In desperate need of social interaction, he started conversing with him.
Hello! He said in a timid voice. Remember me? I'm Tim.. I saw you talking to my parents the other day... What are you doing here?
With a little smirk, the man replied...

"I am searching for something... Will you help me find it?"
Tim was a bit reassured and agreed. The man's grin grew wider...

Tim: Why are you bare foot?
"My name is also Tim" says the man looking at his feet. He continues "sometimes as a man grows older, he looks everywhere for what he has lost".
Tim: Wh-what have you lost? Your shoes?
The man : A spark, a glimmer of hope... and faith.
"I think I need to go home, hummm.. My parents will be worried" said Tim while scratching his head nervously.
The man approaches little Tim and whispered.....

"Your home has long vanished".
Tim looked around. The forest was dense. He couldn't see much, but the path that brought him here seemed to have disappeared.

Tim's world spun for a moment.
Was what the man said true?
He looked around again. The path had indeed disappeared

A chill went down little Tim's spine. The man had disappeared.
The sun has set now he doesn't recognized the dark forest. Only one thought in his mind "god I wished I listened to my parents who told me not to go to this forest".
A lot of questions arise. Who is this man? Why is it dark so suddenly? Mom I'm scared....
There is a faint whistle coming from deep in the forest. Not making any noise, He walked towards the whistling. The sound grows louder and louder as he ventured deeper into the dark forest.

He was cold and scared, his legs scratched by brambled were shaking. The whistling sound seemed now to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. Tim tried to sit down and collapsed against a tree. Looking up, he saw...

He saw the darkest sky he has ever seen. The whistle stops, in walks a tall figure. It was the older Tim laughing maniacally. Little Tim couldn't help it and starts laughing and laughing until he falls unconsciously into oblivion.
Birds are singing.. Little Tim wakes up and looks around. He is in a house, the wooden hunter's retreat type. Skulls of mammals hung on the walls, dim light coming from a fireplace and the smell of burnt wood.
Tim! He heard in a female voice. It came from the kitchen. "Quick, it will arrive soon".
"What will arrive? " said Tim.
She swallowed a gulp, grabs his arm and....

hurriedly said "The time when the curse arrives. It's always more or less an hour from now. You don't remember it, do you? This is the nineteenth time you've woken up in this room, and every time the spell seems to hit you a bit earlier"...

What will happen to me? Said Tim. The dim light in the room cast huge shadows on the wall. He looked at his shadow and it suddenly starts moving independently, transforming into the shadow of an adult. The woman had disappeared. He went to look at himself in a mirror and saw...

a face that looked almost like the older Tim's. He was now an adult, had the same facial shape, almost the same wrinkles, but his eyes and smirk were different. A lot of different emotions started boiling inside of him, slowly overcoming his initial distress and sorrow over his lost youth. A sudden burst of anger made his eyes sparkle an usual way, which startled him back to his normal state. He turned away and...

sat on the ground crying. He cannot recognise the older self. A lot of questions remain unanswered. It is clear now, the lady and older Tim are the ones with the answers.
He starts looking around the house for clues. He passes a narrow hallway, wood creaking with every step he makes and on his right, finds a first room. He opens the door and finds an abandoned child's room. The bed in the middle has not been made for a long time. Broken toys, cars and little porcelain soldiers imply that it was a little boy's room.
He looks under the bed and finds.....

a lot of dust. So much dust, in fact, that it looked like the ruins of a city. A small cardboard box caught his eye, is was free from any dust. He opened it. In it, was a letter. He recognized his own handwriting.
"The lady said I had already been here. I think they might be serial killers? In this case, this letter is proof that..."
Underneath was another line "What the hell, that's my handwriting. What's happening? Here's a secret to check if it's me: we do like liquorice but pretend to hate it because Sarah likes it too"
And another "I must break this."
The last line said...

"The mystery lies within myself". At the same moment, a large bang is heard outside the door. Someone was barging in. Tim hid under the bed. In walks a man and woman. They were not talking, just looking around for something.
The scuffle to get under the bed disrupted the dust that had settled. Soon, the urge to sneeze was coming. He could not hold within himself. The quiet sneeze alerts both and soon they scower and find Tim. He tried to fight them but...

he was outnumbered and not fully used to his new body yet. The woman held him perfectly still. The man looked into his eyes and asked him what he was doing in that room. Tim answered, but didn't mention the box. Maybe in the next loop he was not going to get captured? Unless... there was no next loop. He looked up at them, trying to gauge the chances of getting killed. But...

the man took a razor blade and slit his throat. It was horrible, blood everywhere. The man stood up near the window revealing himself to be an older Tim. "We finally did it?" said the lady. Older Tim looked at her nervously and said "No, Rachel, it is only the beginning" A whistling noise is heard from the forest. "The curse! " said Rachel crying. The older Tim took the box from the ground and opens it. Inside he finds...

the same letter younger Tim had read. "No wonder they'd become harder to find", he says, "they had been noticing..."
He looked suspiciously at Rachel, then shrugged out the disturbing idea that had started to form in his mind.
Who cared, he'd killed the boy, he could finally be complete, as no other Tim existed at the same time... But he didn't. Why was it so? He went outside to meet the noise and...

saw a posse surrounding the house. The police has gone looking for an orphan who escaped from the nearest boarding school. "Tim" They shouted. He quickly go inside to look for little Tim's body but he disappeared. Rachel collapses under the stress.
"Is anybody here?" "Its the police". "Sorry to bother you, we have been looking for a young boy, have you seen a little boy around here lately" "Do you live alone?"
Tim replies...

"I haven't seen a little boy here since I was one myself. May I help you look for him?" The police officer gave the older Tim a photo. He recognized himself as a kid, yet luckily the policewoman didn't make any connection between the boy they were looking for and the man standing in front of her.
She did, however, see him frown. The little boy in the picture had a scar in his eyebrow, unlike him. "I need to understand how these time iterations work", thought the older Tim. He thought hard for a few seconds and remembered...

the pile of bodies in the basement. Those are other young Tims who wandered far in the dark forest. "Sir, can we come in?" said the police inspector. "No" replied Tim. "Look this is an emergency, we don't have time for a warrant". At the same time, a police officer shouts "Sir, we find something. Its a kids shoe".
The inspector barged past older Tim and entered te house. It did not take long to find the basement and the pile of bodies. Some were at an advanced decomposed state. "Look sir, I can explain" said Tim.
He is escorted to the police car. Rachel had disappeared. In the back of the car, he told the police about the curse and....