The sky began to fade as they came down from the rooftop. Not sunset it was far too early for that. But something in the light changed. As if the air knew Aiden's secret had leaked into the world, and the world was preparing its next punishment.
Elara couldn't feel the tips of her fingers. Aiden's voice… I killed someone… kept spinning in her head like an echo that refused to die.
In the office hallway, their steps moved side by side, but Elara's body felt like it was following someone else entirely. Aiden stopped in front of the archive room a room rarely used and always dark because the motion sensor light had been broken since last month.
He tapped his ID card. The door light flickered, then unlocked.
"Get in," he said.
Elara hesitated for a second, but her body moved first. Aiden closed the door from the inside, shutting off any chance for sound to escape. The room was cramped, filled with stacks of document boxes, but somehow it felt like the safest place in the world.
For a moment.
Aiden stood facing her. His shoulders rose and fell, but his jaw stayed locked. Elara looked into those eyes eyes that held eight months of the same Tuesday.
"Aiden," she began, "you don't have to tell"
"I have to."
Aiden cut in quickly, but his voice cracked.
"If I don't talk now, I might die again before I can explain."
Heat crawled up the back of Elara's neck.
"Then… who did you kill?"
Aiden let out a long breath one of someone reopening a wound that never truly healed.
"Elara…" he said softly, "you need to promise me something first."
"Promise what?"
"If I change… if I do something irrational… you have to run."
"Aiden"
"PROMISE."
His voice broke sharply, like glass fracturing but not fully shattering.
Elara flinched, but she nodded with a sincerity she didn't know she had.
"Okay. I promise."
Aiden closed his eyes briefly, then opened his mouth slowly, like someone stepping off a cliff.
"The person I killed… was myself."
Elara froze.
The world stopped.
All she could hear was her own breath, stuttering.
"…what?"
Aiden looked at her, cold and honest.
"I started the loop. I triggered everything."
Elara grabbed the shelf beside her just to stay upright.
"How can you kill yourself?!"
Aiden dragged a hand down his face, rough and frustrated, as if trying to wipe away a memory etched into his bones.
"Elara… time travel doesn't work like fiction. I didn't go back as my old version."
His voice dropped.
"I died. And then I woke up again."
Elara's eyes widened. "So… that wasn't a metaphor. You literally died."
Aiden nodded.
"In the first loop," he said, "I made a stupid decision. One I could never take back."
He paced the small room like a caged animal losing control.
"Elara… I didn't mean to end my life. That wasn't the plan. It wasn't despair. It was"
He stopped.
His voice fell like something breaking.
"It was an accident."
Elara frowned. "An accident?"
Aiden swallowed hard, then sank into a broken chair beside the shelves.
"In the first Tuesday… I was chasing someone."
Elara stiffened. "Chasing who?"
"Not important," he said quickly.
"But they stole something no one should ever have. Something that could destroy… more than just my life."
Aiden's eyes darkened.
"At the end of the chase, we fought. There was glass. Blood. The edge of a building that was too slick."
Elara held her breath.
Aiden continued:
"I slipped. That's it. That's the whole truth."
Elara stepped closer.
"Aiden… that's not murder. That's an accident. You weren't at fault."
Aiden met her gaze, eyes red.
"It was still my death, Elara. And the loop forced the day to repeat… repeat… repeat… until something took responsibility."
Elara shivered.
"Aiden… how can the world 'repeat' because of an accident? That doesn't make sense."
Aiden gave a bitter smile.
"Because it wasn't the world repeating."
Elara froze. "What do you mean?"
Aiden leaned forward, gaze piercing.
"Elara… the loop isn't natural. It's not cosmic. It's not a temporal glitch."
He stepped closer.
"The loop was made."
Elara felt her chest collapse.
"Made… by who?"
Aiden took a long breath the kind one takes before opening a forbidden door.
"Elara… in this office, in the lowest basement… there's an unregistered facility."
She frowned deeply. "A facility? You mean"
"Bunker. Research room. A place where experiments were done. Where something was created."
Elara's eyes widened. "This is a normal consulting firm"
"That's the surface," Aiden cut in.
