Ethan stood in front of a tall building, Evansdale Hall, where he had classes at Calimonax Private High School in Maine. He was surrounded by tall and luscious pines that seemed to point to the massive college-like hall. The point of this school was to give Juniors and Seniors a feel of what college is like. The campus uses buildings from an old and shut down university with large halls and dorms. Students learn in lecture-type classes with over 100 students and scheduled classes in which they have time to return to their dorm and roommate in-between classes. Everything about it screamed college, but the students weren’t quite as mature.
Some students focused on studies to get into a prestigious Ivy League school while others goofed off in college-like parties and hoped for an athletic scholarship. Ethan fit in the first group. He was a junior who was working on applying to Stanford for pre-med. He wanted to be a doctor and wanted to help save lives, but he was afraid he couldn’t stomach the job. His roommate, Jonathan, was interested in studying law abroad in Holland. It would be an understatement to say that they were stressed. They had classes and studies every day with their free time being confined by stress over the upcoming SAT.
Ethan started to walk away from the fancy hall and walked south towards his dorm room, Sangrimmor Hall. It was a 20-minute walk filled with nothingness and uninteresting thoughts. The dark green grass and pine needles engulfed his vision as he unfocused his eyes. Green on both sides with a grayish concrete line in the middle. He stayed like this until he got back to his destination.
A certain fog held low on the entrance, like his old Halloween dance parties or dry ice. It felt like he was imagining it. It was after October, in fact, it was January of the second semester. It could have been cold and wet air condensing, for his legs started to chill as he walked towards the massive stone structure. His eyes focused once again and he saw… well he saw nothing interesting. For some reason, he felt as if there should be something going on in the lobby. He felt suspense that could only be quenched with a dorm-wide event. To his surprise, nothing was going on in the lobby, literally nothing. The only life was the desk clerk who stared at his monitor intently, not even realizing that a student walked in. Ethan took little notice as he wanted to continue his studies as soon as possible. He walked to his elevator and ascended up to the 13th floor. The elevator seemed sluggish and just as lively as the lobby. A low ding noise played through the speakers above the buttons. Ethan always tuned out the noise; he actually found it quite easy. He checked his watch, 6:57 PM. He had stayed up at school to get some tutoring by the smartest kid he knew, Oracio. He was a Hispanic Senior in his Calculus and AP Bio classes. The elevator dinged for the 13th time and the doors opened to a low-lit corridor that contained many bedrooms. Since SATs were coming up, the dorms were always quiet. Students either studied in a library or in the comfort of their bed. Ethan's footsteps echoed through the long and narrow hallway. The pressure in the air started to increase as he neared his room, the one at the end of the hall. He chose it because it was secluded from the rest of the dorms; he could be loud or quiet and no one would be able to tell the difference. A weird smell filled up his nostrils as he got halfway down the hall. A minute had passed since he got out of the elevator, and the combination of the walking, the long studying, the monotonous walls, and the pale fog made him doze out of reality until he got to his door, so he didn’t notice the smell or theorize what it was until he opened the door. Red. His floors were never red. His walls were never red. But they were then. Rich rank red stained the floor and back wall. Jonathan sat at his chair, face down. It didn’t take long for Ethan to figure out what had happened. The door seemed to shut on its own and the room became hard to breathe in. He couldn’t throw up; no matter how sick he felt he couldn’t throw up. In fact, he couldn’t move. His shoulders and knees felt heavy as if 50 pounds was slowly placed on his back. No sound pierced the silence. No tear fell to the floor. No movement came from either Ethan or Jonathan. The moment felt like hours, no, days. He was finally focused, finally interested, and the suspense was quenched. BEEP BEEP BEEP. His startled eyes diverted to the clock, 7:00.
AM. Ethan looked at his clock again in bewilderment. He wasn’t standing still in his room, but rather in his bed, under his sheets. He checked the date and sure enough, it was yesterday, the 11th of January. He checked the desk at the back of the room in fear, but there was no red, no Jonathan. Jonathan was sleeping in his bed, perfectly alive. The dense fog that had covered his room and the exterior of the building was gone. ‘It had to have been a dream. There was no reason, no hint of it. Plus it’s the same day.’
“Hey, you up?” Hoarse words came from under Jonathan’s covers. Unprecedented happiness flared on Ethan’s face. His friend was okay and he gets more time with him.
