Emma’s eyes fluttered open.

There was no confusion, no moment of disorientation. She knew where she was before even looking around.

The steady murmur of the stream filled the air, the sound weaving seamlessly with the rustling of distant leaves. The scent of damp earth clung to the breeze, carrying the faintest trace of burnt wood from the remains of her fire. The same scattered logs, the same soft grass beneath her fingertips.

Nothing had changed.

Yet everything had.

Her breath remained even, but a weight settled in her chest.

She had looped.

But something was wrong.

It wasn't the standard fifteen-minute rollback. The shift had been instant, returning her to this exact point, seconds, few minutes after.. after what?

She had died.

Yet she hadn't even seen what killed her.

That shouldn’t have been possible.

Her fingers curled slightly against the grass. Did someone tamper with the loop? The very idea was absurd. Her ability didn't allow for external interference. If something.. or someone.. had disrupted it, they should have been caught in the loop with her.

But there was no sign of anyone else.

She exhaled slowly, pushing the thought aside. Right now, it didn’t matter. What mattered was finding out what had killed her.

Emma rose to her feet in a single, fluid motion, brushing off the dust from her skirt.

And then, she heard that same.. Deep.

Slow.

Mysterious Breath.

The same breath.

Behind her.

Again.

Her muscles tensed, but she did not turn.

Instead, she ran.

Not out of fear.. no, not fear, but calculation. She needed distance. Space. A vantage point where she could see her enemy before it saw her.

The wind rushed past her as she weaved through the trees, her boots kicking up dirt and fallen leaves. The forest blurred around her, streaks of brown and green flashing past.

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Her body moved on instinct, leaping over a fallen log, ducking under a low-hanging branch. But her mind remained sharp, processing everything.

Wait...

Her pace faltered slightly. A realization clicked into place.

Why am I running?

If her attacker had reached her before the loop triggered, they should have been trapped in the loop with her. That meant...

That meant she should have looped properly.

But she hadn’t.

Which meant..

Her thoughts raced as she pushed forward, her breath steady despite the speed. If I loop now, I’ll just return to the same spot again. But if I loop at the moment of the first loop..

Her eyes narrowed.

That would override the current cycle and push her back another fifteen minutes.

A chance to reset. To plan.

She prepared to test it...

Then stopped.

Her lips pressed into a thin line as another realization struck her like ice to the spine.

It wouldn’t work.

Because she wasn’t alone.

She wasn’t just fighting an enemy.

She was bound to it now.

For the loop to break, she either had to free the entity... or kill it.

There was no other way.

Her grip tightened.

Fine.

She would kill it.

But first, she had to see it.

Without hesitation, she twisted her body mid-stride, pivoting sharply on her heel. Her hair whipped around her as she turned...

And

She saw it... She finally did,

But, at a great cost.

Her vision shattered.

The world blurred.

Her body...

Erased.

Like she had never existed.

But that didn't matter because...

LOOP.

Emma's eyes fluttered open calmly as she looked around the area and saw she was still sitting.

So she stood up.

No hesitation. No second-guessing.

Her body moved the instant her mind registered the loop’s reset. The cold breeze brushed against her skin, the scent of damp earth and fresh grass grounding her in the present. The stream murmured softly beside her, its gentle flow an eerie contrast to the silent, unseen predator lurking nearby.

She already knew.

The beast was still there. Watching. Waiting. Stalking her from her blind spot.

And as long as she couldn’t turn to it, she wouldn't be able to face it head on and with that she would always be erased if she turns carelessly.... looping endlessly, trapped in a cycle she couldn't escape. just because the beast is stalking her from her blind spot..

Her eyes narrowed.

That won’t happen again without me understanding something about it.

Without wasting another second, she turned on her heel and dashed into the forest, her movements smooth and precise. Leaves crunched underfoot as she weaved through the trees, her breath steady despite the urgency. The thick canopy above cast shifting light shadows over the uneven ground, flickering patterns that blurred together as she moved.

Then... again, deep and slowly...

A breath.

Louder this time. Closer.

Her lips curled slightly.

So she was right.

The beast had been stalking her all along.

Her heartbeat remained steady, but her thoughts sharpened, sifting through the fragments of the last loop, replaying the final moments before she was erased.

The image surfaced in her mind.

A beast.

Deer-like in shape, its figure blurred beneath the thick mist coiling around its body, shifting, distorting, like an illusion never meant to be fully seen. But then, there was something else. Something clear, piercing through the fog

Its eyes.

Glowing green.

The moment her mind fixated on those eyes

A sudden numbness spread through her skull.

Her vision darkened.

Her body...

Erasing. Again...

Disintegrating at a speed beyond comprehension, like ink dissolving in water, like she had never existed at all.

But Emma didn’t panic.

Didn’t resist.

She had already accepted it.

Because it didn’t matter.

She would loop back.

What mattered was the realization that struck her just before her consciousness collapsed...

It's eyes.

It's strength.

It's weakness...

A slow, knowing smile spread across her lips as her pupils shifted.

Reshaped.

A spiral wheel.

And then..

They spun, like a spinning wheel which says nothing but

LOOP!