Time Looped

Starting the loop in one part of the mirror realm was as good as any other. With time in the real-world frozen, it didn't particularly matter. For some reason, Will always went back to the reverse side of the rogue's mirror. One major difference was that Danny no longer smashed the mirror with his hand. As part of eternity once more, he was there to reclaim his class.

Will felt the temptation to kill him before he got the chance. A highly developed sense of self-preservation prevented him from doing that. There was no telling what permanent skills Daniel had, even without his rogue skills. Instead, Will walked out of view of the mirror, starting his way to the enchanter's mirror.

The first loops after joining were always the worst. There was a good chance that the boy wouldn't even accept what had happened, considering it as a weird form of déjà vu. Normally, Will would let things develop on their own. With eternity at one's disposal, time lost any meaning. From his point of view, that wasn't the case. There were just above ninety loops until the start of the contest phase, and Luke needed to be ready if there was a chance for another reward phase to start.

"Does the paradox end when I die?" Will asked his mirror fragment.

"Vague?" The boy all but laughed. "Hear that, Shadow? I'm being vague," he said, causing the shadow wolf to emerge beside him.

"Will I return to my proper time if I die?" he clarified.

So, that aspect remained. Despite all the weirdness, this remained one big challenge. Failing, or succeeding, respectively, would put an end to it and throw him back to where he was before. It also meant that in addition to having to rush, he couldn't afford to get killed.

"This sucks."

That was unexpected. Will had been in this time for over five loops and never before had the guide told him that. Was the requirement to trap someone else in eternity? If so, the class had to be rather powerful indeed. There was one minor issue though: even with his copycat skill, there was no way for him to obtain the class… at least not in the normal way. To be more specific, there was no easy way. Given enough time and luck, everything was possible. Yet, those that wanted to succeed always hedged their bets.

It took him roughly half an hour of walking to reach the enchanter's mirror. In the real world, not a second had passed. Reaching the spot, Will took a quick glance to make sure that there wasn't anyone in view, then walked through.

The noise of arcade demos filled his ears. In one part of the old arcade, a group of schoolboys were playing a game. Luke was among them. Unlike last time, his mind wasn't in the game. That was so obvious since the boy suddenly froze, then stepped back from the arcade machine as if bitten by a snake.

"Luke?" one of his friends said, eyes wide with confusion. "What happened, man?"

The first few seconds Luke didn't reply, just standing there as if he had woken up from a nightmare. Then his self-control kicked in.

"I don't feel it," he said with a calm expression. "Your game." He reached into his pocket and took out a fifty-dollar bill.

"For real?" One of the others frowned. By the looks of things, there had been side bets in play as well.

Luke didn't care, slamming the money onto his side of the arcade. The boy was just about to leave when he suddenly spotted Will. As far as everyone else was concerned, this was the first time they'd met the time jumper. From their point of view, they had just entered the arcade and started a game, same as they did most days before and during school. Luke saw things differently. The sensation of déjà vu suddenly grew, as he was faced with someone he had simultaneously had a conversation with before and never seen in his life.

"Hey!" Luke shouted, rushing to Will.

Without warning or hesitation, he reached to grab Will by the collar of his shirt. Thanks to Will's rogue reflexes, evading the attempt felt like child's play.

"I remember you," Luke whispered.

"I know." Will replied.

The confirmation caused Luke to take a step back again. By then, the rest of his group had joined in. None of them had any idea what was going on, but they knew that it was a case of them versus Will.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"No need to fight," Will said with absolute calmness and control. "I just want to have a talk with Luke. On a private matter."

"Yeah?" Luke crossed his arms. As much as he was willing to have such a conversation—or any conversation that could shed light on the strangeness he had experienced—he couldn't let his image suffer. "What about?"

"Your brother." Will went straight to the point. "I know what happened to him."

The answer hit Luke like a sledgehammer. The first three seconds he stood there, locked in place by shock. Then he clenched his fists. It had been just over a week since his brother had died. The authorities, his parents, and everyone Luke knew were certain that it was due to natural causes. A one in a million mishap that science couldn't prevent. Nonetheless, he always suspected there was more to it. The main reason was because his sister had been acting strange. She rarely spoke about it, always changing the topic when it was addressed. Luke used to think that it was because she was grieving just as much as he was. Both had pretended to go on with their lives, putting on masks to make the rest of the world happy. And still, he felt something wasn't quite right. Little things made her seem off, as if there was a lot more to the story she wasn't sharing. Now, a complete stranger had appeared, suggesting the same.

"You better not be fucking with me," Luke hissed.

"One minute." Will said. "Give me one minute in private. If I don't convince you, you can walk away. Or beat me up. Your choice."