Ethan went about his day cheerful, happier than he was in his ‘dream’, but he still had a sense of deja vu. Ethan stood in front of Evansdale Hall, the green pines inviting him for a walk back to his dorm. His 20-minute walk was filled with interesting sights: students studying outside, kids running around in a park, couples eating dinner at a cafe, the final sunlight glistening off of the gold statue of a civil war hero. By the time he got back to his dorm, this all disappeared. Ethan's stomach began to feel heavier than ever as he noticed the fog that seemed to be alive circling the building. ‘No’ he thought. He rushed into the lobby and it was empty once again, except for the desk clerk. “Hey! Has Jonathan came through here!”
The barely paid man was startled. “Ummm, yeah I believe so…” He was cut off by Ethan dashing to the elevator.
Ethan had realized that his whole day felt too familiar, even though he had a different range of emotions compared to the ‘dream’ he had and this encounter was nothing like ‘yesterday’ he felt as if he had gone through this again. He rushed to the elevator and tapped his foot as the elevator slowly descended to pick him up. This was the longest moment of his life. He rushed in and pressed the close door button multiple times a second until the doors actually closed. He couldn’t stop thinking, ideas were rushing through his head, and the fog from outside began to appear in his vision. He had recently learned about Schrodinger’s Cat in his Quantum Physics class, a cat that due to the way quantum mechanics worked is both dead and alive. The experiment goes: A scientist places a cat and a radioactive sample that has a 50% chance to kill the cat in a box for 24 hours. The cat can be in one of two states, alive or dead, but in quantum mechanics, you are supposed to consider all states as a possibility and the reality. So until you open the box to record measurements, the cat is both alive and dead. The same could be said for Jonathan. Ethan looked at his watch, but his running didn’t save him any time; in fact, he was one minute late. It was 6:59. The 13th ding played and he dashed to the door of his room. He once again contemplated the new ‘Schrodinger’s Jonathan’ and hesitated before he opened the door. Red. Familiar red floors and walls. Fog came up from behind him and started to appear around Jonathan’s body. It took the shape of a face, and it smiled. It smiled the most horrid smile that Ethan had ever seen before in his life. He let out a bloodcurdling scream.
“Hey! What are you doing! Even though we are the most isolated room, even that could’ve woken up the other students”. Ethan didn’t smile this time around. He knew what time it was without having to look at the clock. 7:00 AM. “Okay don’t say anything. Why were you screaming anyways, did you have a wittle nightmware agwain?” Jonathan teased as he started to get up. He finally saw Ethan, all of the blood had left his face and no relief had appeared. “Hey, what’s wrong. You sick or something? Do I need to call the doctor?” No response. Jonathan feared the worst until…
“Why?” A faint mumble came from his pale lips. Jonathan had no idea what he said. “Not again.”
“I'm gonna go get you some medicine, your first class starts in an hour so I can meet you at Evansdale…” Jonathan was cut off.
“No, I’m fine… but you need to go. Take a vacation or something, don’t worry about the SAT!” Ethan's rambling just made Jonathan even more scared and creeped out. “I know what you are feeling and what you want to do. Please don’t.”
“What are you talking about, I’m just trying to help. Plus the SAT won’t even be that hard, I got a 1430 last time.” Jonathan truly had no idea what Ethan was referring to, and once Ethan realized it, it all came to him.
He jumped out of his bed and rushed towards the desk, grabbing a pair of scissors. He slashed at the air, and the utter nothingness. He looked like a psychopath. “That damn fog! That damn smile!” Ethan would not calm down. He looked outside and pointed to the grass and yelled “See! It’s that stuff, the smiles, the pressure, it’s all that fog!”
Jonathan stared in bewilderment. ‘Fog?’ There was no fog nor mist to be seen, just bright vivacious grass. “I think you need to sleep some more. Oracio can fill you in on what you miss in AP Bio and I can fill you in on Econ. Just try to get some sleep without screaming.” He chuckled even though he was worried about his friend and walked out of the dorm room to go take a shower.
Jonathan wouldn’t let Ethan out of his room, but it made no difference, Ethan couldn’t sleep at all. He didn’t see any fog or mist, however, so he thought that his resting was helping him. Minutes felt like hours and hours felt like days. Jonathan came back at noon to check on Ethan and bring him lunch. The paleness and dark rings had left his face as if he had 20 hours of sleep, but he still felt a bit uneasy when he saw Jonathan walk in. He didn’t want to tell Jonathan what ‘happened’ for some reason.
“Just eat whatever you feel like, I’ll be home by 6:00 and we’ll see how you feel then, okay?” Jonathan smiled as he set down the bag of McDonald's. He had a motherly aura and cared for his friend almost like a mother. Their relationship had always been that way. Even though they were just friends, some would mistake them for family despite the difference in their looks.
