Day 5.
The alarm rang.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQPnaId1nqA
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.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqkOuNXrAa1
She sat up.
— It wasn’t even the kind of tune that grows on you.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfZc5ufs5D1
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.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHhR7khybv1
She was reliving the same day.
— Not maybe. Not possibly.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBVo8duQEC4
Definitely.
The tearing feeling that came with realizing the world was broken—yeah, that was gone.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmPHahFz7kI
Now it was just...calm. Eerily calm.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmnKL2WXwWu
Like some inner voice whispering, “Just accept it. The way you accept getting out of bed.”
Same music.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAF6aFIez30
Same bagels.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn8IecofaCa
Same newspaper.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTWtNxWzmHv
Same customers.
— She could predict exactly how many times Kyle would laugh today. Which line he'd say.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJtDr9NKoaW
"Happy Easter."71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXaFZHUFllC
Those two words were now a wad of chewed-up gum stuck in the corner of her brain.
She’d tried to change things.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxBa3Z14vjq
Recommended a different drink to a customer. The customer changed it.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOos5IoTOJh
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.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUw8MoirPCZ
Didn’t bake the bagels. Didn’t water the plant. Didn’t put the newspaper on the counter.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGz8cIrutKh
The city didn’t care. It moved around her like she didn’t matter.
Even her silence got overwritten.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPOTCJMC9yk
Reality filled in the blanks like water seeping into cracks.
She wasn’t sure what was happening.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCFxoatS9U5
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,71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbKndrqjrKL
"Claire, you’re finally awake."
But she didn’t dare hope.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPJMHb4psKz
Even that scenario started to feel like a recycled TV script.
What if this was a dream?
— But dreams weren’t this long.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGlynCR5QqJ
They didn’t have heat, pain, taste.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCBR0a7xG9r
If this was a dream, it was taking its job way too seriously.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNDtHvQj0yJ
If fate was this committed, maybe she’d finally take it seriously too.
It’s not a movie.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHbf1EnqqTK
This isn’t Groundhog Day.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt0gnhNFS3t
Claire didn’t have some deep trauma to work through.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8iRCxZzpn3
She wasn’t a killer. She hadn’t told that many lies.
— She wasn’t on some cosmic redemption arc.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Bq3oia5x7
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.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxJGquHSyIZ
Why her?
Calm down, Claire.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFOhl6wO3qM
There has to be a reason. There has to be a way out.
She breathed in slowly.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8moVvge0YW
Her stomach felt tight, like it was inflating with air that wouldn’t go anywhere.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡelAYtOT7nX
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.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAlxSZoXCa8
Peel away every wrong piece until the truth shows.
If the world’s gone mad, then fine.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWn7lDo8Gu1
She’d be the one sane person left.
71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrbXcPTWMgN
She opened the café anyway. Out of what—loyalty? Instinct?71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2w1UVwLcyL
— 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.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRSB32wQWAi
Brushed her teeth. Got dressed.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx05bpbw13o
Like a goddamn coin-operated coffee machine—insert a few units of routine and she’d start moving.
She hated the habit.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1wGRHUkizu
— Or maybe... she was just scared of what would happen if she stopped.
She’d spent too long thinking in bed.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8yN2gC5Ccx
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.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3QSx1nokPy
That was still her choice—one of the few she had left.
She planned to bake after the morning rush.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8rsQR94iJY
Same dough. Same recipe.
— That lump of dough sat in the fridge like it was waiting to die.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAg3okjuDZE
Every day she pulled it out, crushed it, shaped it, threw it back in.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzaJgSeDLUv
Sometimes she wondered if it had a memory too.
Maybe…71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHdHsXIFYAR
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.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDZ0wxo0xN5
No smile. Just steady observation.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfg5K42vXi1
Waiting—watching—for even the tiniest flicker of surprise.
There wasn’t any.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtQMldQ9jGx
He just nodded and left.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBU9SEdWvqT
Said "Happy Easter" again.
— Word for word. Beat for beat.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAzdmjYf6M4
Like an actor stuck inside a film reel.
Claire gripped the dish towel in her hand.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu84YsWtlsA
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.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmrHNUNGRGx
But then she remembered—tomorrow, it would all vanish.
She started to write:71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuqBV20gZPQ
“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?71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpJ7s3jGNSK
Tomorrow the pen would be back in the drawer.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ209CTOrSOb
The paper clean.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxlQsmKXHVC
Nothing written.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ72i98fgpY5
Nothing left behind.
Her thoughts peeled away like dried pulp.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDjbugtKnsM
Layer by layer.
Claire felt something slipping.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKpj32SJE4N
— Not the world.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQLYPPdCdb3
Her.
She’d tried so hard to be the observer.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcpRrbyhqMN
To stay rational. Stay grounded.
But now?
Now she was starting to get scared of mirrors.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTF2OkJNU9E
Afraid of the reflection.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR2N6zXgExt
Afraid she’d see someone who’d gotten used to all of this.
Someone who belonged to it.
71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ538mZQaIN
and then Add to home screen.