Friday Black

Content Warning: This story references intense violence and violence against animals.

Ama, a young woman trapped in a time loop, wakes up to the affirmations of a robotic drone bird. After getting ready for the day, she hops across rooftops to get to her neighbor, Mrs. Nagel, and prepare her tea. Back at home, her brother, Ike, begs her to kill him, wanting to free himself from the trap of the Loop. She refuses and goes to the kitchen, where she is attacked and killed by her father.

In between iterations of the Loop, Ama dreams of her mother, who died by suicide before the time loop began, reassuring her. The dream strikes her as something new since Ama hasn’t had any new dreams since the Flash, the destructive event that triggered the time loop. Afterward, Ama dies by suicide to experience the dream once more. However, she fails to see her mother.

Ama shares what she saw with Ike, who explains that Ama’s dream is likely an anomaly—a deviation from the usual sequence of the Loop. Past anomalies have enabled those trapped within the Loop to maintain their memories through the Flash and develop characteristics such as heightened intelligence, musical mastery, or in Ama’s case, increased speed and agility.