Ethan kept smiling until Jonathan left the room, and almost immediately, the curve flipped upside-down. He had no clue what to do. He hoped that Jonathan wouldn’t die now that the day had changed. ‘What if I just stress him out more?’ Ethan thought as he stared up at the ceiling. ‘Might as well get some rest, I suppose.’ Ethan laid down and fell asleep in just a few minutes. He didn’t budge until 6:30.
Ethan awoke to an empty room. He looked at the clock and then quickly glanced around the room; Jonathan was late. There wasn’t a sign that he had ever come back, and Ethan knew what had happened. He rushed to his window and looked out. Red and blue lights.
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Weeeeeooooouuuuu. Weeeeeooooouuuuu.
Ethan rushed to the elevator and ran out of the building just as fast as he ran in the ‘day before’. The sounds were coming from the library, a 15-minute run. He knew that he was too late, but he wanted to see for himself; he wanted to confirm his suspicions. People looked at him with confused faces and question marks written all over their faces. He looked like a crazy person, running to the sirens, mumbling to himself, eyes wide open despite dark rings that had reemerged.
Once Ethan had arrived, the police had taped off the facility and no one but men with uniforms entered or exited. He didn’t care. He ran straight through the caution tape and got halfway to the door before a female officer stopped him.
“Sorry kid but you’re not allowed back here. I don’t care if it’s your best friend or your sibling, but it’s the law.” She was stern and strict.
“Jonathan…” Ethan mumbled.
“Look kid, you don’t want to see it anyway. Stay here and I will give you a report if possible.” Ethan could tell that she was trying to be as nice as possible. After she spoke, Ethan peered past the doors and saw red.
He looked down at his watch, 6:47. He had some time left, but not much. He had already figured out that the day reset and started at 7:00, and he knew that somehow the fog was related.
The Fog.
Ethan finally unfocused on the inside and noticed the fog rising around the stone building. As he was escorted by the cop, he kept his eyes on the rising clouds that now swirled around the triangular arches. The face appeared again, but this time it looked like it was laughing. “Alright, I’ll be back with some news in maybe 10 minutes.” The cop said before she walked away.
Ethan didn’t have that time, but he didn’t reject it. He couldn’t stop what had already happened, but he could learn everything possible to try to stop in next time. He backed up to take a good look at the fog. This was the first time he actually saw it for more than a glance. It slowly took the shape of a man, and the eerie smile remained. The fog lowered and soon surrounded him. It was more than a spiral though, it was a vortex. He got wild stares from onlookers; they couldn’t see the fog.
He looked down at his watch again, 6:50. He didn’t have much time. “Who…what are you?” He asked. Nothing. “Why?” Nothing. “Please, just tell me something!” Everyone was now staring at him.
“Cir…cle…bre…k…the…cir…cle…” That's all that the fog said. It was enough.
Enough to make Ethan go crazy. His mind started to race. The fog could talk. Circle. Death. Life. Circle of Life. Break the circle. Break the Circle of Life. Ethan collapsed. He couldn’t take the mental strain. People looked at him in weird ways, and when the female officer came out, she took control of the situation. She started to put him on a stretcher and put him in an ambulance when…
BEEP BEEP BEEP. Morning again. The circle had started again.
Every day felt the same. For a ‘week’ Ethan had gone through mostly the same events. Skipping class, looking up the supernatural, yelling at random patches of fog, worrying about Jonathan, finding Jonathan dead. No matter what Ethan did, where he went, what he told Jonathan, it didn’t change the outcome. He never had another conversation with the fog again.
The fog kept getting worse. Soon it clouded up most of his vision and after another week, he started to hear voices from it. “Circle.” “Blood.” “Death.” It only spoke one word; no, he only heard one word. Ethan didn’t care how he looked when confronting the fog, or trying to stop the cycle. No one was gonna remember anyway, the day would just revert to normal; no, not normal. Nothing about this was normal. Crazy fog, ominous words, pale skin, dark eyes, red, Red, RED. Ethan couldn’t take it.
It was 5:24. Three ‘weeks’ had passed. He stared motionless at the fog in front of Evansdale Hall. Nothing moved. 5:25. 5:26. 5:27. 5:28. 5:29. 5:30. 5:35. 5:45. 5:59. 6:00. Ethan looked up. Jonathan had not come back. Ethan knew he didn’t stop the cycle. He had broken nothing. He went to the library. Nothing. He went to Oracio’s dorm. Nothing. He went to Jonathan’s class. BEEP BEEP BEEP. He did the same thing the next day.
