I opened my eyes and immediately freaked out, where was I, is the loop going to repeat again? If that was the case I had failed. But then why did I exist, shouldn’t I be dead, what was the meaning of all this? I looked around and I was in the realm of time once again.

I got up and kept looking around in a state of panic. Time started laughing loudly seeing me scared. Finally it spoke to me, “Do you see now who the real rat in the maze is? It was always you, the Overseer was trying to be a hero, but we never wanted him to correct anything! It was always you Issac. You dug your own grave when you decided to hit yourself with the van.”

“This is not how it is supposed to happen! But this is all you do every time we send you to fix the loop. It is an extreme outcome which should not happen! But when it does the loop repeats itself again!”

I screamed at Time, “Then what the fuck am I supposed to do? I can’t think of anything else…there is no pattern…no guidance…and I have already killed her. So I guess it all starts again…I have failed!”

“You haven’t, what you just experienced was a memory of what you have done so many times. The point of showing you that memory was to warn you! But we also know that regardless of that, you always fall prey to your feelings for her!” Time said in return.

“In this realm nothing has a future, present or past. In this corridor resides your whole life, use your skills and look for a way out. There were obvious signs which you have missed when you were taken away from your world to the Overseer’s world!”

Saying this, the voice of Time went silent and I was left all alone in the corridor. The cryptic words of Time had left me in a state of despair. What signs was it talking about?

I began wandering around the corridor looking at different events that shaped my life. I saw my father beating my mother while being drunk, I saw her running away from him and taking me to Hawkesbay. I saw her doing odd jobs to keep us afloat. This part of my life…it felt as if I had forgotten about it or perhaps chosen to omit. All anyone knew about me; was that I am a washed up detective and was the son-in-law of Tom Maximus.

It was all cause and effect, the basics of how our lives are shaped. One decision leads to another and ultimately we reach the end of our existence. The domino effect, a chain reaction, whatever you choose to call it. “So maybe instead of killing myself to save her…I must look at the cause of all this!” Finally I was getting somewhere.

What if I never went out with the guys that night and instead just went straight home! That way Mary doesn’t have to come down to save me and get hit by the van. That was it! It was this simple.

As soon as I made up my mind Time started to laugh and said in a mocking tone, “You have missed a great deal detective, although you are on the right path…the solution is not that simple. The world of the clever fox, did you not see what happened there? Who was your wife there and who was Mary’s husband?”

What was the meaning of this? The idea time was planting in my head was a weird one, I quickly shoved it away and said, “I think I’ll keep looking for some other way, I think there has to be some other way…am I right?”

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Time said in anger, “Do you see now…what we meant by you falling prey to your feelings, it’s the same with you and the Overseer…you both want a world of your own choice and when that is not possible you risk everything else to justify what you want!”

“What do you mean by this?” I asked in confusion, as Time replied in a sinister tone, “You and Mary do not belong! Have you not seen the Overseer’s world, your wife is different, your son is different. Her husband and her family is different, your worlds as they stand are abnormal and incorrect. Some things are in order while some are not!”

“What we ask from you Issac is the ultimate sacrifice anyone could ask for! Sacrifice your love for the fates of the worlds!” the words hit me like a rushing train. I knew it was coming but I chose to ignore it, searching for some other future…any other future where I and Mary don’t have to be strangers…where we would live happily for the rest of our lives.

Time already knew my thoughts and replied, “The only way you both live happily is without each other! So now the stage is set, the decision is yours once again! The only question now is…are you strong enough this time? Because if you are not you’ll be here, at this same spot once again!”

With that said Time went silent once again, leaving me in a state of complete delirium. How do I do it…how do I intentionally stop loving her? The only good thing that ever happened to me…how do I forget her smile and the way she looks at me? How do I kill all those moments spent with her?

Why do we care about what happens to the other worlds…why us? I couldn’t in my right mind see her with someone else but me. Love is cruel, and it is selfish. I was going to start the loop once again; I had made up my mind! Those few moments of happiness were worth more than all the worlds combined!

Just before telling Time about my decision, a feeling of uneasiness took over me. My mind unintentionally started remembering the moments spent with all of them, David, Bill, the Overseer, Anna and Mary. The last words of Mary and the Overseer…they…they were a part of my life too.

Was I going to make them suffer a billion times once again. I took the photo out from my pocket and looked at each one of them. Their faces had been blurred but I remembered them. Tears had started to drop from my eyes, to which world do I truly belong?

Time said in a mellow voice, “You do not belong to any world; you…are a void Issac. Whatever you do in the coming few moments won’t affect you, but it will affect all the other worlds and their futures. For once keep your emotions to the side and think rationally, the answer is already given to you…just accept it and do what is necessary!”

(Perfect song for this part https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isUZeulOO9s)

I nodded as I wiped away my tears and gathered my broken courage. “Send me to the day when I met Mary…I think I know what I should do to stop the loop from ever starting.”

In a flash a portal opened in front of me and I started taking slow and steady steps towards it. I took a deep breath and went through it, leaving the realm of time probably for the last time.

I was in the alley where I found Mary’s brooch, the day we met for the very first time. It was tempting to watch silently as things unfolded but if that was the case all could go wrong once again. I understood now, to stop it all from happening Mary needed to be alive…but not with me she was supposed to be with Peter…and I really didn’t know who I was supposed to end up with.

I hid behind a dumpster waiting for her to pass and drop her brooch, as she passed by and dropped it, I quickly took it into my hands and nervously started looking around like an idiot. “What do I do with it…I can’t fuck this up now!” as I said this I saw someone familiar passing by, a young man with spectacles. He had marks of paint on his shirt and face, it was Peter.

Suddenly a crazy idea came to my mind, if Peter gives the brooch to Mary…I never meet her, and we never fall in love. Maybe, this is the way I fix things! Without thinking much I stopped Peter in his tracks and said, “Hey man…how’s it going? So…actually you see that girl over there in the black gown she just dropped her brooch. I’m actually in a real emergency so…here…” I handed him the brooch, “Just give the brooch to her and yeah thanks a lot!”

Peter wanted to say something but, I just ran across the road to the opposite side of the street and watched from the corner as he went to Mary. I could see him looking at Mary the same way I would have looked. He started talking to her and they started laughing, soon Mary and Peter went to Grab-a-Grub. A few moments later I saw Issac passing the alley, but there was no brooch…there was no Mary.

I started to cry looking at Issac all alone, a shrill pain in my chest had forced me to sit down on the ground. I saw him crossing the road without looking both ways and getting hit by a car. As he got hit, I looked at my feet and they began to disintegrate…so…maybe this is how I was supposed to die?

As onlookers rushed to Issac and called the ambulance. I smiled with tears in my eyes, “All this mess because of one crime, the crime of falling in love…I was only falling in love!”

As I said my last words my body started to disintegrate…it was done…the loop was fixed. The Overseer was never born…no one was a void anymore…time travel didn’t exist and me and Mary we did not belong. A familiar question came to my mind, was…was this really…the End?”