"A world that can be brutal and beautiful at the same time, that can be interpreted in many ways, that could be as small as a point or as large as infinity, where time doesn't flow, is where I belong."
He searched for the source of the voice, but all he ever saw was a cube-shaped mirror, a jagged crack splitting it down the middle, suspended in the dark void.
.
<12th FEB 2027 | 6:45 AM | Sehu, Kovran>
"Ugh!"
"Seriously! This again..."
Arya Daxit woke up from his dream with a sudden, painful shock surging through his head.
"Every single time it hurts bad. And lately it's getting even worse..."
A lone ray of sunlight, illuminating the swirling dust particles, entered through the partially opened window beside the bed.
Sweat trickled down his forehead as he sat up; he threw the flower-patterned blanket aside and stood up on the floor. As he looked to his left, he saw a pile of dirty clothes. He sighed, turning away to his PC, which he had forgotten to turn off last night. As he moved forward, he stumbled over papers, wrappers, and other clutter flooding the floor. Then his gaze landed on his study desk—the only thing that looked normal that morning.
"Oh... right. Today's the last day of school."
"I should get ready."
Climbing over his bed, he opened the window fully to let the sun brighten up his room... A small flowerpot rested on the windowsill with a single tulip.
Arya then rushed to the bathroom as per his morning routine. Coming back to his room, he pulled out his uniform from the pile of clothes. Before putting on the uniform, he picked up a silver locket from his study desk and placed it around his neck.
He put on his checkered shirt with blue and white stripes, plain grey trousers, a dark blue tie, and a blazer on top. He then grabbed his bag, walked out of the room, locked the door, and slipped the key into his shirt pocket... Then he looked down at the stairs and grinned.
"Stairs! Let's go!"
He leaped down, skipping three steps—then again two steps, then three, four, and so on.
"Okay, my last record was five—can I go for six?"
"Won't know if I don't try!"
After taking a deep breath, he jumped off yet again. His foot barely caught the very edge of the sixth step, his body tilted. "Crap—" he was about to fall on his face, but he balanced himself by grabbing the railing along the stairs.
"YES! That was close—better than the last time I broke my nose."
"I've got a feeling that today's gonna be a good day."
Arya was quite experienced with this sort of thing, since he lived on the fifth floor of the apartment, it was quite a hassle for him to utilize the whole staircase.
.
As he was walking down the street, "Grandpa—" the word echoed in his head. He stopped and turned back—a little boy ran up to an elderly man.
It triggered some memories.
"As a kid, others used to bully me a lot because of my hair color. 'Grandpa'—that's what they called me."
He chuckled. "Well... now that I think about it, they were basically calling me superior to their dads. HA!... Hope I could've said it to their faces."
"I was not into talking to people... so I had locked myself in my room and devoted my life to games, movies, anime—all the stuff that would make me lazy and fat."
"I thought my life would end in that room, and I was fine with that... Until Aadi appeared in my life."
He snapped out of his thoughts as he reached the school entrance, "Well... whatever. I'm here now."
<7:34 AM>
"Let's get goin—UGH!"
A shock shot through Arya's skull again, more violently this time. His head felt like it was going to explode, his vision blurred, and a ringing noise echoed inside his head. His eyes closed reflexively. He fell to his knees, clutching his head.
A few seconds later, the shock disappeared, and the echoing noise stopped. "That was the worst one yet! Right in front of the school even... I have to get up now."
He took a deep breath.
"Cough! Cough!"
Thick smoke flooded his throat. Heat seared his skin—it was unbearable.
His eyes shot open—smoke and flames surrounded him. It didn't take long for him to understand that the school was on fire, and somehow... he was on the third floor.
"W—What... FIRE!? And how did I get here!? What's going ON!?"
"Cough! Cough! Cough!"
He dropped to the floor, pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket, and covered his nose.
He could hear the screams, desperate and begging to be saved—so horrifying that he froze for a moment... he felt the fear of death.
"No... I can't die here. I want to live!"
A glass pane came crashing down in front of him breaking into many pieces. One flew straight at him slicing across his face. Blood dripped down, "Ah!... that hurt!", but he barely had time to flinch.
He pulled out his phone, hoping to call for help. "Someone must have already called the fire department, but just in case—"
*No signal*
"What the hell?!... I have to find a way out."
As Arya put his phone away, something caught his eye—the time.
<1:15 PM>
His breath hitched. "W—What!?"
He pinched his cheeks and verified it wasn't a dream. "Ow... I didn't have to be that hard on myself."
He started crawling forward, keeping his nose covered, trying to make sense of it all.
"I got teleported to a different location in my school—and now, the time is different."
Arya crawled toward the stairs leading to the second floor, but flames engulfed the path—it was impossible to go down.
Then, he heard a familiar voice at a distance.
Hearing that voice, Arya got up and sprinted through the flames. His blazer caught fire, so he yanked it off and tossed it aside.
"AADI!" he shouted as he rounded a corner.
There, clinging to the half-broken balcony railing, was Aadi—one hand gripping the metal for dear life, the other clutching a kid.
Aadi felt a bit of relief seeing Arya.
"Arya! Give me a hand—"
Before Aadi could utter another word, the balcony railing snapped. He was about to fall but Arya lunged forward, barely catching Aadi's wrist in the last possible second. The weight was tearing his arm apart, but he refused to let go.
"Arya, listen... just take the kid and go, I'll be fine if I fall from here", Aadi said.
"I can't do that, you know it!" Arya tightened his grip.
Before anyone could even blink an eye—BOOM!
An explosion ripped through the building. The next second, Arya was airborne. Debris filled the air. Through the smoke and dust, he saw Aadi... a metal rod piercing straight through his skull from left to right. Even at a distance, he could see the color wearing off Aadi's eyes—he recognized the eyes of a dead man.
Arya stretched out his hand toward Aadi in a desperate attempt—just then, something struck him from behind.
Arya's vision became blurry again, and that same ringing noise echoed in his head.
.
"AADI!" he screamed as he woke up in the nurse's office.
Aadi, who was sitting on a stool beside the bed and munching on some grapes, got startled so hard he tumbled onto the floor sending grapes rolling across the room.
"Dude! I'm sorry for stealing your grapes, but you don't have to yell like that!"
"Aadi... you're alive?" Arya felt relieved and puzzled.
Aadi groaned. "I'm the one who should be asking that, you were collapsed in the corridor—be grateful I found you."
"Wait... wasn't the building burning?"
Arya looked at the clock on the wall—8:20.
<8:20 AM>
He then looked for his phone. "Here." Aadi handed it over to him. Arya checked the time on his phone—8:20 am.
Arya hesitated before asking, "Aadi... did the building catch fire anytime soon?"
"Why did you think it would?" Aadi brushed off the question.
Arya assessed the situation. He had seen the school burn, he had seen Aadi die—the time was 1:15 pm... But the building's fine as well as Aadi, and the time was 8:20 am on the same day.
"Did I just... time travel?"