Loop ?

“Hey.” An annoying voice said into James’ ear tugging his arm.

He rolled over to his other side, hoping that would dissuade the annoyance.

“Hey.” The shaking got more intense.

James still tried his hardest to ignore the annoyance and go back to sleep.

“Dad said he’s not going to drive me till I get you out of bed.” The annoyance admitted, poking his face.

The looper bundled his pent-up annoyance into his pillow and smashed it into his brother's face. Michael rolled off the bed and onto the ground, looking pleased with himself.

“See, knew you were awake?” Michael said, almost in a cheer. “What's with the sleeping in?”

James had about a thousand answers for that. Maybe it was the fact he’d realised he wasn’t a person anymore. Maybe it was the horrifying understanding that he didn’t think he should leave anymore.

Maybe it was the memory of Nicholas burning.

The reason didn’t particularly matter. It wasn’t why James was feeling the way he was. It was just that he was feeling like nothing in the world mattered anymore.

Because it didn’t.

“I’m depressed Michael,” James said in a soft, dead voice. He turned to lie back down and embrace sweet darkness. “Just tell dad I’m depressed and he’ll leave me alone.”

The room went silent, a soft buzz of the waffle maker simmering through the bedroom door. James nestled into his blanket, praying for sleep to come sooner so he could escape faster. His dreams would offer him more of an honest reality than getting up and facing this facade. Sleeping was an escape.

A welcome release from the Loop.

“You don’t get depressed.”

What? James shifted and turned till he was facing Michael. The freckly brat was holding onto his pillow and staring at him with blank eyes. Like a dear caught in headlights. Seeing it almost made James want to laugh.

“What does that even mean?” James questioned, eyeing the brat.

Michael squinted, seemingly just as confused as he was. “You’ve never been depressed. Sure you get sad, but not depressed. You’re just not that type of person.”

His brother’s words vexed James just a little. He found it hard to place exactly why. Was it because he was basically just denying that he had a right to be depressed? Or was it because Michael was the single most annoying entity on the planet? Probably a mixture of the two. James slumped and turned back to face the wall.

“Since when do you get to decide if I’m depressed.”

He meant to say it nochantly, but in the process almost snarled it out at his younger brother. The looper felt guilt started to seep in, dulling his horrible mood.

“Since I’m your brother.” Michael declared. “I’ve seen you go through too many shitty things and come out fine to get depressed now. So stop being dramatic and just get out of bed.”

“No.”

“Then why?”

“Because there’s no point!.” James shouted at his brother.

He pulled himself out of his bed in his boxers and faced the ceiling, imagining the sky above that it concealed. James’ voice reverberated across the thin walls but it didn’t matter. He felt so pent up, so concealed, so many feelings bubbling inside his head that he couldn’t keep it all together. The bubble burst.

“I’m done. With this. With you. With all of it.” James screamed. If only the world could hear him. If only his cries didn’t fall on deaf ears.

The looper's knees gave out under him, indignation mixed with terrible sorrow as he convulsed. Wetness dulled his cheaps and snort made it hard to breathe as he tried to choke down tears. It didn’t work. Before he knew it he was on the soft carpet floor huddled in on himself in the fetal position. Convulsing and crying. A mess of tears and stolen hope.

Every time.

Every single time James thought he was beyond this. Beyond these simple emotions, he’d felt so much. Something drew him back. Someone broke his numbness. The dull blanket he surrounded himself with. Then something would give hope that maybe, just maybe, he might have some sort of life beyond the Loop.

Then this fucking place rips it away.

And now he knew that it was for the better. That the world would be worse off with him back in it.

But it’s not fair.

James tried to control his breakdown and tried to get up but he couldn’t. He’d been kicked down too many times to even stand anymore.

You did this to me. You made me this way.

He felt that same age-old hatred for the loop. It just brought more pain.

You took my death. You took my sanity. You took my will. You took everything from me.

The carpet was warm. James felt so cold.

I hate you.

He hated all of it. The system, the Loop, the world, the people. All of it was bad. All of it had to go. Every single last one of-

“It’s going to be alright, mate.”

A big rough hand rubbed his back as gently as it could while the other held his shoulder like an awkward hug. James blinked and saw Hugh’s concerned face staring back down at him with a mask of composure on his face. His eyes looked angry, but the Looper could tell it wasn’t directed towards him.

