There is a moment in every life when something shifts.
For seventeen-year-old Rayan Sen, that moment came at exactly 3:33 PM.
It was an ordinary school day in the crowded city of Veritas. The air smelled of dust and petrol. Students poured out of the school gates like restless birds finally freed.
Rayan adjusted his backpack and checked his phone.
3:32 PM.
He looked up at the traffic signal blinking red.
Then something strange happened.
The wind stopped.
The sound of engines faded.
A bird froze mid-air.
Rayan blinked.
The digital clock on a nearby shop flickered.
3:33 PM.
And then—
Everything stopped.
Cars froze in motion.
People froze mid-step.
A man shouting on the phone stood with his mouth open, soundless.
The entire world had paused.
Except him.
Rayan's heart began pounding violently
"This… this isn't real…"
He walked slowly across the street.
Touched a frozen raindrop hanging in the air.
It felt solid.
Cold.
Suddenly—
A whisper echoed behind him.
"You can see it too."
Rayan turned sharply.
A girl stood there.
She was not frozen.
Her dark hair moved slightly, though there was no wind.
Her eyes were calm.
Almost too calm.
"Who are you?" Rayan whispered.
She tilted her head.
"The question is not who I am."
She stepped closer.
"It's why you're awake."
And just like that—
The world snapped back into motion.
Horns blared.
People moved.
The bird flew away.
And the girl?
Gone.
As if she had never existed.
But Rayan knew one thing.
Reality had cracked.
And he was standing inside the fracture.