"Mhmm, another day…" whispered Tyel as he got up from bed and walked towards the kitchen to have breakfast. The same knife from the previous days and timeline was still on the counter. "…and another one in which I'll have to kill myself again to restart it…"
Tyel grabbed the knife in his hands and looked at the blade. 'I wonder when all of this will stop… I can't do it any—' Suddenly, a vision appeared on the knife and Tyel saw his friends, their faces full of hope. After seeing his friends' faces full of hope, Tyel immediately shook his head. "I can't allow myself to back down." Tyel suddenly held the knife tighter in his hands.
"I'm the only one who knows the truth…" Suddenly, Tyel's whole body shook as he looked again at the knife; now he saw the lifeless bodies of his companions. "And this truth will always be mine… I'm the only one who can carry this burden inside." Tyel remained still in the kitchen, looking at the knife for several minutes, forgetting that he had to have breakfast before going to work.
"Hey Tyel, are you hungry?" asked a guard who was changing near Tyel, whose stomach was rumbling really hard.
"Eheheh yeah, I woke up too late," said Tyel as he tried to laugh it off, when he clearly knew the reason why he hadn't eaten anything this morning.
The guard suddenly looked around and noticed that there wasn't anyone else there. He placed his hand in his pocket and grabbed a small tissue. Tyel looked at it curiously, as he smelled a great scent. The moment the guard opened the tissue, a small donut was revealed. "I always bring myself this kind of stuff to work if I'm hungry while I'm working…" The guard suddenly sliced the donut in half and gave one of the parts to Tyel. "But don't tell anyone, alright??" The guard then, having finished dressing, went away.
Tyel looked at the donut, and rather than smiling, he got sad. 'That is why I'm the only one who can carry this burden… the other people need to live their happy lives like they've always done.' As Tyel put the donut in his mouth, he finished dressing and returned to work.
As the hours passed, the break for the guards finally arrived. Tyel, as always, went to the cafeteria, grabbed his usual hamburger, and went to sit down.
"Hey, have you heard? Some people saw Zrelekai in the prison today," said one of the guards as he spoke with his friend. Tyel, sitting alone at the table nearby, happened to overhear their conversation.
"Are you for real? Doesn't he have that prisoner in his other laboratories or what?" said the other guard. Both of them were eating something different from what Tyel was eating. While Tyel always picked a hamburger no matter what, other guards took steak, potatoes, or vegetables in general. Some guards even took some fruit to eat, but those were always left for the prisoners. Currently, the two guards were both eating a beautiful, juicy steak, but no matter what, Tyel would always pick the hamburger, as he would always say that it is the perfect meal.
"I heard that too… then I guess he has killed the prisoner, or I don't know. Meh, as long as we're alright, we don't have any problems," said the guard. The other agreed with him, and behind them, Tyel just finished eating and immediately went outside.
'I would normally tell myself to pay attention…' Tyel looked over his hands the moment he came out of the cafeteria. 'But because of my power, I can literally scream and nothing will happen in the next timeline…' Tyel began to walk again until he let out a tired puff. 'I wonder if I'll ever find something that will scare me again…'
With this thought, Tyel suddenly began to smile, but it was a fake one. 'At least, like Timehors, who doesn't get scared… I can do the same…' But Tyel knew that this statement was false, as Timehors was someone who could get easily scared.
Tyel entered the great magazines again and noticed that he still had plenty of time, since the break had started only fifteen minutes ago. As he entered the great magazines, he breathed heavily, knowing that he would have to search through the countless boxes in the room.
'At least I remember what Darian told me… that the smell should be like rotten eggs, but it is able to spike into my nose and is somewhat hot…' Tyel positioned himself in front of the boxes and tried to catch some weird scent, but as time passed, he realized that there were too many different smells in this room, and it was impossible to tell the differences.
"Let's keep searching…" With that, Tyel began his research, and several minutes had already passed.
Tyel began to search inside the smallest boxes he could find that didn't weigh much. Inside one of them, he found multiple wires, and Tyel noticed that these wires were really new and had been put inside this box recently. 'At least I know that I don't need to search inside the bigger boxes…' thought Tyel. He was standing between multiple bigger boxes, in which it would be unlikely that Zrelekai had put this pistol, so he was just searching for the smallest ones.
"What? Are these plushies?" murmured Tyel as he opened a small box and found multiple extremely small plushies inside. As Tyel inspected the plushies, he noticed that they were extremely ugly, as they were missing some body parts.
"I really wonder what is the problem with Zrelekai keeping all of this stuff…" Tyel kept analyzing these plushies in case the pistol was hidden inside their bodies, and he noticed that inside one of the plushies, there was the dead body of a bug.
"Ewww!" He immediately threw the plushie on the ground, but without noticing, he had made a loud sound.
Suddenly, Tyel heard some steps and he immediately turned quiet. "Mhmmm, I wonder where I left that thing." Tyel recognized that voice immediately; it was Zrelekai.
