Day 5.
The alarm rang.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡytRh9TMr2N
The jazz tune came on.
Claire opened her eyes, brown and bleary, but didn’t fight it anymore.
— It was a reflex now. A pre-installed response. Resistance was pointless.
Same song. Again. The same damn song.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOsWQsJZHA7
She sat up.
— It wasn’t even the kind of tune that grows on you.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9IZlfWS7M5
It was a kind of familiarity that felt like inflammation in her ears, like a metal key scraping memory straight out of her brain.
After five days, she was sure. She wasn’t imagining it.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ162Q51xfIW
She was reliving the same day.
— Not maybe. Not possibly.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxfTESYeWCj
Definitely.
The tearing feeling that came with realizing the world was broken—yeah, that was gone.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtGASVW7Gqd
Now it was just...calm. Eerily calm.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrqr8BgHH4L
Like some inner voice whispering, “Just accept it. The way you accept getting out of bed.”
Same music.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkw28MfSNJn
Same bagels.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt3ffsPLdtK
Same newspaper.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2t8xzBcoCL
Same customers.
— She could predict exactly how many times Kyle would laugh today. Which line he'd say.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTDas3ZJ5es
"Happy Easter."14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWnKZXmavFK
Those two words were now a wad of chewed-up gum stuck in the corner of her brain.
She’d tried to change things.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPaNEOIAQQb
Recommended a different drink to a customer. The customer changed it.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkPaJ0PmqhT
But only because she told them to.
— That’s not change. That’s just her pulling the lever of a machine that can’t start on its own anymore.
She tried other things too.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpeEfCr1mVE
Didn’t bake the bagels. Didn’t water the plant. Didn’t put the newspaper on the counter.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn0fp0wgjpv
The city didn’t care. It moved around her like she didn’t matter.
Even her silence got overwritten.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgdFzelhR8I
Reality filled in the blanks like water seeping into cracks.
She wasn’t sure what was happening.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPhqYCX60GH
Maybe she was insane. Maybe she was dreaming in a hospital bed somewhere.
— Maybe one morning, she’d open her eyes and a nurse would be there saying,14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVYsvxHrecM
"Claire, you’re finally awake."
But she didn’t dare hope.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG6fN8r9QV0
Even that scenario started to feel like a recycled TV script.
What if this was a dream?
— But dreams weren’t this long.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtHtHJ1LP82
They didn’t have heat, pain, taste.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEudr56iM9N
If this was a dream, it was taking its job way too seriously.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFBQ3FD6vD6
If fate was this committed, maybe she’d finally take it seriously too.
It’s not a movie.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSQXoUVRyQu
This isn’t Groundhog Day.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgkqgJ3dj2s
Claire didn’t have some deep trauma to work through.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnDEyGfMGIK
She wasn’t a killer. She hadn’t told that many lies.
— She wasn’t on some cosmic redemption arc.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyNV7Bz5XBI
She ran a café. That’s it.
A woman with occasional insomnia, a short temper, and a decent track record of paying bills on time.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXwr0VaeDIO
Why her?
Calm down, Claire.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeGW6hGaWnn
There has to be a reason. There has to be a way out.
She breathed in slowly.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNDoqVngqd0
Her stomach felt tight, like it was inflating with air that wouldn’t go anywhere.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvGL1l7pc7v
Her thoughts came soft but firm.
Observe, Claire. Start observing everything.
— You can’t wait for it to fall apart. You have to watch it. Track it.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDAyxfBxP9L
Peel away every wrong piece until the truth shows.
If the world’s gone mad, then fine.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF2hwCF2zk6
She’d be the one sane person left.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0YQBPStt60
She opened the café anyway. Out of what—loyalty? Instinct?14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWgj7my12HV
— She was starting to suspect she didn’t even have the guts to rebel properly.
Day five, and she still got up after the alarm.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtp1BC0uQWy
Brushed her teeth. Got dressed.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRMBmt666lb
Like a goddamn coin-operated coffee machine—insert a few units of routine and she’d start moving.
She hated the habit.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt17GNXXREG
— Or maybe... she was just scared of what would happen if she stopped.
She’d spent too long thinking in bed.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6S1KQr9JrO
No time to prep the bagels.
— She should’ve gone down. Should’ve opened the oven. Should’ve kneaded the dough that had already been worked over five times.
But today she stalled.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ66qZ2wpcGg
That was still her choice—one of the few she had left.
She planned to bake after the morning rush.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8WsWmYJUbJ
Same dough. Same recipe.
— That lump of dough sat in the fridge like it was waiting to die.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeVPu5zPh5C
Every day she pulled it out, crushed it, shaped it, threw it back in.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB4qyx19kmC
Sometimes she wondered if it had a memory too.
Maybe…14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0oRaClqwkn
Maybe it was the only thing in this loop that had a future.
Kyle asked about the bagels.
She told him they’d be ready after ten.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVzcJrcGAk2
No smile. Just steady observation.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfAk5sL0oUr
Waiting—watching—for even the tiniest flicker of surprise.
There wasn’t any.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMnjum6jWW6
He just nodded and left.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ24f5TSMQuZ
Said "Happy Easter" again.
— Word for word. Beat for beat.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi7x9HqfktN
Like an actor stuck inside a film reel.
Claire gripped the dish towel in her hand.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdZTX1T3SzQ
She knew exactly which officer would walk in next, exactly what drink they'd order, exactly what they'd say.
She wanted to write it all down.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡelgmqJdEFy
But then she remembered—tomorrow, it would all vanish.
She started to write:14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeysWLlrGTS
“Kyle didn’t buy a bagel today.”
But the moment her pen touched the page, the futility of it washed up her arm like a tide of static.
So what?14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7D0278ugva
Tomorrow the pen would be back in the drawer.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDQnVYyYXfY
The paper clean.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOcVfQOEQK3
Nothing written.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZIMoaMWw4r
Nothing left behind.
Her thoughts peeled away like dried pulp.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ17099R09WG
Layer by layer.
Claire felt something slipping.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaISJ3abmre
— Not the world.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIIPMoBGUQB
Her.
She’d tried so hard to be the observer.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKeKpYgHtfe
To stay rational. Stay grounded.
But now?
Now she was starting to get scared of mirrors.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYiAXvRSsNQ
Afraid of the reflection.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIhoP8ZIn0c
Afraid she’d see someone who’d gotten used to all of this.
Someone who belonged to it.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhqUSyYM9zW
