00:52 — Sublevel Storage Room
The walls were humming. Not with power, but with memory—like the building itself was trying to remember something it once was.
Riya pressed her back against the cold concrete, eyes locked on Priya across the room. Neha gripped a broken ruler like a dagger. Aman kept glancing at Ira, looking for something—answers, maybe. A reason to still believe in someone.
Ira stood in the middle. Her timer now read:
00:45
A countdown had started.
She was no longer exempt.
"Start talking," Neha said. "No riddles. No riddles, no poems. Just the truth."
Ira nodded. "You want the truth? Fine. Here it is."
---
00:44 — Ira's Memory (An Embedded Flashback)
The first loop was nothing but light. White corridors. Voices in echoes. A man with a clipboard saying, "She's the anomaly. Leave her in the system. She might stabilize the loop."
The loop was meant to cleanse dishonesty. A social correction. But it became something more—a game for the Architects, hunting truth through pain. Ira saw dozens erased. One survived with her: a boy. She remembered his hand in hers. His timer never ticked.
Subject Zero.
He loved the sound of birds. He sketched doorways.
He called her "Echo."
And then he vanished.
But not before whispering: "Break it from inside. Find the real lie."
---
00:43 — Present
"I never broke the system," Ira said. "I was the system. And I did try to break it."
"You knew Priya was betraying us," Aman said. "Why keep her with us?"
"Because it wasn't just her."
Everyone froze.
"What?" Neha said, voice suddenly quiet.
Ira looked at Riya.
"I thought it was her at first. But no. Riya's always been trying to find herself. Even her fake posts—those were attempts at truth."
She turned to Aman.
"You were a possibility. But your timer only changed when Rahul died. You blamed yourself. That regret gave you time."
She turned.
And looked at Neha.
Silence.
Dead silence.
Neha's timer blinked.
00:01 → 01:00
"No…" Aman whispered.
Riya's breath caught.
"I trusted you," Ira said softly. "But I forgot one rule."
"What?" Neha asked, her voice shaking.
Ira stepped closer, her presence calm, ancient, sorrowful.
"That the best liars aren't the ones who hide things. They're the ones who believe everything they say is true."
---
00:39
Neha's hands were trembling now. "I was trying to help—"
"You've been reporting to them since Loop Three," Ira said.
"No—"
"You suggested the 'truth grid' idea. That's when the resets started accelerating. You were their inside variable, testing thresholds."
"I didn't remember!" Neha cried. "I swear, Ira—I didn't know! They told me it was a simulation. They said it wasn't real!"
Ira stepped back. "You made the deal before you forgot. The Architects deleted your guilt."
Now tears streamed down Neha's face. "But I remember now. Rahul—he gave me the kachori before he vanished. I remember that taste! I remember him!"
"You're remembering because the final loop is collapsing," Ira said. "All rules are breaking."
"Can I fix it?" Neha asked.
"Only by doing something real. Something you can't take back."
Neha looked at the timer on her wrist.
00:58
Then at Priya, trembling in the corner. "She still has the backup code. Doesn't she?"
Priya gasped. "Wait—how did you—?"
Neha lunged.
A struggle.
A scream.
A flash.
And when it was over, Neha held a cracked wristband in one hand—and Priya was gone.
Erased.
But so was Neha's own timer.
Just blank.
She collapsed to her knees. "I did it. I made a choice."
Then smiled softly.
"I remembered who I am."
And faded.
No scream. Just… peace.
---
00:10 — Rooftop
Only three remained: Ira, Riya, Aman.
The sky had split into spirals of time. Birds flew backward. Words unspoke themselves.
A final shimmer descended from the sky—a doorway made of light.
"They're coming," Ira whispered. "To reset everything. Wipe us all clean."
"Can't we run?" Aman asked.
"No. But we can finish what the boy started."
She handed Riya a small, palm-sized stone.
On it: the symbol ☉.
"A loop ends when someone remembers the beginning," Ira said. "That's what Subject Zero meant. If one person walks into the reset with true memory, the system breaks."
Riya clutched the stone.
"Why me?"
"Because you've lied the most," Ira said. "But you wanted truth. That's the difference."
Aman reached out. "What about you?"
"I was built from memory. I can't be the one to change it."
She kissed both their foreheads, like a sister, like a farewell.
And stepped into the doorway.
Her final words echoed:
> "Find him. The boy with no name. He's the key."
---
Reset Engaged
00:00
---
[Somewhere else. Somewhen else.]
A School. A Morning. A Beginning.
Riya Sharma wakes to filtered light through floral curtains.
The scent of coffee. Her mother shouting.
She yawns, stretches.
Her wrist is bare.
No timer.
But something's different.
There's a small stone on her desk, warm to the touch.
She picks it up.
☉
Something stirs inside her chest—an ache for something she cannot name.
She opens her phone. No apps. No selfies. Just one photo.
Five teenagers on a rooftop.
She only recognizes herself.
And maybe—maybe the girl in earth-tone clothes, smiling faintly.
A name flickers through her head.
Not a name, exactly.
A word.
Echo.
---
And somewhere in the distance, a boy sketches a doorway, waiting for the one who remembers.
The End.
The Beginning.
The Loop...