Time Looped

Arriving at the classroom, Will instinctively jumped to the side upon opening the door. Everyone in the corridor gave him a weird look before returning to their trivialities of the day. At the far end of the hallway, the coach was visible, having an argument with someone about something.

Taking a deep breath, the boy walked through the doorway. Part of him expected to be greeted by a flying desk or two. Instead, he found Helen standing by the only open window, arms crossed.

“Close the door,” she said in a dry tone.

When Will did, the girl grabbed a desk, then effortlessly walked to the door and lodged it against the handle.

“Saves time,” she explained. “You didn’t think I’d kill you, right?”

“You might have tried,” he replied, causing Helen’s eyes to harrow in a frown.

“How long have you been looped?”

“Thirty—”

“Newbie,” she sighed, interrupting him.

Will wasn’t sure whether it only felt insulting or it was meant to be. If he were in her place, he would have probably done the same, though. There was nothing worse than going through the basics with someone who had absolutely no idea about something. Will himself went through that each time one of his home devices had a software update. When that happened, his parents would always somehow manage to find the time to go and pester him to “fix it.” Even worse, they’d insist on following the process as if they had any idea what was going on.

“What about you?” he asked in an attempt to be nice.

“No idea. That’s the first thing you stop paying attention to. I kept track to a hundred when I saw that there was no point. Nothing changes in the loops unless we make it happen.”

Over a hundred loops, Will thought. Right now, that seemed like so much. There was a time when he thought that ten was plenty.

The handle of the door moved down. Someone was trying to enter from outside, but the desk lodged into it prevented them from pulling it open.

“Is anyone in there?” someone asked.

“Ignore them.” Helen didn’t bat an eye. “They won’t make it till the end of the standard loop.”

“Cool.” Will nodded with a smile.

The reaction was the first thing that made the girl visibly calm down. Looking at her, it was as if a layer of ice fell off her face, allowing the expression to change somewhat.

“Sometimes it is.” Her tone was less accusatory than before. “How did you get trapped?”

“I decided to be cool in the bathroom,” he replied. “Thought I’d bop my reflection. When I touched the mirror, it shattered and unshattered, then formed the words ‘Welcome to eternity’.” He paused. “Is this really eternity?”

“No one knows. Did you manage to extend your loops?”

“Once. When I knocked Jace out, I got five minutes more.”

“I remember that. Two things. As you’ve guessed by the frequent visits to the nurse’s office, we start off very fragile. That’s tricky for combat classes, since winning fights are one of the ways to increase time.”

“Combat classes?” The boy tilted his head to the right.

“Right, I forgot you don’t know that. There is a set number of mirrors containing classes. Daniel calls them…” she abruptly stopped. The faint air of joy completely evaporated as her expression frosted over once more. “Daniel called them golden mirrors because the messages on them are in yellow letters. Once you touch one of them, you take the class and all its abilities.”

The door handle moved again. Persistent knocking followed, along with raised voices.

“As far as we’re aware, there are four golden mirrors at school. One in each first-floor bathroom, and one—”

“In the nurse’s office.” Will finished for her. “I saw it written on Daniel’s desk. How many classes are there? In total.”

“No one knows. Daniel was convinced that there were twenty-four, but he never told me how he got that number. He was the explorer type. It came with the class.”

“It does?”

“Haven’t you noticed how different you are when you’re a rogue? It drives you to things that you normally wouldn’t. It doesn’t force you, but you feel… sort of different inside.”

That explained a few things. Will was definitely feeling more adventurous and standoffish after completing his mirror sequence. Never shy or introverted by nature, he’d thought that was due to the lack of consequences. Apparently, classes provided a new outlook in addition to the abilities it granted.

“I’m the knight,” Helen continued. “I break and guard things.”

I’ve noticed, Will thought as he smiled. It was a quick way to extend the time of her loops, if she didn’t have to worry about consequences.

“How did you get the knight? I tried getting to the girl’s bathroom, but always failed.”

“I know. I start my loops there. Also, I’m the one who tells coach on you.” She looked away for a moment. “Sorry.”

“You?” That explained why the coach was always mad at him. Will thought that the large man normally behaved that way. “Why?”

“It’s one way to extend my loop. Also… I thought you had killed Daniel.”

“Just because I joined the loop?”

“No one joins the loop with someone else’s class. When I saw you were the rogue, I… it doesn’t matter.”

The knocking on the door turned to slamming. Will could hear the unmistakable voice of the coach, along with several more adults. They were putting a lot of effort into breaking their way in. Looking at the violence with which the door shook, one would think they’d break at any moment now. There wasn’t an ounce of concern on Helen’s face.

“Let’s go to the back of the room.” She moved away from the door. “It’s less noisy there.”

That much was true, although the stench of chemicals was a lot more pronounced.

“You’re really calm about this,” Will said. “I was a bit stressed out by the first few loops.”

“Everyone is.”

“Did any of you find out why this happened? Or why?”

“No. That’s what we were trying to find out. Daniel was convinced that the loop was a game we had to escape. The last few days, he kept on saying that this was all a competition. The winner ends the loop and gains a prize. As for everyone else, they either get thrown back to the start of the loop with no memories, or remain stuck here until they find their own way out. That’s what we were doing the day before he died.”

“Sorry. It sounds like you two were close.”

“Thanks.”

As a boy, he wanted to console her. As a rogue he felt it wouldn’t be a good move to be this direct. Slow and easy wins the race and by the sound of it they were going to spend an eternity together, anyway. There’d be a lot of time to get to know each other.

