The Journey Through Time Itself

In the heart of old Arindale-its streets twisted, forgotten by memory; the fog clung to the grey cobblestones-lay a mansion none dared approach. It loomed from atop a hill, its façade lost to time, its windows dark, as if eyes shut to the world. The mansion had sat in silence for years, spoken about only in fearful whispers by the locals. They told weird tales of a world where time folded upon itself, people went into its black maw, and nobody ever came out. Others said the mansion was accursed, a portal to a place where time and space were not any longer bound by the rules known to man.

Elias was a silent man, full of a calculative curiosity that led him to places beyond those in which others were too afraid to tread or feel safety in. He had been drawn to the mansion all his life. The questions it raised had become an obsession, gnawing in his brain. What secrets lay within its decaying walls? What truth lay behind the time loop and lost souls rumors?

One evening, as the setting sun had dipped below the horizon and the wind whispered of the chill of autumn, Elias took his decision. He would visit that mansion. The friends had told him discouragingly about the mansion, but their warnings further strengthened his resolution. Something in this mansion beckoned him; he sensed a mystery to be unraveled.

The sky had darkened to a bruised purple as he hauled himself up the steep hill toward the mansion.

The city below looked like it had been swallowed up by the mist. Finally, Elias arrived at the entrance and he stopped. The door-an ominous, wooden slab, time- weathered to perfection-swung slightly open, as if it had been expecting him.

He went in without any second thoughts. The air in this mansion was as thick and cold as it could be outside; the creaking of the door behind him made the first hint of uneasiness go up his spine.

Something was amiss.

The house was too quiet, too still. Dust lay undisturbed upon the floor, a scent of decay in the air. Yet for all that, the mansion seemed alive, watching him.

Elias proceeded deeper into the hallways, his breathing partly echoing in the silence as he did so. Rooms stretched off to either side, some of the doors closed, others wide open. Then, after what felt like an eternity of wandering, he chanced upon an old, ancient door in perfectly preservative form, as if time had never scratched its surface.

The musée's very presence made the house feel even more like the crumbling relic it was, and yet Elias felt drawn to it. Moved by an impulse he could not name, Elias turned the handle and entered.

The moment he stepped through, the door crashed behind him with a hollow thud-a finality that sent the air in the room hanging thick with oppressive stillness. In the center, there was one chair, lit by an ambiguous light. It was as though the room had been waiting on him, just as the mansion had.

Elias stepped toward the chair, but his foot hesitated. Something was wrong-he could feel it. Before he could do anything more, the walls shimmered and the space around him began to ripple like water into which a pebble had been thrown.

The loop had begun.Elias made another step towards the mansion, with his heart thudding in rhythm with his footsteps. The air felt colder as he neared closer, and the towering silhouette of a house seemed like it had warped amidst the darkening sky. The rumors spoken at the edges of his mind about the mansion whisperingly scattered around, but he pushed those aside.

He had stopped at the door and found it ajar, the wind squeaking through its weathered wood frame. Summoning all his courage, Elias pushed it open and stepped inside.

The interior was thick with dust and darkness, save the faint twilight seeping through cracked windows. It seemed as though the air hung heavy and that the mansion had held its breath for centuries. Elias wandered through the decaying hallways, every step making the floorboards creak in protest to his weight.Then, he saw it-an old, wooden door, unlike all the others. It was out of place, pristine, as if time had never touched it. Compelled by something he could not explain, Elias reached out and turned the knob. The door swung open, silently revealing a small room, dimly lit, with only one chair in its center.

He stepped inside.

It suddenly slammed shut behind him with a loud bang. Elias whirled round, heart racing, and tried to open it again, but it wouldn't budge. A surge of panic overcame him as he pulled harder, yet the door did not open. The room was dead silent except for the faint, eerie light that flickered from nowhere in particular.

Then, something uncanny happened. The air around him wavered, and the walls seemed to shake as if their surface was water. Elias blinked, disoriented. The floor beneath his feet shifted slightly, and when he looked again, the chair was no longer empty.

A man sat in it.

It was his spitting image, garbed the same, with the same features right down to the small scar above his left eyebrow. Elias's backward stumble was in tandem with his mind as it struggled to make sense of what lay before him.

The man in the chair raised his eyes to him and smiled faintly, as if he had been expecting Elias all along.

"You made it," the seated version of him said, voice calm and weary.

What. what is this?" Elias stammered, his heart clattering in his chest.

Seated, Elias shook his head. "It's not what you think. It's not about where you are. it's when you are.".

The air in the room stilled once more before Elias could even form another question. It shimmered a second time, and the walls seemed to pulse. Then the room was different. The chair was empty again; the figure was gone. Yet something had changed. Elias felt it instantly.With a feeling of growing dread, he turned back toward the door. The knob was warm in his hand now, but when he opened it, what lay beyond was no longer the mansion's hallway. Instead, it was the very same room he was already in. The same chair, the same dim light, the same door.

He shut the door, only to reopen it-and again, and again. The same scene, however, stared back each time. Repetition upon repetition, anticipating that change would eventually come, but nothing happened, altering the mood of that room.

Suddenly, reality started sinking in: it wasn't a room he was being confined to-it was a loop. Folded time and space tugged him further into some eternal cycle.