His father sat next to him, keeping in an embrace that was as close to a hug as James had felt since he was little. His thoughts which had been racing at a million miles an hour slowed. The frenzy of feelings cleared slightly.

For those blissful moments, James escaped the cold sinking entrapment festering in his mind. He felt alive again. It was so very terrifying. The feeling of an episode on the verge. The looper knew he couldn’t be near them when it happened.

With a heavy shove, he pushed his dad aside and strode past Michael. Both were concerned for him when they should’ve been concerned for themselves.

In nothing but his boxers, James stole his father’s car keys and ran down the stairs with all his might praying he’d be able to escape before his episode.

**************

James found himself in a coffee shop, with casual clothes he didn't recognise. Literally found himself. The last thing he vaguely recalled was running down his apartment and then bam, coffee shop. His favorite one. A cup of coffee was steaming in his hands and the staff seemed unperturbed by his presence so he hadn’t gone off the rails too far.

But still, not remembering what he’d just been doing was terrifying to the point that it left the looper shaking.

He had thought that getting away from his family might bring him some calm.

It didn’t.

At least the coffee on the ride to hell is tasty. James thought after taking a sip and ignoring his buzzing phone. Right now keeping in contact with anyone else was just as likely to teeter him over the edge as it was to bring him back.

James could feel the fragility of his own mind, edging closer to the breaking point every second.

So he sat there, gazing at the floral patterns on the walls and drinking his coffee. No phone. No music. No conversations. Just him, the pretty patterns, and coffee after coffee.

The staff must’ve thought he was having a mental breakdown after the seventh cup, but they never denied him more. James had never reset the Loop with caffeine.

I wonder how many cups before it all falls away again? Killing himself now would not get him any further away from his problems. In fact, it would do the opposite.

But for a blissful moment, he would feel none of what he felt now, and that sounded very attractive. The looper needed that bliss to sort through his own thoughts. To find some key to the madness.

Somehow his mind kept lingering back to what had brought on this episode. Belief. The mirror James had said that was integral to escaping, which meant it had to be delusion. Because there was no escaping.

Or was there?

Whatever the case, James had come to believe that he didn’t deserve it. In the search for belief, he’d ended up at Nicholas Achen, the first person to kill him. The progenitor of this whole mess. A monster, who’d reminded James that he was no better.

“This seat taken?”

James blinked and noticed Jake was standing in front of him. His sandy blonde hair was tied back in a bun and his eyes told the truth his expression masked. That he was on edge, no matter how hard his carefree composure tried to tell James otherwise.

“It is unless you buy me another one,” James said with a wry smile, tapping his empty coffee cup against the table. His mind was whirling. How had Jake even found him?

Jake sat and offered him another cup he’d already ordered. The looper snatched it with a shakey hand and went for…

…is this fifteen or sixteen cups. Eh, doesn’t matter.

“Rough day?” Jake asked.

“You have no idea.”

“Want to talk about it?”

James' mouth curled into a frown. He didn’t. Talking about it wouldn’t make it better. That's what he told himself. But his lips chose different words with a cold tone.

“If you’ll actually listen.”

It was Jake's turn to frown, in the bullish way he so often did when something didn’t go his way. “What do you mean actually listen?”

“I mean…” James paused. His brain ticked as he sorted through how to word it. “...if you’ll give me a chance. A real chance. Actually hear me out. If you want to help you need to listen to me. Please just listen.”

He had meant it to come off cold. James knew Jake’s presence didn’t do any favors for his mental state. Especially not when he was shaking and sweating from the caffeine. Still, it came out more as a plea.

James inspected his friend's expression and found it had twisted uncomfortably. But there was determination in it, a force of will to do his utmost to help his friend that James appreciated. The looper could see his own shifting granite eyes and quivering lip. For someone so old, he looked much like a child begging for help.

Jake swallowed loudly. “Lay it on me.”

“Are you-”

He held at hand interrupting James.

“Nope. No arguing. Just tell me what's wrong. Whatever it is.” Jake seemed completely serious, and equally uneasy. “Whatever it is. Just tell me.”

When James remained silent at Jakes request he pushed further.

“I can see there's something welling up James. I’ve been your best friend most of your life.”

Jake paused and his mouth curled into the kindest smile James’ thought he’d ever seen.

