6:00 a.m.

Maddie lay on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. She'd woken long before her alarm, and she'd called Sue at work. "I'm so sorry to do this," she said. "I'm having serious issues, and I can't come in today."

"Oh, no," Sue had said. "Are you okay?"

"I will be, I just need some time to take care of things," Maddie said. "And let whoever you have cover me that I owe them."

She hung up the phone, knowing that she might never be physically able to return that favor.

She had to think about this. If she was just going to keep waking up in the same day, she figured she might as well take the time to figure it out.

Maybe she just wouldn't do...anything today. Wouldn't go to work, wouldn't contact Chimney. She'd just stay home, locked in her room. At least that way, she couldn't hurt anything. And maybe that was the thing. Maybe it was Maddie's fault the day kept getting messed up. Maybe if Josh or Linda took the call, then Stevie would be okay.

She also remembered last night, her heart thumping dully against her ribs.

Jason.

Chimney's friend Jason. He'd told his friend that she was missing.

And then, Jason had been the name he'd said when Doug came upon them. Not Doug.

Was Jason...Doug? Was that how he'd known? Jason had somehow infiltrated Chimney's life to this extent?

She rolled over, grabbing her phone. Her whole body just felt empty, broken, sore. She wanted to cry but it was like there were no tears left after the trauma of the past few days. Day. One day, on repeat.

She exhaled, going to her photos, before pausing. This was a new phone. She didn't have any pictures of Doug on it.

She'd deleted her facebook a long time ago, and she'd ended up deleting all of her social medias. She couldn't handle the stress of Doug criticizing each post, and demanding certain content.

She ended up on facebook, searching for Doug's page from a burner profile, but it looked like he'd taken a cue from her; he no longer had a profile.

She crawled through their mutual friends, hoping she'd find something. Surely just one picture? Had everyone been freaked out when he'd disappeared? She wasn't friends with anyone on this account, so the privacy settings were also limiting her search, but she figured she had to be able to find something.

She switched off of facebook, swiping down to search the words: "Doug Kendall Hershey".

And then, right there, was her husband. It wasn't a great photo, it had been taken at some staff dinner years ago, but it was clear enough. Maddie pressed a hand to her mouth, wanting to sob at the memories this invoked. She remembered that night so clearly. She remembered how angry he'd been that he hadn't gotten some sort of award, and it had been given to another doctor.

He'd played nice at the dinner, but it was Maddie who'd paid the price later.

She saved the photo, and texted it to Chimney.

Maddie: Do you know who this man is?

There were little speech bubbles, and she knew Chimney was typing, but then the bubbles stopped.

She stared at the screen, waiting for him to reply, and then she jerked in surprise. He was calling her.

"Maddie?" He asked as soon as she picked up. "Hey, what's up with that photo?"

"Do you know that man?" She asked, ignoring his question.

"Yeah, that's my friend," he said. "Jason. Why, what did he do?"

"Nothing," she said. "Or something. Um. Chim."

She didn't know what to say. This day could be ruined all over again, and she didn't know if she wanted to tell him. It felt risky. "Nothing," she finally repeated, hanging up her phone.

She stood up, walking to the kitchen. Buck was standing there, and he spilled milk on his shirt when he saw her there. "Maddie," he greeted, trying to dab at his shirt sleeve.

"I don't feel good today, so I'm staying home from work," she said. "Just by the way, I already called in."

Buck was obviously startled. Maddie didn't call in, she wasn't the type. "Can I pick you up anything on my way home?" He asked. "Chicken soup? Ice cream? What kind of not great?"

"I'm fine," she said. "More of a mental health day." She finally stopped resisting the urge, and said the words. "You can dab some seltzer on your shirt."

"Yeah, okay," he said, grabbing a LaCroix from the fridge. "Hey, can you finish this? I won't drink it."

"That's fine," she said. "Just leave it on the counter."

Then she walked back to her room, got back into bed, and tried to sleep.

11:00 a.m.

By 11, she was getting nervous about the Stevie situation, and had migrated downstairs to the couch. The local news station that had reported on it the first day was on, volume high up, but Maddie could barely pay attention.

Her mind was too busy.

She cupped a mug of hot tea, but her hands stayed freezing even though it had to be seventy degrees outside, and she didn't have the air on.

She was desperately running through all of the scenarios in her head. She wanted to write it all down, but she figured nothing could come with her into the "next" day. She wondered if trying to involve anyone else was worth it. Wouldn't it take more time explaining everything than it would to just figure it out?

She had no idea.

She turned on her laptop eventually anyway, going back to the forums she'd found "yesterday". People suggested that she needed to find what event was wrong, what event she'd need to fix.

Well. Chimney dying. Stevie dying.

What else was there?

The only question was...how was she supposed to do that?

4:00 p.m.

The news hadn't reported anything about a missing boy by 4. Maddie bit the bullet and called Josh at the call center.

"Hey, I'm so sorry to bug you," she said. "And this is a weird question, but did anyone get a weird call this morning from a young boy? Saying his father was acting odd. His name is Stevie."

She could hear Josh's fingers typing the words to search. "Looks like a boy named Stevie did indeed call 9-1-1. He spoke with the new girl, Ramona. Looking in her notes, she said it was just a prank call."

"So she didn't try to follow up?" Maddie asked, startled.

"Nope," Josh said. "What's this about?"

"I don't know, just a weird premonition," Maddie said. "Thanks."

"No problem," Josh replied.

She hung up the phone, feeling troubled. She had to be the one to get Stevie's call, then.

Even though she figured it would be useless, she opened up a blank document on her computer, and started typing information.

Jason is Doug. How can I draw him out without harming Chimney?

If I don't pick up the call, then no one will send an officer for a wellness check for Stevie

Is there really a timeline where I get this right? Is it really possible? I'm so scared. I don't think I can go through Chimney's death for a third time.

9:00 p.m.

She sat on the couch still, hours later. Nothing had happened. Doug wasn't there. Chimney hadn't called. She had told Donna not to serve Doug today, so she didn't even get a call from Donna letting her know that Doug was nowhere to be found, but Maddie knew the information anyway, so she wasn't surprised.

She wondered if this had changed anything. If she woke up tomorrow morning, and it was actually tomorrow, could she be okay with this? Stevie would still be trapped by his dad, and Chimney would still be friends with the man he thought was called Jason.

She knew that her own death didn't change anything; she'd still woken up.

So she went to the bathroom, shaking out a few too many sleeping pills into her hand. She wanted to just end this. She wanted to wake up tomorrow. If she was stuck here, she might as well just do it.

But some part of her refused. Some part of her was scared that it wouldn't repeat.

She placed the pills back into the bottle, and walked back to the living room.