The classroom buzzed softly with the sound of chalk on the board and quiet whispers between friends. But for him, the world felt distant — as it always did.
He sat alone, third row from the back, his desk slightly angled. Not enough to be noticed, but just enough for him to see her.
She sat one column apart, two desks forward. Perfect distance. Safe distance.
He liked her. No — he loved her. He just never said it. Never would. She barely looked at him, and when she did, her eyes shifted away almost immediately, like he was just another speck in the corner of the room.
And maybe that's what he was.
He glanced at her for half a second. She was looking out the window again, the sunlight making her hair glow faintly. He turned away, hiding the flush creeping up his neck.
She probably thinks I'm weird... I just don't want to make her uncomfortable.
Instead, he stared down at the notebook in front of him, pretending to write something a habit at this point. His real thoughts were filled with distant galaxies, fantasy worlds, magic swords, and people who weren't invisible like him.
THEN he felt it.
A chill, like the air had thinned around him. Something prickled at the edge of his vision. Slowly, he looked toward the door.
A shadow stood there. Vague. Humanoid. Still. But the moment he looked directly at it , it was gone.
He blinked.
Had he imagined it?
He looked around. No one else seemed to have noticed. The teacher kept talking. His classmates were still half-asleep or doodling in their books.
His curiosity pulled him to his feet.
He walked quietly toward the door. Just as he reached it, two boys walked by in the hallway.
"Did you feel that?" one whispered. "Like… something rushed past us?"
"Yeah," the other replied, rubbing his arms. "Like wind, but inside."
Before he could say anything, something shifted behind him.
He turned.
The shadow was back.
Closer this time.
Right behind him.
Before he could scream, the floor beneath him glowed and opened. A circle of swirling light expanded under his feet, pulling him down in complete silence.
He fell.
The hallway vanished. The sky swallowed him.
Wind screamed past his ears as clouds tore across his vision. He was high — too high. Maybe 15,000 meters up, maybe more. Beneath him, a massive blue-and-green planet stretched across the horizon. Not Earth. But close.
And the shadow figure was falling beside him.
What the hell is happening?! he thought, arms flailing wildly. I'll die from this height
But he wasn't giving up. He narrowed his body, angled himself forward, gliding through the air as best he could. Every inch brought him closer to the creature.
It turned its head ,or what looked like a head and reached for him.
Their hands touched.
Suddenly, everything went still.
No sky. No planet. No wind. Just a quiet, empty space filled with glowing dust and stars that seemed to pulse like living things.
And then he heard it , a voice, deep and vast, inside his mind.
"You are watching my memories."
He spun around. The shadow was gone.
In its place stood a gray figure, neither human nor beast. Ageless. Immense. Unmoving.
"I am what you humans call a god."
"…What's your name?" he asked, almost instinctively.
"I have no name," the god said. "I am the only one in this universe. I have no need for such things."
The boy gasped not from fear, but awe. In the next second, he saw everything.
The Big Bang. Stars forming. Galaxies colliding. Planets rising and dying. Earth being born. Dinosaurs. Empires. Humanity.
All of it in a single, unbearable second.
He collapsed to his knees.
When he looked up, he realized: this wasn't Earth. It was that planet the Earth-like one he saw during the fall.
"This is your final day," the god said. "Earth bores me. I will destroy it, and create new life."
"No!" the boy shouted. "You can't! Please don't—!"
"It is mine. I made it. I will unmake it. But…"
The god tilted its head.
"You… might amuse me."
"I will give you five minutes. Choose two people, including yourself, to be spared from extinction. The rest will vanish."
Before he could protest, the god raised a hand.
He was back in his classroom ,the sun was still shining. The girl was still at her desk.
No one noticed he had been gone.
But the clock ticked.
And the five minutes… had already begun.