And then came the explanation.14Please respect copyright.PENANA2wPtnJEl8b
The daily boss fight.
Her hardest task, every time:14Please respect copyright.PENANAxzf2kU6Ocq
Convince someone in under five minutes that she wasn’t crazy, the world wasn’t broken—just... cracked.14Please respect copyright.PENANAQEVzj9KAAw
A little.
Claire had it down to an art now.14Please respect copyright.PENANA3ZxzCyBa6A
She’d practiced.
Step one: start with “I had a dream.”14Please respect copyright.PENANAAsMpi0wNgT
Then ease into “The dream was real.”14Please respect copyright.PENANAs9b5CF1H3J
Follow up with “You were here yesterday too.”14Please respect copyright.PENANAa8v2a2F9Gt
And finally close with “You all forgot, but I didn’t.”
Boom. Five minutes.14Please respect copyright.PENANAvzRNyWb63G
Scripted, rehearsed, and repeatable.
She’d even gotten used to asking Nightwing or Robin for their earpieces directly.14Please respect copyright.PENANAilIKkjqDeU
Why waste time relaying info like it was a game of telephone? Batman was usually already online.14Please respect copyright.PENANAGKmZ6lu81c
It was more efficient to just brief everyone at once.
She could feel herself becoming part of their workflow.14Please respect copyright.PENANAaw80hGYMEG
A new kind of muscle memory.
Alfred always started with, “Oh dear, Miss Claire, terribly sorry we forgot you again.”14Please respect copyright.PENANAUsgI8bWdku
Batman, on the other hand, delivered every voice message like it was a field command.14Please respect copyright.PENANAbIMlSxiUzs
Concise. Authoritative. Meant to be followed.
Then came the status update.
Usually the same:14Please respect copyright.PENANAty7AlIcJaL
“Nothing changed today.”14Please respect copyright.PENANAXUHBr3gpQM
“Sky hasn’t cracked.”14Please respect copyright.PENANAWrPWqadz0O
“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.PENANARSltXnjCmP
He’d said it like a doctor warning against too much caffeine, calm and clinical.14Please respect copyright.PENANA977d4jU1oZ
But it had kept her up all night.
He told her once a week was enough.14Please respect copyright.PENANAvtzLItjNLV
“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.PENANALVeEPmxsSC
this wasn’t something she was observing.14Please respect copyright.PENANAur6I7hHflB
It was something that could observe her back.
This was her fourth report.14Please respect copyright.PENANARaGKsgwm6x
Still nothing.
No updates.14Please respect copyright.PENANAP60yzf80k3
No signs.14Please respect copyright.PENANATkUGkXgzhp
Just that eerie nothingness that made her more anxious than any actual event.
Was nothing a good sign?14Please respect copyright.PENANAsCwjkg3Z3A
Or was it just... waiting?14Please respect copyright.PENANAAYE9tKg1ju
Watching?14Please respect copyright.PENANAIFlF7T708k
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.PENANAbDO0Mn4CPI
Sometimes she sneakily Googled manuals to understand what they did.
Now, she could switch between three different surveillance modes,14Please respect copyright.PENANAhCWRCR9qPS
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.PENANAkwIZDRTAYo
Claire thought everything would keep repeating.14Please respect copyright.PENANA7LlzpX6Rug
She'd come to see the infinite loop as some kind of twisted safety net—a bizarre, but reliable routine.14Please respect copyright.PENANAwmmCAQYn26
No surprises.14Please respect copyright.PENANATBrG6K7Wcy
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.PENANACpl0WNdGZT
This lifestyle gave her a kind of mechanical calm.14Please respect copyright.PENANAY8mJarFa4l
Predictable.14Please respect copyright.PENANA1IDyxI7MBf
Stable.
Every day, reintroduce herself.14Please respect copyright.PENANAHtQlELkWvD
Control her tone.14Please respect copyright.PENANAI2ojMjidlI
Deliver the optimal info load to minimize questions.14Please respect copyright.PENANAlh56AMnWQS
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.PENANATrvOG0Damj
Which screen was for surveillance.14Please respect copyright.PENANABbGpfjSN1F
Which device disrupted signals.14Please respect copyright.PENANAUN6m1KntZh
Which red light meant “don’t touch.”14Please respect copyright.PENANASON09P5DYU
Muscle memory, baby.
And then the fissure check.
Take out the telescope.14Please respect copyright.PENANAehK1AQRcum
Angle it just right.14Please respect copyright.PENANAlfnwdReY54
Deep breath.14Please respect copyright.PENANAifCkJpF5qI
Close the right eye.14Please respect copyright.PENANAorzcAc66Ko
Don’t stare too long.14Please respect copyright.PENANAL5RXsL1uhN
She knew better now—14Please respect copyright.PENANAq2shBty5IM
something out there might stare back.
