"Veer! Veer Verma!"
In his dazed mind, Veer faintly heard someone calling him.
He blinked slowly, his head rising as he looked around.
He was in the classroom.
At the front, their class teacher, Mrs. Iyer, was speaking gently, "Veer, are you feeling okay? You've been looking exhausted these past two days. Would you like to go home and rest for the afternoon?"
Veer snapped back to full awareness and gave a sheepish smile. "I'm alright, ma'am. Just a little distracted. No need to worry."
"The Board exams are still three months away. With your grades, there's no need to push yourself so hard. Focus on consistent revision."
"Yes, ma'am," Veer nodded obediently.
He picked up his Physics Companion by HC Verma, pretending to study, but his mind was elsewhere.
> "What's going on with me?"
These past two days, he had been feeling unusually sluggish, nodding off in class without even realizing it.
Thanks to his academic reputation—top of the batch at Mumbai Central Public School—his teachers treated his behavior with concern instead of criticism.
He'd assumed he was just tired, and even adjusted his routine to sleep earlier, eat better, and cut screen time.
But even today, the drowsiness clung to him like fog.
Something wasn't right.
> "Could it be that night?"
As the thought crossed his mind, his eyes sharpened. He remembered something—two nights ago.
It had been after the evening coaching session at VidyaJyoti Tutorials. He'd been walking home along the Marine Drive stretch when suddenly, a sharp, stabbing pain shot through his head—like a hot needle behind his eyes.
His vision had gone blank.
He'd thought someone had attacked him, but when he regained consciousness moments later, there was no one around. No wound. No signs of struggle.
He had dismissed it then.
But now, this persistent grogginess—it might be connected.
> "Is this some strange illness?"
A chill ran down his spine.
The Board exams were in just over ninety days. If he had some serious condition, it could derail everything—his IIT-JEE dreams, his father's hopes, his life's direction.
He wasn't overthinking.
For students like him, the Board exams and entrance tests were everything. One shot. One chance. Either IIT Bombay or back to being another face in the crowd.
As anxiety crept in, a cold surge pulsed through his brain—and then his entire body.
Everything fell silent.
Completely.
Veer's gaze shot up.
The entire classroom was frozen.
His classmates sat motionless, pens in mid-air, eyes wide open but completely still. Even the curtain beside the window floated mid-sway, locked in position.
His heart thudded.
He'd seen this before—in comics and sci-fi movies.
> "Has time... stopped?"
His brain scrambled to comprehend it.
He tried standing. The moment he moved, a strange resistance met him—like walking against a firm yet invisible wind.
When he stilled, the resistance vanished.
> "Time has stopped. Everything is suspended. The air itself has solidified. That's why even moving my hand feels like pushing through water," he deduced, his brain kicking into overdrive.
> "But hold on… in true time-stasis, I shouldn't be able to see or hear anything. Light wouldn't reach my eyes. There should be total darkness."
> "But I can see. The light is distorted, but it's there."
His eyes narrowed.
> "So this isn't real time-stop. It's either that everything else is extremely slow… or I've become incredibly fast."
His hand rose slowly as he tested the resistance. It was present but manageable.
> "In theory, if I was in a state of true speedup, my limbs would face massive resistance—more than swimming in thick honey. But this is milder."
He began analyzing.
> "Okay, walking might be possible. But here's the bigger problem—"
> "I can't breathe."
He exhaled. His chest deflated.
But the air didn't return.
> "The external world is frozen… but inside, my body is still functioning. Muscles moving, heart beating, lungs demanding air."
> "But the air outside isn't moving in."
His expression darkened.
> "If I stay in this state, I'll suffocate."
Panic threatened to rise. In his perception, barely thirty seconds had passed, yet his lungs already screamed for oxygen.
Then another realization struck.
> "Wait. This isn't a full time-stop. If it were, even photons wouldn't reach my eyes. I wouldn't see anything."
> "So either the world has slowed down drastically… or I've entered a state of hyper-acceleration."
The chill in his body—which had triggered this phenomenon—suddenly began to fade.
And as it ebbed away, reality snapped back.
The classroom erupted into sound—the scratch of pens, pages turning, whispers, the fan spinning, and the traffic horn outside.
The curtain fluttered, the books on his desk flipped open as a gust of air burst around him.
The sudden noise felt deafening after the stillness.
He covered his ears instinctively.
Several classmates looked up, startled by the whirlwind at Veer's desk, but after a second of curiosity, they shrugged and went back to their books.
"Phew!"
Veer inhaled deeply, greedily sucking in the precious air.
His eyes scanned the room.
Everything was normal again.
> "That strange stasis—it must be connected to that cold energy inside me."
> "When it expanded, I entered a state where time slowed—or I sped up. And when it withdrew, the world went back to normal."
> "It's not the world changing. It's something inside me."
> "Like the Flash from DC comics. But the real physics of super-speed would be way more complicated."
He looked at his classmates—laughing, revising, worrying about exams. Everything felt surreal.
> "If I were to run or blow air while in that state, wouldn't the force I exert become incredibly dangerous?"
His gaze turned serious.
Something had awakened inside him.
And it was just the beginning.
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