I got back to Trayley, running to room 17 with rush but not worry. I was dead set on going back again and saving Lucia.

When I got to the room, Tyus and the group cheered for me. I ignored the praise, it was nice, but it wasn't what I was there for. I told them the real reason I was there. I was trying not to cry, that and Tyus' empathy would just make things take longer. But I later realized how bad bottling up emotions is.

They all looked shocked about Lucia's death. But I didn't tell them that it had happened before. I just went along with the story they knew from Tyus, that would make things quicker. Plus they would probably be more willing to let me use the time machine if they thought I had used it to help them the first time.

After some discussing, they let me use it, with Darius seeming more lenient this time. They fired it up, and I traveled back.

It was 3:17 p.m. I heard Professor Yates' lecture. I told the same story as before to Tyus. I walked out to the courtyard, making sure to not cut my leg. These things felt like a routine at that point. I was being efficient. The third time's the charm, after all.

I met up with Lucia, putting on a smile for her. We talked about our classes like before, and then she got to the topic of the steakhouse.

"Right, um, they canceled the reservation on me," I made up. Lucia's life was on the line, I didn't want us to go back to where she died twice, not at 6:00 p.m. anyway. "They gave me a refund, but apparently they didn't have enough employees. Sorry."

"That's okay," she said. She looked a bit disappointed, but it wasn't directed at me.

Then in the corner of my eye I saw Effa the cat running, so I went to go pick her up. Another part of the routine. Mary thanked me. Lucia, Lucia praised me. I thanked her for that.

Getting back to the topic of the date, I said, "Say, would you wanna meet up here around 5:40? Maybe we could order food, bring a blanket to sit on, hang out, talk about life."

"I'd love to! Right after that medical project I'll come here!" Lucia said cheerfully.

I was glad she agreed. We'd be away from Denzel's, and I could keep an eye on her. I could save her.

After she left, I called Denzel's to actually cancel the reservation and get a refund. I called in to cancel the suit too (only getting a partial refund for that). I decided to not go to Winning Wonder Fortune Telling or even to Mard Avenue at all. Maybe that fortune teller wouldn't even make the prophecy if I wasn't there, I thought to myself.

I was planning ahead a lot with these things. I went back to my dorm room in the meantime, calling the cops to report the speeding truck again. Even if we wouldn't be near it, I didn't want it to hit someone else. That was the logically kind thing to do. On the call I tried to sound more ignorant about the truck so that I didn't raise suspicion.

I saw the texts on my phone after that, the first time I had looked at them that day. There were some spam ones but one was from Tyus, thanking me again

After that was done with, I decided to look up some first aid if I needed to it on Lucia. CPR for cardiac arrest. The Heimlich Maneuver for choking-"putting a fist with a thumb below the person's belly button, then having both hands push in and up" I kept reciting to myself, trying to perfect it.

As I was reciting that, I felt a weird, familiar aura. Then I heard it somehow being brought to my mind, though I couldn't hear it through my ears. It was that all-too familiar saying:

Will Korda, your lover is destined to meet her end 6 hours past the turn of this afternoon. Our fate has that fact so. For as long as this prophecy comes alive, she will die.

I fell on the floor. It was so clear in my mind, like telepathy. I hadn't even been paying attention to the time before that, but sure enough, it was 4:15 when I looked at the clock. That stubborn prophecy always came to me. But I had to stay strong. Still think clearly. The fortune teller wouldn't remember making the prophecy, even if I did ask her about it. I thought that it would be best to just stay in my dorm learning more ways to save someone and strategizing. That shop wouldn't get my business.

I did some more of that and after a while, I got a picnic blanket from my closet. I brought some wet towels too in case of cuts. Walking down to the courtyard with them, it was about 5:40 and I met up with Lucia. It came off as casual fun with my girlfriend, but in reality I was staying alert and ready for whatever might happen to her. Maybe I could find a loophole around that prophecy.

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We sat and talked in the middle of the courtyard, watching the sunset. She was happy and calm, I was pretending to be the same way, though I really was a bit around her.

"You sure you okay, Will?"

"Yeah! I'm just trying to be more cautious lately, I suppose."

"Alright, but if you ever need to talk you know I'm there."

That right there was the person I was fighting for. She would reach out without hesitating, but right now I was trying to return that favor. I didn't want her to know that I had seen her life end before.

It was getting close to 6:00 p.m. I was watching her like a hawk, though trying to look calm.

"Lucia," I said a bit quietly.

"Yeah?"

"I, I've had fun today." I didn't say what I was planning too, because I needed to stay confident that I could say it to her after 6:00.

