7:17 AM – Vishwakarma High School Library
The library was made for silence—books standing like soldiers, dust drifting in golden light. But tension hung in the air, like the pause before a scream.
Ira sat beneath the furthest window, tracing the edge of a book with no title. Inside, she had drawn:
A wheel with broken spokes.
A window in air.
A timer wrapped around a spine.
A face with no eyes.
Her own timer, always reading 00:60—never 01:00. An impossible number. A lie.
And Ira remembered something no one else did.
A boy. Crooked smile. Dirt under nails.
Gone.
His name—stolen. But the absence of him remained.
10:03 AM – Chemistry Corridor
Neha sprinted, choking on a scream. Priya knelt by a girl who had just collapsed—still warm, timer at 00:00. But her name was already fading.
"She was in our class!" Aman cried. "What was her name?!"
Gone.
Just dust.
Rahul threw up.
10:05 AM – On the Roof
"Why is this happening?" Priya whispered.
No one knew.
"Ira," Neha said.
"Who?" Aman asked.
"The quiet girl. Always drawing in the back."
"I see her before something bad happens," Riya added.
Neha nodded. "I think she knows something."
11:00 AM – Library, Restricted Section
The group found Ira waiting, unmoving, symbols scattered across a poetry book.
"You remember," Neha said.
Ira raised her head. Voice calm, haunting:
"I remember before the clocks started."
"What do you mean?" Riya asked.
"You weren't supposed to remember him. But you do."
"Who the hell is him?" Aman asked.
Ira didn't answer. She turned the book. One word beneath a symbol:
ALIVE
"It's not a countdown. It's a filter," she said. "If you drift too far from your core, the world erases you."
Rahul shook. "But why?"
Ira lifted her wrist. 00:60
"This isn't time. It's a fracture. A glitch. Someone rewrote the rules."
"Who?" Riya asked.
Ira closed the book. "The Architects."
11:29 AM – Courtyard
Across school, timers flared red. Students collapsed. One girl screamed, timer stuck at 00:03. Then flickered out of existence.
The rule had changed. Truth was no longer enough.
Above the school, something shimmered—circular, metallic, watching.
11:31 AM – Library Window
Ira looked up. "It's beginning."
"What is?" Neha asked.
"The recalibration. Time will reset. This timer—this world—it'll all change."
"Why us?" Priya cried.
"Because children remember dreams longer," Ira whispered. "And lies cut deeper in them."
Elsewhere – Unseen
A figure walked among shifting screens—students captured in fear, laughter, guilt.
They paused on Ira's image.
"You weren't meant to survive the first reset," they murmured.
They tapped the screen. Ira's symbol ☉ appeared.
And for the first time, her timer ticked.
00:60 → 00:59
To Be Continued…....