Afterlife Dream

Her brother was the first one to buckle. He had to put his tray of food on the counter and supported himself so he did not fall to the floor.

"Oh, God," he groaned. "I thought that they were going to send us to a mental asylum. Thank God!"

Lara stared at me in disbelief.

"So you have also repeated this day many times, right?"

"Well. Today is the fifth."

Both Lara and her brother nodded in agreement. "It is also the fifth time for us. The same day, 23rd September."

"So uh, can we talk?" I asked. "But uh..."

I glanced left and right. Everyone was already standing in line at the cashier, waiting to pay. "Not now. Maybe later?"

Lara furrowed her brows at me. "What are you afraid of? The day is going to repeat anyway."

"I know, it's just that... my little brother is waiting for me out there. To eat lunch together."

"Oh."

"Sports period?" I suggested.

Lara shrugged. "Sure. Theo, can you sneak out of class?"

Theo, the brother, nodded fervently. "I am sick of drawing sunflowers for days anyway."

As I expected, Jaden was waiting for me out there. He already started wolfing down his lunch, though.

"So slow," he commented while munching his hotdog. I smiled.

Lara and Theo Baker walked past our table, both of them threw us curious glances.

I was the only person in my family who experienced the time loop. It must be great to have another person who went through the same phenomenon. At the very least, you wouldn't be alone in the mental asylum.

As agreed, we met during the sports period. I again excused myself by telling the coach that I had a stomachache. I didn't know what excuse Lara gave her coach, but she did not throw her racket today so I guessed that it was an improvement.

"Hey," I greeted her once I got out of the sports hall.

"Hey you back," she said.

"Where can we talk?"

"The roof is very private," Lara suggested.

"Ok."

Just as I wanted to ask where her brother was, Theo came running with his schoolbag on his back.

"Why do you have your bag with you?" Lara asked, slightly amazed.

"This is already the last period before we go home. I don't want to go back to the middle school building just to fetch my bag!"

"Meh, fair enough. Let's go."

Lara gestured toward the roof.

"Shall we?"

Both me and Theo nodded and followed in Lara's track. The corridors were empty because all the students were in the classrooms. We passed by absolutely no one when we climbed the staircase up until we reached the roof. It was a huge open space with nothing but wire fences to prevent anyone from falling down the edges.

"Okay, so..."

Lara looked at me expectantly.

"Why don't we introduce ourselves one more time? I am Lara Baker. This is my brother, Theo."

"Hey, Lara and Theo. I am Daniel Weston."
"Have you also been trying to get out of this time loop?"

"Yup," I confirmed. "No result so far."

"At least we find each other," Lara corrected me. "We might find more people, wouldn't we? All those who are trapped will try to get out by trying to change things."


Lara was right.

Though maybe not everyone would do that by causing a giant ruckus in the middle of the sports hall.

"Let's hope that either we find more people or those people come to find us," Lara decided. "Meanwhile... let's think about a way to come out of this loop. Why don't we tell each other how it even starts to happen? Did anyone experience something unusual the very first time it happened?"

I thought about it many times, but I could not come up with any explanation of that sort. My first day of school had been a perfect one.

I got into school, I became a hero at baseball practice, and Mom got a new job. It was all I ever dreamed of.

I thus shook my head in response to Lara's question.

"It was a perfect day."

"Same," Theo confirmed.

"For me too," Lara agreed. "So if it was a pleasant day for all three of us, it must be unpleasant to someone? Can you guys remember anyone? Anyone at all that might cause this to happen?"

"Won't that someone also be trapped within the time loop?" I asked.

"Yes but the person might not necessarily be aware of it. It is up to the hero to save the day," Theo pointed out.

"By hero you mean..."

"All three of us!"

"..."

Mmkay.

I tried to think back.

Mom.

Dad.

Jaden.

Mrs. Briggs.

Miss Hayes.

Jason.

My other classmates.

The sports coach.

The baseball coach.

The baseball team members.

Pizza guy?

The ones I interacted the most with were naturally my family, but I could not see how they drew any disadvantage from the day. It was also a beautiful day for them, right?

In fact, they enjoyed it a lot less when I started to cause some changes. Just like the day before when I faked sickness and caused Mom and Dad to go into panic mode and Mom failed to get her new job.

"Honestly if day one was lacking in any way, I made do by destroying everything in the next few days," I confessed. "I got sent to hospital and ruined whatever plans my family had for the day."

Lara laughed.

"Yeah, I did too. I was all nice on the first day, but then I turned into a total bitch on the last day."

"You mean when you threw the racket last time?"

"No, I mean when I started a fight with a classmate yesterday to go into detention."

"..."

"Mom and Dad came, all apologetic..." Theo murmured.

"Right."

Lara's face darkened. I assumed that she did not have a good relationship with her parents in the first place.

Speaking about ruckus... I suddenly remembered my headache problems.

"Hey, guys? Have you ever played Afterlife Dream?"

Both of them looked at me, all confused.

"Afterlife Dream? What's that?"

"It is an MMORPG that I used to play back when I was still in the hospital. For some reason, whenever I tried to remember I would get this headache..."

I had not even finished my explanation before the two people in front of me started to curl up, holding on to their heads in extreme agony.

"Ahhh... Ahhhhhh!!!" Lara shouted. "My head! My head!!!"

Theo let no sound escape his throat. He merely rolled around in distress.

It was part of the process, so I let it happen. My heart was pounding hard from excitement. I could not believe it. Two people who were also trapped within the time loop had also played Afterlife Dream before. That was a similarity one could not ignore! It might even be the key to getting out of this time loop!

It felt like ages, but eventually, the headache subsided. And then Lara and Theo lay unconscious on the roof.

I gulped.

Remember that I was also unconscious for the whole day after I remembered? It might be the same for the two of them. So what to do?

It was already 3 PM. I need to go back to my family.

Lacking better options, I went down to get a teacher to come up and get those two to the hospital.

I ran down the staircase. Students were pouring out of the classroom in a stream. I went inside the nearest classroom and found an elderly man in front of the classroom.

"Sir!" I shouted, trying to act panicked in the most convincing way I knew. "There are two students on the roof, I... I think they passed out!"

"Two students who?" he was utterly confused.

Of course he was. What were two students doing on the roof, passed out on top of that?

"I don't know, Sir. Please just come and take a look!"

I urged him to come with me to take a look at the Baker siblings. My only relief was that he did not continue by asking why I even went to the roof.

"Oh, Lord!" The elderly teacher gasped when he saw Lara's and Theo's bodies, curled up side by side. "Boy, wait here. I will notify other teachers!" he shouted.

"Oh, okay."

I looked at my watch. 3.15 PM. Darn it, Mom would not leave me behind, would she?

I waited just long enough until more teachers poured into the roof. It did not take long until the elderly teacher came back with nine others.

"They are alive, no worries!"

"Call the ambulance!"

"Does anyone know who they are?"

"I do! I am their homeroom teacher. These are Lara and Theo Baker."

I heaved a sigh of relief.

After making sure that the siblings were properly taken care of, I silently disappeared and went to the lobby. Jaden was already waiting for me downstairs.

"You are super late today, Danny," he commented.

"Mm, yeah. Sorry about that."

I might be late today, but we made some progress. I could not wait until the next day to come before we could talk about Afterlife Dream further.