The time had finally come. Clara had finally woken up. As she raised her head and looked at him for the first time in so, so long, Thomas felt like the rest of the world had disappeared. Like all the time he’d spent with the single objective of caring for her had never even happened.

For Thomas, at that moment, only the present mattered. No, only the present existed. A present where Clara was awake, that’d lead to the future where both of them could be together. Where he didn’t have to be alone.

For the first time since he remembered, Thomas shed tears, and he did so uncontrollably. It was such an emotional moment for him that he felt like it’d go on forever, but alas, the time when the explosion was already nearing.

Thus, with a trained move, he hit his wrist against a table in order to break the bracelet. However, to his surprise… Nothing happened.

Thoroughly baffled, he looked at his wrist, which was slightly bruised from the strengths he’d put into it, and saw something that nearly made his eyes fly out of their sockets.

He didn’t have the bracelet.

The world started spinning, and Thomas stumbled on his own feet, placing a hand on the table beside him so he wouldn’t fall. By now, the almost unreasonably huge smile he’d had on his face had been replaced with a look of utter terror. His breathing got instantly ragged, and the ground beneath him spun uncontrollably.

Once the dizziness had subsided enough for him to stand on his own, he grabbed Clara’s wrist in panic. Then, he rolled up her sleeve, but the moment he did so, something fell into the ground.

It was her bracelet. Or rather, what was left of it. Two pieces with the shape of a donut cut into two rolled about the floor.

Had she somehow broken it in half? No, that was not possible. Her managing to unintentionally cut it so perfectly was out of the question.

He wanted to look into what was happening a bit more, but the time for the explosion was nearing. He didn’t know exactly when, but in a minute at most, the explosion would come. Thus, he stepped on what was left of the bracelet, intent on breaking it, but again, nothing happened.

He took his foot from the top of the bracelet. In the ground just in front of him, the innards of the erstwhile bracelet were broken to pieces. Meshed together were broken circuit boards, shattered glass, a few colourful wires and a strange orange liquid which was starting to glow more and more.

Somehow, Thomas felt like that liquid was bad news. He tried to grab Clara, who was still too dazed to understand what was happening around her, but just as he touched her wrist…

BOOOOM.

A new loop sta-

Thomas woke up on the ground, surrounded by shattered glass, bent metal, blood, and a thick cloud of dust. The classroom was ravaged to the point where it was hard to even tell it was a classroom: the structure of the building itself had just barely survived, but that was it. There were no windows anymore, only holes in the walls; no tables to be seen, only scraps of metal and wood scattered around; and no people whatsoever, only whatever parts and fluids were left of them.

Objectively, there was only one explanation for this, and it was rather simple: He had somehow survived the explosion.

Still, that didn’t mean he was unscathed. He could feel blood dripping from his head to his nape, his left arm and shoulder were most likely broken, there was a sharp pain coming from his ribs and he couldn’t even breathe normally. He coughed a few times, and from each of those came a severe quantity of blood.

Most likely, he would soon die.

Realising this, his mind wandered for a few seconds, and suddenly, an awful thought invaded his mind. Fearfully, he glanced at the place where Clara usually sat.

And he saw nothing.

Panicking, he looked at every corner, every place where Clara could have gone.

But there was nothing.

His stomach turned when he realised that the one fear he’d avoided all this time, the one situation he had forced himself not to think about, the one happenstance that could make everything he’d done until now utterly meaningless, could have happened.

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Clara might have died.

Before he could continue thinking about it, something akin to a portal opened in front of him. From there, someone stepped into the classroom. In spite of his blurry vision, they were so close to him that he could still see them quite well.

They were clad in immaculate white clothes, the likes of which Thomas had never seen, and walked under a transparent umbrella they carried with both hands. They were far shorter than average, measuring around 150cm, their face was pale and androgynous, and the glasses that sat on the tip of their nose were small and round. Despite being able to see them so well, however, Thomas couldn't quite tell whether they were a man or a woman.

Upon entering and seeing the destroyed classroom, their expression instantly turned into one of pure dread.

