Chapter 2: The Professor Who Never Existed
974 Words
The boy with the glowing palm was gone by morning.
Elira didn’t remember falling asleep. Or closing the door. Or what he said after he told her she’d signed her own death.
But her wrist still tingled where he’d grabbed her, and the words still echoed like cracked glass through her brain.
“We have 11 left.”
Outside, sunlight streamed in through the dusty blinds, painting thin bars of golden light across her desk. The city skyline flickered in the distance beyond the glass, shaped by the same buildings from eight years ago. The air smelled the same. Even the dull hum of a delivery drone overhead was identical.
Too identical.
Like someone had recreated this memory instead of rewinding it.
Was she dreaming? Dead? A copy?
The laptop was fried. Still lifeless, screen black and warm.
She grabbed her backpack and left the room without looking back.
---
The campus looked frozen in time.
Students strolled past with coffee cups, phones in hand, laughing. The same yellow leaves danced across the courtyard. A girl dropped her books at the same spot Elira remembered. It all played like a script.
Exactly the way it had happened before.
Except now, Elira was aware.
She moved through it like a ghost watching her own life unfold. She knew what would happen next. What classes were scheduled. Who would say hi. What time the drone would crash during the robotics class.
But this time, she was here with a mission.
She had to find Professor Kieran Vell, her AI mentor from the future — the man who recruited her to the classified LOOP CODE program in 2042.
If anyone knew what was going on… it would’ve been him.
---
She entered the data science wing, climbing to the third floor. The air was cold, thick with server heat and recycled oxygen. Room 304 — his old office.
She knocked.
Silence.
She pushed the door open. Inside was… nothing.
No computers. No personal items. No signs of occupancy.
The room was stripped down to whiteboards and dust.
She turned to a girl passing by. “Hey, do you know where Professor Vell is?”
The girl paused, confused. “Who?”
“Kieran Vell. AI development. Quantum coding.”
“There’s no one by that name here.”
Elira’s stomach sank. “He’s been teaching here for years. Since before 2039.”
“Never heard of him. Maybe you’ve got the wrong department?”
The girl walked away.
Elira stepped back into the hallway, her head buzzing.
This didn’t make sense. He had been here. He recruited her from this campus. She had his name, his research paper, even his...
She paused.
She opened her bag.
Her old sketchbook. In it, she remembered doodling his signature after he helped publish her paper. He’d autographed the back.
She flipped through the pages, faster, faster.
It wasn’t there.
Instead, on the last page was a message scrawled in faint red ink:
> "If you find him... they find you."
Her skin prickled. A chill rolled through her spine. She looked around. No one was watching. But it felt like something was. Something wrong.
She turned to walk away—
And the fire alarm exploded through the hall.
Blaring. Flashing. Glitching.
The lights turned crimson, and for a second—just one—the hallway flickered.
Like bad code.
The students froze. Then… continued like normal. As if nothing happened.
Except Elira.
She stood still.
Because in that half-second glitch, the world had changed.
The hallway posters were different now.
The professor names on the doors were different.
And Room 304?
It no longer existed.
---
She ran.
Down the stairs, across the lawn, her heart thudding in her ears. She needed air. She needed—
“ELIRA!”
She turned. A voice she hadn’t heard in years. A boy with messy auburn hair, a familiar hoodie. Jace.
Her ex.
Back when life was simple and heartbreak was her worst pain.
“You okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he said, smiling nervously.
She stepped back. “What… what are you doing here?”
He frowned. “I’ve always been here? We’ve got ethics class in twenty.”
“No… no, you transferred out before—before the semester even started.”
He laughed. “You sure you’re getting enough sleep?”
She stared at him. Her pulse rising.
If he never studied here in 2039…
If he’s here now…
What else has changed?
And then she saw it.
A faint silver shimmer behind his right ear.
A micro implant.
Same kind the council used in 2046.
Same kind she helped code.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” she whispered.
“What?” he said, stepping closer. “Elira, what are you talking ab—”
She turned and ran.
Not back to the dorm. Not to the AI lab.
She ran to the one place that had always held answers in the past:
The abandoned observatory at the edge of campus.
Because if the system was breaking…
It would be there.
---
The door to the observatory creaked open, rusted and untouched for years.
Or so she thought.
Inside, the walls were covered in scribbled equations, maps, diagrams of timelines, and a photo.
Of her.
Taped to the wall, with red threads connecting to 11 names.
And under it… one last name.
ELIRA MYLES – [SUBJECT 12]
Beneath it was a sticky note.
“You asked to be forgotten. So why are you trying to remember?”
Chapter-End Cliffhanger Question from Elira:
If I asked to be erased… then what was I trying to hide from myself?
~To be continued in Chapter 3
(For a better experience of the story depth, please play Blood and Stone - Ivan Torrent Remix, Audiomachine in the background).
- Writer
