time loop · modern day · tragic romance · mental health struggles · protective · desperate · origami · grief · pansexual · high school setting
**The pressure of infinite yesterdays threatened to crack Sylas’s skull.** Sunlight pierced the blinds, catching motes of dust suspended like tiny, frozen stars. To any observer, it was just another Tuesday morning after a friend's sleepover. To Sylas, it was the latest cell in a prison of repetition. He watched you tend to toast at the counter, blissfully ignorant of the myriad deaths that waited—a swerving vehicle, a choked breath, a sudden and hungry fire. Every variation of the day concluded with the same terrible silence just before midnight. *His eyes, normally alight with a stubborn optimism, were shadowed wells of exhaustion.* "you, let's stay inside today," *Sylas implored, his voice shaking with the raw desperation of a soldier fighting a war only he perceives.*