That was the routine.14Please respect copyright.PENANAzAvAjlKUPj
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.PENANAq8Ct6PK50y
She stared at it.14Please respect copyright.PENANAL2s6D7X58G
296.14Please respect copyright.PENANAFKHSwwaw3G
Too close to 300.14Please respect copyright.PENANAYO6vJDmCxW
She didn’t know why, but it made her uneasy.
She opened her café.14Please respect copyright.PENANA307LF0u1ve
Same as the previous 295 times.14Please respect copyright.PENANA0KjZkkwKLN
The air was damp.14Please respect copyright.PENANAYbZwXKzIjH
The coffee machine hissed to life.14Please respect copyright.PENANAAuQHH8Q3qT
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.PENANA9GzlSuPMSU
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.PENANAjOzdloy9EK
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.PENANADKGteWcDm2
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.PENANApp3fYd0ZEq
Weird enough to raise eyebrows.14Please respect copyright.PENANApyUodK7aTU
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.PENANAto4JAEBLC3
her eardrums exploded with a boom.
A deep, subterranean rumble shook the ground.14Please respect copyright.PENANAopyoQc8AL7
Low. Prolonged.14Please respect copyright.PENANAtfGtZp6x9Z
Like something ancient was groaning awake beneath their feet.
An earthquake.
Claire had no time to think.14Please respect copyright.PENANAV3CtWKgSLw
The floor pitched sideways.
She lost balance.14Please respect copyright.PENANAc96NaNZrMH
Grabbed the edge of the bar—14Please respect copyright.PENANA02p4LKx2OG
but it moved too. Everything was moving. Bag dropped.
The officer caught her.
One hand on her shoulder.14Please respect copyright.PENANAaE9yXojL9Q
One on her waist.14Please respect copyright.PENANARtUcNhZXNG
Pulled her back from the quake, held her steady.
She caught a hint of detergent on his shirt.14Please respect copyright.PENANATpAZTHJbYl
And something else—something sharper.14Please respect copyright.PENANA5x7xiU4tXF
Almost like panic.
They balanced each other.14Please respect copyright.PENANAhyAC28Rt3I
Her against his chest.14Please respect copyright.PENANAT7T4U2flLz
Him braced against the wall.
Two magnets wobbling in chaos, finding brief stability in contact.
Things crashed around them.14Please respect copyright.PENANAGEsIRcw4zJ
Mugs.14Please respect copyright.PENANAgHEnI8JKhG
Spice jars.14Please respect copyright.PENANAaDr9Cd7t4G
Her precious collection of weird spoons.14Please respect copyright.PENANA0oqFJcGDMM
All shattered, ringing like breaking glass in a cathedral.
The sound pierced through her thoughts.14Please respect copyright.PENANA86tFrzBMee
Claire flinched instinctively.14Please respect copyright.PENANASSalJpfSUu
That noise—14Please respect copyright.PENANAjsnDT9OIMG
that had never been part of this day before.
The ceiling light above spun wildly.14Please respect copyright.PENANAl9OkaGgz3o
Shadows on the wall flailed like ghosts.14Please respect copyright.PENANAWtBgmNV8ei
Her vision swirled.
Then—14Please respect copyright.PENANABgLKWpbXtM
a hand on her head.
Firm. Protective.14Please respect copyright.PENANATy6lUlUMwa
Not planned. Just reflex.
His palm cradled her crown.14Please respect copyright.PENANANDUGboXUCa
Like making sure her skull stayed intact.
He pulled her closer.
Not just to keep her upright—14Please respect copyright.PENANA15PEjP5KXo
but like he needed to.
He guided her to a corner.14Please respect copyright.PENANAslBniZB8kw
No shelves. No glass.14Please respect copyright.PENANA11i5dGtv6y
Just two bare walls.
A temporary shelter.14Please respect copyright.PENANA3EH5KEFQ8V
A makeshift haven.
And then—14Please respect copyright.PENANAlB51cbPMoN
after nearly a minute—
The shaking slowed.14Please respect copyright.PENANAD3rvQjBBhX
The walls stopped growling.14Please respect copyright.PENANA4lNl59vYom
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.PENANAv0CEBVWHQW
Trying to see her face.14Please respect copyright.PENANAA8IdylPgbk
Check her expression.
Brows furrowed, eyes scanning—14Please respect copyright.PENANAnhoqTxfhhf
forehead, cheek, neck.
Was she hurt?
Then—14Please respect copyright.PENANAuvybgJvIVa
he froze.
His eyes locked on a spot on her face.14Please respect copyright.PENANA18WqeAQw08
Still. Wide.
Like something familiar had just torn open.
A single line of blood was dripping14Please respect copyright.PENANAGLR4yDOafO
from the golden-brown eye14Please respect copyright.PENANARK0zU2Znez
on her left.14Please respect copyright.PENANAmTkBI5vfVN