Originally Posted by
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Number 3
I think I finally have an understanding of this loop.
One week. It is a loop of one week, and one week only. Though even though I say one week, it is missing a day... though that day is hardly consequential I feel. Tuesday to Sunday. No Monday. My loop begins, again and again, with their arrival. One way or another, no matter what I try, I end up meeting them. And then it spirals, slowly, towards madness that overtakes them all by Sunday.
I feel that this madness is both artificial and yet not.
Take the fog, for instance, which covers the town on Sunday. This fog seems to hide within itself most of the local populace, leaving the class alone, separated and afraid. They'll be spurred by the paranoia of the murderous intent within them, fragment, and then shatter. By the time Sunday comes around, none will be left alive. Well... perhaps not. Some of them might survive, depending on the parameters. But that doesn't stop the loop. I'll always return to the arrival, and it all begins again. Week of growing fear, storm of paranoia, and them... fog descends, and they tear each other apart. They do it no matter what I do.
The Sunday I write this on, I made an interesting discovery. There are insects within the fog. Not natural insects, artificial. Small robots, I'd wager. I was never too good in the subject, but I believe they may have something to do with the madness... but whether they cause it or they merely enhance it, I do not know. I know there are other factors too. Sunday's trigger, for example, is when someone is found nailed to the yew tree - just like in the legend of the Disembodied Man. But there are other factors as well, spread throughout the week. Other triggers, ones that lead towards the ruin. When these things are allowed to happen, a dead end is inevitable.
I just have to shift through them all. Like searching for grains of gold on a beach, combing through the endless sand.
I have nothing but time anyway.
Still, the one I started with... was the shadow among us. The clearest and most present danger. Except... I can't find them. No matter what I do, I can't seem catch them, find enough clues or deduce the answer.
I'm not good at this.
For all my power, I was never any good at things like this. No matter how hard I try, it's beyond my reach.
... But there's one option left for me. If I simply... kill one person in the class. Kill them, and then wait and see. See if anything changes. If not, I'll merely loop back and... do it again. But to a different person. Process of elimination, That Man would have said. He would have patted me on the shoulder and told me I was doing well, being pragmatic.
-------------- I don't wanna do it.
I don't wanna turn into That Man.
But what other way do I have left anymore...?
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Hearing those words, Zane seemed to shiver a little... and slowly, the hand that been holding the gun was lowered. Indeed, it fell flat against his body, almost like all strength had been driven from the young man's body. In a way, it was almost a miracle that the weapon didn't clatter to the ground. Ramia let out a tiny sigh of relief under her breath, but then her eyes hardened. She gazed at the vehicle, the machine in there, and at Anna... and finally at Zane.
