The Time Loop

by Anita Oh

  I shrugged and headed for the stairs. “And I still don’t trust you,” I said. “You could be lying through your teeth right now. I’ve got no way of knowing.”

  She followed me down the stairs. “You have to go to him and agree to leave the pack. Why do you even care? You can still be friends with them. It’s not such a big deal.”

  I didn’t answer her. I had too much to think about.

  Katie’s words meant that my dad was definitely behind the day being reset. It was good to have it confirmed, but at the same time, it sucked that I had to deal with him. He was the most stubborn jerk I’d ever met, even worse than Tennyson. I wasn’t sure what his play was, how he thought making it Friday again would convince me that I should go along with him. As far as threats went, it lacked a bit of punch.

  I didn’t even want to think about how he’d done it, how he’d managed to manipulate the time-space continuum. Maybe creating another Friday was just a test run, a warmup. Maybe next time he’d send me back to the Dark Ages, to some time before the internet. I shuddered. Surely, not even my evil dad was that evil. I’d seen that show, Outlander, and I definitely did not want to go back in time to somewhere without heating or plumbing or basic civil rights, no matter how hot the guys were in kilts.

  I put it out of my mind. No point worrying about it until I knew for sure that that was what he intended. Though maybe I should start keeping some penicillin in my pocket, just in case.

  Katie followed me through the forest as I headed to the lighthouse. I thought about what she’d said, about my leaving the pack. Was I being selfish? I didn’t think so. If I left the pack, I’d be playing right into my dad’s hands. And she was wrong – it wouldn’t be the same. Maybe I would still be friends with them, but I’d be an outsider. Even though I wasn’t actually a werewolf, they were the closest to whatever it was that I was. Without them, I’d be totally alone, with no protection against whatever horrors I’d need to face when I evolved into whatever I’d become next. And no protection for anyone else, either, if I became something awful. Even though I hadn’t been in the pack for very long, the idea of leaving filled me with a cold dread that went far beyond the rational.

  “Just tell him you agree,” Katie said as the lighthouse came into sight. “You don’t know the things he can do, that he’s willing to do.”

  She shuddered, and just for a moment I considered the possibility that she wasn’t playing me like a fiddle. But whether I trusted her or not, I wasn’t going to just cave in to my father’s demands.

  “That’s exactly what you’d say if you were in cahoots with him,” I said, opening the lighthouse door. “Maybe you should stay outside.”

  “No way! This involves me just as much as it involves you. You’re going to tell him that I had nothing to do with anything, that I never tried to help you or gave you any information, and that he needs to get me out of this.”

  “I’m going to tell him to get us all out of this,” I said, and started climbing the stairs. Man, couldn’t he have hidden his stupid spy phone somewhere closer to the ground?

  Finally, I got to the top and found the phone. Katie stood at the top of the stairs, scowling, with her arms folded across her chest. I dialed the number for my father, but the phone just beeped and the call dropped out. I looked down at the display. No signal. That was weird. That had literally never happened before on the whole island. We were hooked up with some special high-tech connection that was off the grid and never went down on account of how the kids were all from rich, important families.

  It was definitely only Friday, not Friday in 1821, so there shouldn’t be any problem. I’d been able to message Sam just fine earlier on the school messaging app.

  I looked over to Katie to ask if she knew what was going on, but before I could get any words out, the phone rang in my hand. I stared down at it. Still no signal and yet the phone was ringing. That was just creepy.

  I answered the call.

  “About time,” I said, parroting back his words from the day before.

  He gave a little laugh. “I did warn you that there would be consequences if you didn’t obey me.”

  “Well, as far as evil plots go, this one is kind of lame,” I told him. “I mean, sure, wearing those shoes to the dance again will be kind of painful, but it’s not exactly life-threatening, and Sam didn’t even fully transform, let alone hurt anyone. What exactly is the point of sending me back to the morning?”

