Versions of us

Loop Echoes

The morning didn’t start with light. It started with static.Cassiel blinked up at the ceiling, chest tight, the weight of an unfamiliar panic sitting just behind his ribs. Something was wrong. Not wrong like a fire alarm or a missing limb,wrong like a misstep in gravity, like déjà vu taken to the edge of nausea.He sat up.The dorm was exactly the same: Arlen’s side tidy and painfully bare, the wall clock ticking normally, the window still cracked open like someone had forgotten the concept of warmth.Except—The clock. It wasn’t ticking. It was humming. Low. Like a computer fan. Like a broken speaker.Cassiel moved toward it, slowly, instinctively. A shiver ran through his spine as he reached for the clock’s face, fingertips brushing cold plastic.And then the hum sharpened.

“Don’t trust anyone. Especially not the ones you love.”

The voice came from behind him. But also from inside him. No—from the clock.Cassiel jerked back. The sound cut off. The clock was still. Silent again.He stared at it, heart thudding. That had been his voice. Exactly his.A chill passed over his skin like someone had walked through him. Like he was being watched from just behind the veil of time.

Was this a dream?

No. This was Vireya. A place that felt like dreaming.He stumbled through the first classes of the day with the dazed feeling of someone whose blood hadn’t caught up with their skin. His fingers trembled when he touched metal. His eyes lingered too long on shadows.When Professor Nyres wrote something on the board, Cassiel saw double. Not in the usual way. It was like there were two boards,one behind the other. The back one flickered.

It read:

YOU ARE NOT WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE.

He blinked, and it was gone.He didn’t mention it to anyone. Not even Rhea, who somehow already knew things she wasn’t supposed to know.By breakfast, the memory had dulled but not vanished.The cafeteria smelled of sour coffee and overripe fruit. Rhea was already seated when he arrived, flipping through a black journal and pretending not to see him.Cassiel approached cautiously.

“You smell weird,” she said without looking up.

“Excuse me?”

“Like static. Loop residue.” She finally glanced at him. Her eyes were moss green today. Hadn’t they been amber before?

“What are you talking about?” Cassiel asked.

“Don’t worry. You’ll catch up.” Rhea scribbled something in her journal, then shut it with a crisp snap. “Have you met yourself yet?”

“…What?”

“I mean the other you. The one that keeps leaving breadcrumbs.”

He sat down. “You sound like you’re trying to freak me out.”

“I am trying to freak you out. You forget every time. Might as well skip ahead to the fun part.” Rhea leaned in, conspiratorial. “I know we’ve had this conversation before, Cassiel.”

He flinched at the sound of his name on her lips.

“Multiple times,” she added. “This one’s going a little differently, though. You’re... shyer. That’s new.”

Cassiel tried to laugh, but it caught in his throat. “So you're saying we’ve done this before. This exact conversation.”

“Not exact. You never sit this close. Usually, you stand up and accuse me of mind games.”

Cassiel looked down at his hands. “And what do I usually do after that?”

“You fall in love with someone. Or ruin them. Or both. Then the loop resets.”

“...What loop?”

She smiled, soft and a little sad. “You’ll see.”

In the library, everything smelled like pine and old printer ink.Cassiel sat in a corner between the philosophy shelves, a book open in his lap, his eyes glazed over as he read the same paragraph ten times. His skin still felt charged, like he’d brushed against something not entirely in this timeline.Footsteps padded softly nearby.A familiar presence.He looked up to find Elior peering down at him. Tall, tousled, and dressed like he’d stepped out of a dream,oversized sweater, rings on every other finger, eyes too intense for someone who smiled like that.

“Hey, ghost boy,” Elior said, voice gentle. “You okay?”

Cassiel nodded too quickly. “Just reading.”

“Upside down?”

Cassiel blinked. The book was upside down.

“Ah.” Elior crouched beside him. “You’re glitching.”

Cassiel laughed nervously. “I don’t know what that means.”

“You will.” Elior reached out and touched the spine of the book. “Come with me.”

“Where?”

“I want to show you something.”

Cassiel hesitated. Then nodded.Because when Elior looked at him like that, like they already knew each other, like there was a memory trapped behind his smile,Cassiel wanted to follow him anywhere.The place Elior took him was a forgotten stairwell near the north labs. A dead-end hallway of peeling paint and buzzing lights.But the moment they stepped inside, it changed.The walls shimmered. A pulse of something deep and humming passed through Cassiel’s chest.

“This isn’t real,” he whispered.

“It’s real enough,” Elior said. “It’s part of the Residual Field. Where old loops bleed through.”

Cassiel turned in a slow circle. The air here hummed.

“What is this place?”

“Think of it as a memory graveyard. Every version of Vireya leaves traces behind. Most people don’t notice. But sometimes, people like us…”

“People like us?”

Elior tilted his head, gaze unreadable. “People who remember forgetting.”

Cassiel stared at him. “What do you remember?”

“Bits. Fractures. I remember…you.”

Cassiel’s breath caught. “You remember me?”

Elior nodded, slowly. “Not clearly. But always the same feeling. That you mattered. That you were a turning point.”

Cassiel felt warmth and fear fight in his chest.

“You sound like Rhea.”

“She remembers too?”

“She says I ruin people.”

Elior chuckled softly. “She would.”

“Do I?”

Elior looked at him a long moment. Then he reached out and touched Cassiel’s hand. Lightly. Their fingers barely grazed.

“You haven't ruined me yet.”

That night, Cassiel stared at the dorm ceiling until his eyes blurred. Every sound became suspicious. Every memory felt thin.He thought of Elior’s hand. Rhea’s warning. The voice from the clock.Then Arlen entered.Cassiel pretended to sleep.But he could feel Arlen watching him. Just for a moment. Just long enough for the room to shift in temperature.And when Cassiel dared to open his eyes again—

The clock read 03:33.

The same time it had when he first arrived.

To be continued.