And then came the explanation.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ3FvnQ3gBT
The daily boss fight.
Her hardest task, every time:14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSz8Vv5S0Zi
Convince someone in under five minutes that she wasn’t crazy, the world wasn’t broken—just... cracked.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmqU6xfHvmH
A little.
Claire had it down to an art now.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx3Mbq5Hrhg
She’d practiced.
Step one: start with “I had a dream.”14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf9LGuWcZil
Then ease into “The dream was real.”14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTZtReXt2Cc
Follow up with “You were here yesterday too.”14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUulAp7VBBV
And finally close with “You all forgot, but I didn’t.”
Boom. Five minutes.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXmNPdrljNV
Scripted, rehearsed, and repeatable.
She’d even gotten used to asking Nightwing or Robin for their earpieces directly.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz07fM5r7qJ
Why waste time relaying info like it was a game of telephone? Batman was usually already online.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9JaNnCjSqH
It was more efficient to just brief everyone at once.
She could feel herself becoming part of their workflow.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlGo3UXBKIF
A new kind of muscle memory.
Alfred always started with, “Oh dear, Miss Claire, terribly sorry we forgot you again.”14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcNFAA0sxU3
Batman, on the other hand, delivered every voice message like it was a field command.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsUWpznMfd2
Concise. Authoritative. Meant to be followed.
Then came the status update.
Usually the same:14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlYfelo3jzx
“Nothing changed today.”14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHiPzDDA1VK
“Sky hasn’t cracked.”14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJElvfCi4RM
“Bagels sold well.”
She’d said some version of that report over thirty times now.
Batman had banned her from sky-watching.
“It interferes with your perception. Makes the fissure too active.”14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS4BSf3Rmj8
He’d said it like a doctor warning against too much caffeine, calm and clinical.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡivy2e5w2t0
But it had kept her up all night.
He told her once a week was enough.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHDR4bM0nwZ
“If it’s coming, it will let you see it.”
And somehow, that was the most terrifying thing he’d said yet.
Because it meant he knew—14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc2KBHRUKYo
this wasn’t something she was observing.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ096iQeYM9m
It was something that could observe her back.
This was her fourth report.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUJWrY5tnNR
Still nothing.
No updates.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcBWKeP2e1R
No signs.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoxsBxEgi9a
Just that eerie nothingness that made her more anxious than any actual event.
Was nothing a good sign?14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQY7GW0qJEL
Or was it just... waiting?14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfHGiYOHxup
Watching?14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnJC0yB6NjA
Calculating when she’d slip up?
After reporting, Claire wandered the safehouse.
Fiddling with the gear that still looked like it belonged in a sci-fi movie.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡha0uMqnPkb
Sometimes she sneakily Googled manuals to understand what they did.
Now, she could switch between three different surveillance modes,14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGAEqghN8rD
and knew exactly which button sent a distress call.
She knew how the tech worked.
Because here, she couldn’t afford to just be “that girl who says the sky is broken.”
She had to become “the calm anomaly who explains things clearly and can handle equipment.”
That’s how they’d believe her.
That she was still sane.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUecRm60YWZ
Claire thought everything would keep repeating.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGSC3dVCuph
She'd come to see the infinite loop as some kind of twisted safety net—a bizarre, but reliable routine.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCPh3ACOv3U
No surprises.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkzBkbuSd2G
No endings.
She really believed that.
Even Batman’s exact eyebrow twitch, or the second Nightwing’s half-suspicious smile would appear—she could time it like a metronome.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBme2u5klFs
This lifestyle gave her a kind of mechanical calm.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0NYAt4pLWT
Predictable.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb7oQocJ1WG
Stable.
Every day, reintroduce herself.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpfehi1pFFg
Control her tone.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD0I9lZaZL9
Deliver the optimal info load to minimize questions.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5NUoMNI20r
She had tested different explanations before, but eventually chose the most efficient version.
Now she could deliver her entire situation in under three minutes.
"I’m Claire. Time resets for me. Every day’s the same."
Said with all the emotional depth of reading a toaster manual.
She could now operate almost everything in the safehouse.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBpYZtPUjcw
Which screen was for surveillance.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC9ATlQpMHz
Which device disrupted signals.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn9VkE7xX3G
Which red light meant “don’t touch.”14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdXv78mX06y
Muscle memory, baby.
And then the fissure check.
Take out the telescope.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGDJ5xqjyes
Angle it just right.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNibYPN32UZ
Deep breath.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYDIfhWVoIn
Close the right eye.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0DkyfIacat
Don’t stare too long.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYaVZ9fUPFn
She knew better now—14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxb4TCKo6P0
something out there might stare back.
