Can you outrun the weight of the past?
It was raining hard when Harry woke up on an early Monday morning.
The rain was beating against the window, filling the room with a steady, low sound. He rubbed his eyes and sleepily reached for his phone. The screen was lit up with a ton of app notifications and some unread messages in the college group chat. But one message stood out — a private one from an unknown number that read, “Don’t go to college today at any cost.”
Harry snorted. It had to be another prank from one of his college seniors. He had been the butt of their jokes for an entire year, so why would today be any different? Without a second thought, he moved the message to the trash, dismissing it completely, and began getting ready for the day.
Everyone was excited about today — the last day of the academic year, and summer break was just around the corner. But Harry’s excitement came from something else. Today was the last day for the senior batch. The same seniors who had tormented him all year, led by Doug — a tall, intimidating guy with a personal vendetta against him. It wasn’t really about Harry. Doug and his friends had gone to school with Harry’s older brother, Sam, and had fought with him years ago. Since then, they used Harry as a way to get back at Sam. Cornering him in empty hallways and bullying him relentlessly, they made Harry’s life a living hell.
He rushed to get ready, his movements hurried, almost desperate. He didn’t want to linger at home for too long — he felt lonely. Sam was still asleep in his room, a mess of clothes and old business plans scattered everywhere. Harry peeked inside, saw his brother sleeping across the bed, snoring heavily, and shut the door without making a sound.
In the kitchen, Harry toasted some bread for both of them, but he ate his portion quickly, washing it down with stale orange juice from the fridge. The apartment felt emptier than usual. Ever since their parents died in a car accident, it had been just the two of them. The life insurance settlement had been enough to keep them afloat, but it was deposited into Sam’s account. Sam, with dreams too big for his own good, had dropped out of college, planning to launch business ventures that always failed spectacularly.
Harry had long ago come to terms with the fact that there’d be no money left for him. The more Sam failed, the more distant they became. Harry had a plan for himself, though — finish college, get a job, and escape this cycle. He had no choice but to rely on himself.
Harry checked the time, grabbed his bag, and headed out into the rain, his phone buried deep inside his pocket. He reached the bus stop just in time. The rain had drenched him completely by the time he got on the bus, but he didn’t care. He was going to be free soon, free from the bullying, free from Doug, free from his past.
By the time he reached college, he was almost late for his final exam. He rushed into the hall, grateful that he hadn’t run into any of the seniors yet. The exam went better than he had expected, and for the first time in a long while, he felt some sense of accomplishment. After the test, his friends were buzzing with excitement, talking about vacation plans, but Harry couldn’t fully join in. His eyes kept darting around, scanning the campus for any sign of Doug and his gang. He just wanted to get home.
He waved goodbye to his friends and left the campus, hoping to make it to the bus stop unnoticed. But fate had other plans.
A car screeched to a halt in front of him, loud voices blaring from inside. His stomach sank as Doug and his friends piled out, laughing and sloshing beer cans around. Doug approached, towering over Harry with that wicked grin that always made Harry’s skin crawl.
“Where do you think you’re going, buddy?” Doug’s voice dripped with mockery. “Last day of college, and we need to celebrate.”
Doug approached him as his friends watched him from inside the car. He put a hand around Harry and forced him to walk to the car. Harry quickly tried to evade him and run away. But Doug was quick and his hands were long enough to catch hold of Harry. He pulled him back, making him fall to the floor.
Harry’s heart raced as he looked around, desperate for an escape. There was no one else around. Nowhere to run.
“How dare you try to run?” Doug shouted, kicking Harry in the stomach.
Pain shot through Harry’s body, but he barely had time to react before the others joined in. They beat him mercilessly, laughing and kicking, until the sound of an approaching police siren made them stop. They scattered, running back to their car and speeding away just as a patrol vehicle slowed near the scene.
The officer inside glanced at Harry, bloodied and bruised, but quickly drove off. Just another fight outside the college. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Harry limped to the bus stop, drenched in both rain and blood. The driver cast a concerned look at him as he climbed on but said nothing. Harry found a seat at the back and pulled out a napkin, trying to clean the cuts on his face and arms. Thirty minutes later, he got off at his stop and limped home, each step heavier than the last.
But when he turned the corner to his apartment, his heart stopped. An ambulance was parked outside.
He ran inside, pushing open the door to find paramedics performing CPR on Sam. His brother lay motionless on the sofa. Harry’s heart pounded in his chest as he stood frozen in the doorway, hoping and praying that Sam would be okay. But the paramedics looked up at him with pity in their eyes and a thumbs down. It was over. Sam was gone.
Harry’s vision blurred with tears. He didn’t know what to do as the paramedics carried Sam’s body away. Numbly, he followed them to the ambulance, his mind swirling with fear and loss. His last family member was gone, and now he was truly alone.
At the hospital, he sat on a cold bench outside the pathological department, waiting for the formalities. His thoughts were a storm of grief, guilt, and uncertainty.
A nurse approached him, handing over Sam’s belongings: a wallet with a worn family photo inside, a reminder of better days, and something else. A strange device. It looked like a phone, but its insides were exposed, chips and circuits visible. It was crude, more like a prototype than anything usable.
Curious, Harry tapped at the screen. It flickered to life, showing a single icon: “Messaging.”
He hesitated, his grief momentarily replaced by curiosity. What was this thing? He tapped the icon, and a menu appeared:
Send to Future
Send to Past
Harry stared at the options, his heart racing. Could this thing actually send messages through time? His mind scrambled to make sense of it, but before he could fully process what was happening, he tapped Send to Past.
A timer appeared, giving him thirty seconds to input a date, time, and number. His mind froze. If only he hadn’t gone to college today, maybe Sam would still be alive. Maybe he could’ve stopped all of it — the bullying, the tragedy.
With just a few seconds left, he hurriedly typed in his own number and chose today’s date. His fingers trembling, he entered the message:
“Don’t go to college today at any cost.”
The moment he hit send, everything went black. It felt as though he was falling, the world slipping away from him as he lost consciousness.
It was raining hard when Harry woke up on an early Monday morning.
He checked his phone, scrolling through notifications, and found a message from an unknown number: “Don’t go to college today at any cost.”
Harry dismissed it as a prank and began getting ready for the day.
And the loop continued… ♾️