Day 5.
The alarm rang.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1aJughqFer
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.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk3Iu5AXu6i
She sat up.
— It wasn’t even the kind of tune that grows on you.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK4nPoj1QMu
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.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXDnxemkR6V
She was reliving the same day.
— Not maybe. Not possibly.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKp0ouxWzgC
Definitely.
The tearing feeling that came with realizing the world was broken—yeah, that was gone.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLeLXLCWtRP
Now it was just...calm. Eerily calm.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk6CuiYp95n
Like some inner voice whispering, “Just accept it. The way you accept getting out of bed.”
Same music.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnxx4t7OTbA
Same bagels.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQsCxqNYWM3
Same newspaper.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡulAMdYKqdF
Same customers.
— She could predict exactly how many times Kyle would laugh today. Which line he'd say.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ38GU60Eh8h
"Happy Easter."10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHlZmGFOEJ9
Those two words were now a wad of chewed-up gum stuck in the corner of her brain.
She’d tried to change things.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡazn29rTN8Z
Recommended a different drink to a customer. The customer changed it.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWwqhXewq3j
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.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUWqnXA06S4
Didn’t bake the bagels. Didn’t water the plant. Didn’t put the newspaper on the counter.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyblB7wIhGM
The city didn’t care. It moved around her like she didn’t matter.
Even her silence got overwritten.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFDIz1wGMdt
Reality filled in the blanks like water seeping into cracks.
She wasn’t sure what was happening.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1hyHyE7UKp
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,10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6NB3t12RN8
"Claire, you’re finally awake."
But she didn’t dare hope.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP6XfgGF050
Even that scenario started to feel like a recycled TV script.
What if this was a dream?
— But dreams weren’t this long.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡspZ2lhOZgv
They didn’t have heat, pain, taste.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA3EgEPWbkp
If this was a dream, it was taking its job way too seriously.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuSx15O3H4F
If fate was this committed, maybe she’d finally take it seriously too.
It’s not a movie.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqdUMQ5JcSQ
This isn’t Groundhog Day.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE2tYVwxkJi
Claire didn’t have some deep trauma to work through.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8EDcVFGfoP
She wasn’t a killer. She hadn’t told that many lies.
— She wasn’t on some cosmic redemption arc.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp4bYPYdMPG
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.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm4NMVjMYU5
Why her?
Calm down, Claire.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9txQcTdu0E
There has to be a reason. There has to be a way out.
She breathed in slowly.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmk5UJBCA1L
Her stomach felt tight, like it was inflating with air that wouldn’t go anywhere.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Ct04gzRyo
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.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD3r7VtLGdN
Peel away every wrong piece until the truth shows.
If the world’s gone mad, then fine.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1MHNhlHK5v
She’d be the one sane person left.
10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBYUo74PGcM
She opened the café anyway. Out of what—loyalty? Instinct?10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡufy9PWJma8
— 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.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCVThklnFuY
Brushed her teeth. Got dressed.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbvALIyiPqN
Like a goddamn coin-operated coffee machine—insert a few units of routine and she’d start moving.
She hated the habit.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTzUvINGojl
— Or maybe... she was just scared of what would happen if she stopped.
She’d spent too long thinking in bed.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBaoqLkaGNR
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.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPrZ5rkh3a9
That was still her choice—one of the few she had left.
She planned to bake after the morning rush.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5YOtkpaOx7
Same dough. Same recipe.
— That lump of dough sat in the fridge like it was waiting to die.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmtqGEw8jnS
Every day she pulled it out, crushed it, shaped it, threw it back in.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa8UJENPBEd
Sometimes she wondered if it had a memory too.
Maybe…10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbLXyW8xyAM
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.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFVxRgrtJOH
No smile. Just steady observation.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIZon1D6H2a
Waiting—watching—for even the tiniest flicker of surprise.
There wasn’t any.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwK6Noxj5Ws
He just nodded and left.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW5TBJxEvUw
Said "Happy Easter" again.
— Word for word. Beat for beat.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCgkURrpJ6F
Like an actor stuck inside a film reel.
Claire gripped the dish towel in her hand.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUC7iiqa3eA
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.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw12VdIttrj
But then she remembered—tomorrow, it would all vanish.
She started to write:10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ35daTli9Jn
“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?10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOCPxj5hNxC
Tomorrow the pen would be back in the drawer.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrcTOdOCQST
The paper clean.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMWA2pFk1yz
Nothing written.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLX23tsGFSD
Nothing left behind.
Her thoughts peeled away like dried pulp.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAhw2tdbKMT
Layer by layer.
Claire felt something slipping.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHvSx4EVTan
— Not the world.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMORh17QCBq
Her.
She’d tried so hard to be the observer.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdQKKzgZy7y
To stay rational. Stay grounded.
But now?
Now she was starting to get scared of mirrors.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpbTIJBJ7cy
Afraid of the reflection.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWbZciNGPGc
Afraid she’d see someone who’d gotten used to all of this.
Someone who belonged to it.
10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7qAPhLQoEE
