Chapter 4: Breaking the Pattern

I didn’t go to class.

For the first time since the loop began, I skipped every rule, every hallway routine, every "expected" move. No schedules. No structure.

If Kael was right — if I’d already died before — then maybe it was time I started living like nothing was off-limits.

At first, it felt strange. The academy was built on order. Every student wore a uniform, followed a strict path from one period to the next. The halls always buzzed with the same voices, the same footsteps, like a song stuck on repeat.

But today, I walked in the opposite direction.

Straight to the North Wing — the restricted section.

The double doors stood tall, sealed with a rusted iron lock that clearly hadn’t been used in years. A warning sign hung crooked on the wall beside it:

“KEEP OUT — AUTHORIZED STAFF ONLY”

I took out a bobby pin from my hair.

Click.

Click.

It opened too easily.

Inside, the air was cold and dry. Shelves of old records lined the walls. Dust floated in the light like ghosts. Thick books with no titles. Broken clocks. Strange machines powered by gears and crystals.

This wasn’t a storage room. It was something else.

Something hidden.

I stepped deeper inside, hand brushing across the old files. One of them was labeled: “Temporal Cases – Subject #17”

I froze.

Seventeen. My age. My birthday. The watch started working that day.

My fingers trembled as I opened the file. Inside was a photo — a girl standing by a broken fountain. Long hair. Midnight robe. Eyes wide in fear.

It was me.

But the date on the file… was from six years ago.

My throat tightened. I wasn’t just trapped in time — I’d been part of this experiment before. Maybe I was the reason for the loop. Or worse… maybe I’d agreed to it once.

“Lyra…”

I spun around.

Kael stood at the doorway, chest rising fast like he’d been running.

“How did you find me?” I asked, backing away.

“You weren’t supposed to come here yet.”

“Why?” I snapped. “What don’t you want me to see?”

He looked at the file in my hands, jaw tightening. “That’s not the full truth. You’re only seeing what they want you to find.”

“Then give me the real truth.”

Kael stepped forward. “You think this is just some time loop, some curse? No. Crimson Academy is the loop. Everything inside it. The classes. The rules. The silence. You and I — we’re the only ones awake.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying this world isn’t real. Not fully.”

I stared at him, heart pounding. “Then what is real?”

Kael walked past me to the far wall. He placed his hand on a faded emblem — the same symbol that’s on my watch — and whispered something I couldn’t hear.

The wall glowed. And slowly… it began to open.

Behind it was a staircase.

Not going up.

But down.

Dark. Endless. Waiting.

“Time wants you to forget,” Kael said. “But you’re getting closer, Lyra. Ready to remember what’s down there?”

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