Day 5.
The alarm rang.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTyc5cf2QGd
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.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnPXBCWA5id
She sat up.
— It wasn’t even the kind of tune that grows on you.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYj7iETJtln
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.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvyqdQJcTNg
She was reliving the same day.
— Not maybe. Not possibly.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmg0W7Y94wS
Definitely.
The tearing feeling that came with realizing the world was broken—yeah, that was gone.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRPNiHZMvQW
Now it was just...calm. Eerily calm.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡROVicVAItP
Like some inner voice whispering, “Just accept it. The way you accept getting out of bed.”
Same music.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjNk3TY5kue
Same bagels.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqWEi3Rh3YO
Same newspaper.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcPnE40KXss
Same customers.
— She could predict exactly how many times Kyle would laugh today. Which line he'd say.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWnd9BXO1sU
"Happy Easter."100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmLpBf6cwma
Those two words were now a wad of chewed-up gum stuck in the corner of her brain.
She’d tried to change things.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0PaqGxY1i9
Recommended a different drink to a customer. The customer changed it.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡam6JjpmgVl
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.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL5L9qiSyhK
Didn’t bake the bagels. Didn’t water the plant. Didn’t put the newspaper on the counter.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx8SfhUBOZ7
The city didn’t care. It moved around her like she didn’t matter.
Even her silence got overwritten.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmA83VADDKL
Reality filled in the blanks like water seeping into cracks.
She wasn’t sure what was happening.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVL4O68KLwC
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,100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm5lZ30u5bS
"Claire, you’re finally awake."
But she didn’t dare hope.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwwuaJPm5mH
Even that scenario started to feel like a recycled TV script.
What if this was a dream?
— But dreams weren’t this long.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcvsFB36PRq
They didn’t have heat, pain, taste.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHmyAFytu4H
If this was a dream, it was taking its job way too seriously.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvhldtsyqya
If fate was this committed, maybe she’d finally take it seriously too.
It’s not a movie.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzEpbqe0aV2
This isn’t Groundhog Day.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEgLXbUviit
Claire didn’t have some deep trauma to work through.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Co6SLiDzg
She wasn’t a killer. She hadn’t told that many lies.
— She wasn’t on some cosmic redemption arc.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwMPmjTnZZe
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.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdLQ2d8htkO
Why her?
Calm down, Claire.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡESN71f6zcf
There has to be a reason. There has to be a way out.
She breathed in slowly.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSsl1Aie9VB
Her stomach felt tight, like it was inflating with air that wouldn’t go anywhere.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsQ5TzxbGKd
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.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxGFrD8BhFN
Peel away every wrong piece until the truth shows.
If the world’s gone mad, then fine.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeQ6WTgdq6u
She’d be the one sane person left.
100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7aVbjeDkFs
She opened the café anyway. Out of what—loyalty? Instinct?100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡytauMCfDOn
— 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.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeu50vS83JO
Brushed her teeth. Got dressed.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3YY2bB3nr7
Like a goddamn coin-operated coffee machine—insert a few units of routine and she’d start moving.
She hated the habit.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl186wiwHtv
— Or maybe... she was just scared of what would happen if she stopped.
She’d spent too long thinking in bed.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcXuvk50P32
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.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoOzoLZ3Bl0
That was still her choice—one of the few she had left.
She planned to bake after the morning rush.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ88RM5DKMl8
Same dough. Same recipe.
— That lump of dough sat in the fridge like it was waiting to die.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEXfgxTp216
Every day she pulled it out, crushed it, shaped it, threw it back in.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrS9EbtrWQW
Sometimes she wondered if it had a memory too.
Maybe…100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLJdgWdEq7n
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.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfkQ8drYxAK
No smile. Just steady observation.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5c2zDMP53b
Waiting—watching—for even the tiniest flicker of surprise.
There wasn’t any.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1aMdoDWQWA
He just nodded and left.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7WKjaKoSyg
Said "Happy Easter" again.
— Word for word. Beat for beat.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOtFA4k9q8R
Like an actor stuck inside a film reel.
Claire gripped the dish towel in her hand.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvMYMlfw7rd
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.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsnlPrWqphF
But then she remembered—tomorrow, it would all vanish.
She started to write:100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkm71ZFP5iX
“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?100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEKSBM37Yua
Tomorrow the pen would be back in the drawer.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYiOgCBdiE4
The paper clean.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlLevaKWi6z
Nothing written.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdpOIY4TxIl
Nothing left behind.
Her thoughts peeled away like dried pulp.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyuZxNYITdI
Layer by layer.
Claire felt something slipping.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDPXxIyR8Zw
— Not the world.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZXe0sPDOCB
Her.
She’d tried so hard to be the observer.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1x8BVyguoY
To stay rational. Stay grounded.
But now?
Now she was starting to get scared of mirrors.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbi2TO8rS3L
Afraid of the reflection.100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJJJn8O31Tw
Afraid she’d see someone who’d gotten used to all of this.
Someone who belonged to it.
100Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa3uvOMrG8k
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