Tyel carefully positioned himself on his knees and hid behind some boxes. 'What's he doing here?' thought Tyel as he placed his hand over his mouth so that he would not make any sound.
"It's so annoying that the rebels haven't arrived yet… we have to make them scared," said Zrelekai as he talked to himself. "Mhmmm… where did I leave it?" whispered Zrelekai as he started to walk around the boxes. Tyel laid himself on the dirty ground and started to crawl away so that he wouldn't get spotted by the scientist.
"Still, it's strange… we've literally threatened their friend with death… it's just annoying that we can't kill her. I should have brought Darian too, they would have definitely arrived, and we could have killed Catripple… rather than keeping her alive, we don't need her anymore; it has become annoying to create the food for her." Zrelekai kept speaking to himself when suddenly he grabbed something entirely made of metal from a box. This object looked like a plate, but it had some spikes on its back. Tyel had even seen it yesterday, but he simply decided to leave it there since he didn't even understand the need to have something like that.
"Well, let's make the word spread that I've got a new object so that the life of the prisoner will be in danger." With that, Zrelekai went away, and Tyel could finally let out a sigh of relief again.
"Phew… that was clo—" Tyel felt reassured for a moment, but the moment he stood back on his feet, he noticed Zrelekai in front of the door looking at the ground.
'Damn…' Tyel knew that if he returned to his knees, he would accidentally hit something, so he simply decided to remain still and noticed that Zrelekai was once again murmuring to himself, even if he could barely hear what he was saying.
"Ashikunz today acted strangely… he was suspicious of both me and Corvinus… strange, it felt like he had returned to acting the same way he did when Corvinus joined us, but with me too… does he tr—" Zrelekai began to walk again and Tyel couldn't hear him anymore.
"I'm finally safe…" said Tyel as he breathed heavily, and as he placed his hand on his chest, he noticed his heart beating extremely fast. "Still, what was he talking about? Ashikunz acting strangely? I couldn't hear what adjective he used, but it surely was strange… he talked about Corvinus too. I wonder what happened with the three of them."
With that, Tyel noticed that he had only 10 minutes left and that he couldn't afford to lose any time.
'Still, Zrelekai's plan will fail once again… I know too well that you will never kill Catripple.' The moment Tyel finished forming this thought, he suddenly smelled something strange. "Hey, this smell is trash!" pointed out Tyel as he realized that this smell was exactly what Darian had described.
'Rotten eggs… it is able to poke my nose… and it feels hot.' Tyel started to follow where this smell was coming from, and that was when he finally spotted the box.
Before opening it, he gulped in fear. 'Let's hope it is the right one…' But Tyel hadn't realized yet that this emotion of fear he was feeling wasn't because it could be the wrong box, but because he would have to restart the day again if he failed.
The moment he opened the box, the smell became stronger, but what Tyel noticed made a big smile appear on his face. The thing inside the box was a white pistol with some shades of gold around it.
"And remember this last thing, Tyel," Darian had said while they were speaking about the vibration core. "You'll find a green liquid inside a small glass; the moment you see that… it will mean that you've found the vibration core."
"The vibration core…" Tyel couldn't believe his eyes. The object that would soon be able to let the rebels go out of the city to fight Ashikunz and save Catripple was currently in his hands.
Tyel positioned the pistol on top of his head, right under his hat. "I'll just need to pay attention… and head back immediately to the others."
With that, Tyel began his work once again normally without any problems, even though he carried a weapon that, if someone found him with it, would mean execution on the spot.
'And now… I'll hide it in my clothes. I just hope the metallic doors will not detect this object…' thought Tyel. The moment he hid the vibration core in his clothes, Chud approached him from behind.
"C'mon Tyel, we should go and grab a drink," said Chud. Behind him, Martheel had arrived too.
"Hey, I'm sorry, I—" Tyel began to speak, but Martheel took the lead.
"Sorry, today I can't come; we will have to do it another time." Martheel had understood that there was something wrong with Tyel recently, so he decided to tell Chud that he wouldn't be able to go, so that there wouldn't be any problems for Tyel.
"What? You're the one turning me down?!!" asked Chud, annoyed. "Alright then… it will be for another time then." Chud, slightly annoyed, looked down and headed toward the bar, at least to have dinner and drink with the other guards.
"Thanks, Martheel," said Tyel, as he didn't know how to express his gratitude towards his friend.
"Don't worry, but promise me that next time you'll explain what is happening, alright?" said Martheel with a warm smile. Tyel felt something hitting his chest hard and nodded his head.
As Tyel looked at Martheel going away, he stopped for a moment. 'What's this feeling… why did I even answer yes to begin with? I knew that I would never tell anyone about this… but what's this… why am I feeling sorry for what I've just said…'
Tyel couldn't find an answer. As he passed through the door, he even forgot that the vibration core might be detected, luckily, it didn't even happen. But Tyel reached the rebels' base with this weird feeling in his chest.