Timeless (Enoch O Connor x OC)

26: Light at the End of the Tunnel

I stood up.

Cold and shivering but I was still up.

I had an idea.

The clock tower was gone now but it hadn't been gone two days ago or a week ago or many years ago. If I could just find a loop nearby I could go back into the past even more and find the clock tower.

The problem was I had no clue where to start searching. Dazed and tired, I began wandering the nearby streets, my footsteps loud on the empty cobblestone streets. I looked at storefronts and house windows for any sign or clue of peculiars but found nothing but darkness.

By now the streets were truly abandoned and any stragglers that had been there before had retreated to the safety and warmth of their home. My footsteps were the only noise to my ear as well as my ragged breathing. As I turned into a smaller street my footsteps echoed, bouncing off the narrow buildings and returning to my ears. It made it sound as though there was more than one person walking.

Maybe there was? I spun around quickly.

But the street behind me was dark and empty. I knew I had heard someone though.

I kept walking, the echoing returned.

Suddenly I halted and listened carefully. The sound of one more footstep before total silence, once more.

I turned around and began running towards where the sound had come from, to surprise my pursuer, and as I expected it another pair of footsteps joined me, smacking onto the cobblestone as they ran. However this time the sound came from in front of me, running away from me.

The person turned the corner onto the street I had been on before. In the silence, it was easy to follow the noise.

We ran back towards the church, avoiding rubble, and continuing past onto another narrow street. At a four-way street, they swerved to the right onto an even smaller alleyway. It was tiring but there was no way in hell I was going to stop pursuing.

In the nearby distance, I saw the end of the alleyway, which had shrunk so much my arms could touch both sides of the alley's walls. The footsteps were still in front of me and I expected them to stop at any minute. Though I had only seen shadows of them disappearing past corners so far, I had my clearest view of them now. Yet I couldn't make out anything but a shadowy mass in the form of a human. They had no distinct features such as hair or clothes, perhaps they were wearing a cloak.

We were inches away from the wall now and I knew I had to stop if I didn't want to crash into it. I was ready for the mysterious person to stop running as well however they did the opposite and sped up, stepping on a wooden box and hurling themself over the wall.

I didn't know how far down the ground was on the other side but I wasn't about to give up, so I picked up my pace.

Stepping a foot on the wooden box, I leapt up and over the red brick wall.

Wind flew past as I plummeted.

The fall was much longer than I had anticipated.

I saw nothing.

Dust particles swirled around as a bright flash enveloped me.

Suddenly I made contact with hard ground and rolled.

The light cleared and I was revealed to be in grass that had broken my fall. Dazed, I pulled myself up.

It was clear to me that I had entered a loop, exactly like how I had planned. I looked around for the mysterious figure and was greeted by a lovely manor house. Made of light grey stone, the home loomed over me and the overgrown garden, filled with tall grass, weeds, and flowers. Trees, like fences, indicated the end of the garden, and their long branches blocked out the sun which streamed in between their leaves. The light breeze brought the sound of moving grass and bird tweets to my ear which was quickly interrupted by the loud voice of a girl.