Day 5.
The alarm rang.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS1qYS4a2IT
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.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1KwOCJyMZx
She sat up.
— It wasn’t even the kind of tune that grows on you.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiytM5CHuKm
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.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjk1VUDCUgh
She was reliving the same day.
— Not maybe. Not possibly.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiGxFDlEsZ7
Definitely.
The tearing feeling that came with realizing the world was broken—yeah, that was gone.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4TKwB3qaOA
Now it was just...calm. Eerily calm.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwg849W3OFG
Like some inner voice whispering, “Just accept it. The way you accept getting out of bed.”
Same music.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCIQC3ioo4G
Same bagels.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTvIViyozMq
Same newspaper.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrkXOjRj2oo
Same customers.
— She could predict exactly how many times Kyle would laugh today. Which line he'd say.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8bRFZhnmDc
"Happy Easter."78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRMjW5sLC5C
Those two words were now a wad of chewed-up gum stuck in the corner of her brain.
She’d tried to change things.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5cE0cWMXPr
Recommended a different drink to a customer. The customer changed it.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6qDKWoG6gW
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.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhKdGb4ayxu
Didn’t bake the bagels. Didn’t water the plant. Didn’t put the newspaper on the counter.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8UHNjb0Ah6
The city didn’t care. It moved around her like she didn’t matter.
Even her silence got overwritten.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1Fpbbrp4gl
Reality filled in the blanks like water seeping into cracks.
She wasn’t sure what was happening.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKeqvmdcrNr
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,78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkJ8bwpK3q1
"Claire, you’re finally awake."
But she didn’t dare hope.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjVH0l29EX2
Even that scenario started to feel like a recycled TV script.
What if this was a dream?
— But dreams weren’t this long.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSeaAVBOXqx
They didn’t have heat, pain, taste.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7TSa4p9yjj
If this was a dream, it was taking its job way too seriously.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbiT7arLps4
If fate was this committed, maybe she’d finally take it seriously too.
It’s not a movie.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwvuWi710Jk
This isn’t Groundhog Day.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEAIJHFA2lT
Claire didn’t have some deep trauma to work through.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYUSPBhKruz
She wasn’t a killer. She hadn’t told that many lies.
— She wasn’t on some cosmic redemption arc.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgvF9lnolk4
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.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIziTSMpmRm
Why her?
Calm down, Claire.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsF5RWizobQ
There has to be a reason. There has to be a way out.
She breathed in slowly.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuSHl5zQUU6
Her stomach felt tight, like it was inflating with air that wouldn’t go anywhere.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtkyBr66ZQq
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.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdYur25MQd1
Peel away every wrong piece until the truth shows.
If the world’s gone mad, then fine.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrXm6S3NEDi
She’d be the one sane person left.
78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8MbbOHXmYY
She opened the café anyway. Out of what—loyalty? Instinct?78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc1pUkIO2HM
— 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.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnGLd7YDwU0
Brushed her teeth. Got dressed.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZnOqgzxQym
Like a goddamn coin-operated coffee machine—insert a few units of routine and she’d start moving.
She hated the habit.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp3i41PA8qC
— Or maybe... she was just scared of what would happen if she stopped.
She’d spent too long thinking in bed.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa2LsrAsUQE
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.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzvEMucXM9H
That was still her choice—one of the few she had left.
She planned to bake after the morning rush.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjdHuHMf27y
Same dough. Same recipe.
— That lump of dough sat in the fridge like it was waiting to die.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtqrG7wHtnq
Every day she pulled it out, crushed it, shaped it, threw it back in.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfHd5ppUpum
Sometimes she wondered if it had a memory too.
Maybe…78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu3vO24LoiU
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.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBFjzJKAPbb
No smile. Just steady observation.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEup3mbmjlO
Waiting—watching—for even the tiniest flicker of surprise.
There wasn’t any.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡduPbIAyzC8
He just nodded and left.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6kg9Tj6Jm9
Said "Happy Easter" again.
— Word for word. Beat for beat.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVC4Bd5ITlV
Like an actor stuck inside a film reel.
Claire gripped the dish towel in her hand.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYM3YId50nM
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.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbOiNtV451S
But then she remembered—tomorrow, it would all vanish.
She started to write:78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ56xvP94nUN
“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?78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPCIU8ZtVPs
Tomorrow the pen would be back in the drawer.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlSvO5u0MCr
The paper clean.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKOhXVxmxwi
Nothing written.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5g3rGc6DsE
Nothing left behind.
Her thoughts peeled away like dried pulp.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsdSUkHKGFl
Layer by layer.
Claire felt something slipping.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2kn0MgLqSr
— Not the world.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡytplnkC8DI
Her.
She’d tried so hard to be the observer.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg5E79Z3t49
To stay rational. Stay grounded.
But now?
Now she was starting to get scared of mirrors.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzoTL3rZXWG
Afraid of the reflection.78Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOBMfFG7ChC
Afraid she’d see someone who’d gotten used to all of this.
Someone who belonged to it.
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and then Add to home screen.