“The only thing for certain is that we aren’t the only ones.”

Will’s ears perked up.

“There are other looped? Who?”

“No idea. The rule is that everyone is close to the mirror that gave them their initial class. There are at least four golden mirrors at school, which means at least four people. I’ve also seen a few more from a distance, but that’s it.”

“Maybe we can try to get them to meet us? I’ll—”

“Write graffiti all over the school?” Helen asked.

Will was thinking of putting notes on the school’s bulletin board, but spray painting was another viable method.

“It’s one of the first things we tried. It didn’t work. Or rather, it worked badly.” Her voice acquired an icy edge. “Daniel thought that if we make enough noise, it’ll go viral. Sadly, he was right. A few hours after we did it, it was everywhere online. Even the mainstream media sent teams here to ask questions. That’s when archer started chasing us.”

“Archer?”

“Another class. I’ve only seen them from a distance. They spent a few dozen loops shooting at us with arrows, then suddenly stopped.”

That sounded outright horrifying. Will thought he remembered something written on the desk about an archer. It was accompanied by a lot of numbers, so he didn’t think much of it, focusing on more understandable messages.

Thinking about it, that posed an interesting question. Actually, more than one. The way Helen talked, one got the impression that she and Daniel had stretched their loops to last days. While technically possible to achieve through fighting, it would have required them beating up the entire school. Could that have happened during one of their past loops, and if so, was he one of the victims?

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He glanced at Daniel’s desk. “What’s with the wolves, by the way?”

“The wolves are monsters. They attack you when you go too far. You’re not ready for them yet.”

On the outside, Will nodded. The rogue within him, though, disagreed. There was some almost primal desire to find and hunt them down. From what was written on the desk, they could be found in the corners, so that was one more thing to check after his morning sequence.

The desk propped against the classroom door shook violently. A little more and it wouldn’t be able to stop the crowd outside from entering. That wasn’t a big deal, since there was less than a minute till the end of the loop.

“How do you leave messages?” the boy asked.

“You can’t. That’s the whole thing about time loops. Nothing but memories are left behind.”

“What about that?” he pointed at the desk. “Daniel found a way.”

“Daniel died,” Helen said with the same sharpness as during the time she’d killed Will. “All that he did during his last loop was left behind.”

Oh.

“The only way to leave something permanent behind is to die permanently.”

Or to win and escape the loop, the boy thought. Daniel believed it, so there was every chance it was true. Either way, it would require a lot more talks and explanations.

“We’ll find out what happened to him,” he said.

“One loop we were checking the subway’s mirrors. When I started my next, he was already gone.”

Console her, Will told himself.

Despite all reservations, the moment felt too good to miss. How could it be otherwise? Helen had spent goodness knows how many loops with Daniel before he died, and no one even suspected. Anyone would need a shoulder to cry on even if for a few minutes, and right now Will was it.

Just as he opened his mouth, the loop ended.

Restarting eternity.

The boy was left staring at the school entrance. There were a few moments of regret, as if he’d lost a chance that might never again occur. A quick insult from the usual pair of annoying girls quickly brought his mood back to normal. With infinite loops, he had an infinite chance at pretty much anything. Everything Helen had told him was only the surface. More questions were inevitable the further he explored, and he intended to do that right now.

Rushing into the building before Alex could appear, Will went through the usual mirror sequence. Back in the hall, he noticed the first big difference—the coach was nowhere to be seen.

Thanks, Helen, he thought, moving onwards. The boy walked past the girl’s bathroom, then continued on, passing by the classroom instead. His goal this loop was the nurse’s office. Maybe it was slightly egoistical, but he wanted to see what the class there was and with Helen still in class, he was going to find out.

“There's no chance they get to the regionals,” someone said in the corridor. “Their game is shit, plus two of the guys are out sick.”

“That why coach been coming early?”

Will inadvertently slowed his pace. This had little to do with his current goal, but any information about the coach and the football team was valuable. There had always been rumors that the school team had more than its share of problems. With three losses in a row, the standard rumors of a cursed team had been floating about. Will found them bogus, of course. The Enigma Riddles had won five games in a row before that, still putting them well ahead of most schools in the area.

The problems did explain why Jace and his group were so irritable. Thinking about it, the same could be said about the coach.

Making a note to listen more in some future loop, the boy continued to the nurse’s office and knocked on the door.

“Come in,” the nurse said from inside, as expected.

Not wasting a moment, he did so.

“Yes?” The woman looked at Will, trying to remember who he was. With a school this size, she only remembered the regulars: jocks, people with health issues, and all that was “unfortunately clumsy.” It was a well-known secret that referred to all the victims of bullying, despite all the school’s many attempts to root it out.

“I’m not feeling that well,” the boy said.

The nurse gave him a doubtful smile. She had seen her share of sickness attempts and could smell bullshit from a mile away. However, even so, school regulations required that she always checked the condition of any student going to her office.

“Of course.” She stopped the music on her phone and stood up. “Go in and take a seat. I’ll be with you in a moment.”

That was too perfect. Will had expected questions. Not only were they absent, but he’d been given some time alone in the patient section as well.

Walking in, he went straight for the mirror in the corner and tapped it.

The class has already been found by someone else. Next time, try sooner.

Huh? Will blinked

This couldn’t be right. It was impossible for Helen to have gone all the way here, not in such a short amount of time.

“And what exactly are you doing?” the nurse asked from behind.