…

“AHHHHHH!!!!!!!” -thud-

“Ah… my butt… Where am I?”

Shac looked around and found himself in yet another familiar place, the very spot where everything had begun.

He glanced down at his chest. “Looks like… I was brought back here again.”

No hole in my chest, my heart is still here…

I’m glad…

Feeling relieved to be alive, he lay down on the floor, feeling confused and unsure of what to do next.

Once more, he had been saved by the unknown force that allowed him to loop and be revived, but the mystery of the duck is still left unsolved.

Looking at what his left hand had been clutching all this while, he found his phone, displaying a familiar email:

[ Don’t forget about the Duck. ]

I see, so I am back from the start… Damn it…

“Aghhhhhhh! What am I supposed to do now!?” Shac scratches his head violently. “Fuck all of this!”

Feeling disheartened, Shac shed a tear. He had thought he was close to breaking the curse, only to find himself back at square one, rendering all his efforts from the past loops to nothing.

Damn, I feel even worse now.

… … …

After lying down for a while, lost in thought, he finally gathered the strength to rise and sit on the sofa.

Well, that should be enough of being a crybaby, but DARN IT! this shit’s so hard I’m about to lose my mind thinking that I’m about to die again sooner or later.

Still, it doesn’t change the fact that I am back from the start again.

But on the bright side, this also means I will have more time before I die again, it should be enough to plan for something.

But… all the plans have failed so far…

Saving the duck will prevent me from getting suffocated, this includes feeding it, so both is a must. If I miss even one, my death is set in stone.

Feeding it will lead to its death, as she will lay an egg after dying. And for some reason, a week is enough for the duckling to grew, and lay an egg. Can’t believe it was possible, who would have thought of that!?

I know, it’s a cursed duck, nothing is normal about it, I know that.

Now, let’s say the duck dies and lays an egg, then it’s either the egg rots and I will die, or I will eat the egg and live as a curse.

Both have been the case so far in my previous loops, but as expected, of course I died in both cases. One thing is that, there’s something different from the previous loop.

Shac once again placed his hand on his chest to ensure his heart was still there.

A finger gun huh… I wonder if she’s a cursed person too? It makes more sense that way, especially knowing eating the egg grants you supernatural abilities.

Suddenly Shac remembered how he died. Yeah, a supernatural ability, like exploding your guts out of nowhere… Totally a unique ability…

Yeah, It looks like there’s more to this, more than I expected. I mean, who would have expected she can do that? A finger gun that is able to blast through my heart in a second!?

If only I was strong enough…

No, being strong is not enough, she is abnormal in the first place, humans can’t do that. Oh right, I forget I became a monster too.

Shac shook his head. “There’s no use in thinking about it.” Glancing at his phone, he added, “I’m already late anyway. I should take my time, skip the first class, and walk.”

“Time to meet my yellow friend once again.”

It’s that time again, the first meet with the yellow duckling.

Shac walked out of the house once again, and is about to encounter the yellow duckling on the road.

… … …

“There you are.”

As Shac saw the yellow duckling once again, he approaches it and grab it in his hand. “Good morning.” Shac greeted it.

-quack-

“Woah… Didn’t expect that you will respond.” Shac smiled. “It’s been a while duckling.”

Although I know you are the reason for everything, although I know that you cursed me… I’m still happy to see you alive and well.

“I miss this form of yours, duckling.” Shac smiles, thinking it’s been a while since he saw this form of the duckling. “Well, I gotta go now.”

He placed the duckling back on the road. “I’ll see you later at school.” With that, Shac continued on his way, walking to school, skipping his class, and leaving the yellow duckling behind.

× × × × × × × × × ×

Late for his first class, Shac settled himself in the canteen, waiting for Ivan to arrive.

There should be at least something that Ivan knows about the white-haired girl. I mean, hopefully that’s the case, right?

Right?

Right?

“What’s with those scary faces you’re making now?” Ivan interrupted.

“What?” Shac exclaimed in surprise. “Oh, I thought it was someone else, but it’s just you.”

“Who else is going to talk to you?” Ivan teased.

“What!? That’s uncalled for!”

Ivan chuckled. “I’m just stating the obvious.”

“I wouldn’t want to hear something like that from you.”

“I know, I know. So, why were you late this time?”

“Cursed ducks.” Shac replied.

Ivan’s eyes widened in surprise at what he heard, then he suddenly grew serious. “I see. Since when?”

“About two weeks now.”

“Two weeks, that’s longer than I thought.” Ivan paused for a while. “Judging by how you approached me, it seems you already know that I’m cursed too?”

“Yep, this is the third time that I met you.”

“Third time…? That doesn’t sound good.”

“Right, I might as well say I’m here again to ask for your help.”

