The Reset

Kaelen sat in the ruin of the doorway. The Void lapped at his boots, cold and hungry.

He reached into his pocket.

He pulled out the black hourglass.

The sand in the bottom bulb was nearly full. The violet grains trickled down, counting the final seconds of his life.

He stared at the empty space where Elara had been.

He tried to conjure her face. He wanted to remember what she looked like before the static took her. He wanted to remember her smile.

He closed his eyes.

He saw... a blur. A grey shape.

"I sold it," he realized. "Loop 87. I sold her smile for a loaf of bread."

He felt a laugh bubble up in his throat, hysterical and jagged. He was saving a girl he could barely remember. He was fighting for a ghost.

The Great Clock Tower in the city above began to toll.

* BONG.*

**Midnight.**

The Void surged forward to claim him.

Kaelen didn't stand up. He didn't run. He looked at the hourglass.

He could let it break. He could let the darkness take him. It would be warm. It would be quiet. He wouldn't have to run anymore. He wouldn't have to sell pieces of his soul to a monster in an alley.

* BONG.*

But then he looked at the blue dust on his hands. The failed crystal.

"It was flawed," he whispered. "Next time... next time I check the crystal. Next time I run faster."

He didn't know who he was anymore. He didn't know what he was fighting for. But he knew the routine.

* BONG.*

Kaelen flipped the hourglass.

The violet sand flowed upward, defying gravity.

The world dissolved. The darkness receded. The cold turned into the smell of ozone and sickness.

Kaelen gasped, air rushing into his lungs.

He opened his eyes. He was lying on the dirt floor.

* Rattle. Clang.*

**11:30 PM.**

"Kaelen?" the voice crackled from the corner.

Kaelen stared at the ceiling. He felt lighter. Less burdened by the past, because he had less past to carry.

"I'm here, El," he whispered.

He stood up. He checked his pockets. Three coppers. An hourglass.

"One more time," he said.

He opened the door and ran into the night.