Jade wakes up in a school bathroom stall, heart pounding, blood on her shirt, sirens outside.
A phone buzzes on the floor
From: Blocked number
"Welcome back Jade! You have 7 days left. Again"
Seven Days Earlier…
Jade Carter didn't believe in fate. Like, at all. Not in the magical "everything happens for a reason" type, or the depressing "your whole life is already written" way. She believed in caffeine, anxiety, and shoving her emotions into Spotify playlists she never let anyone see.
So when she woke up that Monday morning with a headache that felt like someone had rewired her brain using barbed wire and regret, she blamed the coffee.
Her stupid alarm was still buzzing like a mosquito in her brain 7:00 a.m., as always. Same song. Same vibration. Same dumb sense of dread. Her room looked exactly how she left it last night, nothing had moved. But somehow, everything felt wrong. Like someone had paused her life, rewound it, and hit play again without telling her.
Beige walls. Cracked window. Glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling. Sketchbooks stacked like sad little paper towers. Hoodie still draped over her desk chair like it paid rent. All of it exactly where it should be.
Except her chest felt tight. Like her body knew something her brain hadn't caught up to yet.
Her phone buzzed.
[Happy Birthday, Jade! <3] —Lexie Rose
Jade blinked at the message.
Birthday?
Nah. That already happened.
She remembered Lexie dragging her to that crusty little arcade, forcing a paper crown on her head and singing off-key over a donut cake. So why was her phone screaming May15 like it was breaking news?
She opened her calendar app. Every single reminder and event had been duplicated. A full week, just… pasted over the present. A chill spidered down her spine.
[Knock knock knock.]
"Jade? You up?" her dad called from outside the door.
"Yeah," she said, [voice groggy] "Just woke up."
She moved like a ghost to the window. Pulled open the blinds.
Cloudy sky. Wet pavement. Backpack zombies trudging to the bus stop. Same girl tripping over her shoelace like she was cursed. Her stomach lurched.
Not just familiar, the same.
Jade yanked on her hoodie like she was suiting up for war. Her body moved on autopilot while her brain spiraled into conspiracy theories. Downstairs, the smell of scrambled eggs hit her nose. Not too runny. Exactly how she liked them.
That should've been comforting.
It wasn't.
Two plates on the table. The eggs curled in that weird shape she always noticed but never mentioned. Her throat tightened.
This wasn't déjà vu.
She had lived this day before.
At school, Monday was still putting up it's "Totally Normal Day" performance.
Waves, smiles. Teachers recycling their dad joke greetings like bad returns, gossips and whispers in the hallways. Lexie ran up to her and hugged her in the exact same way, in the exact same place shouting "Happy Birthday!". Jade felt her skin crawl.
But then she saw him
Noah Blake.
He was leaning against the lockers like he'd been Photoshopped in. Flipping through some old paperback like the world didn't exist. Quiet. Perfect posture. Transfer student mystery vibes.
Jade hadn't noticed him last week, he was the mid-semester transfer student who barely spoke, always watching...
And then, he looked up.
Their eyes locked.
Boom. Instant weird vibe.
He didn't flinch. Didn't smile. Didn't nod. Just… stared. Like she was a homework problem he almost remembered solving once. Like he was checking for updates.
Jade froze.
Her heart thudded against her ribs like it wanted out. Her feet were glued to the floor. This wasn't just some crush thing. It felt… ancient.
Noah kept staring.
And then[*BRRRRNNNGGG.*]
The bell screamed.
He shut his book like he had all the time in the world. One last glance. Then he turned and walked away.
Just like that.
Jade blinked. The moment slipped away like smoke.
But the feeling?
That stayed.
Heavy, Electric, Unshakeable.
There was something in his expression. A flicker. A fracture. Something she couldn't name, but it knew her.
Forget the glitchy calendar. Forget Lexie's donut cake.
It was him.
The way he looked at her, that's what truly scared her