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