Loop

Mike is woken by the blaring of his alarm. He groans feeling a pain in his head. It soon disappears. Not long after he forgets about it altogether. In happens when he realises he’s going to be late because he missed his first alarm. He grumbles, jumps out of bed and rushes to the shower.

Twenty eight minutes later, and without having eaten breakfast, Mike is out the door of his studio apartment. Though, he makes certain that it’s locked before jogging down the narrow corridor and then bounding down the stairs, one at a time. It’s Tuesday, he thinks to himself. That thought is one of many that wind and spiral around in his head.

Having cleared the stair Mike steps out of the apartment buildings front door and onto the wide sidewalk filled with people. He nods twice before joining the fray and mingling with the mass of people. They’re closer than he would like but he’s used to this after three years now. Anyway, what matters is getting to work on time.

He splits off from the wave of people thankful for the little more space he’s now afforded. It takes him another eight minutes to get to work. Somehow he’s two minutes early by the time he is almost there. He’s shocked and hungry but swipes his card. Access granted he steps inside and cries morning to everyone. He’s met with the usual response as he hurries to his spot at the far end of the bank of four tills, cashier positions, customer liaison…whatever Alta wish to call their workspaces this financial year.

A bit of banter flies between the Mike, Stuart, Erica and Clara but it quickly ends after a pep talk that isn’t one really from Amelia. Right after she cycles the shutter open to allow the first customers of the day in. Bets are placed on who gets the psycho customer while Amelia does her daily greeting duties for the early birds.

The next couple hours are dull, boring and surprisingly quiet for a Tuesday. Harriet and Zander are the only customers. Erica hates having to deal with Zander, the spoilt brat with a gambling problem, while Stuart is quite cheerfully dealing with old Harriet. She’s harmless and pretty quick for her advancing age, plus she does a lot of travelling. That means she’s a frequent customer at the exchange and full of interesting stories. The exchange really needs a makeover. It has to make enough money for it. If it didn’t Alta would have closed it by now, wouldn’t they?

Suddenly three masked men burst in. They’re armed. One declares this is a robbery. Another of the trio hangs back and cycles the shutter closed. Mike gets an old feeling he’s seen this before. He discounts it calling himself delusional. Then the man who cycled the shutter closed speaks. Mike finds his voice familiar. He lets it go and follows the orders he’s given to move out from behind his register and toward Amelia’s desk. She looks terrified. They all do. More chatting, Mike passes the guy with the familiar voice. He gets a look at his blue eyes, the shimmer in them. He recognises him immediately but sadly blurts his name, Deacon. The guy asks Mike to repeat. He isn’t inclined to, so the masked guy he called Deacon gets in his face and urges Mike to repeat what he said. He does. The other guy, the one referred to as W who ordered Mike and the others out from behind the tills goes off on a rant, confirming that it is indeed Deacon. The main robber asks what D is going to do. Deacon knocks Mike unconscious.

Mike wakes with a start at the sound of his alarm. He sees the time and jumps out of bed. He’s late. He rushes to the shower. As close as dammit to thirty minutes later he steps out onto the busy wide sidewalk and it’s mass of people. He follows the flow, then splits off, walks down this road, crosses that and does it several more times until he arrives at work. He swipes his card, access granted. Says morning, is met with a reciprocal set of calls. Has a chat after getting settled. Amelia opens the exchange and the first customers float in. Hours later, mid morning, there are only two customers. It’s a quiet day. Pretty boring but boring can be good. Then two masked men burst in. One cycles the shutter closed, another demands Mike and the others get out from behind the tills and move over to Amelia who is still at her desk with a gun pointed toward her. There’s a chat. Mike thinks he recognises the voice of one of the robbers. When he passes the same man he realises who the man is and blurts his name. A standoff ensues. The man is confirmed to be Deacon, a former employee, the main robber asks what they are going to do. Deacon knocks Mike unconscious. Mike expected all of it. He doesn’t understand how but it seems familiar, as though he has lived it before. Then he wakes in his bed, his alarm blaring.

This continues over and over and over. Each successive time Mike becomes a little more aware until finally he is fully aware that this isn’t a dream but a pattern, a loop. It’s as if he’s living the same day over and over. He doesn’t know how or why but knows that it shouldn’t be possible. However, it’s the only explanation he has. So he starts to make changes to the narrative, twist and alter things. He succeeds but the day ends the same way regardless of what he does.

“It isn’t enough. I need to do more.”

“What are you bleating on about? Do you know D, W?” The main robber, Gus, asks of his associates. Both shrug.

“Deacon, I know it’s you under that mask. I don’t know why you’re doing this but you don’t have to. I need you to…” Deacon knocks Mike out. The world goes black. He awakens seconds later to a blaring alarm. He growls in frustration and tries again.

