I half-followed and was half-dragged straight into what I realized, to my horror, was the bathroom. Kaye pushed me in front of a mirror and said,

"Okay, tell me what you..." She stopped.

She had pushed me in front of the mirror and was standing behind me. I could clearly see her shocked expression. Then her skin went gray in the mirror. I heard Not-me, say, "What the fuck are you doing?"

I stepped out of the line of sight of the mirror without saying anything. I looked at Kaye, who was staring at me with her mouth open.

"That's… not… normal," she said, drawing out each word.

I nodded.

"So," she said, "are you a vampire?"

I shrugged. "More of a mosquito," I said.

She laughed at that. "Seriously, though, can you see yourself in the mirror? Because I couldn't see you.”

I sighed. "No, I can't see myself either."

She looked concerned. "What do you do when you get an eyelash in your eye? Can you see your clothes, but not your flesh? I couldn’t see your clothes. This is weird.”

The thought had not yet occurred to me. What did I do when I got an eyelash in my eye? Or needed to adjust anything about my appearance?

"Everything is gone for me too.” I said. “Do you have a phone?"

She nodded. It seemed like everybody had a phone except me.

"I don't have one," I said. "Pull out your camera. Let's see if I can see myself with the selfie feature. That might be a nice workaround."

She pulled out her phone and pointed it at me.

"Holy shit," she said.

"What?" I said, walking around so I could see the screen.

"I took a video," she said. "You don't show up."

I looked down at the screen. "Your phone's off," I said, pointing at the screen.

She looked at me. "No, it's not," she said. "Take a look."

She held the screen up to me. The screen was completely blank. I couldn't see anything on it.

"It's blank," I said. "It looks like it's off. I can't see anything."

She looked at the screen and then at my face. Then she walked over and turned out the bathroom light. A pit formed in my stomach as I realized her screen was projecting light, and I could see very clearly that it was on, but the screen was blank to my vision. She turned the screen around so it illuminated her face.

"Believe me now?" she asked.

I nodded. Then I realized the room was dark and she couldn't see me.

"Yes,” I said, “I believe you now. Will you turn the light back on, please?"

"Why?" she said. "I thought you were a creature of the night."

"I'm really not. I'm not allergic to sunlight, and I don't drink blood, and I don't have fangs. I just lost my reflection because I was possessed by the ghost of my future self and cursed by a practitioner of voodoo to lose luck incrementally. Except the time loop that I'm in reset before the curse could be canceled, and all my luck zeroed out. So, I began drawing occult circles on my flesh, —having to do with luck— until I created a vortex that made me constantly luck hungry, because when my luck zeroed out, I had no luck at all. All living people organically generate luck, but I no longer do. It’s more complicated than that, but I don’t understand it. Now, I'm stuck in a predicament where I'm able to take other people's luck, but my future self is keeping me trapped in the same day over and over again until my actions match closely enough the actions that he took in his day so that we head for the future that he desires."

Kaye turned on the light. A thoughtful look on her face. "You’re serious," she said, studying my face. “I can feel you’re telling the truth. Are you telling the truth, or able to project truth into your words and messing with me?"

I looked at her. I was about to say "swear to God," but that felt inappropriate after having met a deity. Instead, I said, "Cross my heart, hope to die. In fact, I've already died five times."

She raised her eyebrows. "You've died five times?" she said.

"Well, I think technically six, because my future self came back and possessed me. But how do you think my day starts over?"

She shook her head. "I was thinking more Groundhog Day and less Edge of Tomorrow."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

I laughed. "You’re just onboard that I’m stuck in a time loop?"

She grinned at me. "Of course I am. Just who the hell do you think I am?"

She put her phone away and crossed her arms, posing like a superhero.

"Uh, I don't know. Superhero Kaye, apparently?"

"Yeah, Mister I-can't-answer-a-question."

"Oh, yeah. Hi, I'm Timmy," I said. "Local luck vampire. My friends just call me Freak."

She chuckled. "Well, it's nice to finally meet you, Timmy Freak. You know what? Knowing what I know about you now, I think that suits you," she said. "I'm going to call you Freak, too. It’s really lucky you met me. I’m exactly the person you need to make it out of this."

I shook my head. "You're not going to remember me."

