The City is a place where everything resets after the lights have gone out: relationships, conversations, memories. Everything is inside an irreversible loop and no one knows it. All except for one girl.
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Jule, a resident of the City...
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"So, do we really need to climb up here?" Rom asked, the wind shuffling his hair off his face. "Not gonna lie, this is stunning, but why do we even need to climb those stairs? My legs feel like jelly."
I leaned on the trellis surrounding the deck of the Lighthouse, making it creak. "I just like the view," I said. "It makes me feel...free."
We were currently at the top of the Lighthouse, overlooking the whole of the City. I sometimes go up here when I'm down. The fresh air always helps me clear my head. I could see my house from here.
The Lighthouse was only a few block's walk from the Campus. It's a bit far and the stairs were killer, but it's all worth it.
The Lighthouse was a vertical tower that didn't work. I've never seen it light up during the night, or maybe that's just because the loop won't even let it. It's just sort of here, alone among the low-lying structures around it. The only thing that probably rivaled it was the Condominium that stood a distance due north-east.
Coming here made me feel like I was in control, like the world couldn't do anything to me. Seeing things from a different perspective had put me in a place where I could freely say that anything was possible and I could make the impossible possible. Seeing things from the top gave me the strength to push forward and go on with my life.
The roof deck didn't look like much, just a ledge fitted with a trellis and went around the tower's body. It's accessible through the window. Further inside the window was a beacon that remained dark. Why the City even needed a beacon was a reason beyond me.
Rom joined me on the trellis, his flannel flying backwards, revealing more of his maroon undershirt. "So continuing where we left off?" he said, turning to me with those warm eyes of his.
I nodded, glad that I wore the hoodie and not the dress so it's not another thing to be uncomfortable about. "Like I said before," I replied. "We are living in a loop. As soon as the lights turn off, everything resets. A new day begins and everything that happened yesterday would happen again, unless I do something about it."
"Alright, alright," Rom said, waving his hands in a time-out gesture. "Assuming I'm supposed to humor you and go along with it, you're saying that you're special and somehow you can change how a day goes?"
"I'm already changing how yours goes," I said. "Of course, those that are supposed to see you today will wonder where you were. Everyone you interact with today, their lives will all change because I pulled you out of it. Their lives will change other people's lives. Other people's lives will change because of other people. It's a string of events."
I faced Rom, grateful for my hat for keeping my hair off my face and for my glasses for giving me some sort of shield from Rom's scrutinizing gaze. "And all of that," I said. "All those changes get reset as soon as the lights around here go out."
"So what does a normal day look like?" Rom asked.
I knitted my eyebrows. "That's...a very valid question," I said, thinking about it.
