—A Life Outside Time
The study felt heavier than before.
Shawn sat motionless, his grandfather's words weighing on him more than he could explain.
"Lucy was… remarkable,"Elias said quietly, his eyes distant, as though looking through the layers of memory.
"And to some, dangerous."
He leaned back, absently tracing the rim of his untouched teacup.
"She wasn't supposed to exist. Not like that."
Shawn narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"
Elias didn't respond right away. Instead, he reached for the book resting in Shawn's lap—the one on Meta I Ching Research—and turned through its thin pages until he stopped at a particular passage. He turned the book toward Shawn.
Shawn read aloud:
"When the unseen is glimpsed, the loop shifts. That which was lost begins again. The Riftborn must awaken."
A chill settled over him. "What does this have to do with Lucy?"
Elias tapped the line gently.
"In the turning of time, there are echoes,"he said. "And some people… can hear them."
He paused, voice quiet but steady.
"She didn't think this was just a metaphor. She believed it was real."
Shawn felt his throat tighten. "You mean… she was one of those people?"
Elias's expression darkened, eyes unfocused as though seeing something far away.
"She was the first I ever met."
Eighteen Years Earlier.
The memory returned to Elias in full color, sharp and alive like it had never left.
He had been a young researcher then, part of the Meta Origin Society—an independent think tank exploring the intersection of ancient metaphysics and modern science.
Then one evening, Lucy arrived—without a letter, without credentials, asking to speak to the senior scholars.
But Lucy brought a symbol.
Not just any mark—one etched into their minds forever: a V enclosed in a circle.
The V-circle pulsed faintly under candlelight, as if absorbing the shadows around it.
At first, they dismissed her. Probably another mystic, maybe a harmless eccentric. But Lucy didn't argue. She waited.
And then she told them something they couldn't ignore.
She made a prediction.
A week after she arrived, a fire broke out in one of the archive rooms. Important documents were lost.
But Lucy had already warned them it would happen.The exact shelf number, the chemical smell she described—it matched with terrifying precision
That was when they started to listen.
Elias had stood in the background, listening as the senior members questioned her again and again—
Where did you learn this? How did you know?
Her answer never changed.
"Because I remember."
Back in the present, Elias let out a slow breath and rubbed his temple, as if trying to ease the pressure of an old truth pressing in again.
"Shawn, you need to understand… what she claimed—it shouldn't have been possible."
Shawn's hands tightened on his knees. "What exactly did she say?"
"She spoke about things before they happened. Not just once—again and again. And then she told us something even harder to accept."
Elias lowered his voice.
"She said she had lived two lives."
A flicker of confusion and unease passed across Shawn's face.
"She thought she came from… another timeline?"
Elias gave a slight nod.
"A version of reality where she'd already lived through it all."
Shawn parted his lips, but no words came.
"Sounds crazy, right?"Elias said, almost gently.
Shawn hesitated, then nodded. "That's what everyone else thought too?"
"They did."A faint smile crossed Elias's face. "But I didn't."
"Why?"
Elias leaned in slightly, his tone more personal now.
"Because something about it made sense. I'd felt it too—that odd pressure, like some unfinished thread tugging at my life. And because Lucy knew things about me she couldn't have known."
A quiet dread settled over Shawn.
"Like what?"
Elias's gaze met his, unwavering.
"She knew the exact words my grandfather whispered to me as he died. Words I've never said out loud—not to anyone."
A jolt ran through Shawn."Lucy had known."
Over time, Elias and Lucy grew close. He had seen it in her eyes—she wasn't making things up.
She was remembering something. Living through it again. But the more she remembered, the more unsettled she became.
Then one night, she came to him with a warning.
"The loop is breaking."
She looked almost breathless, lit from within by something more than fear—excitement.
"Something's changed this time,"she said. "I don't know how or why. But I won't make it past this loop."
Elias didn't want to hear it. He told her she was wrong—had to be wrong.
But on April 24, 2013, she vanished.
No note. No phone call. No trace.
Shawn sat bolt upright.
"April 24?"
Elias nodded, his expression grim. "It was your birthday."
The room felt smaller, like the walls were slowly leaning in. The clock on the wall ticked louder than before—each second sharp, deliberate.
It was too precise. Too planned.
Could she have known? Chosen that day on purpose?
The thought sent a cold shiver through him.
A few weeks later, Elias had received something strange in the mail: a single slip of paper.
A poem.
It was the same poem now lying in Shawn's hands.
Elias's voice dropped as he looked at his grandson. "She left this for you, Shawn. Not for me."
Shawn struggled to speak. "But... why me?"
"I wish I knew,"Elias said with a slow exhale. "All I can tell you is this—Lucy believed you'd reach this point. She said the next Riftborn would be born under a broken loop. And that you'd need to understand."
Shawn's brow furrowed. "Riftborn? What does that even mean?"
Elias hesitated, then answered quietly, "Someone who didn't just live inside the loop—but came from outside it."
Shawn looked down at the poem again. The words swam before his eyes as a thought gripped him tightly.
If Lucy had really seen the future...
Then she'd known this conversation would happen.
And she had left something behind. For him.
Something that mattered.
Shawn looked up, a new resolve building inside him.
"What if she's still out there?"
Elias didn't answer right away. He drew a sharp breath, caught off guard.
Shawn's thoughts tumbled over each other. If Lucy had truly grasped how time worked—if she hadn't died, but slipped out of the loop—
The idea lit a fire in him.
"I have to know more,"he said. "Everything she told you. Everything she left behind."
Elias studied him for a long moment, then gave a slow, almost reluctant nod.
"There is one more thing."
Shawn's heart pounded as his grandfather reached for the drawer of the old desk.
He pulled out a leather-bound journal, edges worn with time and travel.
The leather journal creaked as he opened it, releasing the faint scent of jasmine—
Lucy's journal.