Sunday, April 16th, Afternoon

I stepped off the stage, pulled off my bass strap, and wiped the sweat off my brow. As I took a seat on a crate nearby, Anna and Sirius followed, walking side by side. Sirius said something to her. She stopped walking, and stared at her feet. After a minute, she looked up, and nodded.

“Anna.” I approached. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

Her eyes flicked to Sirius. He nodded. “O-Okay.”

“Sirius… he asked you to go walk around Galileo Fest with him, right?”

She pushed her hands together and pressed them against her lips. Anna nodded, once. “Y-Yes,” she said. “He…” Her voice trailed off. Her mouth opened, and closed, and finally, she pulled out her phone.

[Anna] he did

A chill crept through my body. Starting with my eyes, and nose, and throat, and down my spine. My fingers quivered. I could ruin it for her. From the first loop, I already knew how their day would turn out. That was without my intervention. So, if I spoke up here… with a few words, I could ruin everything. And then, maybe, Sirius would look at me. Notice me.

He could be mine.

My throat was choking up at the thought of it. First, I treat Rigel like that, and now this?

I reached up and patted Anna on the head. “You can do it.”

She looked up at me. Her shoulders relaxed, a bit. “T-T-tha…”

“Slow down.”

“T-thank you…”

A grin. She’s come a long way. How can someone like her overcome stage fright and perform in front of tens of hundreds of people? My hand fell to my side. I know why that is. And it’s no thanks to my coddling.

“Hey, Anna.”

“Y-Yes?”

“I heard that the Astronomy department is doing some experiment on the roof of the Astronomy Building,” I said. “So… you’ll have to go elsewhere”

Her ears lit up, a bright neon pink. Bingo. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.

[Anna] how ddi u know?????

Because I traveled back in time. I said, “I’m your sister. Of course I would.”

Her lips formed an ‘o,’ as her fingers flashed across her phone screen.

[Anna] do u know wherei should go instead?

This was my chance. I swallowed. Anna, this, I swear. I will save you. For this much, you can believe in me.

I thought for a moment. Not somewhere on the north side of campus. If the killer was following them beforehand… it should be better if they remain in public. If… if I can convince Sirius to hold off on his confession…

You can confess when you’re both safe.

“Somewhere on South Side,” I said. “I’ll… I’ll get back to you on that. But for now… enjoy yourself.”

Anna slipped her phone back into her pocket and stood up straighter. “O… okay!”

“Attagirl.” I gave her a nod. She hesitated for a moment, then turned and trotted back to Sirius’s side. As the two of them walked off, from what I could overhear, Anna’s speech was a lot smoother. Sirius glanced down at Anna’s hand, and motioned towards it, but shied away. They exited the backstage.

Less than eight hours to go. I need to figure out a plan.

“Hey,” someone tapped my shoulder. I turned. It was Antares. His eyes flicked down to my chin, then back up to my eyes. “Lyra. Could you give me a hand with this?” There’s a mole on one side of my chin. I knew it was the way most people told me and Anna apart. Antares was no exception.

“I’m a little busy,” I said.

“It’ll only take a moment. I just need an extra pair of hands to carry the monitors back up to the clubroom. And it doesn’t look like you’re sticking around for the other performances.”

“A fair deduction.”

He shrugged. “You were walking to the door. Is that a deduction?”

“It is if you call it one.” I tied my coat around my waist and slung my bag over my shoulder.

“I see, I see.” He hovered the monitor over my hands. I took it. “You can handle it, can’t you?”

It was pretty weighty. “I got it.”

He hoisted the other one over his shoulder with one hand and pulled the door open with the other. “After you.”

The path from the performance area back up to the Physics building wasn’t a long one, but it was straight uphill. Most of the science buildings were clustered on top of a hill, on the north side of campus. The two of us passed by several food vendors, that had parked along the driveway to the top of the hill.

Last time, I’d taken off directly after the performance. I wondered if it had been Mintaka who’d helped Antares carry the monitors. Well, not like I could ask him. Unlike the murders, it’s not as if ‘it hasn’t happened yet,’ rather, ‘it didn’t happen.’ It’s starting to mess with my head.

“So, Lyra.”

“Hm?”

He spun around, walking backwards. “Performance was a mess today. Bassline was all over the place.”

Oh. Had it really? I would say that I hadn’t noticed, but I guess that’s case in point. “Sorry…”

“Did you tune before going on?”

“Of course.”

“Was your D string sharp?”

I thought back. “It was. Then I fixed it.”

“You forgot to tune back up,” he said.

“Oh. Right.” I’m being lectured on tuning by the drummer. Okay, that’s embarrassing. Not tuning the string back up… now there’s a beginner’s mistake.”

“And the rhythm was just… a mess. Could you not hear me?”

“No, no,” I said. “It’s just--”

We walked past the foot of the clock tower and stopped in front of the set of double doors. Again, he shifted the monitor to one hand and held the door open for me. “After you.”

“I was distracted,” I continued. “Sorry. At least we weren’t being judged.

He knitted his eyebrows and frowned, like a stern parent. “We’re judged every time we get on the stage. That’s not an excuse.”

“Yes, I know, I know.”

Antares sighed. Despite his large build, Antares was the one with the most formal music education. Sirius had originally signed him on as the keyboardist, but he volunteered to switch to the drums as a challenge to himself.

Finally, after a long hike up another few flights of stairs, we made it to the clubroom. I set the monitor down and stretched my arms. Antares did the same.

“So, what’s on your mind?”

“Pardon?”

“I can at least hear you out,” he said. “Dunno if I can do anything about it, though.”

I recognized that expression. “Things not going well with Rayet?”