  “Oh, my baby girl, I thought you’d have put it together already. I haven’t merely sent you back a day. This is just the second Friday of many. I’ve created a time loop over the whole island. Until you agree to leave that filthy pack, you’re going to live the same day over and over again. You’re stuck inside this day until I choose to break the loop.”

  I almost dropped the phone. How was that possible? Resetting a day for everyone as a one-off was one thing. There were physics and stuff that could prove that was possible. But a time loop? For just this island? That would take some serious mojo. I could hardly even wrap my head around the concept, let alone implement it. Even as I felt sick at the thought, I couldn’t help but be a tiny bit impressed by my dad for pulling it off. I’d thought he was just the bumbling idiot type of evil, but this took him up a notch.

  “I don’t know what you’re saying about Sam, though. Sam Spencer? If he’s acting unpredictably, that’s something I need to know.”

  I ignored that, filing the information away to deal with later. If he hadn’t caused Sam’s transformation, then something else had and it might happen again. We’d need to deal with it as a pack.

  “So, it’s like a time prison?” I said. “And what happens if I just sail off the island? Does the whole thing just dissolve?”

  He huffed a laugh. “You can’t get off the island,” he said. “If you try, the day will just reset.”

  I didn’t think I’d take his word for it. Leaving the island would be the first thing I tried.

  “You can’t even contact anyone off the island. Time out here moves at the usual pace. Here, it’s Saturday already, and tomorrow it will be Sunday. You’re being held in a place apart from the rest of the world, in a different time. Your link to us has been severed. The only reason I can contact you is because I maintain the loop. I’ll keep this phone line open and call you whenever you need to contact me, but you can’t call out otherwise.”

  The whole thing hurt my head. I couldn’t even watch Doctor Who sometimes because it messed with my brain too much, and this was way more confusing.

  “And how about if I suddenly change my mind after ten thousand days? Will we all come out like thirty years older?”

  “You won’t last ten thousand days,” he said. “But, hypothetically speaking, it would just become Saturday for you, and you and the rest of the world would be the same, as if the time loop had never happened. Think of it as if you’re in a bubble, and once the bubble pops, it’s as if it was never there.”

  I snorted. “So, you’re basically saying that we’re immortal, and anything we do has no consequences? Great punishment, Dad.”

  He went to say something, but I cut him off. Nothing he had to say could make me change my mind.

  “I will break this time loop,” I told him. “And when I do, I’m coming for you.”

  Chapter 7

  Katie complained the whole way to the train platform.

  “If you’re not going to be helpful, put a sock in it,” I told her, walking ahead. “Is that scooter of yours still there?”

  It had been a few months since the time Katie and I had snuck out of school, and anything might have happened to it in that time, but she nodded.

  “It won’t do any good, though. You heard what he said. It’s just going to reset the day.”

  “And if we don’t try it, and in thirty years we happen to leave the school and it bursts the time loop bubble, you’re going to feel like a big idiot,” I told her. I sighed and fell into step with her. “You used to be way more
gutsy. What’s up with that?”

  She shrugged. “What do you think? When they came for Tennyson Wilde and there were all those traps you’d set up, it was obvious that you’d been warned. Your dad is one of the leaders, so you get special treatment. When your dad is angry, he punishes you like this.” She waved an arm around. “For the rest of us, our punishment is more old-school style.”

  She winced just at the thought, and I didn’t want to ask anything more. It was still in the back of my mind that I couldn’t believe anything she said, even though she seemed genuine. Not that it mattered; there wasn’t a lot of harm she could do, anyway. Not when it would all be erased when the day reset and it was Friday morning again.

  We reached the entrance to the train platform and walked down the stairs. The scooter was in the same place it’d been when we’d snuck out, and I wheeled it out onto the tracks.

  “You don’t have to come if you’re worried,” I told her. The scooter couldn’t be that hard to ride, right?

  Katie shook her head. “No, I want to see what happens.” She pulled on the helmet and swung her leg over the seat.

  “Where were you this morning, anyway?” I asked her. “You weren’t in bed.”