She leveled a look at me. "Wanna Bet?" She got up in my face. I wasn't sure what to do. "You come find me," she said. "Every loop. I don't care how many tries it takes. When you get out of this, we're going to be friends."

"I haven't bumped into you in any of the previous loops," I said. "There's no guarantee we'll meet."

She poked me in the chest. "You make us meet. I'm counting on you."

I looked at her, feeling a little helpless. "I think the only reason we met this time was because I took too much luck accidentally from... Oh shit," I said. "Billy!"

Kaye looked perplexed. "What?"

"I'm supposed to go find Mr. Pheizer. I left Billy in a horrible situation. I took all his luck, and now the gremlins are taking his world apart."

Kaye tilted her head at me. "The gremlins are taking... I'm sorry, but I'm lost. What are you talking about?" she said.

I began to run out of the bathroom, but she grabbed my hand and stopped me.

"Hey, where the hell are you off to? We just met."

"I've got to help Billy out," I said.

She folded her arms. "Oh yeah? I thought you were stuck in a time loop. How does anything you do this loop matter, if you're stuck in a time loop with no way out yet?"

"I didn't say nothing I do matters. I said nobody will remember me."

"Think about it this way," she said. "When you start the day over, Billy will be fine, won't he?"

I stopped. "Yeah, I guess so."

"So what you did to him won't have happened when you start over. How are you planning on starting this one over?" she asked.

"Uh... I was going to go back to the senior assembly and try to break my brain by overdosing on aura again."

"What?" she asked.

I explained what had happened to me the last time I had crashed the senior assembly, how the auras had crashed over me until they had washed me away. And then I had spoken to... A god? The god had said that they weren't going to let my soul rip.

Kaye whistled. "Wow. Either you're the best liar I've ever met, and really fascinating, by the way, or you've seen some really wild stuff."

I sighed. "Thank you," I said. "That's how I feel."

She held up her phone again. Again, I couldn't see the screen. This was troubling. I didn't know why I couldn't see her screen. I remembered Mrs. Streep's computer. I hadn't been able to see the screen either. I thought it was off. But apparently, I couldn't see the screens. I didn't have room to think about that.

Kaye squinted her eyes at me. "Ok," she said. "We've got to work hard."

"What?" I said.

"Well, we've only got two hours before senior assembly," Kaye said. "If you're going to go off yourself on aura at senior assembly, then we've got to get you training and practicing in the two hours that we have. Come on, we're going to ditch."

She grabbed my hand again, and she dragged me out of the bathroom, down the hall, and out the school doors. Before I knew it, we were sitting under a tree a good hundred yards from the school.

"Hmm," Kaye said. "You're right. Sunlight didn't melt you. I was kind of hoping it would."

I made a face at her. "Really? You were hoping I would melt?"

She shook her head. "Only a little bit. I would have gotten you back in the darkness long enough to keep you preserved."

I laughed. ‘What do you say to something like that?’ I thought.

"Ok," she said. "You have to practice aura control. It's time to start. Are you ready?"

I shrugged. "I have no idea," I said.

"Good," Kaye said. "You're ready."

"How do you figure?" I asked.

"Well, if you thought you were ready, instead of saying 'I don't know,' you would definitely not be ready."

I shook my head. "That doesn't make any sense," I said. "Are you making this up?"

"No," Kaye said. "I'm really not. Listen to this: If you see a man wise in his own eyes, I tell you the truth, there is more hope for a fool than for him."

I cocked my head. "Are you quoting the Bible at me?" I asked.

"Of course," Kaye said.

"I thought you said your mom was a psychic," I retorted.

Kaye looked affronted. "So? Don't be biased. My mom is a psychic. And I do read the Bible."

I shrugged. "You know what? That is far from the weirdest thing I've heard or talked about today."

"How are you counting your days?" Kaye asked. "Is each loop-repeat a day, or are you counting everything that happens in the loop as one day?"

"You know," I said. "I hadn't thought about that yet. I've been too busy getting run over by my days. You know, I was shot in the face," I said.

"Wow," Kaye said. "What was that like?"

"You remind me of someone," I said.

"Oh yeah?" Kaye asked. "Who?"

"My babysitter."

Kaye looked affronted. "You have a babysitter?"

