Bobby didn’t sleep that night.
He lay wide-eyed in bed, the blanket tight around him, the final message from Future Bob repeating like a siren in his skull.
“It begins tomorrow.”
Every hour, he checked the time.
Every creak in the house made him flinch.
Every shadow that passed under his door stretched too long.
But morning came like it always did.
---
The sun shone through the blinds. Birds chirped as if time hadn’t been threatened the night before. Bobby rose from bed, moving like a ghost.
He got dressed. Ate something without tasting it. Walked to the door.
BF-85 was already there, waiting like a sentinel.
Nothing felt different.
And that made everything worse.
---
School passed in a blur of white noise.
He didn’t hear the teachers. Didn’t notice who sat beside him in cla