  “I went to try to contact your father yesterday morning, to try to stop all this. So, when the day reset, I was in the forest.”

  As she started up the scooter, I thought about what that meant. Her day didn’t start when she woke up, but mine did. It actually sounded as if her day restarted when I woke up, which probably meant that the magic of the loop was connected to me. That made sense. It was meant to be a punishment for me, but it would be helpful to know that sort of thing when I got into the technicalities of breaking the time loop.

  It was the strangest sensation. One moment, we were speeding down the tracks on the scooter — and the next, I was in my bed, waking up. I jolted forward, still feeling the momentum from the scooter, like waking up from a dream that you’re falling. So, no luck with the train tracks.

  Next, I tried to go by water, thinking maybe there would be a loophole with the whole “no magic across running water” thing, but my evil dad had obviously found a way around that. After all the hassle of stealing a dinghy from the yacht club and rowing myself out to sea, I woke up in my bed again.

  I sighed and stared up at the ceiling. It was going to take some time to figure out how to break the time loop, but, luckily for me, time was the one thing I had in abundance. Might as well make the most of it.

  I picked up my phone to message Sam. “Sorry, I’m running late. Be there asap!”

  Don’t bother with the special assembly, I told Tennyson. It’s just going to be Assistant Head Noel droning on with a load of fake information about how Hannah Morgan is dead.

  What? How do you know?

  I had a whole day ahead of me, and no matter what I did, nobody would remember tomorrow. That was like the most awesome free pass ever.

  As I rushed to meet Sam, I noticed three of the nastiest girls from Green House just up ahead. I snuck up behind them and let out a shrill scream.

  “Rats!” I yelled. “Everybody run!”

  They screamed and flailed for a moment, stamping their feet as if they were trying to climb up off the ground and into the air.

  “Oh em gee, there’s one in your hair!” I yelled, ruffling Charlotte Du Pont’s hair.

  She took off at a run down the path, screaming and waving her hands in the air. The other two followed. It was amazing.

  Once I’d stopped laughing long enough to walk again, I took off down the path. Time was a-wasting, and those tiny cakes weren’t going to eat themselves.

  Sam was sitting in the exact same spot that he had been on the first Friday. In a way, it was as if he’d been sitting there for days, I thought. I shook my head. If I kept thinking stuff like that, I’d go crazy.

  “This is amazing,” I told him. “You’re amazing.”

  “Well, it’s a special day,” he said, handing me a plate.

  I grinned at him and loaded up my plate with cakes. I could literally sit there all day and eat cakes, and none of the calories would count, not even in that way where it was like, “I got this free, so the calories don’t count,” or “I have my period, so the calories don’t count,” or “it’s the middle of exams, so the calories don’t count.” The calories for real didn’t count. Best repeating day ever!

  “Oh, hey,” I said, swallowing a mouthful of cake. “I know we didn’t talk about presents, but…”

  I obviously hadn’t had time to buy anything for Sam for our quarter-year anniversary, but no way was I going to let him catch me unawares a second time. While I was getting dressed, I’d spotted a copy of The Hobbit poking out from under my bed. Sam loved The Hobbit, and I knew he didn’t have a copy of his own, so I’d shoved it into my bag. It wasn’t a first edition or anything special, but already, I was a way better girlfriend than I had been.

  “Sorry it’s not wrapped,” I said, handing it to him.

  He smiled and ducked his head. “Actually, I’ve got something for you too.”

  He pulled out the box with the heart pendant in it. Even though it was the second time he’d given it to me, it meant just as much.

  “Sam, this is amazing,” I said. “Are you sure it’s okay for me to have this?”

  “Of course,” he said. “What other girl would I give my heart to?”

  He was such a sap. Even though it was another day, he still used the same line. It made me smile, and I leaned toward him, across all the delicious picnic foods, and kissed him. It was only a brief kiss, a peck, really, and it felt just as weird as the other times I’d kissed him, a bit like kissing one of my brothers. But it still felt like the right thing to do.