"Ugh, that's another long story," I said.

"We'll have time for all your long stories, but we have important work to do," Kaye said.

"Important work?" I asked.

"Yes. You have to memorize enough facts about me that you can quickly and easily convince me that you're stuck in a time loop and already know me."

"Really?" I asked.

Kaye nodded. "Yep. You've got to promise. Find me every loop. Convince me you're stuck in a time loop. And I will help you work on your aura control."

***

I spent the next two hours sitting in the grass underneath a maple tree with Kaye. The dappled sunlight and Kaye's patient, calm presence made me feel like the horrific events that had sent me into this situation had all been a dream.

She laughed when I was distracted from attempting one of the exercises by an ant crawling on me. I felt a tickle and looked down. I was instantly taken back to the point where I was pushed in front of the bullet, the exact reason why I was not currently talking to Not-me. Even though we had agreed that I was going to try his way, but also my way, I felt pushed into everything, out of control.

"Hey," Kaye said, "Earth to Freak, Earth to Freak, come in, is anybody there?"

I blinked and looked up from the ant. Kaye had been trying to get me to focus on keeping my eyes closed and sense the stone she was carrying. She had a crystal in her hand that was positively charged, giving it an apparent presence to anyone with a sensitivity. She said it should be no problem for me to feel it, but I was relying way too heavily on my eyesight to tell me what was going on with the auras around me, instead of troubling to actually feel the way she could.

I tested her and hid the stone. She promised she wasn't peeking, but she was able to walk straight to it every time, proving that she could, in fact, feel its presence. I thought this would be a remarkably handy ability to have, to be able to feel the presence of people or objects without looking. I started asking questions about what objects had a presence, but Kaye shook her head.

“We only have an hour left before Senior assembly. It’s time to learn about my safe phrase for in the case of a body-snatcher.”

I gaped at her, processing that sentence slowly. “Safe-phrase, in case of a body snatcher?”

“Sure, let’s say you’re my best friend, but acting weird and I want to confirm you’re not an alien, how do I tell? Or what if, your body was snatched and you found yourself suddenly in the body of a grown woman, how would you convince me you’re my best friend? Well, me and Becky worked it out.”

“This is oddly specific. Do you and Becky expect to need this?”

“After our own government has stated that have had contact with extra-terrestrials? Better safe than sorry.”

“Yeah, I feel like I should be the one making that point. But I haven’t been body-snatched, I’m stuck in a time loop, how does this help?”

“You get a way to prove you know me. That’s how. It’s not fair.”

“Wait, what’s not fair? You want to be stuck in a time loop?”

“Well, of course, but you will grow and get to know me and some day I’m going to be meeting the guy who already knows me, and I won’t know you at all. If I accept your story, it feels I’ll be forgetting you.”

I looked into her earnest brown eyes, wondering why she cared. She’d known me for an hour. I felt confused.

“Why do you care?” I said.

She looked stung, deflating a little. She dropped my gaze and stared picking blades of grass. “If you don’t want to be my friend, just say it… then I’ll only have to forget you once.”

I didn’t know what to say. I did want to be. “I…” it took me a second to form the thought, “I do want to be your friend. What I don’t understand, is why you want to be mine. I’m not used to people liking me and wanting to hang out, or be friends.”

She didn’t look up, continuing to pick grass. “It’s hard to explain. I got a feeling, like it was meant to be. I had to be in the hall, right when I met you. It was the strongest one I’ve ever had. My mom says I have a gift for intuition. I’ll get feelings about places, or people. Some are faint and hard to understand. Some aren’t. This one, it’s like a freight train. I’ve never felt anything like it. We’re supposed to be friends. We have to be. It’s…”

She faltered, looking up at me. Her eyes studied mine. “Like our-lives-depend-on-it important.”

I swallowed. Her intensity was a little overwhelming. “Okay,” I said. “I believe you. I don’t know what to say.”

“Promise,” she said, holding out a pinky, “pinky-promise you will find me every loop. You won’t leave me behind.”

I hesitated a moment, but the look in her eyes convinced me. I locked pinkies with her and said, “I will. I promise.”

“Okay!” Kaye said, “let’s get busy! You’ve only got an hour left before you die!” She grinned at me.

***