It was 5:24. Three ‘weeks and one day’ had passed. He stared motionless at the fog in front of Evansdale Hall. Nothing moved. 5:25. 5:26. 5:27. 5:28. 5:29. 5:30. 5:35. 5:45. 5:59. 6:00. Ethan looked up. Jonathan had not come back. Ethan knew he didn’t stop the cycle. He had broken nothing. He went to Jonathan’s class. Nothing. He went to McDonald's. Nothing. He went to…BEEP BEEP BEEP. He did the same thing the next day.
It was 5:24. Three ‘weeks and two days’ had passed. He stared motionless at the fog in front of Evansdale Hall. Nothing moved. 5:25. 5:26. 5:27. 5:28. 5:29. 5:30. 5:35. 5:45. 5:59. 6:00. Ethan looked up. Jonathan had not come back. Ethan knew he didn’t stop the cycle. He had broken nothing. He went to the main hall. Nothing. He went back to his dorm. Nothing. He went to the library again. Nothing. BEEP BEEP BEEP. He did the same thing the next day.
It was 5:24. Three ‘weeks and three days’ had passed. He stared motionless at the fog in front of Evansdale Hall. Nothing moved. 5:25. 5:26. 5:27. 5:28. 5:29. 5:30. 5:35. 5:45. 5:59. 6:00. Ethan looked up. Jonathan had not come back. Ethan knew he didn’t stop the cycle. He had broken nothing. He went to Maria, a girl Jonathan liked. Nothing. He called Jonathan’s mom. Nothing. He checked McCurfew Park. Nothing. BEEP BEEP BEEP. He did the same thing the next day.
It was 5:24. Three ‘weeks and four days’ had passed. He stared motionless at the fog in front of Evansdale Hall. Nothing moved. 5:25. 5:26. 5:27. 5:28. 5:29. 5:30. 5:35. 5:45. 5:59. 6:00. Ethan looked up. Jonathan had not come back. Ethan knew he didn’t stop the cycle. He had broken nothing. He wanted to break something. He needed to break something. He broke something.
Ethan punched his desk. He had no hope. He was pulling hair from his head. He could barely see without either fog or tears welling up in his eyes. He constantly heard voices that didn’t exist. Jonathans appeared everywhere, then turned to fog. He saw himself crying everywhere he went. He looked to the corner, and he saw himself. Red. Blood. He was dead this time. Break the Circle of Life. He knew what had to be done.
6:58. Ethan stood next to his desk, staring at the dent that was punched into it. Blood dripped from his knuckled and hit the floor. ‘That won’t be the only blood here,’ Ethan thought to himself. 6:59. He didn’t know what time it was, but he didn’t care; his objective was the same. He opened the drawer to his desk and saw only fog. The fog started to form into something, a knife. Ethan’s hand slowly reached for it. 6:59:59. Ethan touched the knife. 6:59:59. Time seemed to stop around him. Ethan couldn’t move.
“HAHAHAHA.” A scary, low pitched voice appeared behind Ethan. He couldn’t turn around, but he knew exactly who it was, The Fog. “Fearrrrr…sooooo…GOOD!” A thousand chills were sent down Ethan’s spine. The Fog moved towards him and enclosed him. A huge vortex appeared around him like at the library. Through the vortex Ethan swore he could see something, someone.
The vortex began to dissipate, and Ethan was suddenly able to move. He looked around and saw nothing. Pure black. “Where…” He was cut off.
“Fear. Such a…fun emotion” The voice was clearer now. It almost sounded human.
Ethan turned around and saw a man, gray with no features. He was made of the Fog. “Who…what are you?” Ethan walked towards the man with an arm outstretched as if he wanted to see if what he saw was really real.
“I am fear” Ethan stopped in his tracks, an involuntary feeling of fear came over him. “What you feel right now. Thats from me. Illusions, illness, death, screams. Every scary thing in your world is cause of me.” Ethan’s fear was rational but it wasn’t his. “Humans are some fun play tools.”
“PLAY TOOLS?” Is what Ethan wanted to say, but he couldn’t even open his mouth.
“What you saw, what you feared the most, the death of your friend. I killed your friend.” Tears were swelling in Ethan’s eyes. Every inch of his body wanted to destroy whatever this creature was. “Now you fear not being able to stop me. You fear living in this loop forever. So now, that must come true. You will be stuck there, tearful, forced to look at me, THE MAN WHO MURDERED YOUR BEST FRIEND” Ethan couldn’t take it. He was truly going insane. He didn’t even want to live anymore.
