Seven-Day Loop

Brody Lewis, my fiance, said that I had a rare form of transient global amnesia, which was a sudden, temporary memory loss.

Every seven days, I would open my eyes and become the twenty-five-year-old Riley Taylor again. My memories were forever stuck in the past.

In my pen drive were videos of Brody taking me on trips, bringing me for treatment, and proposing to me. Everything seemed great between us, but I remembered none of it.

“Riley’s still around. Can’t you keep your hands to yourself?”

“Don’t worry. It’s Monday tomorrow. After she wakes up, she’ll remember none of it,” Brody said, and my heart sank. “Isn’t this more exciting?”

Brody embraced my best friend, and they made out brazenly in front of me. They were not shy about it at all.

I wondered just how many times this had happened over the past two years.

I ran as tears blurred my vision. When I arrived at a tattoo shop, I grabbed the tattoo artist like a drowning man holding on to a log. Then, I asked the tattoo artist to tattoo these words on my arm in my handwriting.

[Leave him.]

“You’re awake?”

The pungent smell of disinfectant invaded my nose, and a sharp pain similar to being hit by a sledgehammer struck my head. It hurt so much that I nearly fainted.

Feeling helpless, I looked at Brody Lewis, my fiance.

“I know that you’re really confused right now. Calm down first, then check out this pen drive.”

My memories were stuck on the day of the accident.

We were on a highway. The car ahead of us had suddenly hit the brakes, and Brody had instinctively swerved to the side. But he had done it to save me, not himself.

He crashed into the railing and survived despite his serious injuries. In contrast, I was not injured anywhere else except my head.

The first thing Brody did after he woke up was to propose to me while still in his hospital scrubs.

I could not bear to continue watching and just threw myself into his arms. When I looked up, I saw a hint of pain in his eyes.

In an instant, a great unease seized my heart like a snake.

I had transient global amnesia? Why did I have such a strange illness?!

Did he really want a lover who would never change?

Would he become fed up with me?

“Why are you in another ward?” Just then, a nurse brought in a familiar face. It was Rose Stone, my best friend. She had also been the one to hold the camera when Brody proposed to me.

I thought that Rose had rushed over to see me. But the moment she came in, she moved past me and put a hand on Brody’s shoulder instead. Her red nails stood stark on his dark suit jacket.

“Brody, an emergency popped up in the company. They need you to handle it. I’ll take care of Riley.”

Brody calmly removed her hand from his shoulder and gave me an apologetic look.

“Riley, get Rose to send you back later.”

When did they become such close friends?

She had always been antagonistic toward Brody.

Whenever I argued with him, she would tell me to break up with him and say that he was not worthy of me. Why was she working at his company?

I frowned. Brody planted a brief kiss on my forehead while he told Rose to make sure that I finished watching the videos.

“Got it. Go on,” Rose promised with a smile.

One of them was my future husband, and the other was my best friend of many years. Yet, I felt like I was the outsider in this situation.

The only sound left in the ward was from the videos.

I did not want to miss any details and did my best to carve all of the happy memories into my mind. That way, I could reclaim the link between me and Brody.

For a moment, I forgot that I was still receiving an IV transfusion. My blood flowed backward, and the tube turned red.

“Rose, please get a nurse to change my drip.”

She only looked up after I called out to her a few times, and she clicked her tongue in annoyance.

“How bothersome!”

I could not understand why her attitude toward me had changed so drastically. I kept wondering even after Rose checked her phone and left on the excuse that she had something to do.

I took a cab back alone and arrived at the “home” Brody had mentioned.

It looked like a model house, and I did not recognize it. I could not imagine having stayed here for two years.

I took a deep breath and drew the curtains.

However, the moment I raised my arm, I saw a scabbing tattoo on my forearm.

These words stood stark on my skin.

[Leave him.]

The skin around the words was red. Clearly, I had just gotten the tattoo.

When did I have such a hobby?

Puzzled, I called Brody, but no one answered. When I called his office, someone quickly answered. But the person on the other side only yelled in annoyance before they hung up.

“Could you stop?! You call to ask all kinds of questions every Monday! I have my job too! Stop this already!”

“I…”

I got yelled at for no reason, and Brody still would not answer his phone. It made me feel a little dejected. My skin appeared dull, and my eyes looked puffy in the mirror. I was completely different from the person in my memories.

This was not how things should be…