Chapter 2: A dream seen during the day... comes true

"Did I just... time travel?"

.

"No! I'm thinking too much... it was just a dream... a very bad one."

"If you're feeling alright now, shouldn't you be heading to the award ceremony?" Aadi said.

"Yeah..." Arya muttered, getting up from the bed.

He looked for his shoes—Aadi slid them toward him, and then they both left the nurse's office.

The award ceremony was being held in the school auditorium on the first floor. It was organized at the end of every term to review the students' achievements throughout the year and hand out their respective prizes.

<8:25 AM>

As they entered through the exit door, a classmate of theirs ran up to them and handed Arya a sheet of paper.

"You're up for the speech!" he said before quickly running off.

"What?!... Come back! I'm not doing it!" Arya shouted, but it was too late—he had been trapped. He turned toward Aadi.

"Don't look at me, I have my own work to do," Aadi said, rejecting whatever Arya was about to ask of him.

A teacher approached them as they were talking. "Aditya, come help me in the library, and Arya, bring an extension cord from the storage room." He handed Arya the keys to the storage.

"Yes sir... as you wish." Arya sighed, took the keys, turned around, and walked away.

.

As Arya was heading to the third floor, where the storage room was, he walked upon the stairs that he had once seen engulfed in flames. Reaching the hallway of the third floor, everything seemed normal. He looked at the glass pane that had shattered in front of him—it was perfectly intact.

He continued towards the storage room. On his way, he came across the balcony where he had seen Aadi.

"So... this was the place."

"WAIT—" Arya noticed something. The balcony railing—broken, it was broken from the base. He pushed it gently—it wobbled like it would fall apart at any second.

"It makes no sense! I have never seen this broken, so how could it appear in my dream, or whatever it was, exactly the same?!"

A cold shiver ran down his spine.

"Well... there's an old saying..."

"A dream seen during the day... comes true."

He shook his head to brush off the thoughts and continued toward the storage room.

After a few more steps, he arrived at his destination. He pulled out the keys from his pocket, but there was no lock.

"Did someone forget to lock it?" he muttered, pushing the door open.

The room was dirty, opening the door made the dust fly around. Everything was just lying around, unorganized. He started searching for the extension cord.

After rummaging through all the shelves and boxes, almost an hour had passed before he finally found it.

Looking at that extension cord, he had a thought. "Could an electrical malfunction be the reason for that fire?"

"I'm feeling uneasy right now."

<9:35 AM>

Arya rushed down the stairs with the extension cord in his hand. A little boy passed him on the way. Something about the boy made Arya stop. He turned around.

"Hey kid!" he called that boy.

The boy turned. Arya recognized that face—it was the same boy Aadi had tried to save while hanging from the balcony. "Wait—but I have never seen him before in my life; the first time I saw him was in that dream, or whatever. Am I hallucinating?" 

"Could you not go up there? You know the third floor is restricted for primary students."

The boy didn't reply and walked away. Arya watched the boy until he was out of sight. Then he calmed down a bit and continued downwards.

Eventually, he returned to the auditorium, but the ceremony had already started. The host was going on about something and a few awards had already been distributed.

"Who takes one whole hour to find an extension cord?!" Aadi teased him as he approached.

"The storage is a mess! Nothing is in place; everything is scattered around! How was I supposed to find it without digging through piles of junk?!"

"Just give it to me... I'll get it to the library." Aadi took the extension cord and headed off.

Arya sighed and dropped into a seat in the last row. The ceremony continued for a long time. Many awards and certificates were distributed.

<11:30 AM>

"This year's 'Athlete of the Year' award goes to someone whose dedication, passion, and sheer determination have inspired us all. Please give a huge round of applause for Rayna Keshwara."

Rayna appeared from the backstage; she had rare green eyes and black hair. The crowd erupted into cheers, especially the boys since she was considered the so-called beauty of the school.

"Of course, it's Rayna again! She's the best athlete like every year."

"Not only just athletics, but she's good at studies too, second in the whole class, of course right behind Aadi, the first one. And what was my rank—twelfth?"