"I have too," she said.

I had prepared for a lot of different types of deaths, but nothing could have prepared me for her body burning up in flames. Spontaneous combustion had happened. There was nothing I could do to stop it. It's another event where I can't bring myself to go into the visual detail, but it was bad.

Other people in the courtyard saw it, nearly in shock. I had to step back but my hopes for that "attempt" were already burned. The bystanders were panicking and calling ambulances. One of them tripped while running, with a hard fall. But I didn't care to help. I was going to undo the last 3 hours anyway.

I was already on campus, so I walked to room 17. I remembered the rule that I couldn't travel back to before 3:17 anyway. At the beginning of the walk, I felt devastated but I was used to that. This death had been different though. There was no way I could have physically prevented it. Nothing like this had happened before either. It was like the prophecy had manipulated Lucia's body. It still got its way, even when I didn't hear it.

I thought about the wording of it though-"For as long as this prophecy comes alive, she will die." Did that mean that if I just stopped the fortune teller from saying it, then Lucia could live? But the fortune teller wasn't even trying to say it. I thought that I might have to use some questionable methods, but it could work.

As my mind was on that topic, Tyus came rushing toward me in the hall. "Will, I'm so, so sorry," he looked like he meant it. "I saw it from the window. We can talk about it, unless you need some alone time."

I did want to talk about it, but in a different way. "I actually wanted to use the time machine to go back and save her."

"I was thinking the same thing, but I don't know how you could prevent this," Tyus said morbidly.

"I have a plan, trust me."

We walked to room 17, and after we tried to convince Darius to let us use the machine he asked, "Well what is your plan? I'm sorry about what happened, truly, but how are you going to stop spontaneous combustion?"

This was breaking my stream of efficiency, but I realized what I would have to admit. Besides, my telling it would get reversed.

"This is my third time living through the last 3 hours and there's been a fortune teller saying that...that Lucia will die at 6:00 p.m. That's come true in different ways each time, but I think that if I stop the prophecy from being made, it might stop Lucia's death. I didn't want to tell you guys before because I thought I could stop it without causing panic, but there it is." I was trying to be straightforward and formal about it, but I knew how weird it sounded.

Darius was the first to speak after it. "I think the grief's driving him insane."

"Wait, I'm hearing him out," Tyus quickly replied. "I mean, he's time traveled and his girlfriend...well you know what happened. I think anything could be possible now."

"Yeah, but those both stem from science! Prophecies don't!" Darius sounded mad at even the possibility of hearing me out, like I was insulting his life's work. A spiral of rage came from him. "I don't want to let him control time because of what could be a lie. And his mind's been traumatized, whether it was one time or three times. I don't want to know what he could do with this power if he's not thinking straight!"

"But Will's a good guy. And he could be on to something," Tyus pleaded for me. "We already know that the time machine works since he knew about it. Do you really want to just let a person die when he could save her?" That last part stuck out to everyone in the room. More people seemed to be on the side of Tyus and me. Then we all looked at Darius, that stupid, stupid man, I thought.

"No," he said. "You don't realize how much power you're giving to someone with such recent trauma."

"Maybe you're the one twisted by trauma, Darius," said Tyus. You saw Lucia burn too.

"And after seeing it I know what that could do to someone who's close to her," Darius responded, still holding his ground.

"I've been through it before, I've stayed sane," I said.

"Exactly," said Tyus.

"No," Darius still said.

More tension was growing among everyone in the room, but it was still opposing Darius.

"Carla," Tyus said, still looking at Darius, "You know how to operate the time machine, right?"

"Yeah," said a team member, who must've been Carla. When I came to think of it, she was the one who helped convince Darius to let me time travel the first time.

"Could you help someone use it right now?" Tyus asked Carla, but still focusing on Darius, like they were having a staring contest.

"I would," Carla replied, calm but prepared.

"Now, wait up!" yelled Darius, walking over. What happened next felt like a blur. Tyus tackled him, taking all his effort to restrain him. Another scientist from the team jumped on Darius too. Carla and I ran over to the time machine. A couple of people who must have been on Darius's side tried grabbing us back with all the force in the world, but then others pushed them. We were in the middle of a mutiny, but it was about to have not happened. I put on the headset to time travel, but then Tyus called out in the midst of him stopping Darius.

"Will!" Tyus yelled. I looked over at him. "Promise that you'll tell past-me the truth after you jump back, okay?"

"Of course," I said with a small smile, but my eyes were flat.

"Here it goes," said Carla.

Stop the prophecy from being said, that's my goal, I told myself.

Then the usual-for-me but unusual-for-anyone-else thing happened.