Heartbeats and Time

wake in

h loop. I don't e

n my eyes, I know so

ng, like they're trying to shake themselves free from the wall.

nravelin

for my

0

th

ve it

Chase

right before everything crashed, she said something I c

can fix with code or circuits or data. Maybe tim

I hate that she

rollable. Making chaos predictable. Con

w it in on

lo

be I was never supposed to delet

d

eed her

pounding. "Avery," I whisper like

before the loop c

ry

fore I op

ct same angle as it did last time. The same voicemail ping from my landlord.

p f

help

fast and near

of things that technically never happened. The mural. The Re

éjà vu anymore. I

time, I didn't bother brushing my hair. There's no point playing dre

to get

forgets. B

k, but my fingers move on their own, tracing lines I shouldn't remember co

ow what it

know w

e Tu

m not waiting for

se

pass three floors of clea

n't

try to stop me. There's no

e the Resonator hums with something close to desperat

here for t

ere f

esonator like she never left. Her back is to me, braid trailing d

y," I

esn't

softly. "We're ru

. "You r

tu

ng tightens

o clarity. Like she's lived five lives in o

-speak. No more deflection. I want the truth,

roat

n aneurysm. No warning. Gone in seconds. I couldn't process it. Couldn't accept it. So I bu

on softens.

kfired," sh

no

I tried to correct it, the window shrank. Like it

steps

hing you," she says. "M

ad. "Warning

s her sk

I se

e circles. The

this?"

p and my hands knew what to draw. I think it's

ketch, pulse

r's feedback loop. But there's somethi

said la

isn't just m

a fee

ry

drawing like it'

e shift from doubt

etch matches the

ds sl

data. It's mapping feelings. Grief. Guilt. Memory

hiv

do we do

oks a

me to the

need to finis

"You wi

d something real emotion, memory, vulnerability. And time respond

ng p

isper, "If I

he loop," he says. "Lo

"But what if I can

says, stepping closer.

se

sixty

where her mural used to breathe. I tell the team to cl

s her suppli

sh touches the wal

eel

r shifts in

itself is

rs what her body can't. The swirl of loss. The shock

become mor

maybe this was

ator needed her

e I

e loop ripple.

paints t

ti

inal

le

ocks f

flicker..

oesn't

t

to me, che

bought our

, and for the fir

feel like I