The blood-drenched feather still hovered mid-air, glowing faintly as if pulsing with a heartbeat. Arjun stared at it, unmoving, as if any sudden motion would cause reality to collapse again.
A feather of metal. A second moon. A robotic voice...
He grabbed the feather using a piece of cloth and dropped it into a metal box, locking it immediately. The glow faded slightly, but the eerie heat radiating from it remained.
His phone buzzed again. This time, it displayed a map—one he'd never seen before.
A spiral-shaped map, layered like a nautilus shell, with seven blinking red dots scattered across the rings. One dot, labeled "Thread Two", flickered before vanishing. The voice echoed:
[Thread Two terminated. Temporal Echo destabilized. Current Subject: Kaladarshi - Level: Observer.]
Kaladarshi again... Who or what am I really?
---
Outside, thunder rolled in the sky despite no clouds. Arjun stepped to his window and looked up.
The second moon flickered into view once more—this time longer. Its surface looked fractured, like a broken mirror. It hung beside Earth's original moon for a few seconds before disappearing again.
"That wasn't a glitch," Arjun whispered. "That was a warning."
---
The Dream Within Time
That night, Arjun had a vivid dream.
He stood in a hallway of broken clocks. Hundreds of grandfather clocks, wristwatches, even sundials lined the cracked marble floor. All ticking differently. Some even ticking backwards.
At the end of the hallway was a giant pendulum swinging violently, and chained beneath it—was a boy about Arjun's age.
The boy had silver hair, and both of his eyes were replaced with clock faces, the hands spinning out of control.
"Time is hunting you, Kaladarshi," the boy rasped.
"You are the one who can decide which future wins... but not without loss."
Before Arjun could speak, the pendulum slammed into him—and he woke up gasping.
---
Reality Splinter
At school, things got weirder.
In class, no one remembered yesterday's events. His best friend, Rohit, didn't remember talking to him at all.
"When did we even go to the library, bro? You okay?"
Arjun couldn't focus.
Then, during lunch, the world froze.
Everyone in the cafeteria stopped mid-motion. Trays hanging in mid-air, conversations frozen mid-word. A soft tick-tick-tick filled the air.
And from behind the vending machine, a girl appeared.
She wore a black hoodie, silver-rimmed glasses, and a chain with the same symbol as Arjun's pendant.
"You're not supposed to be at Level One yet," she muttered.
"But the timeline's bleeding fast."
"Who are you?"
She pulled back her hood slightly. Her eyes were glowing with soft violet light.
"I'm Rael. Time Jumper. You're in danger, Kaladarshi."
---
Before Arjun could ask more, Rael's body began to flicker, her outline glitching in and out like a corrupted hologram.
Then she whispered:
"They're watching this timeline too. Even I'm not supposed to be here."
She handed Arjun a folded paper. Then her body burst into fragments of gears and glass, vanishing completely.
Arjun opened the paper.
It was a photograph of him—older, bearded, and standing in front of a burning version of his school… holding the metal feather.
And behind him, in the flames—
was the second moon. Fully visible. Fully cracked.