He huffed. “Honestly, I’m thinking of breaking things off. He’s a great guy, but…” Antares shook his head. “Hey. Don’t try to make this about me.”

“He does that to you, doesn’t he?”

With another annoyed look, he scratched the back of his neck. “Yes, he does. And so do you. If you don’t want me to hear you out, just say it.”

“No… maybe you can help me.” I took a breath. How much should I tell him? I trust Antares- I trust all of the band members. But I also didn’t want to sound like a lunatic. “This is a hypothetical. Hypothetical.”

“Hypothetical. Okay, go on.”

“Suppose you knew that someone would die, at the end of the day. Someone close to you. What would you do?”

“Go to the police,” he said. “Duh.”

“Okay, but… what if you couldn’t explain it. Like… what if explaining it to the police would make it sound like you’re the murderer.”

He raised a thick eyebrow. “Whose murder?”

“T-This is just a hypothetical.”

Clearly, he didn’t buy it. “Go on.”

“What would you do?”

Antares sat down on the couch. “Easy. I’d find the guy and pound them.” He placed a hand on his chin. “No, wait. I’d have someone back me up. Probably Mint. Doesn’t she do taekwondo?”

“She does everything,” I said. “I think it was karate.”

“Whatever. I’d have her back me up, and we’d go pound the guy.” He cracked his knuckles. “What’s this for, anyways?”

“I’m writing a book,” I said. “It’s for a book.”

“Got this distracted in a performance over a book?”

I paused. “Yes.”

He raised both eyebrows this time and shrugged. “You learn something new every day. I didn’t know you’re a writer.”

I’m not, but I wasn’t about to tell him that. “Anyways… thanks for the input.”

Antares shrugged. “Sure.”

“And go talk things over with Rayet, okay? Don’t bottle up your feelings.”

“Hey. I’ll ask you when I need your help.”

“No you won’t.” Despite everything, I grinned.

“Hey.”

“Seeya.” I hurried down the steps and wiped the smile off my face. I’m running out of time.

Sunday, April 16th, Afternoon

Less than seven hours to go. I hurried back down to the central area. I need a plan. But what? Should I have followed Anna and Sirius? Probably. Come to think of it… in getting them away from the Astronomy building, I’ve given up my only advantage. I won’t know where they’ll be.

Now that I’ve gotten them away… will the murder still happen? If not… will they be killed tomorrow? Or the day after?

Maybe I should’ve called the police, that I know my friend has a violent stalker. But… how can I prove it? How will I explain anything?

I remembered to breathe. The most effective tactic would to be to catch the killer, and stop them. And… if anything really went wrong…

I could reset time and try again. Nine times. I swallowed. I pulled my phone out and tapped on the Redshift. Nine remaining. ‘At 0 credits remaining, you may contact system admin.’ Whatever that meant.

For now, I need a plan. Let’s… try to keep them safe. Day by day, and go from there. If all else fails… I have nine more tries.

“Yooo! Lyraaa!”

To my left, a voice. Turning to look, it seemed that I had fumbled back to the main plaza without noticing. Flier in hand, Mintaka stood behind a booth, waving wildly. Maybe I could ask for advice.

“Heya, Mint. What’s up?”

Said flier, crumpled from being whipped around in the air, was thrust into my chest. “Saturdays at 10! We meet in Dwinelle.” Mintaka’s grin doth teach torches to sear someone’s eyes out.

My eyes flicked down. From the spider web of creases, I could make out, ‘Chess Club.’

“I didn’t know you did chess. I thought you did shogi.”

“Why not both?”

I held up one hand. “Wait, Antares and I were talking about this. Do you do taekwondo, or karate?”

Mintaka put her hands on her hips. “I did a semester of kung fu,” she said. “Doing judo, right now.”

Kung fu, karate, potato, potahto. I’m sure I was closer than Antares. Though, if I said that out loud, I’d probably get gunned down by some fanatic.

“You… don’t try to do too much, okay?”

She flashed a thumbs up. “Won’t affect my performance! You have the Mintakendo seal of quality!”

“Do you also to kendo? Is that--”

“You know, the Nintendo seal of quality? Mintakendo seal?”

I guess I should just roll with it. Besides, I don’t have time for this. “Whatever. Hey, Mint.”

“Yeah?”

“Give me your thoughts. This is… it’s for a book I’m writing.”

“Wowow,” she said. “I guess I’m not the only one doing a lot.”

Well. “Say… you knew your friend was doing to die--”

“How do you know? Threatening letter? Ominous premonition?”

“Time travel,” I said. “Say you’re caught in a time loop, that will end with your friend’s murder.”

She closed her eyes and nodded. “I see…” Mintaka opened them again. “Sounds kinda trite. Like, it’s fine as a premise, but it’s been done before. Boring.”

“Hey-”

“Okay, but you can probably make it work.”

Having the death game that is my life get summed up as trite garbage hurt a little bit, but I didn’t really have any option but to brush it aside and press on. “Okay, so. What would you do?”

Mintaka leaned back in her chair. “If your friend survives the time loop, will they be safe afterwards? Who’s trying to kill the mark?”

“I don’t know.”

“To the first question, or-”

“To both,” I said.

“Aren’t you the author? How do you not know?”

Because I’m lying through my teeth. “The main character doesn’t know,” I said. “And I want to ask what you’d do in her shoes.” Sometimes, it scares even me how well I can rattle off a pack of lies like that. Not a skill I’m proud to have, but a useful one regardless.

“Hm… well, given that I can’t know… the best way would be to figure out who this killer is. And why they’re after the mark.”

My thoughts exactly. “But… how? If I’m on the second loop.”

“How many loops total?”

“Nine.”

“Oh,” she said. “Then it’s easy.”

“Really?”

“Just let the mark die.”