1 Chapter 1

    "Haah."

    Colette's eyes were blinking as she attempted to open them. Every picture her eyes could see appeared vague. Then suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her head, and it seemed to come in waves.

    "Aargh," she shouted out. Then, the sounds of sirens around only seemed to make the stabbing pains worse. She tried getting up from the bare floor she found herself on, but her limbs felt numb, and parts of her body also felt sore. She was now letting out groans, winces if pain. As her fuzzy brain started to clear up on the situation around, with her eyes seeing more clearly, she noticed her palms on the floor were on something sticky. She looked down to see red snow around her palms. She then looked around her, and noticed she wasn't at the spot she last remembered she was. With her eyebrows now raised, she shouted out – "Mercedes!"; but her weakened voice wouldn't leave her mouth. She made another attempt to stand again, and looked ahead.

    "There…"

She saw Mercedes ahead of her, crouching over someone. Colette tried crawling her way to the place despite the pain and started making little progress, until someone appeared infront of her.

    "Hey there, you need help, I'll help you up," the man said. He bent down and tried carrying Colette up, but she only responded with groans borne out of her pain.

    "Easy now, easy. I'll take you to an ambulance, he said. He then supported and carried her on his back, and headed for the ambulance close by. Colette tried pointing back to where she noticed Mercedes, but was too weak to lift her hand properly, especially on the man's back, as she started feeling dizzy.     

     Within moments, she was laid on a stretcher, her scarf and beanie were removed before her coat was unzipped and removed to reveal her blouse. The shoulder part was soaked in blood already. One of the two female medics attending to her touched her neck with the back of her hand and commented on her temperature being high – "Yea, she's already got a fever," the second medic replied.

    "I'll attend to that one, you two go check there for any others  that aren't dead." Mercedes approached Colette's stretcher and gave the order to the two attending to Colette.

    "Ya chief, but you aren't looking too good yourself, looks like you were also in the square when the bomb went off," one of the medics said. Mercedes was their senior at work, so both were under her command.

    "Don't worry about that, I've got a job to do now, you go handle the rest," she said to the two medics. "And thank you officer, you can return to your duty now," she said to the police man who had brought Colette to the ambulance.

    "Yea ma'am," he said, while holding the tip of his cap in recognition of what Mercedes said. "You do take care yourself."

    "I will, thanks," Mercedes replied. The police man turned and left. Mercedes already had a strip of plaster on the right side of her forehead and another on her left arm.

    "Well Colette, you'll have to snap out of your headache one last time and take us back to the last remaining loop before you can't, there's a limit for loop jumps if not used, we've still got one day, let's use the info we have to try and avert disaster." Colette and Mercedes were now alone, and Mercedes was now cleaning her bruises with cotton swab dipped in medical solutions.

    "Aren't you supposed to be with the more severely affected victims? You know this is nothing but a waste of time…"

    "Which you have," Mercedes interrupted Colette , who was talking in a weak voice.

    "What's the point when we barely learnt anything, this disaster will only keep happening, and there's nothing we can do about it – we can't stop it, this mirage thingy's just bull afterall, the old man in the domain was right afterall, you can't change the past."

    Mercedes sighed. She looked into Colette's half-closed eyes with a combination of pity and worry.

    "Oh, so you're saying we should give up now?" Mercedes asked, her left eyebrow now raised.

    "Yea, and I'm freezing, get me a blanket would you," Colette responded.

 Mercedes chuckled. "Well, perhaps I should let you freeze, so that you'll come tell me how death felt like at the domain."

    "Already died thrice, two different ways, nothing would surprise me anymore," Colette replied.

 Mercedes went silent for a while, and then chuckled. "Never knew you would become this cold, thought you were so enthusiastic about stopping the explosion initially."

    "Reality…" Colette coughed. "Reality's cold, and you're leaving me in one to die."

