
That creature…
that thing in the dark gap…
Elara squeezed her eyes shut, breath fractured.
"Damn it… Aiden…"
She gripped her phone hard.
If she didn't find Aiden today.
she might never find him
in the same form again.