And in both versions—something begins reaching down.
It doesn't fall.
It doesn't rush.
It selects.
A long, pale shape slides through the torn ceiling, bending reality around it like it doesn't belong to gravity. Not a limb. Not a creature.
A finger.
Pointing.
At me.
"Run," Karan says immediately.
"Where?" Meera snaps.
He doesn't answer.
Because there's nowhere left to go.
The finger lowers slowly.
The air distorts around it, stretching, pulling, like the world is being peeled open layer by layer.
My head pulses.
Not pain.
Recognition.
The other Arjun tightens his grip on my wrist.
"This is wrong," he mutters. "This isn't supposed to happen this early."
"Nothing about this is supposed to happen!" I snap.
But I don't pull away.
Because I feel it too.
Something locking onto me.
Not us.
Me.
The system flickers once.
No message.
Just interference.
The finger twitches.
And suddenly—
my body moves.
Not my decision.
Not Panic Dash.
Not Echo Step.
I step forward.
"Arjun!" Meera shouts, yanking me back.
The movement snaps.
My body jerks like a puppet whose string got cut mid-pull.
I stumble.
Almost fall.
"What was that?" Karan demands.
I shake my head fast. "Not me."
The other Arjun looks up at the finger.
Then at me.
Then something clicks in his expression.
"You're marked," he says.
I laugh once.
Sharp.
Unsteady.
"Great. Love that for me."
The finger bends.
Not toward the ground.
Toward me again.
Closer now.
Closer than before.
The pressure builds.
My vision blurs.
And for a split second—
I see something else.
Not the classroom.
Not Meera.
Not Karan.
A hallway.
Empty.
Dark.
With one person standing at the end.
Me.
Then it's gone.
I stagger back.
"What was that?" I whisper.
The other Arjun's grip tightens.
"That's it," he says.
"That's what?"
He looks straight into my eyes.
"The original."
Something in my chest drops.
Heavy.
Immediate.
Meera looks between us. "Original what?"
I don't answer her.
Because I already know.
Or at least—
I feel it.
"The first one," I say slowly. "The one before all this."
The other Arjun nods.
"That's where the line broke."
The finger twitches again.
Closer.
Closer.
Karan steps in front of me now.
"Okay, new plan," he says. "We break whatever that thing is before it breaks us."
"You can't break it," the other Arjun says flatly.
Karan doesn't look at him. "Watch me try."
He runs forward.
Metal rod raised.
Full swing.
The rod connects.
Nothing.
No impact.
No resistance.
The rod passes through the finger like it's not even there.
But something does react.
Karan screams.
He drops the rod instantly, clutching his arm.
"What—what the hell—"
His skin ripples.
Not outside.
Inside.
Like something just traced along his bones.
Meera pulls him back.
"Don't touch it!" she shouts.
"No kidding!" he snaps, shaking his arm.
The finger retracts slightly.
Not hurt.
Just… adjusting.
And then it moves faster.
Straight toward me.
I don't think.
I react.
I grab the other Arjun's arm—
and pull him with me.
We dive sideways.
The finger slams into the ground where I stood.
No explosion.
No sound.
Just absence.
The floor vanishes.
A perfect circle erased like it was never there.
No debris.
No fragments.
Just… gone.
We hit the ground hard.
Roll.
Separate.
"Okay," I gasp. "Okay, that's new."
Meera drags Karan further back.
"We can't fight that," she says.
"No argument here," Karan groans.
The other Arjun pushes himself up.
Breathing harder now.
Less stable.
"You saw it," he says to me.
"The hallway."
I nod.
"Yeah."
The finger lifts again.
Slower now.
Like it's recalculating.
"That's your goal," he says.
I blink. "What?"
"The hallway. The original. That's the only way this stops."
Meera shakes her head. "Stops what?"
He looks at her.
Then back at me.
"You disappearing."
Silence.
I swallow.
"…I'm not disappearing."
He doesn't respond.
That's worse.
The finger twitches again.
And this time—
it splits.
Not into two.
Into many.
Thin lines peeling off it like threads.