"Underground… is something that shouldn't exist."
For a moment, it sounded like a thriller movie. But Aiden's eyes weren't the eyes of someone making up a story.
"What did they create?" Elara whispered.
Aiden looked away, ashamed.
"A system," he said. "A program that could… replay events."
Elara said nothing.
A system?
A program?
It sounded like high-level theory, not something real.
"You're saying this program rewinds the day?" Elara asked.
Aiden looked at her.
"Not the day. The probability of the day."
Elara felt a violent shiver.
Aiden finally said, "They tried to build a system that could alter an outcome. If someone died… the system could trigger a new possibility."
Elara covered her mouth.
"Aiden… you worked on this project?"
Aiden stared at the floor.
"I wasn't a scientist. I was security. I watched the doors. The people. The data."
Elara bit her lip, processing.
"So when you chased that thief… it was because he stole part of the system?"
Aiden nodded.
"But I was too late. And when I died…"
He looked at her with a plea.
"…the system activated its emergency protocol."
"Elara… that system wasn't meant for humans. Not for human consciousness. But when I died, it read my death as an event that needed correction."
Elara pressed a hand to her chest.
"So… the system… marked you as the primary variable to reset?"
Aiden nodded.
"And since then… Tuesday never ended."
The room felt smaller. Air thinner. Elara forced herself to stay upright.
"But why did I appear only in loop 231?"
Her voice trembled.
Aiden looked at her slowly, fearfully.
"Elara… because the system finally found what it was looking for."
"And that is…"
He stepped closer.
"…you."
Elara nearly collapsed.
"Me… what? A variable? A cause? A threat?!"
"No."
He shook his head quickly.
"You're… an anomaly."
Elara stared.
"An anomaly?"
Aiden drew a shaky breath.
"Elara… you're the only thing that wasn't supposed to exist in this Tuesday. And because of that… you can slip in and out of the loop in ways I can't."
"You can change decisions without destabilizing the loop."
"You can influence its direction."
"And… you can make me remember."
Elara swallowed hard.
"So I'm… a glitch?"
Aiden let out a bitter smile. "A glitch the system likes. And hates."
Her heart tightened.
"If the system hates me… then I'm in danger, aren't I?"
Aiden leaned in, whispering.
"Yes. And not small danger. Existential danger."
Elara braced against the shelf.
"A threat must be erased."
The silence was deafening.
Aiden watched her with fear, longing, and resolve.
"Elara… starting tonight, we can't be apart."
"Because the system will try to kill me?"
Aiden nodded.
"And if you die…"
His voice cracked.
"…I don't know if the loop will bring you back."
Elara's hands trembled.
"Aiden… if I disappear… what happens to you?"
Aiden looked at her sharp, honest, devastating.
"If you disappear… I'm certain the loop will close.
And if the loop closes…"
He leaned in, almost touching her face.
"…I'll die for real."
Elara paled.
No words came out.
Aiden stepped closer.
"Elara… we have to survive midnight. Together."
"But tonight… is when the system usually attacks."
Elara frowned. "Attacks how"
The lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The temperature dropped instantly.
Elara's breath turned into a faint mist.
Aiden yanked her behind him.
"Elara…"
his voice low, dangerous,
"…don't say a single word."
Elara stiffened.
From the hallway through the slight crack of the archive door.
a sound emerged.
Soft.
Broken.
"Aaaai…deeen…"
Elara's blood froze.
Aiden gripped her hand tight.
"Elara."
He looked her in the eyes.
"No matter what you hear… don't answer."
Elara nodded shakily.
The voice came again.
Closer.
Clearer.
And this time… it said her name.
"Elaa…raaa…"
Aiden slammed the archive door shut.
Locked it.
Stopped breathing.
He cupped Elara's face
and whispered:
"Starting now, we're not being chased by time."
He swallowed.
"We're being chased by something that knows we're trying to escape."
Right before the lights died completely, Aiden pulled Elara into his chest.
And in the suffocating dark
the voice slid through the crack of the door.
"Opennn… the doooor… this is my loop…"
Elara squeezed her eyes shut.
Aiden held his breath.
And the system…
finally found them.