“Tell me all of it. I’ll listen and I promise I can handle it.”

The earnest desire to help trickled into James so heavily that he felt the walls he’d put up after so many attempts to express to others his pain, crumble in an instant. Any protection he’d put up to protect himself from the truth fell away. Jake’s genuine care along with James’ terrible string of Loops had opened the floodgates.

James just couldn’t keep it in, shaking with adrenaline, caffeine, and deep mourning for his past self. He let it all out. There had been times in past Loops that he’d tried to convey what was going on to other, especially Jake. But this time was different. He didn’t feel panic or desperation. He just let it all out. A flood of information about the Loop and everything he’d experienced.

Every time Jake stopped to question him, either for clarification or just to think about something, James made sure to be as clear and vivid as possible. He left no detail out. All the traumatic and daunting truths from the many ways he’d died, to his slowly dying embers of hope, to all those haunting episodes.

The looper told Jake secrets he couldn’t have known. Showed off how violent and rigid of a shift his personality and thought process had suffered. At some point he even started speaking in fluent French, the only other language Jake knew, just to get the point across.

Many times he’d twisted the truth to make himself seem better. Make the Loop seem better. Glorify it. But for the first time, James simply told the raw, willbreaking truth. From his original confusion to his existential dread blossoming into a feeling of power at being able to reset the world. That had quickly devolved into preparing, training, and learning for the day he would leave. At the start, he’d thought it a certainty that he would leave. That had been a cruel lie. Then he’d hoped that one day it might end.

That lie had been crueler.

He explained much to an almost aghast-looking Jake how he’d simply lost all hope at one point.

That he’d gave up.

Many times.

But that last time felt like it would put an end to any hope I had left. Until the mirror man had come to him and sent him spiraling again, down a rabbit hole with no rabbit. The looper thought about leaving that part out. But he didn’t.

Jake wanted all of the truth.

He was welcome to James’ personal little nightmare.

Towards the beginning, Jake humored him but kept a healthy amount of suspicion and disbelief. More worried about James for coming up with all this than the possibility that the looper was telling the truth. Yet the more details he gave Jake, the more tragic and horrid the tale became, all in crystal clear detail, the less Jake questioned.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The less he talked until eventually his best friend just nodded silently whenever James asked if he was still listening. Jake had never believed him about the Loop before. No matter how close they were, it just wasn’t in the man’s nature to give in to superstition. It seemed for once he might’ve grasped the horrific nature of the situation in all its truth.

When he was done the fresh midday had turned into dusk and the staff were giving them both angry looks like they should buy something else or leave.

Jake idly poked the lip of his coffee, face lost in thought and concentration.

The looper chose to not bother his friend, simply taking in the feeling of letting it all out. It felt… James wasn’t sure. Whatever the feeling was, he hadn’t been blessed with it in a while. Was it relief? It felt like a cold breeze had past through the inferno inside him.

Is this what I should believe in? The truth. Like a gentle rag that washed over him, cleaning away the stains on his soul. So calming. So freeing.

Truth. James thought to himself. Maybe there’s some merit to that.

“Did you learn French just for me?” Jake asked all of a sudden, breaking James’ concentration.

“No.” James shook his head. “But I did learn how to make sushi at your suggestion.”

Jake crooked his head.

“How would being a sushi chef help you when the world going to end?”

James shrugged.

“Never know when you might get your hands on good salmon.”

They both stared at each other expressionless and then James’ own mouth cracked into a grin. He chuckled. Genuinely laughed for the first time in who knew how long. Jake did too. They both laughed at the passable joke until they were crying, barely capable of breathing. James didn’t even think it was that funny but every time he saw Jake’s dumb wheezing face it made him laugh harder.

Eventually, they were both slumped in their chairs, cooling down from that settling tension.

“I imagine you’ve tried to tell me before haven’t you Jazz,” Jake said, misty eyes gazing at the hanging floral ceiling. “And I just thought you were insane.”

“I’m surprised you believe me at all, to be honest.”

“Is this the first time?”

James realised that Jake’s voice was shaking as he spoke and that he refused to look the looper in the eye. Regardless, he still told him the truth. Because it felt good. So good.

“It is.”

The looper could see his friend's eyes swelling with tears but Jake didn’t shake, or hiccup, or even choke on his breath. There was not even a trembling lip. Yet the tears still streaked down his face.

