The message on Arjun's phone glowed like a curse etched in neon:
[You've touched the thread. Now the timeline bleeds.]
He stared at it for a few seconds, his heart pounding, then turned off the phone and shoved it into his pocket. The library was still shrouded in darkness. No backup lights. No staff. Only silence—and a sense of being watched.
Who was that figure?
How did he vanish into thin air?
With one hand on his pendant and the scroll safely tucked inside his bag, Arjun slipped out of the building, glancing behind him every few steps.
---
Outside, the city felt… different.
The sky, still grey, now held a tinge of deep violet near the horizon. Pedestrians passed him, faces blurred by motion. It felt like the world was glitching.
He walked quickly down the pavement. His route home took him past the abandoned clock tower, a rusting relic from British colonial days. But today, its massive hands weren't frozen at 7:43 like always.
They were moving backward.
"What the hell…?"
He stopped and watched. The minute hand ticked in reverse, slowly but surely. A crow cawed above him—and froze mid-flap for a split second before moving again.
Am I going crazy?
Suddenly, a child on a bicycle rode past him—and then again. And then again.
Loop?
The third time, Arjun stepped in front of the child, and the image shattered like glass—turning into particles of light that dissolved into the air.
---
He sprinted the rest of the way home.
His mother greeted him, smiling, but her eyes were blank, as if she were seeing through him.
"Did you have lunch, beta?"
"Mom? Are you okay?"
She blinked. The fog in her gaze cleared.
"Haan… I was just… What were we talking about?"
He gave a half-smile. "Nothing. Just tired."
He went to his room, locked the door, and pulled out the scroll and stone.
Kaladarshi... What does that even mean?
He remembered the figure in the library saying it. And how the stone seemed to pulse when he touched it.
Carefully, he placed the stone on the floor and held the pendant above it.
A circle of light emerged—markings glowing in an unknown language. Then, from the stone's spiral, a holographic image appeared:
A man in saffron robes, his face serene yet intense.
"If you are seeing this… then the Threads have awakened. You, Kaladarshi, are the Witness of Time's fracture."
"You must find the other Threads. Before they tear the world apart."
---
As the hologram faded, Arjun's window shattered inward—without a sound.
A feather floated in.
But it wasn't an ordinary feather. It was metallic, burning blue at the edges, and still dripping blood.
A robotic voice crackled to life from his phone:
[Thread Two has been eliminated. Timeline Echo 7 collapsing.]
And outside, a second moon flickered briefly into the sky—then vanished.