Forced laughter came from the others. They had seen Will's reactions and weren't too eager to get into a fight.

"One minute?" Luke asked.

"Maybe less." Will said. "I won't leave this place. We'll just go…" he turned around, looking in the direction of the class mirror. "There."

The suggestion sent a shiver down Luke's spine. That was the same mirror which had started all the weirdness.

"What do you say?" Will pressured him.

"One minute." Luke said reluctantly and went along.

The rest of the high-schoolers remained where they were, ready to rush in if needed.

"How do you know my brother?" Luke whispered.

"Your sister told me." Will kept on walking. "The change you felt, she went through that, too."

"What change?"

Will looked at him.

"The time loops," he said, stopping in front of the mirror. "Welcome to eternity?"

"I don't know what that is," Luke lied.

"Right." Will sighed. It seemed that Luke needed further convincing, after all. "Touch the mirror," he said.

Luke hesitated. The rational part of him insisted that there was nothing to be afraid of. Mirrors were pieces of glass, after all. Yet, there was a just as strong a voice in the back of his mind telling him to run. Maybe if he refused to engage in whatever this was, he could get back to normalcy?

"There's no going back," Will continued. "After nine minutes, time will restart and you'll be back playing your game at the arcade."

"Yeah, right." There wasn't a shred of conviction in Luke's voice.

"Then tap the mirror."

Ten seconds later, Luke did.

A message appeared. Just as before, the boy pulled his hand back, though he no longer felt the urge to run away.

"It was real…" he said.

"Very. You're in a time loop now. The next ten minutes will keep repeating on and on for eternity." Will paused. "Unless you do something about it."

"How?"

"I'm not sure. I joined in by accident. As did your brother."

"Gabriel was part of this?"

"As is your sister. It's a small group. About twenty in the city." Will didn't feel the need to tell him about the other realities, not yet, at least. Coming to terms with this was hard enough, even if there was someone to act as a guide. "One of them killed your brother."

"What if it's you?" Luke asked in defiance. Now, with his mask falling, the rage was seeping through and focusing on a new target. "Sis never talked about you."

That was a good point. With enough time, Will could come up with an explanation, but even that would be contrived. As much as he didn't want to, he needed to act more like Danny and less like himself right now.

Without warning, he reached out and flicked Luke on the forehead. Will was careful not to overdo it, but the strength of the knight combined with the fragility of a newly joined looped sent Luke flying to the floor. From the side, the action was almost comical. Even if the other high-schoolers had witnessed this, they would have trouble realizing what had happened.

Luke tried to respond, but the pain running through his entire body made it impossible for any intelligible word to come out. Before he could even react, Will had bent down next to him.

"If I had, there's nothing you could do about it," he whispered.

The anger the comment caused was the one thing that helped Luke endure the pain. Glaring at the other, his eyes filled with tears of pain and anger, he gritted his teeth.

"Give it a bit," Will continued. "It'll pass. Question is whether you want to kill the person who killed your brother?"

"Why don't you kill him?" Luke spat through his teeth.

"Because your sister and Ican't do it alone."

I really hope this works, Will thought. It was a cruel approach, but the rogue class and thief skills made the attempt at manipulation easy. He could almost tell what buttons to press to get Luke to move in the right direction. Thinking back, Danny had done the same. At the time, Will had hated himself for being so gullible. Now, he wasn't so sure there was much he could do against it.

Reaching down, Will helped the other boy up.

"Is it gone?" he asked.

Luke nodded, even if that was an obvious lie.

"I know it doesn't seem like it, but it's your choice," Will said. "I can kill you every loop, but neither I nor anyone could force you to do anything."

"Why do you give a shit?" Luke looked Will in the eye. "I'm weak."

"Our interests align. I'll help you gain the skills you need and you'll help me kill the person who killed your brother. After that I'll disappear."

There was an element of truth in that. More importantly, it didn't give Luke any real choice. The carrot was too sweet for him to refuse and the stick too severe for him to want to risk it. There was no immediate response, but Will could tell by the other's expression that he had already won.

"Deal?" he asked.

"Deal," Luke said reluctantly.

"Good. Give me your hand." He reached out.

"Why?" Luke pulled away on instinct.

"We're heading through the mirror."

A few minutes later, when Luke's friends went to the section of the arcade to see what was going on, they found that no one was there. That felt a lot less shocking than it was supposed to. Despite it being impossible, all of them were certain that he had snuck outside without telling them. One even sent a text, though got no reply.

"Probably off to school," he uttered, mocking him.

Meanwhile, Will was mentally preparing himself to take on the role of a mentor.