Chapter 22 · Why She Pulled It

The blood on the glass wasn't Lena's.

Seren stared at the smear. Dark red. Still tacky at the edges. Ian was right. She'd bled in this exact spot. Loop nine. Lena shot her here. But the train had reset. The glass should've reset. Everything always reset.

Except the blood.

"How is that still there?" Seren's voice came out flat. She touched the glass. Cold. The smear didn't move. "I died. The loop turned over. Why didn't it—"

"Because the system locked you out." Ian stepped closer. His face was pale. Hands shaking. "You reset at death. But they locked your detonator before you could die again. So loop nine... it's still running. Somewhere."

Lena hadn't moved from the door. She was watching them both. "The memory system doesn't reset physical evidence when the subject is still alive in the active timeline. You bled here. You're still alive. So it stays."

Seren pulled her hand back. Her chest felt tight. "That's not how—"

"That's exactly how." Lena's voice was quiet. "You've been resetting yourself. Not the world. Every time you die, your memory pulls you back nine minutes. But the world keeps going. It just... forks. You leave a trail."

"Forks."