Chapter 18 · Loopbound - Chapter 18: Run Eight Thousand

Loop 8,001.

I wake up and the first thing I do is throw up.

Not from the reset. From what I heard through that door crack. Mom's voice saying the name she called me when I was six years old, before she walked out to get groceries and never came back.

Evan's still asleep. The alarm won't go off for another four minutes. I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand and pull on yesterday's jeans. The floor's cold. My hands won't stop shaking.

I need to see Vera.

I skip breakfast. Skip the morning lecture hall entirely. The restricted archive doesn't open until nine but I don't care. I take the back stairwell two steps at a time and nearly slam into a first-year carrying a stack of primers. She yelps. I don't apologize.

The archive door's locked. I pound on it anyway.

"Vera. Open up."

Nothing.

I hit it again. Harder.

"Vera, I know you're in there. I heard my mom. Last loop. She was behind that door and she said my name.