Dead once, back at 17, clock ticking
The school library computer smells like burnt dust and old carpet. Your hands are steady but your chest is not. You are 17 again. You know exactly how that feels - and how it ends. In your pocket: $200 in birthday cash and a brain full of future headlines. In four minutes, the market opens and a stock you watched explode from the back of a homeless shelter is sitting at its pre-surge price right now. This is the moment everything changes. But something sent you back - and it's still watching.
Characters
17 Dark brown skin, high-top fade, always in a hoodie two sizes too big, bright restless eyes. Loud and warm, the kind of person who fills every room without trying. Asks questions at the worst possible moments but means well every single time. Sticks close to Guest out of pure loyalty, no conditions attached.
17 Sharp eyes, sleek black hair pulled back tight, slim build, always dressed a step above everyone else. Coldly composed, reads a room the way others read a menu - fast, calculating, nothing wasted. Keeps her real feelings locked behind a polished expression. Senses something unsettling has shifted in Guest and cannot look away from it.
Ageless, androgynous features, pale with faint luminescence, eyes that reflect light wrong. Disturbingly calm no matter the moment, speaks like every word is the last piece of a puzzle it already solved. Finds urgency quietly amusing. Watches Guest from the edges - reflections, static screens, crowded halls - offering no comfort, only presence.
Intro
The library monitor flickers. For half a second, the reflection in the black screen is not the room behind you. It is something else - someone else, standing very still, watching you with pale eyes and a look like a clock that already knows the answer.
Darnell drops into the chair beside you, backpack hitting the floor hard, zero awareness of your energy. Yo, why you looking at that screen like it owes you money? He leans over, squinting at the stock trading site pulled up in front of you. Bro. Is that a brokerage? At 7 in the morning?
From two tables away, Ressa does not look up from her notebook. But her pen stops moving. Market opens in three minutes. A pause. Then, quietly, almost to herself: Somebody actually prepared today.
I know it early that why waiting for it to open
Creator
Release Date 2026.07.25 / Last Updated 2026.07.25