This continues. Nothing seems to make enough of a difference. Mike is sick of it. He wants this cycle to end. There must be a way of breaking it. Think Mike, think. I have to be missing something. It’s probably a stupid detail, a really small one. Easily overlooked and not… I don’t know. I can’t think of anything. I’ve been through this scenario so many times. I can recall everything in fine detail if necessary but nothing strikes me as an option I haven’t tried. I’ve exhausted everything. Haven’t I? Impossible for me to tell, I think. Not even sure how many times I’ve been through this now. One more time won’t hurt. Will it? Well, no I know it won’t. What a stupid thing to ask myself? Still, I’m not sure how much more of this I can take.

And so it begins again. Mike walks to work, having had no breakfast. He’s granted access with a swipe of his card. He gets settled. Does his job when customers come to his window and then the time comes. The three masked men burst in. Everything continues as normal until Mike decides to try something he doesn’t remember attempting before, starting an argument.

“You remember Deacon? Whatever happened to him? He was a good guy. Miss him. He was a laugh. You’d have loved him Erica, you too Stuart. When he was here when there were only three of us instead of the four we are now. “Mike is rambling. He hopes it’ll work. There is no way of knowing until…

“Shut up! Keep moving. This isn’t a time to reminisce or chat. This is a robbery. Do I have to remind you?” Gus shouts angrily.

Mike ignores the demands, the commands and continues. “Amelia, do you remember Deacon?”

Everyone turns to look at Amelia the manager of the exchange. She nods at first but says nothing. Then finally she speaks. “I do. He…had issues.” The expression on her face indicates she wishes to say no more than that.

“Never did find out what happened to him.” Clara admits.

“Shut it! Shut it all of you or I start shooting!” Gus continues to boom, his mouth twitching as the worlds are spewed into the air.

Still Mike ignores the threats. For him they are idle unless something changes. “Yeah Amelia, what happened? One day he just stopped coming.”

Amelia never gets to answer as Deacon rushes toward Mike. He goes to swing. Mike dodges the swing. To his disbelief it works, this time. For first for everything, he thinks. It never has worked previously. Sadly, things not only go into uncharted territory but decline at a drastic rate.

“Shut it or I shoot!” Gus bellows. He’s lost control and is aiming for Amelia. Mike says nothing and nor does anyone else, but it’s too late. Gus is too far along on his path of anger to understand everyone is complying. He roars, defiantly, angrily and begins to squeeze the trigger. Mike sees it all in slow motion. This is a change. A break in the cycle, but he can’t let Amelia be the price for his freedom, and so he rushes toward her. He can’t make it. Gus pulls the trigger. His gun fires three rounds in quick succession. Mike throws himself into a dive through the air, his front facing Gus. The bullets hit. They tear at Mike’s unprotected flesh. He feels the burn. He howls in agony. It’s more pain than he has ever felt before in all his life. Then gravity slams him to the floor. He groans and rolls onto his back.

“I must stay awake. I must stay awake. I must stay awake.” Mike begins to mutter to himself over and over without showing signs of pause. It’s doing the trick, for now. Not that he knows how long he’ll have to keep it up or whether it will work. He might just wake up in his bed again. He really hopes that he doesn’t.

Gus saunters over to the injured Mike. He’s bleeding out. Blood is spilling onto the blue carpet that is well past its prime. The blood is staining, making the carpet wet as the pool grows. Amelia is safe. She screamed and cowered but is otherwise unhurt apart from the terror of it all. She’ll get over that, in time.

Gus’ top lip begins to quiver. All he can hear is Mike repeating the same four words endlessly. It’s like a chant, a curse. It makes no sense as the man is already lost. He has to know that, doesn’t he?

“What we going to do?” Wendell exclaims terrified. He doesn’t want to be gunned down by the cops. This was supposed to be a quick and simple job. In and out without any hassle or casualties. It’s a far cry from that now because there is a guy, a civilian, bleeding out on the floor of the exchange. Wendell wants to run but knows he can’t. If he does they’ll catch him, or Gus will. More than likely it would be the cops.

Deacon goes to speak. He’s pulled his mask up revealing his face. The other exchange employees are shocked but pay little mind as they try and gather around Mike. Gus orders them back. He just needs time to think. If only… “Shut the fuck up!” He screeches at Mike. The injured man pays no mind to the robber.

Gus can’t hear himself think. He’s given a warning. Now is the time to act. Again. He raises his weapon and fires four rounds into Mike’s body. His arms and legs flop. He can’t feel them anymore. He has seconds left to live. He can feel it. His vision is shrinking. This isn’t how he wanted it to end. But is this the end? Or will I wake up in my bed with the alarm again and be forced to repeat everything. Suddenly Mike becomes aware of sirens. A smile slides across his face. No one understands why. It makes no sense to anyone except Mike for he knows that the sirens are new. In all his attempts they have never reached his ears. Mike dies then. But the cycle is broken. The loop is no more.