The Letter

This letter was not stamped.

Silent as dust it would pass under Daniel's door sometime after midnight. On picking it up he noticed two unusual things, first his name was written in a handwriting that he knew and secondly, the paper had a slight scent of rain.

He carefully opened it up.

Daniel,

If you are reading this, STAY HOME TOMORROW!

The bridge will collapse on Morrow Street at 8:17am.

The woman in the red coat will kill your own and two other people if you don't stop her.

You've already tried it once and it didn't work.

—Daniel

His hands trembled.

There was no doubt about the signature. It was his own.

He laughed in a nervous manner himself, thinking it must be some kind of a trick. However, he never could get to sleep. On the next morning at 7:40, tired and unsettled, he was faced with Morrow Street Bridge as traffic began to trickle through the fog.

It was at 8:12 when he spotted her.

A woman in bright red coat was seen coming out onto the sidewalk, carrying a black umbrella in the clear blue sky. She stopped right near the railing on the bridge and gazed about as if waiting for someone.

Daniel’s pulse hammered.

He walked across the street towards her. Excuse me,” he called, “I want to speak with you. It's too cold for you to stay here.

The woman slowly swiveled around. Her face went pale.

“So did you get the letter?” whispered she.

Before Daniel could respond, there was a deafening crack which split the air under them. The bridge shook with a tremendous jolt.

Another envelope started to come out of the woman's purse.

This letter was not stamped.

It was silent, it was in the middle of the night, after midnight; Daniel Mercer thought he heard it, but it was definitely real when it slipped under his door. He didn't see it because he was awake, sitting alone at his kitchen table, with a half-filled cup of coffee, and a blue screen lit up by his laptop on the walls.

On first inspection the envelope appeared to be a standard one. Plain white paper. No return address. No postage mark. The name of the person was simply written in dark black ink on the front.

However his stomach clenched when he saw the handwriting.

It was his own.

Daniel looked it at for several seconds before he was able to pick it up. The paper was cold, and seemed like it had been out in the winter. It was tinged with a slight hint of rain.

Carefully he unfolded the envelope.

On the inside there was only one fold page.

Daniel,

If you are reading this, then you still have time!

Don't report for work on Monday morning. The collapse of the bridge on Morrow Street will be at 8:17 a.m. There will be three fatalities. One of them is you.

The stop must be given to the woman in the red coat.

Do not trust Elias.

You have fallen once!

—Daniel

Daniel read the note three times.Daniel read the note three times.

Then a fourth.

He couldn't help but let out a nervous chuckle. It must have been a joke! An outlandish stunt done by a fellow employee. But no one would replicate his handwriting as well as he did—even his best friends.

That last sentence stuck with him in his thoughts like a splinter.

You've already tried it once and it didn't work.

He twice double checked the locks on his apartment before attempting to go to sleep and yet he could never seem to sleep. With each closing of his eyes he saw the twisted metal falling into dark water.

It was by morning that all his strength was gone. He thought about just disregarding the letter. He even got dressed, and took his keys. But when he arrived at the door of the apartment his eyes fell on the envelope on the kitchen counter.

Daniel was driving to the office when at 7:45 a.m., he turned to Morrow Street Bridge.

The fog hung over the city, casting a dim glow on the buildings. The traffic was gentle, cars making their way across the bridge, delivering passengers to their destinations.The traffic was light and steady, cars passing through the bridge, on their way to work, school, or other destinations.

There was nothing special about him, except that Daniel had a knot in his heart.

He was standing close to a newspaper kiosk across the street, peering at the clock every couple of seconds.

8:10.

Nothing unusual.

8:12.

Still nothing.

Then he saw her.

A woman in bright red coat was standing on the walkway to the bridge.A woman in bright red coat was standing on a walkway to the bridge. She was carrying a black umbrella with her when it was a sunny day. Her dark hair swayed in the wind, as she stood by the railing, looking around the street nervously.

Daniel’s heartbeat quickened.

“She's a real girl,” he whispered.

The woman took a cell phone out of her purse. She was obviously scared and had darted her gaze up, up and down to the water below.

Daniel pushed by himself.

“Excuse me!,” he said.

She turned sharply. Her face was as white as a sheet of paper and as if she had seen a ghost!

Daniel breathed heavily, "You can't stay here.Daniel was breathing rapidly, "You can't stay here. “This bridge is going to fall down, it's going to fall down.”

The woman's gaze fixed on him for a while.

But she looked up with a big, surprised expression.

“Me too. I've received the letter too,” she whispered.

Daniel froze.

“What?”

He didn't even have time to respond before a voice called out behind him.

“Daniel!”

He looked and saw Elias running towards them, in the traffic.

Elias had been the closest friends of Daniel's since college. Calm, tall and confident. It should have meant some comfort for him to be there.

Rather, Daniel recalled the admonition.

Do not trust Elias.

What's up with you? Daniel asked cautiously.

Elias remained a few feet back breathless. “You didn't show up to work and then this was left under my door this morning and I could ask you the same question.”

He took out a paper from his coat pocket and unrolled it.

Daniel was cold, all over.

“You got one too?”

Elias nodded grimly. “But, my mine said you were in danger.”

Slowly, the woman in the red coat retreated. It's not going to happen again, she whispered.

Daniel was astonished at her. “Again? What does this imply?

However, before she could respond, a noise of metal groaning could be heard under the bridge.

The pavement trembled.

People screamed.

Near the middle of the bridge, a part near the center sank violently downward, with steel cables exploding with cracks.

“Move!” Elias shouted.

Cars skidded sideways. Concrete split apart. The earth shook and Daniel stumbled.

The woman suddenly grabbed his arm.

Remember, you must!” she shouted.

What do you mean, "What are you talking about?

“Where you are from before”!

She was interrupted by another clap of thunder. The middle section of the bridge broke off and sank into the river below along with any vehicles that were there.

Daniel was in the middle of a dreadful shock.

Suddenly out of his mind, out of his dream, out of his imagination, it was just a memory.

Rain.

Sirens.

Falling.

And the woman who was yelling his name.

His vision blurred.

“Remember,” he whispered, “I remember…

Images of that which was impossible came back to his mind. The letter. The bridge. The collapse. Time and time again.

Like a loop.

1 death ending every time.

“You wrote the letters,” said the woman desperately. “Each time you fail you send another warning back.”

Daniel staggered backward.

“That’s impossible.”

“Is it?” Elias asked quietly.

Daniel raised his eyes when he heard something in his voice.

There was no more fear for Elias.

He was smiling.

Almost got it this time, man,” Elias said.

Daniel’s blood ran cold.

“You caused this?”

But as chaos broke out around them Elias came closer. Not caused, preserved, the loop exists for a reason.

“What reason?”

“To keep you here.”

The ground trembled once again.

But there was something horrible that Daniel saw.

Lenient and shadowy, Elias' shadow lay upon the cracked pavement as if it had been twisted into a puff of smoke.

Not human.

The woman grabbed hold of Daniel and pulled him away. It's time to get going now!

“But who is he?”

Elias' smile grew even broader, his eyes turned to nothing but a black abyss.

He said the explanation to him for why he could never leave was because…

Of these, another envelope drifted slowly out of Daniel's coat pocket.