Again

Loop 2 · Recompile · Waseca, MN
Back at 6:47 AM, the anonymous protagonist sits unnaturally still beside a wall scarred by hundreds of overlapping tally marks.
Scene art · presentation layer · the authored path remains unchanged

You know before you open your eyes.

The alarm. The ceiling. The crack. The water stain.

6:47 AM. Tuesday. October 14th.

But this time, your body remembers. The truck. The sky. The mirror that smiled. The parking lot that emptied. The voice on the radio that sounded like you.

Your hands aren't shaking anymore. They're still. Unnaturally still, like they've decided that panic is a waste of processing power.

The coffee maker is running. The apartment smells like yesterday.

Because it is yesterday. It's always yesterday.

You sit on the edge of the bed. Your feet touch the cold floor.

But this time, you notice something you missed before: there's a tally mark on the wall beside your bed. Scratched into the paint with a fingernail, small enough to miss if you weren't looking.

One mark.

Except — you look closer — it's not one mark. It's hundreds. Tiny, overlapping, scratched and re-scratched so many times they've worn a groove into the plaster. Someone has been counting.

Someone has been here before.

You.

Search the apartment. What else have you left yourself?Go straight to the mirror. Test the crack.Call the unknown number before it texts you.