Day 5.
The alarm rang.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdKRvxKS3gi
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.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPKm6hqAWar
She sat up.
— It wasn’t even the kind of tune that grows on you.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu6MZ3Zu6mi
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.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgZ0m2zzHy8
She was reliving the same day.
— Not maybe. Not possibly.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG3C3UnYk26
Definitely.
The tearing feeling that came with realizing the world was broken—yeah, that was gone.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbPlovhWxxS
Now it was just...calm. Eerily calm.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOdJxvjIkLV
Like some inner voice whispering, “Just accept it. The way you accept getting out of bed.”
Same music.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwweKQw0fjd
Same bagels.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfWJxP7cJUX
Same newspaper.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlgDPwaHzGx
Same customers.
— She could predict exactly how many times Kyle would laugh today. Which line he'd say.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNkLqyXbrd6
"Happy Easter."34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjDkyPOlzaT
Those two words were now a wad of chewed-up gum stuck in the corner of her brain.
She’d tried to change things.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQHilPvYEva
Recommended a different drink to a customer. The customer changed it.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuUNanHsNQ9
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.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR2FjDyVJGc
Didn’t bake the bagels. Didn’t water the plant. Didn’t put the newspaper on the counter.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDip6ABEkZG
The city didn’t care. It moved around her like she didn’t matter.
Even her silence got overwritten.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6N2bnrKpRD
Reality filled in the blanks like water seeping into cracks.
She wasn’t sure what was happening.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAqQoTUaDIF
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,34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhY1kD5iiat
"Claire, you’re finally awake."
But she didn’t dare hope.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEPtaWF3AmM
Even that scenario started to feel like a recycled TV script.
What if this was a dream?
— But dreams weren’t this long.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡThYEG0ZVvW
They didn’t have heat, pain, taste.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8ZrSsWiI6b
If this was a dream, it was taking its job way too seriously.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ84YFP3p4L4
If fate was this committed, maybe she’d finally take it seriously too.
It’s not a movie.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ83fMg082E
This isn’t Groundhog Day.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL45O1kiDlu
Claire didn’t have some deep trauma to work through.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ61YzVvwngK
She wasn’t a killer. She hadn’t told that many lies.
— She wasn’t on some cosmic redemption arc.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmPGGxD96Ax
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.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgrfMtHPHxU
Why her?
Calm down, Claire.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ88I2Ttx78t
There has to be a reason. There has to be a way out.
She breathed in slowly.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIJVsqAlLLW
Her stomach felt tight, like it was inflating with air that wouldn’t go anywhere.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGr5FcPSD9T
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.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI36mtb31od
Peel away every wrong piece until the truth shows.
If the world’s gone mad, then fine.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2872lEBrTi
She’d be the one sane person left.
34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmOMu0QFPdT
She opened the café anyway. Out of what—loyalty? Instinct?34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHOOzNKktaq
— 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.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5fkiO4xwNN
Brushed her teeth. Got dressed.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMAoCB8WO7K
Like a goddamn coin-operated coffee machine—insert a few units of routine and she’d start moving.
She hated the habit.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9G98tH0KoU
— Or maybe... she was just scared of what would happen if she stopped.
She’d spent too long thinking in bed.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6LGqcMMDmI
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.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGUnp1Gwb4o
That was still her choice—one of the few she had left.
She planned to bake after the morning rush.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy5Lpg6Bud9
Same dough. Same recipe.
— That lump of dough sat in the fridge like it was waiting to die.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡblaEx17AAN
Every day she pulled it out, crushed it, shaped it, threw it back in.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ38rM6urOjL
Sometimes she wondered if it had a memory too.
Maybe…34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh78ufeqRyu
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.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIMjEL2SjXx
No smile. Just steady observation.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLheZFH13ee
Waiting—watching—for even the tiniest flicker of surprise.
There wasn’t any.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaOHodlw8yt
He just nodded and left.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDwZ4jPhKu5
Said "Happy Easter" again.
— Word for word. Beat for beat.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQOslFXN5XF
Like an actor stuck inside a film reel.
Claire gripped the dish towel in her hand.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUllc8hQf2r
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.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaZWwYVGfIc
But then she remembered—tomorrow, it would all vanish.
She started to write:34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwRRNUzuY4l
“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?34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvKw158nbAS
Tomorrow the pen would be back in the drawer.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoKfbtbx3sA
The paper clean.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYl7JxsQSHb
Nothing written.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhKT90gPRqD
Nothing left behind.
Her thoughts peeled away like dried pulp.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmgrBK7iUbN
Layer by layer.
Claire felt something slipping.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV029ylvxL9
— Not the world.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg8YnKuWeYH
Her.
She’d tried so hard to be the observer.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpkxhnIAEoG
To stay rational. Stay grounded.
But now?
Now she was starting to get scared of mirrors.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQkd46r6OQ6
Afraid of the reflection.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNndRFzcv6k
Afraid she’d see someone who’d gotten used to all of this.
Someone who belonged to it.
34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡynAJn7cAFd
and then Add to home screen.