---
The Classroom
The classroom felt… wrong.
Vaibhav sat as he always did, head resting lightly against his palm. From the outside, nothing had changed — same chalk-dusted air, same murmurs, same lines of wooden benches.
But inside him —
Something pressed.
Not pain.
Presence.
As if another consciousness had leaned against his own — not entering, not leaving — only watching.
His chest tightened.
The black stone inside him did not burn.
It pulsed.
Slow.
Heavy.
Deliberate.
Reality blinked.
For less than a heartbeat, Vaibhav was no longer in the classroom.
Shadows poured over light. Smoke-shaped hands reached from nowhere. Eyes stared without blinking.
A pressure brushed through his mind.
Not a voice.
Not a sound.
A weight.
His fingers curled.
"Stop…" he whispered.
No one heard.
Then came the mist.
Not in the air —
In his thoughts.
He tried to remember the break period.
The trio standing together.
Their voices.
Their faces.
The words they had spoken.
But memory slipped.
Not erased.
Smeared.
Like wet ink dragged across paper.
He remembered Shlokh's voice.
But not what it said.
He remembered Shourya's laugh.
But not the joke.
He remembered fear.
But not its cause.
And that terrified him more than the pressure ever could.
Something had happened.
Something important.
He could feel it in his bones —
but could not reach it.
The stone throbbed again.
The board warped.
The room tilted.
Vaibhav leaned forward…
…and collapsed.
His forehead met the desk with a dull sound.
---
Shlokh
Shlokh felt it instantly.
A knot twisted in his chest.
The golden stone in his throat glowed faintly.
He was already on his feet.
"Vaibhav…?"
No answer.
He placed his hand on Vaibhav's shoulder.
The moment he touched him —
A shock tore through his body.
His throat seized.
His breath stuttered.
And his voice…
vanished.
Not cracked.
Not weakened.
Gone.
He tried to speak.
Nothing.
Not air.
Not sound.
Not even a whisper.
It felt as though a silent chain had been wrapped tight around his vocal cords.
The golden stone pulsed hard.
The classroom darkened.
And Shlokh knew —
not with thought,
but with certainty —
something stood behind reality.
Unseen.
Untouchable.
Watching.
He tried to shout.
Nothing.
He tried to call a teacher.
Nothing.
His hand shook.
And worse —
when he tried to understand what was happening —
his thoughts dissolved.
Like chalk in rain.
He knew they were being touched.
But his mind refused to shape the threat.
Refused to give it a face.
---
Shourya
In another classroom —
Shourya was laughing.
Someone had cracked a stupid joke.
He leaned back, smirking —
…and then his left eye burned.
Sharp.
Sudden.
Blinding.
The world tore sideways.
Red.
Green.
Black.
And in that heartbeat —
school ceased to exist.
He stood nowhere.
No ground.
No walls.
No sky.
Ahead of him —
two lights glowed.
Not eyes.
Not stars.
Something else.
Watching.
Not looking.
Watching.
He felt smaller.
Not physically.
Existentially.
Like something ancient had briefly noticed him —
and found him negligible.
His chest tightened.
His eye burned fiercely.
He saw—
something unbearable.
And the moment he tried to understand it —
it shattered.
Blank.
His memory broke mid-formation.
Only fear survived.
Raw.
Sharp.
Meaningless.
Shourya gasped aloud in class.
"Shourya! Drama phir se?"
He didn't answer.
His fingers touched his eye.
Sweat ran down his spine.
"What the hell…" he breathed.
---
Silence
Vaibhav lay unconscious.
Shlokh stood beside him, mute.
Shourya shook at another end of the school.
Three stones.
Three minds.
One presence.
Unspoken.
Unformed.
And around them —
something moved.
Not mist.
Not illusion.
Fracture.
Confusion.
A silence that hid truth.
---
Voice of Creation
Low.
Heavy.
Barely there.
> "Some truths arrive before understanding."
> "Some beings touch you… without leaving fingerprints."
> "Some memories are taken — not lost."
> "Because knowledge is dangerous."
A pause.
> "The Mist is no accident."
> "It is protection."
> "And a warning."
> "For now."
---
The bell rang.
Chairs screeched.
Reality returned.
But something had shifted —
quietly.
Permanently.
And none of them could say what.
---
END — CHAPTER 5