Ivan gave a thumbs up. “But, if it’s the third time, then I failed to help you two times?”

“Well, you’re Ivan, of course.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Look at your face.” Shac chuckled. “It’s more of an you’re too vague, and never explains everything.”

“Ah that.” Ivan paused. “I can’t deny that one.”

“Well, it’s not your fault, but if I were to say something to you…” Shac looked straight into Ivan’s eyes.

“I don’t want you to mess around this time.” he added, his tone is cold and serious.

Ivan scratched his head and averted his gaze away after hearing that. The two sat in silence for a few seconds before Shac broke the silence.

“But you know, it’s not that you abandoned me, you’re helping me all this time. I mean it’s not your fault I’m cursed, I’m just—”

“Stop stop stop” Ivan interrupted. “You don’t need to explain that much, because you’re right, there’s a high possibility that I’m messing around. So… this time I will gladly help you, more seriously. I will bet my lunch for a week.”

“The bet will be void if I were to die a week later.”

“Oh, you’re right.” Ivan laughs. “Then, shall we start this one?”

“Sure sure. First, what do you want to know?”

“Everything you can think of, it would be helpful a lot.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Got it. Wait a minute, do we have enough time?”

Shac glanced at his phone’s time. “20 more minutes… Looks safe, then I shall start telling you about the first loop.”

… … …

For 20 minutes straight, Shac told Ivan about everything that happened in the past two weeks.

-chimes-

“Oh shit! We lost track of time!”

“We haven’t grabbed anything yet.” Ivan reminded, feeling hungry from nonstop listening to Shac.

“Ah right, I’ll go grab some bread. You go ahead, I’ll catch up.”

“Your treat?” Ivan asked.

“Yeah, yeah,” Shac responded in an annoyed tone. “Just get moving.”

As the bell chimed, signaling the end of lunch break, Shac hurriedly bought two pieces of bread. “Thanks.”

Breathless as he ran down the hallway, he reached the classroom just in time, the teacher hadn’t arrived yet.

-huff- “Haaah… Made it…”

“So what did you get?” Ivan immediately asked.

“I don’t know, some cola-flavored bread?” Shac replied, trying to mess with Ivan.

“What? Cola-flavored bread!? It exists?” Ivan asked, surprised.

“Obviously not.”

“Ah… I’m just messing with you.”

“Yeah, whatever…”

For some reason this guy is obsessed with cola.

“We’ll talk about it later, thanks for the bread.”

Shac nodded in response, as he took a bite at the bread he just bought.

This bread tastes more delicious than usual, probably because I’m hungry.

They finished their bread just as the teacher arrived, just in time for the class to start.

× × × × × × × × × ×

“Phewww, I managed to score in the middle,” Shac sighed in relief, having passed the quiz after failing it twice before.

“You got lucky, huh? Seems like all that looping has paid off for your learning,” Ivan mocked, implying something.

“That’s like saying I would have failed this quiz if not for the loops.” “Maybe.” Ivan chuckled.

“Well, looks like you’re wrong this time.”

“And it seems like you’re enjoying the loop.” Ivan teased.

“I am not.”

“Ah, my bad.” Ivan smiled.

For the third time, Shac finished the quiz. But this time, instead of failing, he managed to get a passing score, making this loop different from the others.

Ah… it feels good to pass the quiz…

Even though I’ve been stuck in this loop for a while now.

Ivan glanced at Shac, grinning. “Stop looking at me like that,” Shac said, shooing Ivan away.

“Putting that aside,” Ivan interjected, cutting the banter. “There’s a lot I want to ask about the loops, especially the previous one.”

“I have so many questions as well. So, you’re not familiar with the white-haired girl?”

“Yeah, like I mentioned, I only knew of two cursed individuals. One is you, and the other is a girl I encountered in the past, though she had black hair, not white.”

“So, we’re both clueless then…” -sigh-

“But…”

“But what?”

“Based on what you saw, the girl saved the duckling from the guy, right?”

“Yeah, I guess that’s one way to put it. Since she grabs the duckling away from the guy that’s about to kill it, it’s possible that she is indeed saving it.” Shac remarked. "Also, for some reason, they are both fighting.” Shac added, puzzled by the conflict.

“She saves the duckling, that’s something new huh.” Ivan replied. “Normally you would kill the ducklings, considering they are dangerous, but saving them that’s a bit different.” Ivan added, wondering why the white-haired girl did that.

“She did kill me, so there’s a high possibility that she’s an enemy.” “That! Why did she even kill you in the first place?”

Shac shrugged his shoulders. “Who knows? I can’t even imagine how powerful that girl is.”

