Chapter 3: "The First Break in Time"
Night had fallen over Chattogram. Outside, the faint sound of traffic mixed with distant lights and a slowly settling city.
Nahian sat inside his room, staring out of the window for a long time.
His phone lay on the table.
The screen was off, but his eyes kept returning to it again and again.
Two messages.
Two strange incidents.
And the same man—appearing in different places, yet denied by reality itself.
---
Suddenly…
The room light flickered for a split second.
The fan stopped making sound.
Nahian blinked.
Everything seemed normal again.
But something had changed.
His phone had moved slightly on the table.
And the screen was ON.
Even though he hadn't touched it.
---
A New Message
A new message appeared.
"You are not alone."
Nahian instantly stood up.
"Who is this…?" he whispered.
He looked around the room.
Door locked. Windows closed. Everything normal.
Yet it felt like someone was standing right behind him.
---
The Break in Time
Suddenly, the air inside the room became heavy.
The ticking clock shifted—fast… then slow… then fast again.
Nahian held his head.
"No… what is happening…"
The walls in front of him seemed to vibrate slightly, like reality itself was unstable.
For a moment—
Everything stopped.
No sound. No movement. No breath.
Just emptiness.
---
The Presence
In the middle of that void, the man appeared again.
Much closer this time.
Right in front of him.
And now, he spoke.
"You broke the rules of time… without realizing it."
Nahian's voice trembled.
"Who are you?"
The man looked calm.
"I am not watching you… I am a part of your time."
Nahian frowned.
"What does that mean?"
The man replied slowly,
"You have started seeing what others will never see."
---
Reality Returns
Suddenly—
Everything snapped back.
The ticking clock, the fan, the outside noise.
The man was gone.
But something remained on the table.
A small piece of paper.
Nahian picked it up.
His hands were shaking.
Written on it:
"Tomorrow, don't go to school."
He stared at it for a long moment.
Fear was still there.
But something else was growing too—
A decision he couldn't explain.
---
Chapter 4: "The Day That Shouldn't Happen"
Nahian didn't sleep that night.
The paper stayed on his desk, right under the lamp, as if it refused to be ignored.
"Tomorrow, don't go to school."
Those words kept repeating in his mind.
Who wrote it?
And more importantly… how did it appear inside a locked room?
---
Morning Comes… Differently
The next morning felt wrong from the start.
Not strange in an obvious way—just slightly off.
The sunlight through the window looked the same, but somehow less natural.
The sound of birds outside felt delayed, like it was arriving late to his ears.
Nahian sat up slowly.
He checked his phone.
No new messages.
That was even more disturbing.
---
The Decision
He stood in front of his school uniform for a long time.
His mother called from outside,
"Nahian! You'll be late!"
For a moment, he almost responded normally.
Almost.
But then he remembered the paper.
Don't go to school.
His heart tightened.
Against every normal instinct, he said,
"Ma… I'm not feeling well today."
Silence.
Then his mother replied,
"Okay. Rest a bit."
Too easy.
Too normal.
---
The Empty City Feeling
After his mother left for work, Nahian went to the window.
The street looked exactly the same.
Students walking to school. Rickshaws moving. Life continuing.
But something felt different.
He noticed something strange—
Every few seconds, certain people seemed to "repeat" their movements for a split moment, like reality was replaying a frame.
He blinked hard.
It was getting worse.
---
The Glitch
Nahian stepped outside anyway.
He didn't know why.
As soon as he reached the road—
Everything stopped.
Not slowly.
Instantly.
A flying piece of paper froze mid-air.
A rickshaw wheel stopped turning.
Even the wind disappeared.
Nahian's breathing became loud in his ears.
"This again…" he whispered.
---
The Man Returns
And then he saw him.
Standing in the middle of the frozen street.
The same man.
But this time, he wasn't looking at Nahian.
He was looking through him.
"You didn't go," the man said calmly.
Nahian swallowed hard.
"I… I was told not to."
The man finally focused on him.
"That message was not advice," he said.
"It was protection."
Nahian frowned.
"Protection from what?"
The man raised his hand slowly.
And pointed behind Nahian.
Nahian turned his head.
Nothing was there.
At first.
Then he saw it.
A thin crack in the air.
Like glass splitting reality itself.
And something was on the other side.
Watching.
---
Warning
The man's voice became serious.
"If you go to school today… you will not return in the same timeline."
Nahian's body froze.
"Timeline…?" he whispered.
The crack in the air widened slightly.
The man stepped closer.
"You are not supposed to be noticed yet."
The world around them trembled again.
Then—
Everything snapped back.
The street was normal.
People were moving again.
The man was gone.
But Nahian still stood there.
And for the first time—
He understood something terrifying:
This wasn't about messages anymore.
It was about surviva