---
11:08:58 AM.
Ren's knuckles turned white against the window frame. His eyes scanned the courtyard, every heartbeat louder than the last.
This is real. This is happening.
Aya stared at him, confusion narrowing her eyes. "Ren, what's wrong with y—?"
11:09:00 AM.
The second hand twitched once.
Three seconds.
He took a breath so sharp it cut his lungs. "Get down," he muttered.
"What?"
He turned to her, his voice louder now—urgent. "GET DOWN. NOW."
Students around them jolted at the sudden outburst.
Aya blinked, instinctively lowering herself behind her desk just as the lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
And then silence.
---
Ren moved before the scream.
He grabbed Aya by the wrist and yanked her from her seat just as holograms blinked out. The scream from outside sliced through the air a moment later, exactly as before. But this time, Ren was already dragging her toward the door.
People screamed. The teacher shouted again.
The ceiling above them groaned.
Ren didn't wait for the crash.
He threw the door open and shoved Aya into the hall.
"Run!" he shouted, just as the ceiling tore wide and the thing dropped into the classroom behind them.
He didn't look back.
Didn't need to.
The sound of metal hitting tile. The fragmented, robotic voice.
> "Awakened detected.
Extracting candidates."
Then came the levitating screams.
But they weren't his classmates this time.
Not yet.
---
Aya stumbled beside him, clutching his arm. "What the hell is going on!? Ren—what was that thing?!"
"I don't know," he breathed, pushing forward down the corridor. "But it's coming."
Another crash behind them. The floor vibrated with it.
Aya let out a sharp cry. "You—how did you know this was going to happen?"
"I don't know," he said again, but it wasn't entirely true.
He did know. Somehow.
It had already happened.
He'd been here before.
---
They turned a corner—straight into chaos.
Students shoved past each other like panicked animals. Someone fell. Someone else screamed for help. Emergency lights flickered on—dim red strips lining the walls.
A loudspeaker crackled to life.
> "All students evacuate immediately. This is not a drill. I repeat—"
The voice cut off mid-sentence, replaced by static.
Aya tugged at him. "The south stairwell—closest exit."
He followed her lead.
A boy ahead of them flung open the stairwell door—only to stop cold.
"NO—!"
Too late.
Ren saw the jagged steel mask just before the boy was impaled—hoisted into the air by a long, blackened limb that didn't look human. Blood sprayed the wall behind him in a wet arc.
The masked creature turned toward Ren and Aya.
Its voice echoed down the corridor.
> "Chrono anomaly located.
Marking priority target."
Ren felt something sear inside his chest, like a brand igniting beneath his ribs.
And suddenly—
> < SYSTEM NOTIFICATION >
Time Loop Limit: [01 / ??]
Reset trigger: Physical death OR collapse of core timeline
Current Stability: 74%
Threat Level: Red
His knees buckled. His vision blurred.
Aya grabbed him. "Ren?! REN—stay with me!"
He gritted his teeth, forcing himself upright. "Back—go back!"
They turned, bolting the opposite way.
---
Ren didn't know where to go—only that he had to survive.
Had to buy time.
Had to figure out what the hell was happening to him.
But even as the creature's distant footsteps echoed like a death sentence behind them, another thought wormed its way into his head:
How many times was he going to have to watch people die?
And worse—
How long before it was Aya?
---
They burst through a door into a lab room.
Ren slammed it shut and braced a chair against the handle. Aya was gasping, wild-eyed, leaning on a desk for support.
"Talk to me," she demanded. "Right now."
Ren's hand was still shaking. His voice was hoarse. "I think—I think I can go back."
Aya stared at him.
"Time," he said, swallowing hard. "I rewound time. Just seconds. Minutes maybe. But it was real. I saw what was going to happen, and then—I was back."
She shook her head. "That's—Ren, that's not possible."
"I know." His breath hitched. "But it happened. It's still happening."
> "Chrono Binding," he whispered.
> "Temporal classification: Unknown."
Aya opened her mouth to respond—but then the door buckled behind them.
One hit.
Two.
It wouldn't hold.
Ren looked around desperately. There was a fire escape, but—
The door snapped off its hinges.
And the creature stepped in.
Aya screamed.
Ren turned—
And saw the hand coming too fast to move.
It struck his chest like a freight train.
Pain. Cold. Darkness.
Then—
---
< SYSTEM NOTIFICATION >
> Death registered.
Trigger met.
Rewinding...
---
11:08:57 AM.
Rain tapped the window softly.
Aya was scribbling notes.
The lights hadn't flickered yet.
Ren's hands trembled.
This time, he didn't wait.
He whispered under his breath.
"...Second loop."