“Hahahaha, that sounds crazy.” Ivan chuckled awkwardly, thinking about how scary the white-haired girl is. “Not only that, it seems you were transported to a place where everyone had vanished. Sounds like a parallel world, huh.” Ivan added.

A parallel world…

“Considering that looping exists in this world, it’s reasonable to assume parallel worlds exist too, right?”

“You could say that. But for everyone to disappear, leaving only the white-haired girl and the guy you saw there… That doesn’t seem normal. There’s something going on there that neither of us knows about.” Ivan observed, thinking how odd and unnatural those things are.

“Ah… I feel like the curse runs deeper than we initially thought…”

“Exactly,” Ivan chuckled. “I can’t even imagine how crazy your story is, since I’ve never experienced anything like that, not that I would want to.”

It was all so confusing that it drives you crazy as you try to understand what was happening, especially knowing you were about to die but unable to do anything about it…

A never ending nightmare.

As they walked and chatted, they passed through the school gate and spotted the familiar creature they had been waiting for.

“Here you are.” Shac said.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen a yellow duckling,” Ivan observed.

Seeing the duckling in the front of the school gate, Shac immediately approached the duckling and took hold of it.

“What a cute duckling, don’t you think so?”

“Can’t deny that one, I mean there’s no denying that it’s indeed cute.”

“If only you’re normal, right duckling?” Shac said to the duck.

If only, then I wouldn’t have to suffer this nightmare.

They continued walking, holding onto the duckling, sharing their thoughts about the curse.

“Actually Ivan, there’s something I want to ask about you.”

Ivan raised an eyebrow. “About me? What is it?”

“It’s about how you managed to escape the curse.”

“Ah…” He paused, “I didn’t tell you anything about it in the past?”

“Not yet. I never heard anything like that.”

“Ah, I see. You could say I was lucky. The curse was passed to someone else in exchange for mine, which allowed me to escape.”

“Is it really possible to pass the curse? How?”

“I’m not comfortable talking about it, sorry,” Ivan responded in a low voice, reluctant to elaborate.

“Got it, sorry about that…”

“No, it’s okay. It’s just… not a good memory.”

If he managed to escape the curse by passing it to someone else… It means it’s possible after all? But what does it mean to pass the curse to someone else?

Shac glances at Ivan. But since he is uncomfortable about it, there’s no way of knowing how it was possible.

Ivan smiled and laughed as he tapped Shac on the shoulder. “Sorry for being gloomy.”

“Oh? Why are you happy all of a sudden?”

“Nothing, hahaha. I just find these situations kind of interesting, don’t you think?”

Shac gave Ivan a puzzled look. “You know, sometimes I think there’s something wrong with you.”

“I know,” Ivan chuckled. “That’s not exactly a compliment,” Shac retorted.

“But…” Shac hesitated, something still bothering him. “About the email, something about it doesn’t make sense.”

“The email?” Ivan wondered.

“Did I forget to tell you about the email?”

“The email? I don’t remember hearing about that in your story.”

“Really!? Damn, I must have forgotten to mention it… Here, take a look.” Shac showed him the email on his phone.

“Huh?” Ivan exclaimed in surprise as he read the email. “I don’t remember sending this.”

Shac, confused by Ivan’s reaction, asked, “What do you mean you sent it? There’s no sender listed.”

He looked at the email again and was surprised by what he saw. The email was indeed sent by Ivan:

[ Don’t forget about the Duck. ]

Shac knew there was originally no sender listed. How could it suddenly show Ivan as the sender?

There’s no way this is happening… How?

“Do you remember sending this email to me?” he asked, confused to why Ivan is listed as sender in the email.

“I don’t remember sending this email.” Ivan denied. “So, what is this about?”

Mhm… “Wait let us stop walking for a minute.” Surprised from the sudden changes, Shac decided to pause for a while and think about what’s exactly is happening.

This email supposed to be sent at the morning at this day, and I’ve been looping for a while now, I know and I am sure that there is no supposed to be a sender in here.

But now for some reason, Ivan’s name is listed as a sender.

It… doesn’t make any sense…

-sigh- “Sorry about that.” Shac apologized for the sudden pause. “I forgot to tell you about this email, it was sent to me this morning. It’s the starting point of the loop.”

“Really!?…But, I don’t remember sending this to you.”

“That’s the problem, because in the first place, this email doesn’t have a sender…”

“Doesn’t have a sender? Is that even possible?” Ivan wondered.

“I don’t even know, all I know is that this email is the first thing that tells me about the ‘duck’ and I even regarded it as a troll message since it doesn’t have any sender details. I mean who would even take it seriously? Look at the message.”

“’[ Don’t forget about the Duck. ]’, that’s what it says.” Ivan read from the email. “It seems to be a warning about the duck… I’ve heard in the past that ignoring the duck could lead to death.”