“Dammit Jazz.” Jake stuttered. “I’m so sorry man. I’m just… sorry.”

Before James could process it his best friend was hugging him. He’d practically leaped over the table. Hugging was new for James. Jake was definitely the more physical of the two but he and James never really hugged. It felt nice. Jake was too busy crying on his shoulder instead of on it to make the embrace less awkward.

James didn’t mind.

Jake is the best. James decided. He definitely the greatest human that’s ever been born.

He patted his best friend on the back till he got all his tears out. Jake stood, wiping his face with his cuffed sleeve.

“After today's over, I won't remember any of this, will I?” Jake asked after he’d cleaned himself up.

The question elicited a larger ebb of sorrow in James’ heart than he expected. “No.” He answered with bitter truth. “You won’t.”

A grim air passed over Jake’s posture before he banished it with a carefree smile James regonised. He smiled like tomorrow didn’t matter. So much so that the looper found it glowed, brilliant in halls of dark endless loops.

“Then we're making the most of today!” Jake shouted, pulling James up by the arm.

He didn’t even have a chance to argue before Jake dragged him out of the cafe, leaving his cup of coffee.

*****************

“Can you stop calling it my John Elber?” James asked.

“But it definitely is.” Jake refused, nudging him in the ribs.

“We’re not naming the Loop after the psychopath who murdered your dad.”

“Oh, but we are.”

They were sitting on a hill not too far from Jake’s apartment with piles of drinks around them. An outsider might’ve thought it was just two college kids getting drunk, but to James, it felt more akin to old friends reminiscing after not seeing each other for years. He hadn’t been able to have a candid conversation with Jake in such a long time that it was almost exactly that.

And the first thing Jake brought up in their little isolated hill was how similar the Loop was to the man who had murdered his father.

James did not agree, and for some reason, Jake found that fact hilarious.

“I don't see the similarity,” James said in annoyance, taking a sip of his gin.

Its cold taste buried warmth in his stomach that helped to fight off the chilly winds that hit him on the grassy hill. If he breathed hard enough he could watch it freeze in the air, but James hadn’t realised just how cold the night of the Loop was until he was forced to wear stolen shorts and a t-shirt.

Jake remained unbothered by it, sitting on his jacket in a polo taking sips of a beer he wanted to try. From a glance, you could tell he was regretting his choice of drink.

“But it is the same though,” Jake assured him. “Not that the pain was the same. That’s not what I mean… yeah okay maybe I should’ve worded it better.”

He turned to face James and stubbed his beer into the wet grass.

“What I meant is that what you did for me then, I’ll do for you now. I’m not letting you leave this Loop with a John Elber.”

“Jake…” James started but found it hard to find the words to articulate what he felt. His mind was tinged with hints of nostalgia at the thought of John Elber. But what did Jake think he did for him.

He asked, and Jake explained John Elber to him, from his perspective. It was enlightening.

John Elber was, to put it frankly, half the reason Jake and James were friends to begin with. He was responsible for a double homicide that had involved Jake’s father and his father’s best friend. From the perspective of the outside world, it was a clear-cut premeditated murder. But the outside world didn’t rule the court opinion. Public opinion was not always jury opinion.

John Elber was a dangerous, psychotic man, but he was also a coward scared to face the consequences of his actions. When they were little, James had bonded with Jake first over their shared loss of a parent, then over a shared hatred.

Jake hated Elber.

James hated himself.

That bond had built a kinship in them, but until Jake explained it to him on the hill, James had never thought so deeply of it. Nor had he thought very deeply of the plans they had made together. John Elber’s case was stretched out far longer than anyone expected, to the point that a very real chance of avoiding punishment.

Jake would not have that.

And Jake was James only friend. In a time when he felt so much hate for himself, the looper had found it almost simple to channel some of it towards Elber along with his best friend. For six-year-olds, their methods were rather methodical. They complied with his usual walking habits, hid kitchen knives under their beds, and spent sleepovers late into the night devising how the two of them would get him.

And where.

Being children, the whole thing seemed almost comical to outsiders. The adults around them were concerned, but mainly for James and Jake. They weren’t concerned about the very real conviction both boys possessed.

