I woke up.
Again.
Same cold morning light filtering through the blinds. Same ringtone buzzing from my phone. Same notification: “Happy Engagement Day, Rhea!” The irony burned like acid in my throat.
I knew what would come next.
I’d go downstairs. My fiancé, Caleb, would greet me with that perfect smile and a kiss that didn’t taste like guilt.
Then at 4:00 p.m., I’d follow a gut feeling to the hotel—Room 803—and see him fucking another woman.
And later, when I stumbled into the alley behind the café—lost, heartbroken, shattered—I’d be stabbed.
Cold hands.
Sharp knife.
No face.
Always the same.
Then blackness.
Then I’d wake up.
Again.
The first few loops, I screamed. I cried. I begged Caleb to tell me the truth. But his lie was polished. Practiced. Worse—he looked like he loved me.
And still, by nightfall, I died.
The fifteenth loop, I tried locking myself inside the house. Barricaded the doors. Hid under the table.
Didn’t work.
They found me anyway.
The twentieth loop, I followed Caleb’s mistress. I learned her name—Vivian—and that she wasn’t just a fling. She was a long-term lover. The one he wanted to marry before me. The one he still wanted. He only chose me because I was convenient.
Political.
Polished.
Useful.
And still, I died.
Thirty-five times.
Each time, the pain felt new. The betrayal, fresh. The blade? It carved through my chest like it had never done it before.
One time, I tried confessing to the police. Told them everything, down to the minute.
They thought I was insane.
Didn’t stop the murder.
Didn’t stop the heartbreak.
By the fiftieth loop, I stopped crying. The pain didn’t go away—but it dulled. Turned into something colder. Sharper.
I watched everyone more carefully. Took notes. Every detail of the alley. Every passerby. Every phone call Caleb made when he thought I wasn't looking.
It wasn’t just a cheating scandal.
It was a setup.
A trap.
Someone wanted me gone.
Vivian?
Caleb?
Or someone else entirely?
But each day ended the same:
A knife.
A scream.
Darkness.
And morning came again.
I stared at my reflection once, loop seventy-one. My eyes were different now. No longer warm.
Just tired. Hollow.
"Why me?" I whispered to the mirror.
“Why this day?”
But the reflection didn’t answer.
I didn’t know how to break the loop. I didn’t know who I could trust.
All I knew… was I wouldn’t die again without fighting back.
Even if it meant seeing Caleb’s betrayal a thousand more times. Even if it meant bleeding again and again.
I’d keep waking up.
And one day, I’d end it.
For good.
But again, I was trapped in the never-ending loop.
