Everly had heard of the Fountain of Youth.
It was said to be a miraculous spring whose water could grant eternal youth to anyone who drank it. The earliest systematic records appeared in the ancient Mediterranean region, but echoes of the fountain could be found in the myths and folk tales of many civilizations around the world.
Some texts claimed the fountain was in Ethiopia; others insisted it was in the Caribbean; and even within Xia Nationâs bordersâwhere the zombie movie King of the Undead 999 was currently a blockbusterâit was rumored that a Fountain of Youth existed in the mystical caverns of Wangwu MountainâŠ
Because the legends often contradicted one another, some experts argued that the fountain was purely a product of humanityâs collective desire for youth and immortality, and didnât actually exist. Other scholars were convinced that it did existâand that there might be more than one.
Everly supported the former view. She believed the Fountain of Youth did not exist; people simply didnât want to grow old and die, so they created such fantasies. Otherwise, how had nobody ever maintained eternal youth simply by drinking from a spring?
But now, she felt uncertain.
Buddy had died at the start of the semester from complications caused by aging. Watching family and friends grow old step by step, and eventually die in a way that was not dignified at all, was unbearably painful. If the Fountain of Youth truly existed, her grandfather⊠thinking of that, Everlyâs breath quickened slightly.
She fixed Orff with a sharp gaze, feigning calm as she asked, âDo you really have clues about the Fountain of Youth?â
Orff nodded frantically. âYes! I really do! Trust me, as long as youâre willing to help me, Iâll give you whatever you want!â
Everly stared at him silently for a moment, then slightly nodded. âUnderstood⊠This isnât the place to talk. Come with me.â
With Orff and Misha in tow, Everly led them to the Grand Cherokee parked in the campus lot.
The security checkpoint at the school gate had been in place for two months, but it was now lifted, so Everly was able to park the car back on campus.
âGet in.â
She opened the door, and after Orff climbed in, Everly and Misha got in one after the other.
âYou said earlier that I had to get you to tell me that you were willing to trade clues about the âFountain of Youthâ for my help. What did you mean by that?â
âY-yes⊠wellâŠâ Orff seemed uncomfortable being closely watched by two girls in such a confined space. He shrank toward the corner of the Jeep, stammering as he spoke. âActually⊠this is the twenty-fifth time Iâve gone through âtodayââŠâ
âŠ
It all had to start with today: December 18, 20X4, at 8:25 AM.
The first class of the morning started at 9:05, but Orff had stayed up late last night playing on the computer and overslept.
He slept heavily until the alarm rang. The crisp chime jolted him awake, and he sat up in bed, heart pounding.
âUgh⊠banana pieâŠâ His roommate, Tom, stirred in his sleep on the next bed, mumbling something, scratching his stomach, and turning over. Orffâs gaze was briefly drawn to himâjust as it had been in the previous twenty-four loopsâŠ
Shifting his attention away from his roommate, Orff felt a dull ache spreading across his body, letting out a silent groan.
Among all the pain, the sharpest and most pronounced was the stabbing in his head and eyes. Recalling his last death, he pulled out a mirror and checked his bloodshot eyes, letting out a frustrated sigh.
The lingering pain seemed to grow heavier and more pervasive with each loop. At some point, it wasnât just pain anymoreâhe feared that the scars from the previous cycle might carry over into this one as well.
This sudden realization filled Orff with an intense sense of urgency. There wasnât much time to wasteâhe had to solve everything as quickly as possibleâŠ
Orff turned his gaze to the alarm clock by his bedside, checking the time once again: December 18, 20X4, 8:26 AM.
Yes. That was right. He had returned⊠once more.
This was the twenty-fifth time Orff had gone through all of this.
Ever played a game where certain characters automatically respawn at the last save point after dying? Orff was exactly like one of those characters. And this morning, when the alarm rang at 8:25, that moment marked his auto-save point.
Why did he keep âloadingâ and reliving the same day? Because today, Orff was destined to dieâwithout fail.
Death by falling, suffocation, crushing, stabbing, freezing⊠in a place that felt like a dream or perhaps a parallel space, he would wake at the same time, hear his roommate mumble âbanana pie,â get out of bed, and then die again for a dozen different reasonsâonly to awaken from the next loop. This cycle had already repeated twenty-four times.
The despair felt absolute, as if it were some predetermined fate.
Every time he died, Orffâs clock reset to 8:25 AM that same morning. This gave him a chance to investigate the mystery, to try to escape his deadly fateâbut it also inflicted severe mental and physical trauma as his body and mind endured the endless repetition.
Having survived twenty-four loops, Orff knew many of the events that would occur after he got out of bed.
