Echoes of the Past

The next loop began as predictably as the others. The sunlight spilled into the room, the day reset, and the diary sat waiting for Cael on his desk. But there was no comfort in the routine anymore. He had to find answers before he lost himself completely.

Cael met Lina at the agreed spot—the alleyway they had discovered in a previous loop. It was a secluded, forgotten place, hidden between towering buildings and shadowed from the world. Here, they could speak without the fear of being overheard.

Lina leaned against the brick wall, her arms crossed as she stared at the ground. "I was thinking about what you said," she began, her voice quieter than usual. "About the diary telling you to trust him."

Cael nodded, feeling the familiar weight of uncertainty pressing down on him.

"Maybe," Lina continued, "it's not just about whether he's lying or telling the truth. Maybe it's about why he's doing this."

Cael frowned, confused. "What do you mean?"

Lina's eyes lifted, meeting his with a new intensity. "I've been piecing together fragments of what I can remember—about him. He's not just playing with us for fun, Cael. He's stuck, too. And he's been here longer than both of us combined."

Cael's heart raced. "You think he's like us? Trapped in the loop?"

"I don't know the full story," Lina admitted, frustration lining her words. "But I've caught glimpses of him. In some of the loops, I've seen him at the edges—like he's watching, observing. He's not bound by the same rules we are. He can move through the loops differently."

Cael thought back to the brief moments he had seen Nico—or Aaron—appear. Always calm, always calculated. "But if he's stuck, why doesn't he just tell us? Why all the games?"

Lina shook her head, her expression dark. "That's the thing. I think he's bound to the loop in a different way. He's not just a victim—he's part of its design."

Cael felt a chill run down his spine. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know everything, but I've managed to piece together some of his past," Lina said, her voice lowering. "Before the loop, he wasn't like this. He was… human, I think. But something happened. Something that changed him, bound him to this endless cycle."

Cael's throat tightened. "And now he's dragging us into it."

Lina nodded slowly. "Exactly. But I don't think it's out of malice. I think he's looking for something—someone to help him break free."

The weight of Lina's words hung in the air, pressing down on them both. The idea that Nico—or Aaron—was more than just a manipulator, that he was as much a prisoner of the loop as they were, shifted everything.

"But what does he need from us?" Cael asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

"I think he's searching for a way to undo the mistake that caused this loop in the first place," Lina said. "He's trying to rewrite the event that started it all. And somehow, we're a part of that."

Cael's mind spun with questions. "What event? What mistake?"

Lina's face hardened. "That's what we need to figure out. But whatever it is, it's connected to him—and to us."

The realization hit Cael with the force of a wave. They weren't just victims trapped in some cosmic game. They were part of the puzzle itself. And the only way to escape was to find the event that had started the loop and change it.

But the question remained: could they trust Nico—or Aaron—or whoever he really was?

The answer was somewhere in the loop. They just had to find it.