    "Ooh, thought you didn't care about dying, all that was just a fluke eh…tell me this, so you'll let your family die?" Mercedes asked. Colette slowly turned her head, which had been upright, to look in Mercedes' direction.

    "I can't save them…" she started sobbing. "I…I can't save anyone." She turned her head away as more tears began pouring out of her eyes.

    "Who's to say that, aren't you meant to keep trying until you can't? You still have a loop day left so why waste it on the basis of your weakness? Why give up now?"

    "Why're you pushing me? You have no reason to afterall."

    "I am human," Mercedes responded.

    "You've been dead awhile," Colette said.

    "Hmm, true, you just must be cheeky, but have you ever wondered why I chose to become a health worker inspire of all the jobs I could have chosen on coming back to earth?" Mercedes' stare at Colette's face became sterner. Colette stopped sobbing as thoughts began to flow in her head. She tried sitting up, but her body still ached and she fell right back to the stretcher.

    "Don't push yourself more than you should, save your energy to make the last jump in the loop," Mercedes said.

    "I know, and don't tell me why you're a medic, really. Don't want to hear it."

    "Good, now, what will you do?" Mercedes put her hands to her waist.

Colette thought for a second. She wondered where the woman who was with the man she had aged was, whether the policeman's friend survived the blast, whether her family survived the blast.

    "You don't have enough strength to look around and travel back Colette, you can only do one, I don't need to tell you which has better odds of having your people alive, a lot have already died here, don't expect your family to be different," Mercedes said.

    "But that man…we still don't know what he was doing, he wasn't the one that detonated the bomb, and his partner is still nowhere to be seen. Just what do we know?"

    "Colette, let's chill for now, go back and begin the last loop before you can't."

    "Well, I can't," Colette said. "I don't know how to, I never did it on my own."

    "That's why I'm here, are you ready now?" Mercedes asked.

    "Well, whatever, do it," Colette said.

    "Hey you two!" The police man had come back. He had his hands to his waist.

    "I remember seeing you in the square," he said while facing Colette.

    Mercedes looked at Colette, and then the police.

    "Um, you know her or something?" she asked.

    "Nah, she just looked familiar, someone uttered a statement about me, and another copy, said we shouldn't come to the square this night, it sounded suspicious, and now this happens…"

    Mercedes interrupted him - "Did the person look like this patient here?"

    "Somewhat…can't say for sure, but any evidence, or anything at all relating to this bombing would do."

    "Hmm, so all you're based off is a hunch huh?" Mercedes asked.

    "Wel…"

    "Aren't you supposed to prioritize saving lives like, right now? Moreover, why would the bomber be caught in the explosion and end up like this? If she was a suicide bomber, she sure would have been blown apart, not injured."

    The police was starting to look dumbfounded. "Hmm, sorry for that, please continue, it was just my imagination, but then again, what do we know of terrorists? They have many guises afterall."

    "Well, this right here's a patient, and I've got work to do here, so, if you'd go back to your post and bring me more victims to treat, I'd be glad."

    "Ok then." And with one last skeptical look at Colette, he left the ambulance. Mercedes let out a sigh.

    "Now Colette, don't go saying stuff like that, you'll get into real trouble, and not just any trouble, jail trouble will pale infront of it."

    "Do the thing already, I'm feeling really hazy," Colette said.

    "Alright then."

Mercedes went to the back of Colette's stretcher, and held her head by the temple.

    "It's gonna sting!" She said.

    "Just do it!" Colette responded. Mercedes closed her eyes and smiled. And then, Colette let out a scream, a scream so loud it filled the whole square, despite her condition. Mercedes still held her head for the next few moments, and Colette still kept on screaming, already beyond her lung's capacity. By now, people were already looking in their direction. The intensity of Colette's non-stop screams had now caused Mercedes' ears to start bleeding.  She had probably gone deaf by now, but all that didn't matter, afterall, they were going back one day, and no one in the square apart from Colette and her would remember this – would remember all this ever happened.

WHOOSSSHHH.