That was the routine.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDWkaraW4xc
A strange balance—between madness and clarity, between combat and café shifts, between her and it.
Until one morning, Claire wrote Day 296 on the paper.
The line under the six came out a little too dark.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTbwV4E1e7w
She stared at it.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVMv05oiEUR
296.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjoiL8WyNzN
Too close to 300.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHf2L9BDcim
She didn’t know why, but it made her uneasy.
She opened her café.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAolDZkX7rs
Same as the previous 295 times.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3LG9CS16iw
The air was damp.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqZGfqEKxH0
The coffee machine hissed to life.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ3bK6mj6y7
She could smell a bit of machine oil in the steam.
It felt like a ritual.
She grabbed the newspaper from Nightwing.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCPhxoI5FQa
Still couldn’t help glancing at that photo.
She once told him, “When this is over, please face the other way on the front page. I’m tired of seeing your butt on this side.”14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNWZ62S04il
She had no idea what his face looked like when he heard that.
Probably something between a syntax error and mild panic—eyes flicking between her and the newspaper, ending with an awkward laugh before walking off.
At 10 a.m., right on cue, Officer Dick walked in for his bagel.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX9N9MBQUlS
Just like the last 295 mornings.
Claire picked up the paper bag, ready to begin her usual clairvoyant babble.
Today’s theme: “Temporal resonance between past and future.”14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpPERlLpZyA
Weird enough to raise eyebrows.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQXDFqdzG0n
Not so weird to get committed.
She’d mastered that line between oracle and lunatic.
As she handed him the bag—
Just as her fingertips brushed the paper fold—14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdArnla3xF2
her eardrums exploded with a boom.
A deep, subterranean rumble shook the ground.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBVY1uKbHzi
Low. Prolonged.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgW4AJI4IhC
Like something ancient was groaning awake beneath their feet.
An earthquake.
Claire had no time to think.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3NxaPPDNzR
The floor pitched sideways.
She lost balance.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4AAdlUp1P1
Grabbed the edge of the bar—14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtuNvXPSQF4
but it moved too. Everything was moving. Bag dropped.
The officer caught her.
One hand on her shoulder.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4zQhSHeeaS
One on her waist.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC65NwDEYdK
Pulled her back from the quake, held her steady.
She caught a hint of detergent on his shirt.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc7X0S0ZtgG
And something else—something sharper.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhxNyrwPz3u
Almost like panic.
They balanced each other.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLT2sXQnmSX
Her against his chest.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1qbq8Y6nWv
Him braced against the wall.
Two magnets wobbling in chaos, finding brief stability in contact.
Things crashed around them.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUrxrim808g
Mugs.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuUs0NqIjJP
Spice jars.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqN227Q3QrG
Her precious collection of weird spoons.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyoxLzmSSzj
All shattered, ringing like breaking glass in a cathedral.
The sound pierced through her thoughts.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIMML5VVk2a
Claire flinched instinctively.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdmBmBFSySJ
That noise—14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWy9P2TA797
that had never been part of this day before.
The ceiling light above spun wildly.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRwkzZO2ynY
Shadows on the wall flailed like ghosts.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9tIsiXPA5L
Her vision swirled.
Then—14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlD2QOlkmVu
a hand on her head.
Firm. Protective.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMUryDDPTLt
Not planned. Just reflex.
His palm cradled her crown.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk8chO3jhJx
Like making sure her skull stayed intact.
He pulled her closer.
Not just to keep her upright—14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7wVnqP9Ovg
but like he needed to.
He guided her to a corner.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6yzOyNFx84
No shelves. No glass.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR8oT9Pmjks
Just two bare walls.
A temporary shelter.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkj5S1YS7Cm
A makeshift haven.
And then—14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2xZlXW4vBR
after nearly a minute—
The shaking slowed.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsU5HdShf7A
The walls stopped growling.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHKFoDPaS7D
The ceiling went still.
Silence.
The kind that makes your heartbeat sound like it’s on loudspeaker.
The officer slowly let go of her.
Took a step back.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaumuNq7CAS
Trying to see her face.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcTNLnbbWdD
Check her expression.
Brows furrowed, eyes scanning—14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbAonTk3M1W
forehead, cheek, neck.
Was she hurt?
Then—14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxtmrKQtwIr
he froze.
His eyes locked on a spot on her face.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmPndmvm2f0
Still. Wide.
Like something familiar had just torn open.
A single line of blood was dripping14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ21T45ZXX23
from the golden-brown eye14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr4r06kIm3m
on her left.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVQPajbYoZM
and then Add to home screen.