“Had that farce of a trial not ended,” Jake said in a heavy tone. “We would’ve killed him. I’m sure of it. I had other friends I told about it. A bunch of them. But you were the only one that ever took me seriously, and the only one that was more than willing to help.”

“He deserved it,” James said simply.

Because it was simple to him. John Elber didn’t deserve to live. He’d been convinced of that long before the Loop begun and nothing had changed.

“I know.” Jake acknowledged “But you were the only one that understood it the way I did. For now, I understand the Loop the way you do. So it’s the same, sort of.”

Which will only make it more painful when you disappear again. James had suffered many losses in the Loop, but for the first time in a long time, he’d found a version of someone he truly didn’t want to lose. Not for anything. However the sky above them was darkening, and the streets were growing busier. They were minutes away from Vog the void eye coming to say hi.

Been a while since I called it Vog. James noted.

Was it because he felt more at ease with Jake around?

Both of them continued to chat about their memories of each other and the Loop as the dusk of azure grew closer. Neither took their eye off the sky as they snaked on all the favorite foods they’d splurged on and drank to their heart's content.

It was then, after the azure had started to flash across the sky that Jake finally spoke again.

“You’re going to escape, James,” Jake said. He sounded somber yet serious, and when the looper looked at his face he could only see a strained smile.

“You can’t know that.” James refuted.

“You said that you’d started to believe in truth, right?” Jake asked, turning to stare at him.

Jake’s eyes were colder than James could recall ever seeing. Filled with malice and hate on a level he didn’t think his friend was capable of. If it was directed towards him, James might’ve shattered, but it wasn’t. He could feel it. The same way he had felt. All that endless fury was directed at the world around him.

Jake hated the Loop as much as James did.

“I did.”

Telling the truth felt so good. Is it because everything else is a lie? James wondered.

Jake shifted his eyes from James and gazed back up at the sky. His gaze wandered the night, looking lost. “Then you have to accept, that one way or another, you’re going to get out.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because it’s inevitable,” Jake confessed. “If the Loop goes on forever, then you have to get out, don’t you? Because in comparison to eternity, the time it will take you to escape will be shorter.”

No. James shook his head. That was a nice train of thought but it simply wasn’t reality. Not his reality. There was no getting past an immovable object, no matter how much time he had. He wasn’t a hummingbird, sharpening his beak against a mountain and slowly whittling it down, atom by atom. He was a fraction of light sucked into a black hole, destined to stay hovering on its horizon until the end of ends.

The looper's own eyes flicked back to the giant void slowly being eaten away in the sky.

“But it’s not that simple Jake. Getting out just isn’t possible.” James said. Years upon years had made his conviction solid as the granite.

And yet…

And yet Jake’s next words made something inside James waver. For just a moment, the constant scratching inside his mind went silent.

“I think the mirror man was right. But wrong at the same time. He told you to find something else to believe in. Like truth, or love, or peace. Maybe he meant all the hate you have in your heart. Maybe he meant the kindness you're capable of instead. Personally, I don't believe in all that crap.” Jake paused. Then said something that rocked James to his core.

“I believe in the kid who had every right to hate the world but chose to embrace it. The kid who was dealt a bad hand and still chose to play it as best he could. A boy, who wanted to give good, because he knew how painful life could be. A man who lived the same day for centuries and never truly gave up.”

James stared at his friend who in turn gazed up at the sky. Something inside him churned in a way it never had before. He felt like he was on the verge of tears, but not the bad kind. His mind felt like a torrent, but not the kind that caused an episode.

It was something else.

Something new.

What is this?

“I don’t understand,” James said his face one of pure bewilderment.

“There’s only one thing you need to believe in to get out of the Loop James,” Jake responded. “And it’s the same thing I believe in.”

“What?” James almost stuttered. “What is it?”

Jake turned and in that moment James realised that the world was collapsing. Instinctually he could feel it. The world around him started to fade away, and Jake along with it. He reached out a hand but it was too late. The darkness stole away Jake’s body before James could hear what he had to say.

Then it tried to take away feel away the feeling bubbling inside him.

The Loop had taken his death.

The Loop had taken his sanity.

The Loop had taken away his hope.

And now, The Loop was trying to take away the last reprieve.

The very last thing James would ever have. Left there, suspended in the darkness. It stole away not only his best friend but all the goodness Jake had managed to instill inside him. All the tireless effort his greatest friend had made, snuffed out.

