Time Looped

Restarting eternity.

Getting his class, Will went straight to the art classroom. To little surprise, Helen and Alex were already there, noticeably standing on opposite sides of the room. For some reason, they didn’t particularly like each other and it wasn’t only because of Daniel’s files.

“Hey,” Will said, tossing his backpack on the nearest desk. “What are we waiting for?”

“You, bro,” Alex said. Unlike most times, he wasn’t smiling.

It was safe to say that Helen saw the hint, but chose to ignore it.

“I didn’t tell you all.” She made her way past Will to the door.

In the silence of the room, she took a chair and popped it against the door, blocking the handle so it couldn’t be opened.

“My first few loops were bad,” she continued. “I thought I was in a nightmare. Each time I’d do things exactly the same way, hoping that if I managed to get them perfect, all of this would end.” Step by step, she made her way to Daniel’s old desk. “After a few dozen loops, I lost it. That’s when Daniel noticed I was part of eternity.”

Taking hold of the desk, she picked it up, then turned it around as if it were a plushie toy.

“He put up with me for loops, explaining what he knew about the loops. The mirrors, the wolves, everything else… then he gave me a gift.”

She placed the desk on the floor, face up. Will knew every scribble on that desk by heart. He’d spent loops separating notes from random scribbles, figuring out what the numbers meant, the locations, questions, and, more importantly, the answers. However, this time, there was one new element. On the bottom of the desk, in the place of the dried-up piece of chewing gum, was a small square piece of mirror. No larger than a phone screen, it was perfectly rectangular with sharp edges, as if someone had just pulled it out of something.

“For real?!” Alex almost shouted, more annoyed than surprised. “That’s where it was?”

“You’ve seen that?” Will asked.

“I found it, bro! Danny said he lost it. So much about bros before—”

“What does it do?” Will quickly interrupted.

There was a long moment of silence. Both Alex and Helen looked at each other, wondering how much the other knew. The atmosphere had changed a lot since the last loop when the conversation was a lot more amicable. Finally, it was Helen who spoke.

“It let me know when Daniel died,” she said, almost in a whisper. “One single message saying that the rogue role had been “vacated.” A week later, it told me that it was filled up. That’s when you joined eternity.”

“It’s more meta,” the goofball added. “Like hints, but system messages. People joining, people leaving, that sort of thing. How long did you have it?” he turned to the girl.

“I didn’t have it.” She frowned. “Daniel put it under his desk for me to take. It relaxed me.”

“Nah, no way!”

“Didn’t the cops check that when searching for Danny’s stash?” Will asked.

“Nah, bro. I made that up. I checked, though, and it was gone.”

“I’ve been taking it from here every morning.” She crossed her arms. “I only held onto it during the non-loop week. After that, it started appearing back here again.”

That was weird. From what Will knew, everything went back to its original place at the start of a loop, people included. If Alex had really found the mirror piece and handed it to Danny, it should have returned to the place where it originally belonged. Obviously, that hadn’t happened.

“Alex, where did you find it?” he asked.

“Janitor’s room. One in the basement. Not a pretty sight, bro. It shrunk down and fell into my hands when I tapped it.” There was a slight pause. “Most of the loops.”

“Then how did it get here?”

“Only Danny knows, bro. He found a way to get it to loop with him… then to his desk.”

Will reached down and took it. It felt cold and smooth as any mirror would. No messages appeared, even after the boy tapped it on the surface several times. Curiously, the back of the mirror was also reflective, even if it seemed to be made of a single piece of glass with nothing in-between.

“There are two more things that it does.” The girl moved closer, looking into the mirror. “Every loop precisely at noon it gives the lyrics of a song.”

Weird, but that explained a large part of the scribbles on the desk. Daniel must have written them down in an attempt to figure out the hidden meaning. If he’d had any luck, though, he hadn’t shared it with anyone.

“Also, during the non-loop week it showed the message “rogue candidate available” a few times. I guess that’s when you went to the bathroom without tapping the mirror?”

It sounded plausible. After so many loops, it was difficult to tell. Will tried to concentrate, but events were merging together. He did recall having problems with the coach and his annoying bathroom checks. It was quite possible that he’d gone there. If so, the mirror must have registered that.

“If it works like the wolves, the mirror must see the reflection of the candidate,” Will said.

“Bro!” Alex sounded very excited, a lot more than usual. “Here’s the plan! I get into the nurse’s office, snatch the mirror, then check everyone out. Sis will look at the piece and when—”

“Idiot,” Helen hissed. “You can’t just take a mirror. This isn’t YouTube.”