Desperate, Elias looked around for any hint. There must be something: a crack in the walls, some sort of hidden lever-anything that would break the loop. But there was nothing. Hours had passed, even though they felt like days. The mind reeled as he sat exhausted in the chair. He tried to piece together what went wrong and why he couldn't escape.

Suddenly, the door creaked open. Elias froze.

Standing in the doorway was another version of himself, wide-eyed and panicked, just as he had been when he first stepped into the room. This Elias was holding the doorknob, staring at the seated version- him.

And in that instant, Elias comprehended.He had been here before. And he would again be here.

It wasn't a trap, but the very essence of the mansion: a folding of time and space in a cycle with no beginning, with no end.

He knew it now as he watched his past self come into the room; he should make his way to replace the figure in the chair. Soon enough, it would be his turn to wait, to watch another version of himself execute the same futile steps.

He let out a deep breath, the crushing sense of inevitability weighing upon him. Time wrapped itself around him like a smothering cloak, a spiral from which he could never break free.

He leaned back into his chair and waited, knowing that soon the door would creak open once more.

And the loop would begin once more.

Elias had already lived through that loop too many times. Every time the same thing took place: he entered the room, panicked, searched for an exit, and finally, the next version of himself would appear, just as he did. The oppressed feeling of inevitability laid upon him and no matter what was done, the very same circle repeated time after time.

But with the loops continuing, something weird started to happen. He began to notice subtle changes- small deviations that made no sense: a flicker in the dim light, a delay in the door opening, and a soft sound that wasn't there. These details were small, almost imperceptible; however, they gave hope to Elias.

There just had to be some way out.

On one loop, Elias decided he wanted to deviate from the pattern. Instead of sitting in the chair, he moved to the door and stood in the shadows. As the door opened, the next version of himself stepped inside, and Elias pounced on the opportunity. He grasped the shoulders of his other self and pulled and shook him out of his confusion.

"Listen to me!" Elias yelled. "We're stuck in some kind of loop, and I believe there might be a way out. Something is different. We need to pay attention. Whatever you do, don't sit in that chair!"

It was a jerk of its head, startled and alarmed- the new version of himself, baffled and frightened, just like Elias once had been-took another uncertain nod. Together they watched the room as it stood still, time and space shimmering, waiting-so it seemed-for them to make their move. Because that's what it felt like.

This had never happened. The cycle had always been automatic, predictable.

Elias' heart began to race. "What if it's the chair?" he whispered. "What if we sit in it, and it binds us to the loop?"

They dodged the chair, pacing around the room and doing everything they could think of to break the pattern. Hours passed uneventfully. Yet neither sat down, though weariness pulled at them.

Eventually, the air shimmered once more. The room began its shift, but this time it was different. The light flickered and dimmed, but it didn't reset. The familiar creaking of the door came, but when it opened, no new version of Elias walked through.

The two versions of Elias looked at each other. This was new.

With sudden clarity, the voice rumbled into the room, low and vibrating, almost as though it emanated from the walls.

"You've noticed," the voice said-slow, heavy, but even. "You're learning."

Elias spun, his gaze darting around the room in an attempt to place the voice, but it seemed to issue from everywhere at once.

What is this?" Elias demanded. "Why are we trapped here? How do we escape?"

"This place is not what it seems," the voice continued. "The loop is not a punishment, but a test. A test to see if you can break free from your own patterns. You've been reliving the same choices, over and over. But now, you've begun to question them. You've resisted the cycle.

"Then what way out?" the other Elias asked.

The pause was long, the silence thick and heavy. Then that voice modulated, "The loop ends when you let go."

"Let go of what?" Elias fought back.

"Your fear. Your need to control what you cannot. Your needing to escape. The loop binds you because you resist it.

Elias thought for a long time. So many loops spent, trying to break free, trying to control the cycle, to change something. In doing so, though, he reinforced the very thing that trapped him.

It now dawned on him that the voice wasn't speaking in riddles; it was telling the truth.

He turned to his other self. "We've been fighting this, trying to control it. But maybe that's why we're stuck. We are so bent on trying to get out; that's the reason why we keep on getting pulled back in."

His double slowly nodded, enlightenment dawning.

Elias breathed hard and sat down in the chair this time, not from despair or tiredness, but in quiet acceptance. He didn't fight the noose, didn't try to change anything. He just sat there, silent and still.

The other Elias watched him uncertainly for a moment, then followed suit. He sat down, too, and for the first time in all these loops, he let go of all this fear and panic.

Around them, the room hummed softly. The air shimmered brightly, although it felt different this time, more like a release than a reset. In that instant, the walls simply vanished into mist as the endless loop of time and space holding them finally unraveled.

The chair disappeared beneath Elias, but he didn't fall. He was weightless, floating in an endless sea of serenity. The pressure of the loop had been released from his mind, and for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, Elias was free. The room, the mansion, the loop-none of that existed anymore, and it faded into the distance, leaving him with nothing but one open, soundless space.

Then, with a soft 'whoosh' of air, Elias found himself outside the mansion, the cool evening breeze washing over him. The night was still, though above, the stars were winking peacefully in the sky. The mansion loomed behind him, dark and still. He turned and saw the door, which was partially open as it had been when he arrived. Now, Elias knew he was never going to pass that threshold again. The circle had been closed, as he finally picked up the one truth which up until then had evaded him: The more you try to control time and space, the tighter they bind you. Only by letting go can you break free. Elias smiled wistfully and walked away from the mansion, finally certain that he was free