Lina

Cael woke up, once again bathed in the same golden sunlight. His chest ached from the phantom pain of dying, but the panic from his last moments still clung to him. He bolted upright, half-expecting to hear a knock or see the stranger outside his window.

But the house was eerily quiet.

The familiar weight of the diary sat on his desk, but his eyes darted to the door. There was no sound, no voice calling from downstairs. Slowly, he stood and moved toward the diary, his fingers trembling as he opened it.

The pages were filled with his usual scrawls, but now something new caught his eye. Words that didn't belong to him. At the very bottom of the most recent page, in elegant handwriting that definitely wasn't his own, were two words: "Trust Nico."

A knock on the door startled him out of his thoughts. When Cael opened it, Lina stood there, her face pale and tense.

"We need to talk," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. Without waiting for an invitation, she slipped inside, shutting the door behind her.

Cael leaned against his desk, the diary still in his hand. "I think I know his name—Nico."

Lina's eyes narrowed. "Nico? He told me his name was Aaron."

The pieces of the puzzle weren't fitting together, and both of them knew it. Cael hesitated, then finally spoke. "My diary told me to trust him. But I don't know if I can."

Lina gave a sharp laugh, though it was void of humor. "That's exactly how he works. He gets into your head, makes you question everything." She began to pace the room, her movements restless. "I've been in this loop longer than you have, Cael. Much longer. And that man—Aaron, Nico, whoever he is—he's always there, always waiting for me to fail."

Cael frowned. "What do you mean? How long have you been stuck?"

Lina stopped pacing, her green eyes locking onto his. For a moment, something vulnerable flickered across her usually guarded expression. "I stopped counting after the first hundred loops. Every time I think I'm close to figuring it out, something changes. Something stops me. And he—Nico, Aaron—always shows up just when I think I'm onto something."

A heavy silence fell between them, broken only by the distant sounds of the world outside—people going about their lives, blissfully unaware of the nightmare Cael and Lina were trapped in.

Lina's gaze drifted to the diary in Cael's hand. "When I first got stuck, I thought I could outsmart the loop. But it didn't take long for me to realize… it wasn't about being clever. It's about something deeper, something I'm not seeing."

Cael shifted uncomfortably. "Do you remember anything from before you got stuck?"

Lina hesitated, her jaw tightening. "I remember flashes—images, feelings. But nothing concrete. There's a… a gap in my memory, like something important was ripped away." She swallowed hard, her voice growing quieter. "But I do remember one thing clearly. I was looking for someone. Someone important."

"Who?"

She paused for a second and stared at Cael. She shook her head "I don't know. It's like every time I try to remember, it slips further away, but recently-- I think I'm starting to remember something. I'm not sure, It's still vague."

Cael watched her carefully, realizing how much the loop had worn her down. She wasn't just surviving day after day—she was fighting a battle against herself, against time, against her own fractured memories. He felt a pang of sympathy for her, but also fear. What if the same thing was happening to him? What if he, too, would start losing pieces of himself the longer he stayed trapped?

"Have you ever tried writing it down? The memories, I mean," Cael asked, holding up his diary.

Lina let out a tired sigh. "I did. I wrote everything down—every thought, every memory. But the loop messes with the diaries too. One day, I'll write something, and the next, it's gone or rewritten. It's like the loop itself is erasing what I know."

Cael glanced down at his own diary. So far, his entries had stayed intact. But now, after hearing Lina's story, he wondered how long that would last.

Lina's voice pulled him back to the moment. "The only thing I know for sure is that Aaron—Nico—whatever his name is, he's part of the loop. He's the only constant. And I'm starting to think he's not just stuck with us—he's tied to this somehow."

Cael's mind raced, piecing together the fragments of what Lina was saying. If Nico—or Aaron—was tied to the loop, then maybe understanding him was the key to breaking it. But how? The man seemed as elusive as the answers they were chasing.

Lina stepped closer, her voice low and urgent. "I don't know what your diary's trying to tell you, but you have to be careful. Trusting him might be exactly what he wants. And we can't afford to fall into his trap."

Cael felt the weight of her words, the gravity of their situation sinking in. He couldn't help but feel that time was running out, that the loop was tightening around them. They were both trapped, but for how long?

Lina paused, as if deciding whether or not to say what was on her mind. Then she looked him directly in the eye. "There's something else you should know, Cael. I found you before you even realized the loop was happening."

Cael's brow furrowed in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Lina sat down on the edge of his bed, her eyes heavy with a secret she was ready to share. "In the early loops, when I was still learning the rules, I started noticing you. You were... different. Some people in the loop never changed. They'd repeat their days like clockwork, the same words, the same actions. But you... every now and then, you'd do something unexpected. Something that didn't fit."

Cael felt a chill crawl up his spine. "Like what?"

"At first, it was small things," Lina said, her voice growing steadier as she spoke. "You'd linger in places you weren't supposed to be, or you'd react to events as if they were new to you—just like I did when I first realized I was stuck. But what really caught my attention was the time I saw you trying to talk to someone about the strange dreams you were having. You weren't just a passive observer in this loop. You were waking up."

Cael was silent, absorbing her words. "So... you've been watching me?"

"More like I've been looking out for you," Lina corrected, her gaze softening slightly. "I knew that if there was someone else like me, someone waking up to the loop, we might have a chance at figuring out what's really going on. It took me a while to approach you, to get you to notice the loop. But when you did... well, here we are."

Cael shook his head, trying to piece together everything she was saying. "But why me? Why not someone else?"

Lina hesitated, then said quietly, "I don't know. Maybe it's random, or maybe you're connected to this in ways we don't understand yet. All I know is that when I found you, I realized we weren't alone. And that was the first time I felt hope in a long time."

Cael's mind swirled with questions. Why was he different? Why did the loop seem to be affecting him more than the others trapped in it? And more importantly, how had Lina become so adept at navigating this endless cycle?

"I don't have all the answers yet," Lina continued, her voice steady but laced with exhaustion. "But together, we might be able to find them. That's why I reached out to you. We need each other if we're ever going to escape this."

The weight of her confession hung in the air, a mixture of relief and fear. Cael had suspected there was more to Lina's actions, but hearing the truth made it all feel more real—more dangerous.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Cael asked, his voice quieter now.

Lina exhaled deeply. "Because I wasn't sure if I could trust you either. I've met others in the loop who... well, let's just say, they don't all want to escape. Some are content to live in their repeating days, no matter how strange things get. I had to make sure you were different."

Cael nodded slowly, understanding her caution but still feeling uneasy. "And now?"

"Now I know you're like me," Lina said, her expression firm. "We're in this together."