The morning smelled like burnt toast and regret. Tayven sat hunched over a chipped kitchen table, poking a fork at something his mother called breakfast. It resembled roadkill more than eggs.
His father, buried in a newspaper, muttered curses about taxes and "Lazy freaks who pretend to be students." The TV blared in the background—another scandal, another disaster—but it was just noise.
"Maybe if you didn't spend staring at the wall, you'd pass a test for once." His mom snapped.
Tayven didn't respond. He just sipped cold coffee, eyes fixed on the flickering screen. For a second, he thought he saw a symbol flash—a spiral of jagged lines—but it disappeared before he could blink.
---
College was its usual mess of hallways, bodies, and judgmental stares. Tayven moved through it like static—felt but ignored. He passed Selene Veyra by accident again near the literature wing. Their eyes met for a second. She nodded politely. He nodded back.
Say something. Anything.
"Hey"
She looked.
"You… still got that static thing going."
She raised a brow. "You mean my hair?"
"No—I mean yes—but also, you kinda… sparked a lightbulb in my head once. Or something. Forget it."
She gave a quiet chuckle. "Well, try not to electrocute yourself."
Electric Girl.
He didn't say it aloud this time.
---
Later, in class, Tayven sat at the back. The professor droned about philosophical determinism while he tried to draw spirals in the margin of his notebook. He didn't know why he kept seeing that shape. It was like it was clawing at the edge of his vision.
Suddenly, the lights above buzzed violently—one blinked three times, then flickered out.
No one else reacted.
Tayven stared.
The replacement light blinked again. Three short pulses. Pause. Two long ones.
Is that… Morse code?
He scribbled it down and decoded it on his phone.
S T A Y A W A K E
He dropped the pen.
---
Back home, things went from weird to worse. The living room was a warzone of arguments, cheap furniture, and a half-dead fern his dad refused to water.
The TV shouted breaking news.
"Global science communities shaken by discovery in Sector-9. Ancient artifact found beneath the coastal ruins of the Iron Span. Energy signatures detected—unstable and unlike anything on Earth. Containment breach has led to civilian evacuations."
A scientist on the screen looked ghost-pale. "We weren't ready for what we found."
Another video showed a blurred figure levitating before violently combusting into light.
Tayven's dad snorted. "Actors. All of 'em. This country's going soft."
His mom: "It's probably your generation messing with AI or something again."
Tayven stared. He knew better. This wasn't fake. This was familiar.
---
He lay in bed that night, eyes to the ceiling. He didn't sleep anymore. He just paused reality for hours at a time.
Veydrin hadn't spoken in days. Not since the last vision.
"Still sulking?" Tayven muttered aloud.
No reply.
He turned to his side—and froze.
His mirror was cracked again.
But this time, it folded inward.
Not shattered. Folded. Like a paper reality being bent.
He reached out. The air shimmered.
A faint voice came—not Veydrin, not a whisper. Just a tone. A frequency.
Like a machine breathing.
The lights blinked again. Morse code.
"T H E D O O R I S N O T C L O S E D"
---
The next morning, at college, Tayven stood by a vending machine. He eyed the Red Bull cans with caution.
There was a note taped to the glass: "Warning: Consuming more than one may result in time dilation."
He laughed. Out loud.
Selene walked by again. She paused.
"Laughing at sugar water?"
"I think it's a time machine. Might go back and punch myself for choosing biology."
She half-smiled, walked off.
Then froze halfway down the hall, turned slightly, and stared behind her—at something behind Tayven.
He turned.
No one was there.
---
That night, the news returned. Sector-9 was now sealed by military forces. The artifact had moved—by itself.
Some blamed ancient technology. Others said it was a multiversal rupture. A "collision of worlds."
But most just called it what it was:
"A problem we were never meant to solve."
---
To be continued.....