2025-08-04 20:40:53
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Chapter Twenty-four
Bobby didn’t sleep that night.He lay wide-eyed in bed, the blanket tight around him, the final message from Future Bob repeating like a siren in his skull.“It begins tomorrow.”Every hour, he checked the time.Every creak in the house made him flinch.Every shadow that passed under his door stretched too long.But morning came like it always did.---The sun shone through the blinds. Birds chirped as if time hadn’t been threatened the night before. Bobby rose from bed, moving like a ghost.He got dressed. Ate something without tasting it. Walked to the door.BF-85 was already there, waiting like a sentinel.Nothing felt different.And that made everything worse.---School passed in a blur of white noise.He didn’t hear the teachers. Didn’t notice who sat beside him in class. Didn’t laugh at the jokes that used to make him crack a smile.He kept expecting something—someone—to burst in.A Looper. Lyra. Margaret. Someone to say, “Time’s up.”But the day went on.The final bell rang.A
Chapter Twenty-three
For the next few days, everything was… quiet.Too quiet.No masked figures under streetlights. No strange teachers at school asking pointed questions. No Margaret stalking the shadows.Even Bobby’s phone stayed mostly silent, apart from the occasional text from Derek—just dumb memes and half-hearted “where u been?” messages.Not a single one from the Loopers.And none from Future Bob.---At first, Bobby welcomed the silence. After the nightmare—the one where cities burned and Future Bob’s voice boomed through endless screens, ruling over terrified people like a god—it was a relief to wake up and find the world still intact.But the relief didn’t last.Because the silence felt wrong.Like the calm before something huge. A pressure building in the air, waiting to explode.---Even BF-85 seemed more alert than usual.It no longer stood idle by the fence. Now, it constantly scanned the street, its head swiveling every few seconds, sensors blinking quietly.“Nothing detected,” it would sa
Chapter Twenty-two
Her grip was like iron.Bobby barely had time to scream before Margaret’s hand was around his throat, slamming him backward into the alley wall. Pain exploded behind his eyes. His breath caught in his throat, strangled by panic and pressure.Margaret’s face hovered inches from his—expressionless, eyes glowing faintly in the dark like embers buried under ash.“You run like a child,” she whispered. “But you belong to time now. And we're running out of time.”---Bobby clawed at her hand. Kicked at her shins. Nothing worked. Her grip tightened.Spots flickered in his vision. The world tilted. He could barely hear her now—just fragments through a buzz of blood in his ears.“Bob’s shadow is growing,” she said. “You either fade… or become it.”Something cracked in Bobby’s chest. The weight of those words—and the literal pressure on his lungs—felt like the end.---Then a blur of motion—metal glinting.CRASH!Margaret was knocked aside like a ragdoll, her body slammed into the dumpster with
Chapter Twenty-one
The message was short. Five words."I will kill Lyra Mallis."Bobby stared at the glowing screen. The words burned into his skull—into the back of his eyes. Into somewhere deeper. It felt like they were seared into the folds of his mind, like a permanent scar left by something ancient and cruel. His chest tightened—not from fear, no. Not this time. It was something worse. Confusion. A kind of broken understanding.His future self had made a choice. A final one. No hesitation. No warning. No asking. No permission. He didn’t ask what Bobby wanted. Didn’t even pretend to care. It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t a suggestion. Just a statement. Cold. Cruel. A done deal.His fingers hovered over the screen, twitching slightly as if they didn’t know what to do—fight or freeze. Part of him wanted to scream, to throw the phone across the room, smash it until the glass and circuits shattered under his palm. Another part—smaller, quieter, the part that always wanted to feel safe—wanted to l
Chapter Twenty
For a moment, Bobby’s heart stopped.Standing beside his mom, half-shadowed by the hallway light, was a woman. Shoulder-length dark hair tucked behind one ear, wearing a soft gray sweater and jeans. She looked perfectly ordinary—the type that can't arouse strong suspicion.Except Bobby knew that face.Lyra Mallis. It was undeniably her.---His breath caught painfully in his chest. His vision narrowed to a tunnel—her face and nothing else. The same woman who’d stood among the Loopers, who’d held a gun in shaking hands and whispered “You’re not a monster, Bobby. But Bob is.”And now she stood in his living room. Smiling politely—deception at its finest.Bobby's mind remained alarmed. He felt scared. Worried. Troubled.---“Bobby?” his mom prompted, her voice oddly cheerful. “This is Lyra. She started working in HR last month. We got to talking and… well, I thought you two should meet.”Lyra’s gaze settled on Bobby. Warm brown eyes. Calm, gentle smile.“Nice to meet you, Bobby,” she sa
Chapter Nineteen
For a moment, Bobby couldn’t move.The figure under the streetlight stepped forward—and the shadows peeled away to show her face.A woman. Late thirties? Maybe older. Hair dark, pulled back too tight, a coat that looked too heavy for the night. But it was her eyes that froze him: cold, hollow. Empty as deep water.And behind them… something flickered. Something not human.Bobby’s breath caught. Heart hammering.Echo Looper.---She stopped just a few steps away. Gaze locked on his, sharp. Deliberate.“Bobby Stokes,” she said. Voice soft, but echoing strange—layered over itself, metallic, flat. “We’ve been looking for you.”Bobby stepped back. Heart racing. “Who… who are you?”The woman’s lips twitched. Almost a smile. Didn’t reach those eyes.“Margaret,” she said, calm as stone. “But you can call me what I am.”Her hand lifted. Coat sleeve slid back just enough. He glimpsed it: a ceramic mask, dull, cracked along the edge.“Echo Looper,” she finished.---Bobby’s mouth went dry. Legs
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