The first sign of time distrotion was that Sam spilled his coffee twice.
Same mug.
Same stain on his shoe.
Same annoyed "are you kidding me?" under his breath.
Except the second time, he remembered the first.
"Okay," Sam said slowly, staring at the spreading puddle, "either I'm losing it, or today is being lazy."
Alex looked up from the table. "What?"
Sam pointed at the floor. "That already happened."
Alex checked the clock.
8:17 a.m.
He froze.
"It was 8:17 before," Sam said. "Exactly."
-------
At school, déjà vu turned aggressive.
A locker slammed before Lena reached it.
A teacher repeated a joke word-for-word, including the awkward pause that followed. A pencil snapped in Riley's hand—twice.
Jordan's notebook filled with frantic arrows.
"This isn't looping," he whispered.
"It's branching and snapping back."
Maya pressed her fingers to her temples. "The town is… rewinding itself."
Alex frowned. "Why?"
She looked up at him, eyes wide.
"Because we broke the model."
---
By third period, they were certain.
Time wasn't moving wrong.
It was being tested.
The bell rang.
It rang again.
The second ring faded halfway through, like it realized it had already done its job.
Sam laughed nervously.
"This is not the kind of sequel I wanted."
---
They met behind the science wing, where clocks never quite worked right even before all this.
Jordan laid it out quickly.
"When we refused to choose, Marrow couldn't stabilize.
So it's doing the only thing it knows how to do when the future becomes unpredictable."
"Revisit the past," Lena said.
"Exactly," Jordan nodded.
"It's trying to find a version where we comply."
Maya's voice was tight.
"And if it finds one?"
Alex felt the chill before she finished.
"We get overwritten."
------
The shift came without warning.
One second they were standing behind the school.
The next...
They were standing in the same place.
But the fence was new.
The paint on the wall wasn't peeling.
And a sign near the path read:
MARROWPARK ---- OPENINGSOON
Sam swallowed. "Guys."
Alex turned slowly.
The building wasn't hidden.
It wasn't underground.
It stood at the edge of the park, half-constructed, wrapped in scaffolding like a promise not yet disguised.
Maya staggered. "This is before containment."
Jordan's hands shook. "Version one."
Riley's voice was barely a whisper.
"The town is showing us how it started."
A figure moved near the scaffolding.
A man in a hard hat, clipboard in hand, arguing with someone Alex couldn't see.
Then the man turned.
And Alex recognized him.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Sam muttered.
It was Agent Harris.
Younger. Unlined. Untired.
Unaware of everything he was about to lose.
The hum beneath their feet deepened...not threatening, not welcoming
Inviting.
Marrow hadn't just opened the past.
It had dropped them into it.
And whatever they changed here wouldn't reset quietly.
Because this time, they weren't visitors.
They were variables.
AN :-
A short one this was, yep Time travel.
Still kinda boomed that no one wants to read this . It's kinda heartbreaking ,still I am willing to finish what I started, i will definitely finish it .
Hopefully oneday power stones, collections comments and reviews will come this way.