“What happened here…” They murmured, looking around “Did the experiment go wrong?”

“Experiment?” thought Thomas, staring at them “This was an experiment?”

As though in reply, the moment he finished thinking that, the person’s eyes landed on Thomas.

“Thomas?!” They screamed, running towards him “What happened here?!”

The moment the person got close enough to him, without even thinking, Thomas moved his right arm and sent a right hook towards their face which landed squarely on their cheek. The person tumbled to the floor, dropping their umbrella and soaking their formerly white clothes in blood and dirt as a small amount of blood started dripping from their mouth.

For a few seconds, the person stood frozen on the ground from the shock, unable to even get up. Taking advantage of this, Thomas spoke the only thoughts going through his muddled mind.

“You killed Clara…” He growled through his teeth “And I will never forgive you”

He didn't really mean anything much by saying this. In his current state, the only thing he could do to the one who’d forsaken his one hope was throw curses at them.

However, it had much more of an effect than he’d anticipated. The person stared at him agape, forgetting even the pain from the punch they’d taken.

“...What…? Clara is dead…? And you’re saying I…?” The person slowly got up from the spot they landed, and stared at Thomas in fright.

“...But why? What did I do?” they screamed as their breathing hastened greatly “How could I have killed her when I didn’t do anything?! If… If Clara died, you’re the one to blame, Thomas! You were the one who…” But they didn’t continue. Instead, the sobs won over their voice, and they fell to the ground, crying.

Although his mind was so foggy it was nearly impossible for him to even think, Thomas could understand that something here was extremely wrong.

This person was referring to both him and Clara as though they knew them, despite Thomas having no recollection of them himself.

Still, at that moment, that didn't matter. The fact that they knew something about his situation that Thomas didn’t was much more important. Thus, he made it his first priority to collect information.

“I was the one who what” Asked Thomas, gritting his teeth through the pain so unbearable it almost prevented him from forming words.

“Oh so now you’re fucking pretending you don’t remember…” They groaned “You didn't want to admit it, and now you want me to spell it out for you?! You blame me for your mistakes, and then ask what you did wrong?! I was Clara’s friend too! Didn’t you say you were prepared for this kind of eventuality?! And look around! It wasn’t the way you’d have liked, but in the end, didn’t you get what you wanted?!” He finished, his gaze moving across the classroom.

“And what was it that I wanted?” he muttered with a lot of effort, coughing up some blood.

“TO SAVE THE FUCKING WORLD YOU-”

But his scream turned into a shriek, and both of their eyes widened at the same time.

In Thomas' case, the reason why he was surprised had to do with what the person had screamed. “To save the world”, he repeated inside his head. What did they mean? And had that objective already been attained? How?

It could prove to be valuable information for the future, but at that moment, it told him practically nothing about his situation or how he could come out of it. It made him even more confused, if anything.

The person, on the other hand, was surprised at something else entirely. The moment they saw Thomas coughing and realised that he was covered not in others’ blood, but his own, their expression changed.

“Thomas, did you get hit by whatever happened here?” They said, anxiously glancing around their surroundings for the umpteenth time “How the hell are you alive?”.

Thomas didn't know how he was alive either. Not a single person aside from him had managed to even stay in one piece, much less survive. By all means, he should have instantly died.

A miracle, he thought, but it was not as though he was going to survive, so it was a bit of a waste. Reminiscing, he looked at his right arm with unfocused eyes. It was coated in a thick layer of darkish red, and he knew very well that he’d soon faint from blood loss.

Then, suddenly, just as he was about to resign to his fate, a glint of hope appeared in his eyes.

He didn't know how it was possible, but at that moment, he noticed that something which he thought he’d forever lost, something that could bring back hope to this hopeless situation, was back in his right arm.

A bracelet.

With that, a huge grin appeared on his face.

“...Hell if I know” He chuckled, mustering the last of his strength to raise his arm, which felt overwhelmingly heavy and murky, as high as he could “But I am glad I am”

The moment he finished speaking, he brought his arm wrist-first to the floor, mercilessly breaking the bracelet.