The first time it happened, Mara thought it was déjà vu.
She was standing in the old bookstore, fingers tracing the worn spines of books she swore she had never read but somehow knew. Her hands hesitated over one—The Silent Echo. The title sent a chill down her spine.
She pulled it from the shelf, heart pounding, and flipped to a random page. The words hit her like a whispered secret:
"Find the key before it resets again."
The ink bled across the paper, letters shifting into something else. A memory.
She was in a grand study, the scent of parchment and candle wax thick in the air. A man stood before her, his face shrouded in shadow. He pressed something cold into her palm—a brass key.
"You must remember this time, Mara. Before it's too late."
The memory shattered, and the bookstore came rushing back. Mara stumbled, gasping.
This wasn’t déjà vu. This was something more.
---
The second time, it happened in a dream.
She stood on a cobblestone street under a blood-red sky. Around her, the city burned. People screamed. And there, in the distance, the man from the study.
"Mara!" His voice was desperate. "The cycle is breaking. You have to—"
A sword pierced his chest. Blood bloomed across his shirt. He reached for her, but before she could move, everything dissolved into darkness.
She woke up with a scream, her hands clutching at nothing. But this time, something was different.
She knew where to go.
---
The third time, she found the key.
It was hidden inside a locket at an antique shop—one she’d never visited before but somehow knew existed.
As soon as she touched it, everything came flooding back.
A thousand lives. A thousand deaths. Over and over, trapped in an endless cycle. Always searching for the truth. Always forgetting before she could find it.
But not this time.
This time, she remembered.
And she wasn’t going to let it happen again.