"You do realize this might be the last day you'd see her, when are you gonna talk your feelings with her?" Aadi said as he appeared behind Arya.

Arya jumped off his seat. "Where were you all this time?!"

"I told you earlier—I have my own work to do. And don't try to dodge the question!" Aadi said.

"It's none of your business—" as Arya spoke, the host called his name.

"Before we move on, Arya Daxit would like to give a speech. Please welcome Arya Daxit on the stage!" the host announced over the mic.

"Oh, crap! I totally forgot about the speech!" he frantically searched his pocket but couldn't find the speech paper.

"Arya Daxit, come on the stage please." the host repeated.

"Seems you have no other choice now... it'll be fine, come on!" Aadi encouraged Arya to proceed.

"Easy for you to say."

With a deep breath, Arya got on the stage. He stepped up to the podium and grabbed the microphone.

"So... Umm... I'm not good at this kind of thing, but I'll try my best."

"If I had to say one thing that I've learned over the years, I'd say... time moves fast. For many years we've known each other, and now all of a sudden, we're on our separate paths."

"If I looked back at it now, we had so much fun together—we organized events, went on trips, and I could say those days would always be the best times of my life. "

"If I could go back in time, I would for sure—to enjoy this life once again..."

He muttered in a low voice "...and to avoid some mistakes that I shouldn't have made..."

*sniff*

As Arya was giving his speech, he got interrupted by a smell—like rotten eggs.

"Is it gas?"

"N—No way!"

He looked around him—everyone else had noticed it too. A thick tension settled over the room.

He dropped the mic and jumped off the stage. The teachers started guiding students to leave the building.

"It's natural gas." Aadi came up to Arya. "It contains methane, which is highly flammable, even a spark could ignite the whole thing—Go and pull down the circuit breaker."

Aadi was about to leave, but Arya grabbed him by the shoulder.

"And where are you going?" he remembered Aadi's face in that explosion.

"The school gets gas through a pipeline, that must've leaked. If the leak was on an upper floor, the gas wouldn't have come down here—methane is lighter than air. I have experience fixing pipes, so you know what I'm going to do."

"Why do you always have to play the hero?" Arya tightened his grip, looking at Aadi angrily.

"As long as you pull down the circuit breaker in time, nothing will happen to me... probably." Aadi pushed Arya's hand away and took off. Arya didn't argue further and ran to the electric panel.

He ran all the way there. He opened the panel and pulled down the circuit breaker—everything went dark inside the building, the only source of light being the windows.

"The smell got even stronger, hope Aadi's doing alright."

Suddenly, he heard shouting. He rushed to the building's main gate—it was a sliding grilled gate. It was closed, and all the people were still inside.

He asked one of them what was going on.

"Someone locked the gate from outside!" he spoke.

"What about the other gates?" Arya asked.

"Every single one of them is locked!"

"Wait—is it intentional? Setting the school on fire?"

Meanwhile, Aadi had brought duct tape and scissors from the arts and crafts room. He went to the chemistry lab and turned on the burner that was directly connected to the gas pipeline. However, he didn't light it for obvious reasons. Covering his nose with his hand, he placed the open end of the burner below it.

*sniff*

He smelled nothing from the burner.

"I knew it! Gas isn't coming in this school, the gas line in this area has been under maintenance for the past few days!"

"Something's going on here."

At that moment, Arya tried to recall any important details he might have seen in that dream—or whatever it was.

"Did I have that vision because God wanted me to save all these people? If that is the case, then there must be some way to stop this!"

"The explosion that flew me away and Aadi—what exploded?"

Gathering his courage, Arya started moving towards the third floor. The smell grew even worse, making it harder to breathe. As he approached the stairs, he saw that boy again—the one from his vision—the one whom he had earlier seen on the third floor. The boy was holding a lighter, his thumb resting on the wheel, ready to ignite it.

Arya's heart skipped a beat, he started sweating.

"W—What do you think you're doing?!"