  “Let’s just skip classes today and eat cakes,” I said, sitting back and reloading my plate. “And mini quiches. We don’t want the quiches to feel left out.”

  He laughed. “Don’t you have your history test?”

  I shrugged. “As if Hitler ever did anyone any good. Cakes are way better.”

  I ate my way through all the delicious picnic foods, and just for a little while, I let myself forget that I had any problems bigger than whether I could fit in more mini quiches. Once all the food had been demolished, I flopped to the ground, rubbing my belly.

  “So, what’s up with you?” Sam asked after he’d finished laughing at me complaining about a bellyache. “It’s not like you to dodge your responsibilities, especially not something as important as school.”

  I looked up at him from where I was rolling on the ground. For a moment, I didn’t want to tell him. I’d stuck him, along with everyone else, in this time prison. Even if every day was like the first time for them, it didn’t make them any less trapped. I didn’t want to add one more thing to the ever-growing list of supernatural BS that Lucy has inflicted on everyone. But it didn’t seem right not to tell him, either. I had all this prior knowledge of the day. It put me at an unfair advantage.

  “Okay, so it’s like this,” I started, struggling to sit up with my belly full of cakes. “We’re stuck in a time loop.”

  “Right,” he said, nodding. “I have no idea what that means.”

  “I’ve lived this day before,” I explained. “This is actually the fourth time, kind of.”

  He raised his eyebrows, and I could tell he was hovering in that midway point between not understanding and not believing.

  I took a deep breath, trying to think of the simplest way to explain it.

  “So, my dad has cursed the whole school into reliving the same day over and over, only I’m the only one who remembers it each time. Well, and Katie.”

  “Like Groundhog Day?” Sam asked.

  I snapped my fingers and shot him with finger guns. “Exactly! Or the Supernatural episode where Dean keeps dying.”

  “Or when the nerd trio curse Buffy and she has to keep trying to sell that evil mummy hand thing.”

  Sam was quiet for a moment, chewing his l
ip. “Okay, so in all of those things, they had some sort of problem they had to solve, something they weren’t seeing and had to realize, before time would start moving again, right?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t think it’s going to be like that with my dad. He wants me to leave the pack, and unless I do, he’s going to keep us here.”

  “So, we need to find a way to stop whatever magic your dad is using. We should tell the rest of the pack.”

  We should, and I would eventually, but once the whole pack got involved, we’d need to start working on how to fix things. First, I wanted to just enjoy myself a bit.

  “Later,” I said. “I’d like a little nap first.”

  The greenhouse was warm, and the blanket and cushions that Sam had brought along were soft and comfortable. One tiny nap wouldn’t hurt. I closed my eyes and snuggled down.

  Then it was morning again and I was in my own bed.

  I spent a few days catching up on my Netflix queue. It was weird how Netflix was fine but I couldn’t use email. I could read Facebook posts and even like them, but I couldn’t comment or message. Every time I tried, the page reloaded and that got frustrating fast. Whatever my dad had done to block communication, it was super specific, so I just gave up and went back to watching Netflix. But eventually even that got boring.

  One day, I interrupted Assistant Head Noel’s assembly and treated the school to my world-class beatboxing routine. In my history test, I drew an awesome picture of the mean teacher as Hitler. I hid in the bushes on the path from the Green House to the dance and sprayed all the mean girls with shaving cream. I learned to play the banjo and dyed my hair black. Anything I’d ever been too afraid to do, anything I hadn’t had the time for, I could do with no worries.

  One day, when I was lying in bed trying to learn to speak Italian, Katie stormed in and threw back my covers.

  “Get up,” she said.

  “Scusami?”

  “You can’t just ignore what’s happening. You have to stop playing around and fix this. Just because you think this is some sort of game doesn’t mean your father does. Doesn’t mean anyone at the corporation does. He’s not going to let you just sit here, doing whatever you please. The longer you take, the worse it will be in the end.”