In an instant, the man went away and Ethan was forced back into reality. 7:00.
Ethan had no fear. Ethan had no emotions. Ethan had no thoughts. Ethan had no will to live. Ethan had no reason to live. Ethan had nothing but one thing, the wish to end his life and this cycle all together.
8:00. 9:00. 10:00. He didn’t get up. 11:00. 12:00. He finally opened his eyes. There was no fog, no illusions, no fear. He calmly walked to his desk and opened the drawer. There was no fog, no illusions, no fear. He picked up a knife and a single tear ran down his cheek and dropped to the floor. There was no fog, no illusions, no fear. One swift cut ended his life, ended the pain. There was no fog, no illusions, no fear. Ethan had died, but his soul never left his body, for some reason, his mind and thoughts were still in tact. Fog started to swirl himself as he started to realize that he had not found answer. There was fog, illusions, fear.
It was 12:10. Three ‘weeks and five days’ had passed. Ethan lay motionless surrounded by fog inside his dorm. He didn’t move. 12:11. 12:12. 12:13. 12:14. 12:15. 12:20. 12:30. 1:00. 2:00. 4:00. 5:00. 6:00. Jonathan had finally came back. Ethan knew he didn’t stop the cycle. He had broken nothing. He had only broken his mind, his heart, everything in his life. Jonathan stared inside the room. Red. Fog swirled around Ethan’s body, Jonathan could finally see it now.
“Ethan…” Jonathan dashed to his friend’s dead body. There was no note, no reason. Jonathan started to cry. Time slowed down for the both of them. Only 30 minutes had passed but it felt like an eternity. Ethan was forced to watch his friend cry and go mad. Another 15 minutes passed and Jonathan stood up to walk to close the door. He wanted time alone.
“Ethan.” Jonathan sat at his bed. “Why?” Tears rolled down his face. “You laid in bed and didn’t respond to me, so I knew that something was wrong…but this?” Jonathan looked at the knife in Ethan’s hand. “Jonathan couldn’t get anymore words out.
Ethan wanted to speak. He wanted to talk to Jonathan. He wanted to live again. He wanted to be sane again. The next 15 minutes of silence felt like 15 centuries. Physical and mental pain surged through Ethan’s body. Torture. Absolute Torture.
Ethan’s vision went blank. It was 6:59:59, and once again, he was standing in pitch black, staring at the man of fog.
“Fear?” Ethan looked at the fog, who didn’t respond. “WHAT DO I FEAR NOW?” Ethan ran towards the figure, but no matter how much he worked, how far he felt he went, he never closed any distance between the two of them.
“You won’t catch me.” Ethan stopped in his tracks. He figured that he had to give into his fear. He couldn’t stop it, but he could change it. “Now you fear that you won’t ever know how to stop the cycle.” Visions of Jonathan and death appeared in his mind. Jonathan dead. He couldn’t control himself. “You fear yourself being controlled by fear.” Ethan walked towards the fog and the fog surround him, creating a shell that pulled his legs and arms to force him to do movements. The fog dissipated and appeared before Ethan, tears rolling down his eyes. “Now what do you fear?”
Ethan barely spoke, the words came out raspy and broken, but the fog could understand him. “Circle. Break. Break the Circle of Life. Kill. Kill Jonathan.”
“Ding Ding Ding.” The man of fog said. "Your worst fear has been imagined."
7:00
Three weeks and six days of torture.
26 times, Jonathan died.
1 time, Ethan died.
One more day
Four weeks.
Jonathan would die a 27th time.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
Ethan got up from his bed, tears rolled down his eyes. Suddenly he couldn’t control his movements. He got up and opened the desk drawer. He grabbed the knife in there and turned to Jonathan.
“Hey Ethan, what are you doing?” Ethan walked towards his fearful friend, his expression blank. “Stop that! It’s not funny!” Jonathan scurried off of his bed and ran to the door. Ethan followed. “HEY DON’T!”
Stab.
Ethan came to. He saw Jonathan laying on the floor. Red. The fog had disappeared. His worst fear had finally come true. He broke the cycle.
It was 7:01. Four ‘weeks’ had passed. He stared motionless at his dead friend and the knife in his back. The knife that Ethan used to kill his best friend. Nothing moved, not even Ethan. 7:02. 7:03. 7:04. 7:05. 7:10. 7:30. 8:00. 9:00. 10:00. 12:00. 3:00. 6:00. 6:59 PM.
7:00.