“I’m lit.”

“Mirrors are screwed and glued to the wall.” The girl shifted her weight on her left leg. “The only way to snatch it is to break it and if you break it, it’ll no longer be able to give the class.”

Given the tense relations between the two so far, Will expected a shouting match. To his surprise, Alex seemed to take it quite well, possibly because at that precise moment the handle on the classroom door turned. The first student of the loop was attempting to enter. Finding it impossible, they would no doubt get the attention of a teacher, or more likely, the coach. If previous loops were a reference, that would soon bring the janitor and vice-principal as well, with a minute to spare.

“New plan.” Will took the initiative. “Helen keeps an eye on the piece. I get people to the nurse’s office one at a time, and Alex…” he paused. “You do whatever you do.”

“Sounds good, bro.”

“Could work.” The girl nodded. “Start with the football team. They’re regulars, so it would be easy to get them to believe—”

“No way!”

The thought of having to endure Jace for eternity sent shivers down the boy’s spine. Despite knowing that the hostilities had been caused by Alex due to his loop extension conditions, the hatred had set in, making the jock less than desirable.

“If he’s the candidate, it’ll have to be him,” Helen said. “We have no say in that.”

“For real, bro,” Alex agreed.

“It’s not certain he’s the candidate, right?” Will asked. “I’m not saying we exclude him, I’m just saying we leave him till the end. That okay?”

The first yells came from the corridor. The coach was already in a bad mood due to the football team's losses, so he had no patience for anyone playing tricks. After failing to use force to open the door, he resorted to “friendly warnings” in a very loud voice. It wouldn’t be long before the vice-principal joined him.

“Sure, bro.” Alex shrugged. Helen also nodded.

Great, Will thought. At least one thing was settled. Now all he had to do was wait for the end of the loop and get to work.

Restarting eternity.

The loop finally ended, replacing the classroom with the great outdoors. Will looked around. Now that he looked closely, he found that there were way more people than he hoped, and the rush hadn’t started yet. In another five minutes, the entire path to the school entrance would be completely packed.

The boy was not one for numbers and statistics, but based on rough estimates, there had to be at least a few hundred people in the school. Of course, that was assuming that the looped wasn’t a parent, brother, or sister to someone who went to Enigma High.

“Move, weirdo.” The usual pair of girls passed by on their way to the entrance.

Here we go, Will said to himself.

“Hey,” he shouted behind them. “Wait up!”

Both of the girls turned around. One appeared subtly happy to be addressed, her friend—not so much.

“Sorry about that.” The boy smiled in an attempt to use his charm. The rogue class helped a lot in that area. Unfortunately, he hadn’t taken his class yet, so he had to hope that some of the confidence had rubbed off on him. “Been feeling a bit dizzy.”

The reaction of the girls was completely opposite to one another. One took a step back, not wanting to risk getting infected with whatever the boy had. The other, in contrast, took a step closer.

“Can you help me get to the nurse?”

In the history of icebreakers, this was probably the worst series of lines one could make. Yet, Will's confidence worked very much in his favor. Like his father used to constantly say when the boy was in middle school: “it’s not important what you say, but how you say it.”

“Sure,” one of the girls offered.

“Jess,” the other hissed. “We’ll be late for class.”

“There’s enough time.” The girl gave her friend a warning glare. “You can head there without me.”

There was a moment of hesitation. A choice was offered. Jess’ friend had the option to shut up and play along or leave. Neither was particularly appealing.

“Bro!” Alex shouted, rushing to the boy.

The goofball had an instant effect. Like repellent, he caused both girls to quickly step away and continue to the school entrance. They weren’t alone—practically everyone in the general vicinity made a point to circle Alex and, by association, Will, creating an bubble of ignorabilty around them.

“Big ooof, bro,” Alex reached Will before he could ask “what the hell?!”

This better be good, the boy thought.

“I tapped the nurse’s mirror by accident.”

“What?” Will couldn’t believe his ears.

“Said it was a big oof, bro.”

“It… just… How do you tap a mirror by accident?” Not to mention that in order to reach it, he had to sneak into the nurse’s office without being seen.

“I have a system, bro. Thief, level up, Danny file one, crafter class, Danny file two—”

“Seriously, man…”

“Was an oof, bro. Oofs happen.”

Shit happens, Will thought, but didn’t voice it.

“No class, no way to find the candidate.”

“Okay, but you’re explaining it to Helen.” Will pointed at his friend. “I’m staying right here.”

“Cold, bro,” the goofball grumbled.

