Chapter Two #2
Glowing eyes were usually a trait reserved for gods or other exceptionally powerful supernatural beings.
They served as a visible sign of the immense power and magic they possessed.
Even then, their eyes didn’t glow the way hers did.
They didn’t flicker on and off like enchanted traffic lights, flashing unpredictably whenever something inside her shifted or made her emotional.
The strangest part wasn’t even the glowing itself.
Over the course of countless time loops, she’d consulted demons, angels, fairies, and other powerful beings who might be able to help her.
Several of them had tried to gauge her magical abilities, only to come away even more confused after they couldn’t accurately sense her power at all.
To all of them, she was nothing more than a regular human.
It was as if her magical aura was invisible to their senses.
Despite that, her power reserves continued to increase with every lifetime. She could feel it. Sense it. Techniques that had once drained her now came naturally, and spells she could barely perform before had become almost effortless. As long as it was useful to her, she no longer cared why.
She watched as he slipped a key out of his pocket and set it down onto the table with shaking fingers. “Something very strange is going on with you.”
That was true enough.
“You can leave now.”
As he stiffly headed for the door, she briefly considered just letting him leave without saying anything else.
Then, she relented. Even if he was an asshole, he had saved her from being bullied in the group home when they were younger.
Because of that, she felt like she at least owed him some friendly advice.
“Just a warning. The girl you are going on a date with tonight? Her dad has checked you out. He might be a legit businessman, but he has connections with some very bad people. After you hook up with a random girl at a club next weekend, he is going to send some guys to beat the crap out of you and teach you a lesson. It’s going to take an expert healer to keep you from dying.
Even then, your shattered leg is never going to be the same.
If you want to be able to keep breathing, make sure not to piss him off.
If you don’t like her, stop pursuing her and make a clean break. ”
He simply stared at her for a long beat of silence, then whispered, “How in hellfire can you know all that?”
“Because I’ve already lived it. Believe me or not, that’s your choice.” She paused, then added, “Stop being such an asshole, Billy. Life will be a lot easier on you.”
He opened his mouth, then closed it again without saying anything. With a curt nod of his head, he left, quietly closing the door behind him.
Once she was alone again, Naomi sighed. After living so many cycles, she barely felt any connection to her original life. Still, she had given her old friend a chance to correct his mistake. She wasn’t interested in doing more to try to fix him. That wasn’t her responsibility.
Only Billy could change his life at this point.
With that done, she took the next step and rearranged her furniture so most of it would survive the storm damage the following week. She wasn’t sure she would even make it back before the next reset, but it didn’t hurt to plan ahead just in case.
She had to leave soon if she was going to make it to her next destination on time.
While she wasn’t obligated to fix every situation she was aware of, sometimes fixing a mistake or being able to prevent a disaster made her feel like she had actually accomplished something during the loop.
Altering something early on during a cycle also gave her a whole new set of facts to work with.
As she prepared to leave, she loaded her backpack with a few changes of clothes, some basic toiletries, and her journal.
She also packed her wallet with all the cash from her private stash, a pocketknife, and a stun gun she had bought to keep herself safe on campus.
With her magical upgrades, she no longer needed it, but she had gotten in the habit of packing it anyway.
Thankfully, she would be teleporting to her destination, so there would be no travel time to consider.
She had learned early on that flying anywhere was definitely prohibited.
The first time she’d boarded a plane after the time loop began, she had just wanted to escape her life.
Instead of taking her someplace better, the aircraft suffered a catastrophic failure, causing it to plummet from the sky.
When she woke up back at the beginning of the loop, she was relieved and horrified.
That was the first time she was actually glad about the reset.
She had a sneaking suspicion her power fluctuations might have caused the plane malfunction, but she couldn’t be sure without proof. During another cycle, she tested the theory. A different airline. A different destination. A different day. The result was exactly the same.
Another devastating crash.
After that, she swore she would never set foot on an airplane again.
Whether her curse was somehow causing the disasters or simply ensuring she would die no matter where she went didn’t really matter anymore.
The outcome was always the same. Hundreds of innocent people had died alongside her in those two crashes.
Although history erased those tragedies each time she was reborn, Naomi still remembered every terrifying second.
Every scream.
Every desperate prayer.
Every life that had been cut short because she had been on board those planes.
That was confirmed when those flights safely made it to their destinations without her onboard.
Knowing that she was responsible for the deaths of planes filled with people was a heavy weight to carry, even if she was the only one who remembered what had happened.
It was a burden she wouldn’t wish on anyone.
Unfortunately, avoiding airplanes didn’t make travel any safer.
On the other hand, driving came with its own endless collection of nightmares.
Over the countless loops, she’d been involved in more car accidents than she could count.
Sometimes another driver ran a red light.
Sometimes a truck jackknifed across the highway.
Once, a sinkhole had opened beneath the road without warning.
Fate never seemed to run out of creative ways to turn a routine drive into another fatal ending.
And then there was the incident at the rest stop.
She still shuddered whenever she thought about that particular cycle. She’d only stopped at the rest stop long enough to grab a bottle of soda and some snacks, but that was all it took. A stranger had abducted her from the parking lot before she realized what was happening.
He wasn’t a supernatural enemy, an assassin, or someone connected to the curse. He was simply a random serial killer who happened to choose the wrong victim on the wrong day. It had been one of the most senseless deaths she’d ever experienced.
And the most terrifying.
It was a chilling reminder that she didn’t need magical enemies or elaborate conspiracies to die. She had been a victim of a random act of violence so horrifying that the memory continued to live with her.
Perhaps each death was fate’s way of punishing her for making wrong choices.
If she experienced a particularly gruesome or horrible death, she never went down that specific path again.
That was all it took to steer her away from repeating certain decisions.
She wished destiny had figured out a different way to teach her that lesson, but nothing about her situation was particularly reasonable or fair.
Turning off all non-essential electronics, she did one last check around her apartment.
Debating over a pair of hiking boots or sneakers, she went with the latter for comfort.
Slinging her backpack over one shoulder, she paused to grab her favorite black leather jacket.
Although it was hot as hellfire outside, she might need it later.
Satisfied she was as ready as she was going to be, she headed toward her next death.