Elara blinked rapidly as the light faded. One moment she was in the lab, her hand barely grazing the console, and the next—total silence. No humming servers, no flickering neon tubes. Just… darkness. Cold and absolute.
Then, flickers.
Images began to form—fragments of a world she both recognized and didn't. The university hallway. A coffee cup. A fire alarm going off. A boy with silver eyes turning to look at her. Was that Aiden?
Suddenly, she gasped.
Her body jerked back into awareness, and she found herself standing in the same lab—but everything had shifted. The air was thick with a strange hum, as if time itself was vibrating. The lights had a purple hue, and the Moonlight Device—the machine at the center of it all—was spinning.
She wasn't alone anymore.
Aiden stood at the far corner of the lab. Only this version of Aiden had a long scar across his cheek and eyes that glowed faintly. He looked at her with recognition… and sorrow.
"Elara," he said, voice deeper, more mechanical. "You weren't supposed to follow."
"What happened?" she asked, her voice cracking. "Where am I?"
"This is Cycle 7," he said. "And you're not supposed to remember any of it."
Her heart pounded. "Cycle?"
He sighed and stepped forward, placing a hand on the console. "The Moonlight Experiment isn't just a machine. It's a reset mechanism. Every time we fail, time loops. We go back to the start. The problem is… each time, we remember less. But you—somehow—you broke through."
The room seemed to shake slightly as he spoke.
"I saw you," Elara whispered. "In my dream. The fire. The scream."
"That was Cycle 3. You died saving me."
She recoiled, mind spinning. "Why are we looping? Who started this?"
Before Aiden could answer, alarms blared. The lab's walls shimmered—beginning to fade.
"Cycle collapse," he said grimly. "You weren't ready for this. But now that your memories are waking up… it's already too late to stop."
"What do I do?" she cried.
He stepped closer, reaching into his pocket and handing her a small silver disk. "Use this in the next cycle. Find me before the experiment starts. Don't trust Dr. Virel. He's not who he says he is."
The world broke apart into light.
And Elara opened her eyes again… this time in her bed, at the university dorms. It was morning. Her alarm buzzed 6:00 AM.
But the silver disk was still in her hand.