Each one reaching.
Searching.
Karan swears loudly. "That's definitely worse!"
The threads shoot outward.
Fast.
We scatter.
One grazes my shoulder.
Cold.
Instant.
My head pulses again.
Harder this time.
Something disappears.
I gasp.
"What—what did I lose—"
No answer.
Only emptiness where something used to be.
The other Arjun grabs my collar.
"Listen," he says urgently. "You don't have time anymore."
"I never had time!" I snap.
"Then stop wasting it!"
The threads slam into walls.
Through desks.
Through air.
Each touch erasing something small.
Pieces of the room flicker out of existence.
Meera ducks behind a broken desk.
Karan pulls her lower.
"Arjun, move!" she shouts.
I don't.
I look at the other Arjun.
"What happens if I find him?"
He doesn't hesitate.
"You become real."
That hits harder than anything else.
"And if I don't?"
He holds my gaze.
"You get overwritten."
A thread shoots toward us.
We split.
Opposite directions.
I hit the ground.
Roll.
Come up near the broken wall.
The outside—
is wrong.
Still gray.
Still shifting.
But now—
I see structures moving in the distance.
Massive.
Alive.
The world isn't ending.
It's changing.
Another thread slams into the ground near me.
I jump back.
Heart racing.
I don't have time.
He's right.
I don't.
I look back at Meera.
At Karan.
At the other Arjun.
"I'm going," I say.
Meera freezes. "What?"
"To the hallway," I say. "To the first one."
Karan stares at me like I've lost it. "You want to chase a memory while that thing is deleting reality?"
"Yes."
The other Arjun nods once.
"Good."
Meera steps toward me. "No. No, you don't get to just decide that alone."
"I don't have a choice," I say.
"You always have a choice!"
A thread slices through the space between us.
We both flinch back.
"Not anymore," I say quietly.
The pressure increases again.
The finger—no, the thing above—is lowering further.
Faster now.
Impatient.
Karan grabs Meera's arm.
"We move or we die," he says.
She doesn't look at him.
She looks at me.
"Then we go together," she says.
I hesitate.
Just for a second.
The other Arjun steps closer.
"No," he says.
We both look at him.
"If she follows you, she becomes part of the loop," he says.
Meera frowns. "I already am."
He shakes his head.
"Not like him."
Another thread grazes my arm.
Cold.
Sharp.
My head pulses again.
I stumble.
"What did I just lose—"
The other Arjun looks at me.
And for the first time—
he looks afraid.
"You don't remember why you trust her anymore," he says.
I freeze.
Meera's grip on my sleeve tightens.
"Arjun… don't listen to him."
I look at her.
And something feels… off.
Not wrong.
Just incomplete.
Like a sentence missing a word.
Another thread shoots toward us.
I react.
Grab her.
Pull her down.
We hit the ground.
Close.
Too close.
Her eyes lock onto mine.
"Arjun, listen to me," she says quickly. "Whatever you lost—it doesn't matter. We survive first."
I stare at her.
Trying to find the reason I believed that before.
I can't.
And that scares me more than the thing above.
The other Arjun steps back.
His body flickering slightly.
"Go," he says. "Before you forget the goal too."
The goal.
It hits me.
Clear.
Sharp.
Find the original Arjun.
Understand what happened to the first iteration.
Before I'm gone.
Another thread slams down between us.
I stand.
"Arjun!" Meera shouts.
I don't answer.
Because I don't know what to say anymore.
I turn—
toward the place where I saw the hallway.
And step forward.
The world shifts.
Not movement.
Transition.
Like I just chose a different version of reality.
Behind me—
I hear Meera scream my name.
Ahead—
the hallway begins to form again.
Dark.
Empty.
Waiting.
And as I take another step—
the last thing I hear—
is the other Arjun's voice breaking apart behind me.
"Don't let him reach the end before you—"
Then silence.
I don't look back.
Because I feel it.
Something else is already walking toward me from the other side of the hallway.
Not the original.
Something faster.
And it's already smiling.
Wait… if that's not the first Arjun—
then who's coming toward me?