Location: Rudra's Mansion, Mumbai
Date & Time: December 31, 2024 | 11:55 PM
The streets of Mumbai were as alive as ever, pulsing with the chaotic energy of New Year's Eve. Outside, the air was thick with the heavy bass of music, the blaring horns of impatient cars, and the loud, echoing laughter of people. Everyone was desperate to bid farewell to 2024 and dive into the celebrations of the new year.
But inside this grand, luxurious mansion, there was a silence so profound it pierced the ears. It was a suffocating, dead silence that had seeped deep into the very walls of the house over the past month.
Standing by the window of his pitch-dark bedroom, eighteen-year-old Rudra simply stared at the empty, illuminated street below. His 5'11" frame and lean body were swallowed by an oversized dark hoodie, a makeshift shield he used to hide from the rest of the world. His shoulders were heavily slouched, and his fingers continuously twisted and untwisted the drawstrings of his hoodie—a desperate, failing attempt to control the storm of anxiety raging within him.
While the world outside celebrated, his internal clock had stopped exactly one month ago, on that dark night of the car accident. In a single heartbeat, his parents were gone, leaving him entirely alone in this massive house. The immense wealth his father had built and this magnificent mansion now felt like a prison. There was plenty of money, but no one left in this world to call his own, no one to care if he even existed. The endless, sleepless nights had painted deep, dark circles under his eyes, and his gaze held nothing but an absolute, hollow emptiness.
The blaring horns and distant beats of drums suddenly grew louder, more urgent. Down on the streets, the crowds had begun the final countdown together. Their voices pierced through the thick glass of his window, echoing into his dark room.
"Five... Four... Three... Two... One..."
Exactly at midnight, the sky was supposed to erupt with the brilliant light of fireworks. The air was supposed to ring with joyous screams.
But nothing of the sort happened.
Suddenly, without a single sound or warning, the entire sky shifted into a bizarre, deep shade of blue and vibrant purple. This was no firework. It looked as if someone had completely glitched the canvas of reality itself. The light was so eerily beautiful that the towering glass buildings, the quiet roads, and the bewildered faces of the people below began to glow in the same unnatural hue.
The chaotic noise outside instantly dissolved into a dead, chilling silence. The music stopped. The wheels of the cars froze right where they were. People stood frozen on the streets, utterly shocked, pulling out their phones to record the unnatural sky. No one could understand what was happening.
Rudra looked out of his window. The unnatural blue light reflected in his lifeless eyes. His exhausted brain struggled to process the bizarre sight. Pushing past his loneliness and mental fog, a strange, unexplainable pull forced him to step out. He slowly walked out of his dark bedroom, crossed the massive, empty living room, pushed open the main gate, and stepped onto the cold street.
A chilling breeze brushed past him. The neighbors and the pedestrians were all standing paralyzed, staring up at the sky. But Rudra's eyes were not on the sky. His gaze was locked on a strange, glowing object lying on the ground, just a few steps away from his gate. It was a small stone, radiating a faint, mesmerizing blue light. In the midst of the crowd, no one else had noticed it; everyone was too busy looking up.
His feet moved toward the stone entirely on their own. He bent down, staring intensely at the glowing object. It felt completely alien, like something that did not belong to this world. Slowly pulling back the sleeve of his hoodie, he reached out his trembling hand toward it.
The moment his fingertips brushed against the cold, glowing surface of the stone...
The object instantly melted into a dark, metallic fluid. Rudra jerked back in shock, but the fluid clung to his palm. Right before his eyes, it absorbed straight into his skin. In a single second, it was gone. As if it had never been there at all. Only the cold wind remained against his palm—no mark, no scar, no pain.
He stumbled backward, barely catching himself before hitting the ground. His breathing turned heavy and erratic. He stared at his hand, then at the empty patch of pavement where the stone had been just a second ago. His mind went completely numb.
"No... no..." he whispered to himself, his hands gripping his messy hair tightly. "I am losing my mind. I am going crazy."
The trauma of the past month, the endless sleepless nights, and the crushing isolation—he was now entirely convinced that his mental state had finally collapsed. These were hallucinations. He truly believed his broken mind was playing cruel tricks on him.
Exactly five minutes later, the sky snapped back to its normal, dark, starry state.
And with that, a terrifying roar of panic erupted across the globe. People began screaming on the streets; pure chaos took over. The wailing sirens of police cars and ambulances echoed in the distance.
But Rudra remained exactly where he was. The newfound chaos and fear of the world had absolutely no effect on him. Much larger than this strange, global anomaly was the massive, gnawing void inside his own chest. Tears welled up in his eyes and began to stream down his cold cheeks. Slowly, he dropped to his knees right there on the freezing street.
The world was changing; a new era had just begun. But for this eighteen-year-old boy, none of it mattered right now. He just sat there alone, crying bitterly, his heartbroken sobs completely drowned out by the terrified screams of the crowd. He wept, remembering his mother, remembering his father, entirely lost in his own broken world.
Chapter Summary
Location & Time: Mumbai | December 31, 2024, 11:55 PM to 12:05 AM.
Event ("The Glitch"): The global sky inexplicably turned glowing blue and purple exactly at midnight, lasting for five minutes before returning to normal, causing worldwide panic.
Character Action: Rudra, struggling with severe trauma and insomnia, steps outside and finds a mysterious glowing blue stone.
The Awakening: Upon touching the stone, it transforms into a dark metallic fluid and absorbs directly into Rudra's hand, leaving no trace or pain.
Current Mental State: Completely in denial. Rudra believes the glowing sky and the disappearing stone are hallucinations caused by his grief and lack of sleep. He breaks down crying on the street for his deceased parents, entirely ignoring the global chaos around him.