Riven didn't go home.
He wandered the streets for hours, still wearing the uniform he hadn't seen in five years — the red-trimmed middle school jacket, the untied shoelaces, the way-too-loose backpack straps. His mind churned like a machine on fire.
He was twelve again.
In the flesh.
Same city. Same year. Same cursed beginning.
But something felt… off.
Not in the way he expected. Not just the déjà vu. It was like everything was one degree to the left — a song remixed slightly out of tune. The color of the sky, the taste of the air, even the layout of the streets.
They had reset the world, yes.But it wasn't a perfect copy.
By 6 p.m., he was at the old bridge — the one that overlooked the water treatment plant.
In the last cycle, this bridge had collapsed two months in, taking forty-seven people with it. One of the first "event triggers" the Architects installed. The news had called it a freak accident.
It wasn't.
It was planned chaos — a test to see how humanity adapted under pressure.
Now, the bridge stood whole, pristine. But Riven could see the cracks. Not physical ones — system cracks. Energy. Light. Things no one else could see.
Because he was Awakened now.
He leaned on the rail, staring down at the river. Then he heard footsteps.
Familiar ones.
He turned.
A boy approached — tall, wiry, with messy blond hair and a chipped tooth.
Kiel Raddic.
Riven's old friend. His first teammate. His first betrayal.
"Hey," Kiel said, squinting. "You're Riven, right? From homeroom?"
Riven nodded cautiously. "Yeah. And you're… Kiel."
The other boy grinned. "Weird. I felt like I already knew that."
Pause.
He remembers. Or part of him does.
"You get that déjà vu feeling today?" Riven asked, voice calm.
Kiel stiffened.
Bingo.
"…Yeah," Kiel said slowly. "Like, really strong. I even dreamed about this bridge last night. It collapsed."
Riven's eyes narrowed. "You remember."
"I don't know what I remember," Kiel muttered. "But something's wrong with this place. With all of it."
Riven stepped closer. "Listen carefully. You're not crazy. This isn't the first time we've lived this life."
Kiel stared at him like he'd grown wings.
"I—what?"
"This world is a simulation. We're in Cycle 2. You and I are part of a group called the Awakened. We remember pieces of the last timeline."
"That's insane."
"You're not denying it."
Kiel looked away. "...Because I don't have a better explanation."
They sat on the edge of the bridge.
Riven gave him the basics: the resets, the Architects, the Watchers, the chaos that would come. Kiel listened in silence, lips tight.
"...So we're just toys in some game," Kiel muttered. "They kill us, reset us, and watch us squirm."
Riven nodded. "Yeah. But not this time."
Silence.
Then Kiel said, "You said you remembered everything. What else do you remember?"
Riven hesitated.
He remembered Kiel dying.
Not once. But three times. Burned alive. Shot in the back. Betrayed by someone he trusted. Riven remembered watching Kiel scream.
And once — Riven remembered being the one who let him die.
He didn't say that part.
Instead: "You were with me. You fought."
Kiel let out a slow breath. "Then maybe we can fight again."
The next day, the first anomaly hit.
It wasn't a monster. Or an explosion. It was a girl.
New to the school. Shouldn't have existed.
Riven caught her name during roll call: Eliya Voss.
She sat in the corner, hood up, silver rings on every finger. Her presence felt like a glitch in the room. Like the simulation was struggling to contain her.
When Riven looked at her — really looked — her outline shimmered. The world flickered around her like a heat haze.
She was another Awakened.
Or worse — something else.
Later, in the hallway, their eyes met.
And she said, flatly:
"I know what you are."
No introduction. No fear. No hesitation.
Watchers don't talk like that. But Awakened do. Especially the dangerous ones.
"I'm not looking for a fight," Riven said carefully.
"Too bad," she said. "Because Cycle 2 doesn't care what you're looking for."
Then she walked away.
That night, Riven sat alone in his room.
The cheap walls, the posters, the box fan rattling in the window. All perfectly reconstructed. But none of it real.
He pulled out a notebook and began to write:
CYCLE 2 – OBSERVATIONS
Day 1: Reset confirmed. I am 12 again.
Powers not activated yet. Still dormant?
Kiel Raddic: semi-Awakened. Trust: 60%.
Eliya Voss: unknown variable. Threat level: high.
No contact from Watchers... yet.
Original world: still hidden. How many resets deep?
I need to trigger Override soon — test my power before I'm hunted.
He put the pen down. Looked out the window.
Something shimmered in the sky. A faint red streak — invisible to most. But Riven could see it.
A sign.
A warning.
The Watchers are watching.
And they'd know soon enough…
The Glitch survived.