People, some sleeping, some not, moved around with incredible speeds, mostly backpedaling. In approximately fifty seconds, buildings had been made slightly lower, bricks flew off unconstructed buildings, ships sailed across the waves, recent wounds healed, and entire continents moved back a few nanometers.

And then the world slowed its frantic backwards turning, and slowed down to a reasonable pace.

And then it slowed down further, until the world nearly stopped spinning altogether.

And then the world reversed its turning, and started spinning faster.

And faster.

And faster.

Until it reached normal speeds once again.

All of this happened in the span of precisely one minute.

Martin, of course, had no idea of this.

So when he woke up, he understandably thought his clock was broken.

It was, after all, telling him it was October 15th.

That would be impossible, considering that yesterday (for him) was October 16th.

And so he brushed his teeth and took a shower, thinking that he would fix his clock in the afternoon, when he got back from school.

He ate his breakfast, same as normal, and left for the bus stop.

When he got on the bus, after that customary moment of silence, he sat down and realized he had an English vocabulary quiz today.

Fuck.

The homework he had done last night was supposed to be preparatory material for this quiz.

Of course, like in most schools, the preparatory material never covers everything that is on the test.

He was supposed to study after he finished his homework, but he had felt tired so-

‘Fuck!’, the rational side of his brain exclaimed. ‘We need to study for this quiz!’

‘Or you could pretend to be sick, skip class, study at home, and take the quiz the next day,’ the lazy part of his brain answered.

‘Anything for the grade’, his rational side agreed.

With that plan in mind, when the bus got to school, Martin immediately left the school premises. His town was small, and he could walk back to his house in thirty minutes. He headed out to the local convenience store to buy some snacks. His mom hated sugar with a passion, and forbade her family from ever bringing sugar into the household.

When he entered through the glass double doors, he immediately made for the back aisles, where he knew he would find his favorite treat, Cheetos. He grabbed a bag and went to the counter, where he could find his friend, whom he had mentally branded as ‘the counter man’. They bonded over their mutual love of Cheetos.

“A bag of Cheetos, and nothing else?”

“Yep.”

“Well, that’ll be $1.99.”

“Here.”

“Thank you. Also, Martin, shouldn’t you be in school? It’s a Tuesday.”

Martin looked at him weirdly.

“What? It’s a Thursday.”

“No, it’s Tuesday.”

“Tuesday was a while ago, man.”

“Look at the calendar. It says Tuesday.”

Martin fumbled his Cheetos in shock.

“Wait, what?! Yesterday was Wednesday! Are you pranking me?!”

“No, you can go check with anyone you can find. It’s a Tuesday. Of course, most of them will be working or in school, where kids should be on a Tuesday morning.”

Martin, still in shock, ran out of the store. He dashed towards the nearest building he could find.

Halfway there, he stopped. This was probably a prank by the counter man, who was punishing him for skipping school early.

‘But what if something greater is at work?!’, his magical side excitedly asked.

‘Impossible. It. Is. A. Prank,’ said his rational side. But even it wasn’t completely sure what was happening.

He walked into the building slowly.

What should he say to the receptionist?

‘Hey there, not to sound crazy or anything, but could you possibly tell me what day it is?’

He’d be lucky if she didn’t call the policeman over for a ‘quick chat’. He’d be sent back to school. Forcefully.

After all, the one mandate of skipping school was ‘Don’t get caught.’

He turned around to leave.

“Sir, can I help you?”

Those words made his blood freeze in horror.

Slowly, he turned around.

He saw her confused face.

He knew he had to speak.

‘I-I don’t-Why?! Crap, gotta back out…’

“Um, hi…”

“Hello.”

No good. She was even more confused now.

“Could-Could you possibly tell me what day it is?”, he blurted out.

“Uh… It’s Tuesday.”

‘What?!’

‘Magic!’, his cultist side practically screamed.

‘No, there must be a logical explanation from this. You can’t be serious, telling me something as fairy tale-like as magic exists.’

‘But what if?’

“Sir?”

“Ah?”, he squeaked as he snapped back to reality.

“Sir, are you sure you’re okay? Should I call an ambulance?”

“No, no, it’s fine, I, uh, got the days mixed up. Sorry for bothering you, andIreallyneedtoleavenowgoodbye”, he said as he all but ran away, leaving a very confused receptionist.

Martin ran.

And ran.

And ran, until he found himself in front of his home. He opened the door and stepped inside.

He first checked the clock in the kitchen.

It said Tuesday.

Then he checked his computer.

It said Tuesday.

He slowly and carefully turned it off and sat on his bed, closing his eyes.

‘So, are you finally ready to admit the existence of magic?’, his cultist side inquired.

‘Impossible.’

‘Look, I know how you’re feeling. Everything you believed in just got turned upside down. But don’t worry, I know exactly what’s going on.’

‘What, then?’

‘Someone, somewhere, cast a spell that trapped us in a time loop!’, the little wizard in his brain loudly proclaimed.

‘Hah, really? First of all, even if I accepted the very faint possibility of wizards existing, why would anyone target us? We are the most unimportant person I have ever seen. Second, why a time loop? Time is linear, and it always has been. Third, why would anyone trap us and only us in this ‘time loop’? I maybe, possibly, could have understood if the failed experiment of a mad scientist had caused the whole world to experience this, but nobody else seems to notice the fact that the world is not normal.’

‘Um… I’m not sure but-Wait.’

‘What?’

‘Do you remember that incident two days ago where we dreamed of dying in the park after attempting to confess to Emily?’

‘Well, yes?’

‘What if we went back there? What if this whole incident, whatever it may be, started back there when we died?’

‘Perhaps. That was the only out-of-the-ordinary incident we experienced.’

‘So it’s settled? This is not normal? This has a possibility of being … magical?’

‘It’s not normal, I’ll give you that. But I’m sure there’s some branch of science that I never learned about that is responsible for this. It will not be magic, just plain, reasonable, science.’

‘However, we’ll be going to the forest to investigate, right?’

‘Yes.’

Martin’s eyes opened.

Somewhere, deep inside of him, a dead flame was starting to show signs of life once more.

He had a mystery to solve.

And he had his first clue.