“Ignoring the duck huh…”

“Right, that’s why it’s necessary to feed it, otherwise you will be killed… But to be honest, this email, I don’t remember sending this to you.”

It doesn’t make any sense… If he’s not the one who send this… then who?

“What is even happening?” Shac sighed, looking at the yellow duckling in his palm. “Can you explain what’s going on?”

But the duck remained silent.

“This…” Ivan smiled. “This is rather intriguing, don’t you think?” He looked at Shac, clearly amused by the mystery of the email.

-sigh- “You and your smile again…”

“While it sounds interesting, this also presents another problem,” Ivan replied. “It suggests that I did something I’m not aware of… Could this be one of the effects of the parallel world?”

The effects of the parallel world?

“The parallel world? You mean…” Shac paused for a few seconds. ”…there’s a parallel version of you who sent this message?”

“Probably, because I genuinely don’t remember sending this email, that could be the reason.”

That could be the case, if he really doesn’t remember it, then it must be something else.

“That makes sense. There’s one thing I don’t understand this whole time, that this email doesn’t have sender listed to it. But after I had you read the email, the sender listed turned out to be you… Did it react to you somehow?”

“Maybe? Wait, let me check something real quick…” Ivan opened his phone and searched through his emails, specifically his sent folder, and discovered…

“It’s here, I’m definitely the one who sends the message,” Ivan added. “Really? Let me see it.”

They both examined the email again: same sender, same date, same content… “Are you sure you’re not messing with me?” Shac asked suspiciously. “I told you earlier, I’m not playing around this time.”

“Right… So I guess this is another mystery. Even though we now know the sender, the question remains: how was this email sent to me when you weren’t aware of its existence until you read it from my phone?”

If Ivan was telling the truth, then there was something about Ivan sending this email.

If this Ivan wasn’t the current one, then perhaps there was another ‘Ivan’, someone who sent this email.

“Another ‘Ivan’… Do you think it’s possible?” Shac asked.

“If parallel worlds exist, then it’s possible. The real mystery is how he managed to send the email to you.”

“Guess that’s a problem for another day…”

“I guess you’re right,” Ivan chuckled. “Let’s discuss it tomorrow.”

Feeling overwhelmed by the flood of information and revelations, they decided to continue walking, pondering the mysteries swirling around them.

… … …

As Shac and Ivan continued walking, both feeling exhausted from the day’s revelations, Shac’s phone suddenly buzzed.

“Hm???” Shac muttered, surprised by the notification. He quickly checked his phone, hoping for more answers.

An email? Could it be another one?

The screen flickered, showing the familiar message:

[ Don’t forget about the duck. ]

But this time, something was different. Below the message was a string of what it seems an incomplete text:

[ Sh× ×s ly×ng to ×s, ev×r××ne got k×ll×d. ]

With each moment, different characters are revealed and concealed, making it challenging to decipher the full text at a glance.

What about the sender? Shac wondered about the sender.

He checked, and to his surprise, it was sent by ‘Ivan’. He had been walking alongside Ivan, it couldn’t have been him who sent this message.

This proves the existence of another ‘Ivan’.

As Shac stared at the message, it seemed to be trying to convey something… She is… lying? Who’s she?

Shac’s brow furrowed. Was the message corrupting? Or was this a clue? He glanced at Ivan, walking beside him, exhausted from earlier. Does Ivan really know more than he was letting on?

As they neared Ivan’s house, Shac noticed something odd. A white feather stuck out from Ivan’s backpack.

“Ivan.” Shac said, his voice tight. “Where did that feather come from?” Ivan turned. “What feather?”

But before Shac could respond, the world began to fade. Everything starting to get dark, Shac heard Ivan’s voice, distorted and distant:

“Shit… She found out…” These were the last words to escape Ivan’s lips before his body began to liquefy. His flesh slowly melted into a liquid, transforming him into a gooey, red substance.

Shit! What’s happening?

Shac shook his head, as if trying to clear his mind. In an instant, everything went back to normal. “Haaah… haaah…” Shac breathes heavily.

“You okay?” Ivan asked, concerned.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry. Just found myself in a weird spot there.” -sigh-

As he focused back his attention to the phone, the email that was sent already got hidden:

[ ××× ×× ××××× ×× ××, ×××××××× ××× ××××××. ]

What was that about?

A new message, but now it’s hidden. And who is this ‘she’ that he’s talking about?

Ivan lightly tapped Shac’s shoulder, “Let’s talk about it tomorrow, don’t forget to feed the duck.”

“Got it, see you tomorrow.”

With their conversation concluded, Ivan and Shac bid each other farewell. They turned and began walking in opposite directions, each heading towards their respective homes.