“It was your oof, so you clean it up!”

“No worries, bro. Catch you in the next one.”

Restarting eternity.

“Help me get to the nurse?” Will asked.

“Sure,” Jess replied. “I’ll see you in class.” She turned to her friend.

Fortunately for Will, the girl’s friend had no intention of leaving them alone, so she reluctantly tagged along. Of course, she didn’t even pretend to help in any way whatsoever.

As they entered the school, Will was constantly on the mental lookout for Alex. Part of him dreaded the goofball rushing again all of a sudden just to let everyone know he’d messed up again. Fortunately, no such thing happened. The trio successfully made their way along the corridor, if a bit slower than expected. The entire time, Will had to engage in small talk to keep the interest going. To his surprise, it turned out much easier than he expected. For one thing, he avoided all the topics Alex would use: games, conspiracies, muffins, and other weirdness.

Brands and viral videos were always a safe bet, moving the conversation along. By the time they reached the nurse’s office, the boy had learned a surprising number of things in the span of a few minutes.

“I tried getting into sci fi, but it was really boring,” Jess said as the discussion inevitably shifted towards Star Wars. Personally, Will had no idea why. He wasn’t into the movies, mostly because his parents constantly raved about them back home.

“Yeah. I’m not much into movies.” Will nodded.

The girl reached to knock on the nurse’s door, but before she could, Will reached out and opened it directly. The fewer obstacles there were for the girls to get into the room, the better. Unfortunately, the door wasn’t the only one.

“Yes?” The nurse seemed to appear out of nowhere, preventing them from entering.

“I’m not feeling well,” Will quickly said.

The woman looked at him, then at the girls.

“All of you?”

“No, just me. They’re helping me get here.”

“Must be some condition for two people to have to carry you all the way here.” Despite the smile, her words were soaking with sarcasm. “I’ll take it from here. The rest of you can go to class.”

Disappointment and hesitation were visible on Jess’ face. Unfortunately, it remained just that. With a nod and a quick whisper that she’d check on Will during the next period, the girl left, leaving him in the capable hands of the nurse. This definitely wasn’t the desired outcome.

Restarting eternity.

“I’m feeling faint and dizzy,” Will told the nurse. “It started just now.”

“We were there to help him,” Jess quickly added. “He almost fainted.”

The annoyance washed off the nurse’s face, replaced by concern.

“Good job.” She moved closer, taking Will’s weight off the girls. “Careful now…”

“Thanks.” Damn it! Will thought.

Clearly, nothing was going to happen with the nurse here. That’s why next loop he was going to text Alex to do something about it.

Restarting eternity.

“Nurse,” Jess said as they walked into the empty office. “Nurse! Where is she?”

“Maybe I’m not the only one feeling ill?” Will asked.

He had a vague idea what Alex was up to. Hopefully, it didn’t involve him getting into serious trouble. Being a loop veteran, the goofball tended to go to extremes sometimes.

“Can you just take me to the bed inside?” the boy asked. “Just till she gets back.”

“We really shouldn’t be doing this,” Jess’ friend whispered, taking any excuse to get them away from Will. Alas, for her, that had the completely opposite effect.

Initially, the girl wanted to take him to the closer of the two beds, but with a bit of footwork, Will managed to be guided to the one within view of the mirror. Was that enough, though? If the wolf mirrors were taken as an example, they only needed to have a person in direct view to activate.

“Feeling better?” Jess asked.

“Lots.” Will smiled back.

“It’s time for class, if you still want us to get there on time,” Jess’ friend reminded with the subtlety of a tractor.

“I’m going.” Jess sighed, then made her way to the entrance. “Hope you feel better soon.”

“Thanks. Hope to catch you later.” Will waved.

“You know, you can not be a weirdo when you want to.” The girl smiled as she left.

That all but settled it. She did seem to have a crush on him, and he didn’t even know her name. Before the loops, he wouldn’t have even recognized the girl in a crowd. Life sure was good at surprises. If Will hadn’t joined eternity, he would have never even suspected. The sad irony was that now that he knew, there was nothing he could do about it. As long as eternity had him, he had to play by its rules.

Taking his phone, he sent a thumbs up emoticon to Helen. Maybe it was silly, but a small part of him hoped that Jess would turn out to be the candidate. The rational part of his mind explained it away by pointing out that it would save him a lot of additional effort.

A few moments later, the reply came: Nothing.

Will just stared at the screen. It wasn’t the result he hoped for by far. Also, now he had to do it all again with someone else.

Restarting eternity.