This time, he didnât follow his usual routine. Normally, he would rise early, take a shower in the communal bathroom to feel refreshed, and then leave for school. In the first and second âtodayâ loops, it was during one such shower that he had been accidentally bumped, hitting his head on the hard tiles and dying from excessive blood loss.
When he opened his eyes again with the lingering phantom pain in his head, it was already the third âtodayâ cycle.
The first time, he had been completely unaware. The second time, he was still confused, unable to understand that he was reliving the same day. By the third loop, however, when his roommate murmured âbanana pieâ once again, even the slowest part of Orffâs mind realized what was happening.
From the third cycle onward, he no longer went to the communal bathroom for a proper shower. Instead, he grabbed his toiletries and just quickly cleaned himself at the sink. After all, skipping a full shower for a day wouldnât kill himâbut stepping into the bathroom during âtodayâ could very well mean death.
As in many previous loops, Orff bent over the faucet, brushed his teeth, and cupped water in his hands to splash on his face. The slightly cold water hit his feverish cheeks, giving a small relief to the throbbing pain in his head.
Once he finished quickly, he stood up, wiped his face, placed his towel and toothbrush on the nearby shelf, and turned toward the dorm exit.
Halfway past the communal bathroom, he silently counted to three in his mind.
On the third count, Ronald from the next room happened to step out. He was in his underwear, holding a towel, drying his dripping hair.
Seeing Orff, Ronaldâs face showed surprise. He raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to speak, but Orff had no patience to engage with his usually friendly âbuddy.â
He gave a perfunctory nod to Ronald, kept walking, and continued briskly toward the dormâs main exit.
This same scene had repeated more than twenty times. He didnât even need to stop to know what Ronald would say: something meaningless like, âHey man, skipping your shower this morning?â
Time was critical, and Orff had far more important matters to attend to.
He left the dorm with a clear goal, heading straight for the library.
Having stayed up late the night before, he had burned a lot of energy, and his stomach was now growling. In theory, at this time, he could still make a quick stop at the student cafeteriaâgrab a hot coffee and pack a sandwich for later.
Thatâs exactly what he did during the third loop. At the time, he thought that as long as he avoided the communal bathroom, he could escape the death cycle. Feeling relaxed, he headed to the cafeteriaâbut barely had he stepped out with his cup of coffee when an allergic reaction struck. A sudden anaphylactic shock ended the third loop in tragedy.
Yes, Orff was a fragile boyâhe was severely allergic to peanuts.
By the fourth loop, he assumed that the coffee had simply been accidentally contaminated with peanutsâafter all, kitchen mistakes happen all the time when ingredients arenât completely separated.
So in the fourth loop, Orff avoided the coffee entirely and bought a bottled soda from a vending machine instead.
This time, he managed to survive a bit longer. But it wasnât enoughâhe only lasted until he walked into the classroom and began eating a sandwich at his seat, which had somehow been laced with peanut powder, sending him straight to âheaven.â
Once bitten, twice shy. By the fifth loop, Orff no longer dared go to the cafeteria. Who knew what other seemingly harmless foods might still contain those cursed peanuts that had left him with so many traumatic memories?
Besides, skipping a meal for a day wouldnât kill him.
Orff truly began to suspect someone was trying to kill him during the sixth loop.
In this cycle, he was forced to be extremely cautious. He didnât shower, didnât go to the cafeteria, and didnât eat or drink anything. He made it through the first class of the day without incident.
After class, he even thought he had finally escaped the death cycleâoh, what a damned illusion. His emotions relaxed slightly. As he walked down from the classroom building, he happened to run into Ronald from the next dorm. Ronald waved at him. Orff walked over and heard him ask,
âBro, a few of us are heading to St. Gena Ski Resort later. Want to come?â
âS-skiing? Come on, itâs freezing, Iââ Orff began to reply when a voice rang out nearby:
âDanger! Move!â
Startled, he instinctively turned his head and saw a blonde, blue-eyed girl pointing above him. In a flash, as if suddenly realizing something, Orff looked upâand a heavy flowerpot was hurtling straight toward him, rapidly growing larger in his vision.
âBoom!â
Pain exploded through him. In the last moment before losing consciousness, he glimpsed through the blood-smeared lenses the hand that had quickly pulled back the pot from the top of the classroom building.
It wasnât an accidentâŠ
âŠ
ââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââ
Authorâs Note:
Yes, the inspiration comes from Happy Death Day. If I had to mention, Groundhog Day also counts.
Time-loop thrillers have pretty much become a fixed subgenre in modern horror films.