The morning was too quiet for a city.
Even the hum of traffic outside Elara's apartment sounded like noise from a world that wasn't entirely real as if everything, every sound, every person… had just been rebooted seconds ago.
Elara stood in front of the bathroom mirror for a long time.
Water ran from the faucet, but she didn't care.
She stared at one thing:
A long red mark on her left wrist.
Aiden's grip.
Not a dream.
Not a hallucination.
Not a metaphor.
Real.
Physical.
Leaving a trace.
"Aiden…" she whispered to her own pale reflection.
She touched her wrist. The faint warmth was still there.
And the fear still stabbed at her like someone had just pulled her back from the edge of a bottomless void.
Her phone vibrated.
A.V.: Don't go home late.
Elara stared at the screen for a long time.
"Why are you only texting me now?" she murmured. "Why only in this loop did you"
She stopped herself.
There was one logical answer.
Aiden never had the chance.
Because he always died first.
The air around Elara tightened, as if gravity itself had grown heavier.
"If he died at the last second… then today he's going to"
She jumped to her feet, grabbed her bag, and ran out of the apartment without breakfast, without makeup, without anything but frantic breaths.
She couldn't be late again.
Not today.
When Elara arrived at the office, she knew something was off.
Not the room.
Not the desks.
Not the tasks.
Aiden.
He was standing beside his own desk, staring at a monitor that wasn't even on.
His back was tense. His shoulders rigid.
And when he turned.
That look in his eyes wasn't the Aiden she knew from the previous loops.
That look…
was the look of someone who just woke up from a nightmare too real to be a dream.
The look of someone who remembered.
"Aiden…" Elara's voice wavered unintentionally.
Aiden lifted his head, and his eyes god his eyes crushed the breath out of her.
No distance.
No small talk.
No cold professional mask.
Only one thing:
Fear, wrapped tightly.
"Elara."
His voice was low. Hoarse. Burned at the edges.
He stepped closer. One step. Two. Three.
Until the space between them was only as wide as a human breath.
"You remember?" Elara whispered.
Aiden didn't answer right away.
He looked at her as if confirming she was real.
"Yes."
Soft, but clear.
"I remember everything."
Elara held her breath.
"So… you really died last night?"
Aiden shut his eyes for a moment.
"Yes."
Even softer.
Like he was forcing the word out of an memory he wished he could bury.
Elara pressed a hand to her chest. "Aiden, I"
"But I'm alive today."
He cut in quickly.
"Before we talk, we need somewhere safe. Somewhere without office cameras. Somewhere the world can't listen."
"The world… listens?"
Aiden looked straight into her. "Yes. The world itself is listening."
Elara nodded shakily.
Aiden tilted his head slightly. "Get your ID card. We're going to the roof."
"The roof?"
"I promise… I'll explain."
It wasn't a request.
And not a command.
It was desperation.
The voice of someone who had lived far too long without a single person to trust.
Elara grabbed her ID card.
Aiden waited right beside her, never stepping even half a pace away.
As if letting Elara out of his sight meant the loop might steal her again.
The roof door creaked open.
The morning wind bit at their skin.
The sky was bright oblivious to the darkness weighing on the two people beneath it.
Aiden walked toward the edge not too close just enough to be sure they were alone.
Then he turned to Elara.
"Elara."
Just her name.
But the way he said it nearly made her knees give out.
As if he'd spoken that name thousands of times.
In thousands of Tuesdays.
Across thousands of deaths.
"You want answers," he said.
I want all of them, Aiden.
But she didn't dare say it.
"Start from the basics." Elara inhaled.
"How long have you been trapped in Tuesday?"
Aiden went quiet.
Wind brushed through his hair, and for a moment he looked like someone standing between two worlds belonging to neither.
"Two hundred thirty-six days."
The words slammed into Elara like a wall.
"Two… hundred…?"
Aiden nodded once.
"Almost eight months," he said quietly.
"Eight months waking up to the same morning, seeing the same people… die the same way."
Elara covered her mouth.
"Aiden… why didn't you ever tell anyone?"
Because no one would believe him.
It was obvious in his eyes.
But he still answered, rawer than before.
"Because every time I tell someone…"
His jaw tightened.
"They die in the next loop."
Elara's blood froze.
"You're serious?"
"Yes."
Aiden's gaze drifted to the horizon.
"The loop punishes anyone who learns too much."
Elara stepped closer.
"Aiden… then why tell me?"
Aiden looked at her.
That look made her heart stop.
"Because you almost died last night," he whispered.
"And I don't want to lose the only person who can finally see me."
Elara felt her chest twist.
"Aiden…"
But his eyes shifted darker, more honest.
"Elara… in the other loops… I never found you."
She went rigid. "What do you mean?"
"You weren't there."
Aiden swallowed hard.
"You didn't work here. You didn't pass by me. You weren't in the employee database."
Elara stepped back. "W-what?"
Aiden followed, voice sharper.
"You only appeared in loop two hundred thirty-one."
Elara stared at him like the world had slipped off its axis.
"And ever since that day…" he continued,
"the loop changed."
Her throat felt tight. "Aiden… why did I only appear in loop 231?"
Aiden looked at her carefully, as if the answer itself could break the world.
"I have two theories."
Elara's heartbeat spiked.
"One…"
Aiden swallowed.
"You're not from this Tuesday."
"…what?"
"Two…"
His eyes grew darker, serious.
"…the loop is looking for you."
Elara froze.
"The loop… is looking for me?"
Aiden nodded slightly.
"And if the world is searching for you…"
He stepped close enough that his voice brushed her ear.
"…you're in a danger I can't even define."
Silence.
The world around them felt thick, heavy, like it was holding its breath.
Aiden looked at her again, this time pleading silently.
"So please…" he said softly,
"don't go home late."
Her knees nearly buckled.
Not because of fear.
But because of the way Aiden said it.
as if his own life hung on her decision.
As if this world this loop hated that she existed.
As if her existence itself was a fatal anomaly.
"Elara…"
Aiden stepped even closer, intensity sharp enough to cut.
"If you die tonight… I don't think the world will bring you back."
Elara's breath stuttered.
Her throat burned.
"Aiden… then… what do we do?"
Aiden took a small step.
Then another.
And in the most honest, most terrified, most human voice he had ever used.
"We have to survive until midnight. Together."
Elara shivered. "What happens if we stay together?"
Aiden closed his eyes.
And the answer fell like shattered glass:
"If we make it to midnight… I can show you why Tuesday never ends."
Elara gasped. "You know the cause?!"
Aiden opened his eyes.
and for the first time… he looked like someone carrying the world's sins for eight months straight.
"Yes."
His voice cracked faintly.
"I know what caused the loop."
Elara inhaled sharply.
"WHAT?"
Aiden stared into her.
One sentence.
One sentence that shattered logic itself:
"This loop began on the day I killed someone."