James felt something occur, deep inside him. Inside a place not even the void could touch.

Something Snapped.

No. James refused.

He could feel the entirety of the emptiness trying to shovel away all of his feelings and he refused. It pushed him down inside the darkness.

For the first time, the looper pushed back. All his will could never measure up to the flood of power he felt when that thing deep inside of him had simply snapped. Suddenly James felt the void do something it had never done before.

It croaked. Then it creaked.

Give him back. James felt his will scream into the void.

But it wasn’t enough. A wordless command could not move something so immovable. So James mustered all the flooding feeling he could, into a final gesture.

Then spoke.

“GIVE HIM BACK.”

The Loop shook.

James could feel it. He didn’t know how, but for the first time, he felt an aberration in… reality. The reality of the Loop. The entire void around him started to groan like a metal beam warping under the strain of reality itself.

He could feel it trying to force itself to reset and straining under a pressure that refused to let it. The immovable object, for a brief moment, met its match in James. His very refusal became an unstoppable force that refused to let it gain ground.

That in itself was the strangest thing James had ever experienced.

Then the Loop did something stranger.

And scarier.

It heeded.

The Loop had bent James to its will so many times and now he was bending it to his. Something almost unthinkable for James, yet it was happening all the same.

Within the void, small embers of Jake that had been scattered into the Loop’s abyss started to put themselves back together. His physical form wasn’t restored, but James could feel a wisp of his consciousness coming back into existence.

The presence of Jake was a shallow conscious.

Like warm breath that could never hope but fade in the cold abyss around him.

Still, James' unstoppable will along with the break had summoned him back. Long enough for Jake to have his final words.

“It's you James. It’s always been you. You’re what I believe in.” The ghostly wisp professed.

James felt something deep within him churn at those words. As if his long-dead heart had been spiked with endless adrenaline.

“You’ve always been what I wanted to be man. At your worst, you are better than me at my best, and at your best, you shine… Look, the point is, the mirror man was right and wrong.” The ghostly wisp continued. “You’re the only thing real here James. You are the one who remembers when even the world forgets. You are truth. You are strength. You are inevitable. What chance does the Loop stand against you?”

The looper could’ve sworn he heard a faint ghostly.

“What chance does it stand against my best friend? I know you think you’re a monster for confronting what you need to do. Maybe we are. the two of us. But if you’ve got to burn it all down…”

Jake's voice had been kind and assured even in its wispy form. But in raw consciousness, the truth and brutal conviction of his find words to James turned Jake’s voice into a deep demonic growl. A low reverting howl that promised doom.

“...then let it burn, down to the last cinder.”

The scratching in James’ head ceased. All the pain he’d felt, all the sorrow and the anguish. Every hope and all the despair that came with it fled. It all paled under the revelation he felt course through him.

His blood felt like magma, his heart felt like a sun, his mind the cosmo, and his bones the laws that shaped existence into being.

Then it all snapped back. Normally James faded slowly into blissful sleep, then awoke again in the next Loop. Not this time. Instead, the world simply snapped back into existence again and James was sitting on his bed, hands on his knees.

A spooked-looking Michael stood in front of him with a waffle in hand. He seemed very confused, and a little worried.

“Breakfast is rea-”

“No thanks.” James interrupted his voice without a shake or quiver. Solid and unmoving.

Michael stepped back slowly, taking a bite of his waffle and nodding to himself as he opened their bedroom door. “Okay… then I’m just going to be out here.”

His brother stepped into the room a little too quickly and left James alone. He sat on the edge of his bed, staring at the hands on his knees with a blank face and black eyes. Devoid of any emotions.

The looper's thoughts mechanically shifted from one idea to another before it noticed a curiosity. James' eyes caught an oddity in the standing mirror opposite him. The mirrored James was smiling.

“So you’ve decided.”

“Whoever you represent mirror man, whoever and however many are responsible for the Loop.” A smile cracked on James' blank face, filled with glee and humor in tandem. A mirth, manic chuckle creeped out his throat as he nodded at James in the mirror. The looper's next words were filled with joy, rage, kindness, cruelty, shame, and pride all in one fantastically twisted bundle.

“You’re all so fucked.”

The ominous declaration rang out as a mighty proclamation.

Be they kin, kings, or the gods themselves.

No one would escape the Looper.

No one.