"Everything will come to an end—but you shall prevent that end."
The words echoed in my mind the moment I woke up. I wasn't sure if they came from a dream or a memory—or if there even was a difference between the two. All I could remember from that strange void was floating. Nothingness stretched around me like an endless black ocean. I couldn't see, couldn't feel, couldn't even sense time moving. And then, that voice appeared.
It didn't sound like a boy or a girl. Not human, yet somehow unmistakably alive. Its words burned themselves into my mind, confused. Everything will come to an end. What? And why tell me?
I shook my head, trying to push the thought away. It was morning. School. Yep. Normal life—or as normal as my life could get.
I walked through the corridor and tried to ignore the lingering unease. The smell of chalk dust and morning air should have comforted me, but it didn't. My stomach churned. Something was off, though I couldn't say what.
Then, I saw him.
Kian. My friend. My classmate. His body lay sprawled on the floor. Blood pooled around him like dark ink, soaking into the floor tiles.
And standing over him was Aira. The Aira I knew who was bright, cheerful, infectious. Aira, whose laugh could make even the worst day feel lighter. Aira, smiling with that impossibly radiant smile. Except now... it was twisted. Wrong. A mask of cruelty stretched across her face.
My throat tightened. My knees threatened to buckle. My mind refused to work properly. No. This can't be real. She's... she's not capable of this. Not her. Not Aira.
But my eyes said otherwise.
Some of our classmates screamed, sprinting toward the doors. Others froze, dropping to the floor, staring at the chaos in disbelief. My stomach churned so violently I gagged. I wanted to look away, but I couldn't. Every instinct screamed at me to run, and yet I stayed, paralyzed, staring at the lifeless body of my friend.
Part of me wanted answers. Why? Why Kian? Why now? Did she... hate him? Did something happen behind my back? None of my thoughts made sense. They couldn't. Aira had always been the happiest, most positive person I knew. Nothing in her behavior could have hinted at this.
And yet… here it was.
I swallowed hard, trying to find my voice. "Aira… what—"
The words trembled in my throat, barely audible. My legs shook beneath me. My chest felt hollow. Fear was clawing at every inch of me, but I forced myself to keep speaking.
She didn't answer. Not fully. Just a whisper, a faint murmur that slipped past my comprehension. And then she did something I wasn't prepared for. She lifted the knife—slowly, deliberately—to her own neck.
I froze. My heart pounded so loudly I was sure she could hear it. I tried to scream and stop her but it was too late. Just like that... she was gone.
A scream rose in my mind, sharp and jagged. My knees gave out. I collapsed onto the floor, staring at the empty space where she had been. My mind screamed questions: What did she say? Why? How could this happen?
The classroom lights flickered. The hands of the clock on the wall began to spin backward, slowly at first, then faster. The world around me blurred. Colors bled into one another, screams stretched and mixed into something that resembled a very unpleasant noise, like nails on a chalkboard.
And then—black.
In what seemed like an instant, I woke up again.
But not in the classroom. Not anywhere. Just darkness. And the words, still echoing:
"Everything will come to an end—but you shall prevent that end."
I felt it again. The strange, impossible weightlessness. The silence that wasn't quite silence. And that same voice, cutting through the void. But this time, something had changed. I wasn't just a passive observer. The words weren't a warning—they were instructions. A task. A responsibility. Trying to distract my thoughts for a moment, a part of me wondered how unlucky I was to land this kind of special event as a high schooler.
And so I started dreading again. But somewhere deep in my chest, the dread created a spark and grew into a fire. The world I thought I knew—the life I thought was normal—wasn't safe. Not for Kian. Not for Aira. Not for Lumi. And most especially not for me.
I tried to move, but it was useless. I was suspended, neither here nor there. The air—or whatever passed for air—felt thick with anticipation. And I realized, with a cold clarity that made my stomach drop, that whatever had begun... it wasn't finished.
I didn't understand how or why. I didn't understand what the end would be, or how I was supposed to stop it. All I knew was that the world was fragile, that time and life were not as simple as I had believed. And that dream—no, that memory, that warning—was just the beginning.
Unexpectedly, out of nowhere, some words flashed into my mind... or rather, displayed itself in front of me within the seemingly endless nothingness. I couldn't really tell the difference at this point.
"Prevent the end."
Now the sentence felt less like a prophecy and more like a dare.