POV: ELARA
The automatic corridor doors slid open as we stepped out of the Containment Room yet it felt like crossing into another world.
The air outside was colder, more stable, but not remotely calming.
It felt like the world itself was watching us from behind a one-way mirror observing, judging, remembering.
Aiden walked half a step ahead, still gripping my hand like he feared my body would vanish the second he let go.
Meanwhile, my mind… was chaos.
The entity's words kept curling like smoke in my skull:
Aiden didn't save you… he saved himself.
I should've rejected it.
I should've been furious.
I shouldn't have wavered at a voice that was clearly manipulating me.
But truth is complicated.
And wounds… breathe.
The corridor stretched on endlessly. Aiden stopped at the junction, took a slow breath, then turned toward me.
"Elara… if you need time, I'll wait. But we have to move rooms first. The system might"
"Aiden."
My voice sounded more broken than I meant it to.
He froze exactly like someone preparing to accept whatever punishment was coming.
"I… don't know if I believe you," I murmured. "But I know one thing: I'm not losing control of my mind just because of a voice from a dark room."
Aiden lowered his head, as if my words hit something vital inside him.
"I understand."
I exhaled and walked past him. My hand slipped from his.
Aiden didn't try to take it back.
"We're going to the observation room," I said. "I need to see for myself what happened in the previous loops."
Aiden's breath hitched. "Elara… that's not a good idea. The system might"
"If you're being honest," I cut in, "you shouldn't be afraid of what the system recorded."
He fell silent.
Too silent.
And that… scared me more than any entity's whisper.
Observation Room 3 was dark when we entered. Only the large central display glowed faintly, waiting.
I stood before the holographic panel.
"Elara… please. Don't open that data before I explain," Aiden said quietly not because he wanted to hide something, but because he feared I'd misunderstand before he had the chance to tell me.
"I'm going to watch Loop 1," I said.
Aiden closed his eyes and breathed in like someone admitting defeat before the battle even began.
The hologram flickered to life.
Blue light shaped the timeline.
A single red mark showed the point of my death.
Aiden stepped back. I could see his fingers trembling.
"Elara…"
"What?" I turned, colder than I intended.
Aiden stared at the floor.
"If you watch this… you'll see the worst version of me. The version I wish I could erase. I'm just asking for one thing: don't judge the me standing here by the me you're about to see."
His voice wasn't defensive.
It was the voice of someone terrified not of losing face, but of losing me.
I nodded slowly. "Play it."
The system began the recording.
Light filled the room.
And there I was myself in Loop One.
Running toward the temporal fracture, shouting for someone who… wasn't even there.
Aiden appeared behind me, trying to pull me back, and then—
The push.
Not violent.
Not cruel.
But desperate. Urgent. Panicked.
Then the light ate my body.
A scream that never fully formed.
I pressed a hand over my mouth as my body trembled.
Aiden didn't move. Tears slid silently down his face.
"Elara… I… I was wrong. But I never"
"I know," I cut in, harsher than intended. "I see it."
I watched the video again and there he was, running straight into the light that consumed me.
Running without hesitation.
Then falling to his knees on the empty floor like someone who had just lost himself.
My hand touched the panel.
Its cold surface punched straight through my chest.
"Why do you look… so terrified?" I whispered not to him, but to myself.
Aiden wiped his face.
His voice cracked.
"Because back then… I didn't love you yet. But my body reacted like someone who had been in love for a long time. The system called it an anomaly. But I know… I just didn't understand what I was feeling."
My eyes widened.
That wasn't an excuse.
It was a confession.
And it hurt in ways I wasn't prepared for.
"Turn it off," I said. "That's enough."
Aiden nodded.
He didn't dare step closer.
For the first time since the loop began, I felt like someone who had to find the truth alone even with Aiden standing right behind me.
POV: AIDEN
Elara didn't look at me when we left the room.
And somehow… that hurt more than anger, screaming, or any hit I deserved.
The system kept warning about emotional contamination, but I knew the real source: me.
"Elara…"
I called softly, afraid my own voice might trigger something I couldn't undo.
She stopped in the middle of the corridor.
Didn't turn.
A bitter weight rose in my chest.
"I know the entity twisted things. But some of what it said is true."
Elara froze.
I continued, each word tearing something open inside:
"I pushed you… not only to save you. I also saved myself. Not out of selfishness. But because if you went into the fracture first… it would've taken us both."
I clenched the empty air like I could hold myself together.
"I panicked, Elara. I was afraid of losing everything in a second. Afraid of losing you even though… back then I didn't even know why I was scared."
Elara slowly turned.
Her eyes were red, but not hollow.
"Aiden… do you regret pushing me?"
The question hit like a blade aimed perfectly at the center not to kill, but to open.
"…I regret that the push was wrong."
My voice cracked.
"But I don't regret trying to save you."
Elara said nothing for a long moment.
Then she whispered something that made my world collapse, piece by piece.
"I don't know if I should believe you."
I tried to smile the kind of smile worn by someone accepting a life sentence he earned.
"Believe me or not… I'll still stay."
She looked at me.
Long.
Too long.
And I knew exactly what she was thinking:
Is this the same Aiden who pushed me in Loop One?
Or am I looking at two different people living in the same body?
I wanted to say: I'm not him.
But that would be a lie.
Both versions lived inside me.
And before I could speak again—
—the entire corridor shook.
Emergency lights flashed violent red.
The system's voice echoed, turning my blood into ice.
[TEMPORAL FRACTURE DETECTED ON FLOOR 2.
ENTITY IN ACTIVE STATE.]
Elara grabbed the wall.
"Aiden… is that a new fracture?"
I stared at the rapid blinking indicators—faster than any loop before.
"No…"
I swallowed.
"It's an old one. But the phase has changed."
Elara's face drained of color.
"What do you mean… changed?"
I met her eyes unable to hide the fear I didn't want to admit even to myself.
"It means… the fracture is reacting to our emotions."
Elara stepped back, horrified.
And at the end of the corridor—
the fracture split the wall open like a faceless grin.
Slow.
Inviting.
The entity's voice seeped through, clearer than ever.
"Elara…
Aiden didn't tell you everything.
He didn't just push you."
Elara whipped toward me.
"Aiden… what does it mean?"
I tried to speak.
But the air vanished from my lungs.
"Ela—ra… I"
The entity whispered right beside her ear:
"He… let go of your hand."
The corridor exploded into light.