Everything happened too instantaneously.

  One moment ago, I was being swept into the world-ending Cataclysm.

  Another moment, I was on my knees, surrounded by broken mirror shards. They shimmered faintly, like distant stars.

  Before I could even come to terms with the strange sequence of events, a weird text struck me on my temple forcing me to reappear inside my own memories once again.

  The second memory felt suffocating.

  I perceived where I was through my already confused mind.

  Scanning the room. I was glad to see a certain individual sitting aloof—unharmed.

  Relief washed over me as I saw my younger self lost in his own delusional world beside the window seat.

  It was morning and the biology class was going on.

  On the blackboard, Ma'am was writing

  [Cell —Structure and Functions]

  Ah I actually remember this chapter*

  My lips parted into a small smile as I mused

  "Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell."

  Our biology ma'am was a simple lady.

  She stayed true to her business never crossing the line. Yes, she used to scold students but to a limited extent.

  That's what I used to think once.

  Right now she was breaking the entire lesson into several small chunks, then she ordered students to read aloud their respective topics.

  Today Lady Luck was sleeping, because the first student who got picked to read was none other than—Karan.

  My mirror image wokeup from his imagination and looked around as if he was searching for a boy who was named Karan…not finding anyone.

  He pointed his index finger towards his chest and said with a dreamy and nervous voice

  "M-me?"

  *Yes, my dear if not you then who else is Karan here?* My teacher kindly answered.

  Far from the prying eyes a single figure hovered in the air, their gaze as tough as ocean stone. Some bitterness was reflected in their brown eyes.

  Watching a young boy not any older than 14 years.

  Silently they closed their eyes. In the hope of avoiding seeing something unpleasant yet the fragments of forgotten memories came crushing down on them mercilessly.

  _ _ _

  I hissed in pain.

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  My memories of the past unceasingly marched toward the inevitable future.

  My former self headed toward the stage.

  On the stage stood a podium, and beside it karan, holding a book that read— 8th class biology, NCERT

  More than fifty students' eyes followed him.

  This was his first time reading on stage since joining the Sunshine School. Karan was clearly nervous.

  His topic to read was:

  "structure of the cell".

  The more Karan read the more I felt an emotion mix of both regret and pity.

  At first, nothing seemed to happen.

  Then he encountered a few of the biology terms which were quiet dificult for an 8th grader.

  Thus he started fumbling over his words.

  This eventually leads to a small Snickers inside the classroom but no one dared to laugh.

  Karan was reading without taking any breath:

  *Each cell contains a fluid called the cytooplasm, which is enclosed by a membrane. Also present in the cytooplaasm are several biomoleecules like " proteins"… nucle-ic acids and lipids*

  His pronunciation was slightly off.

  A mocking smile lit the face of the biology ma'am.

  Seeing Madam smiling shamelessly.

  A fat girl started laughing,she was as ugly as one could be. Then her chubby benchmates followed her lead.

  This started a chain reaction and the whole class was laughing at Karan…at me.

  Humiliation!!

  That time I felt as if I was facing backlashes by fate for what I did to blackface on my first day.

  Meanwhile.

  Ivory Face was trying to hide her laugh behind her snowy hands.

  I couldn't see the reaction of the pinkface and brownface as my attention was attracted by none other than my younger self.

  He had this puzzling look *why are they laughing at me*?

  *Didn't I read just what was written here?*

  His gaze landed first on the ma'am as if pleading for help and in the hope that she would stop his classmate from laughing any further.

  The simple lady wasn't simple at all. She did nothing but hold a disdained mocking smile on her aged face.

  The old me was visibly shaken, his hands gripping the textbook tightly.

  There was a ripple of sadness in his innocent eyes.

  Witnessing the clear motes of water forming inside his clear eyes, my heart shattered like a clay pot.

  Boundless rage clouded my mind as I flew directly towards the one who started this chain reaction.

  Unfortunately, even when I tried to punch her or drag her face to the ground my hands simply passed right through her body. As if she were an illusion, a phantom created by my own mind. Being unable to harm her my anger flared to upmost height.

  Seeing my classmate laughing like this was their best day my anger was subdued a little and it was replaced by deeper resentment and never-ending cold hatred.

  The laughter didn't seem to end any sooner.

  My splitting image stood motionless on the stage. His mind was in shambles.

  A thought repeated itself hundreds of times in his head

  *I read what was written here, I did my best yet they laughed at me…whyy?*

  *Class!! This is enough* biology ma'am spoke with a little Snicker.

  Seeing her smirking the class again broke into heavy laughter.

  And just like that they all were ingrained into someone's memories forever…laughing.

  The classroom was nothing more than a gallery of preserved cruelty.

  Time seemed to have frozen, in that frozen time only one thing remained constant —me.

  Every single student, along with teachers had become a stone statue. The blade of the fan stopped moving. The brown motes of dust remained suspended in the air.

  At first, I was confused about what was going on here.

  After the initial shock subdued I realised this had something to do with my memories.

  So instead of the world getting annihilated like the previous time now it freezes?

  I floated in the air, I felt like a god. I also felt lonely.

  This made me wonder*Are gods also lonely?*

  Anyway, everything around me was still.

  I don't know what to do so I waited…

  But waiting was boring and I was curious about something. Thus I walked down towards the ground from the air.

  After reaching the ground I started inspecting the faces of my classmates.

  They all were blurry, distorted, and vague.

  From the view of the commander, I saw countless faceless mixed alongside coloured faces.

  My gaze landed on the people whom I barely remember because of their colourful faces.

  Blackface had his mouth open wide,I think he was trying to take a yawn but then my memory ended and he got frozen inside this space. I felt the corners of my lips rise upward slightly.

  Yellowface had this displeased expression as if he enjoyed laughing at me but then he felt guilty.

  Greenface was smiling brightly.

  Pinkface was trying to pushback her hairlock behind her ears which stubbornly resisted. Frozen in time she looked no different from a beautiful painting.

  I wouldn't be sure, because the only thing I know about her is that her face is painted pink.

  Ivoryface was laughing in a ladylike manner.

  Hmm…I think Brownface was sad?

  It's hard to guess their reaction because they weren't any different from a faceless individual.

  The only thing that made them different was the unique colour plastered on their empty face.

  Roundface was trying to adjust his glasses.

  He looked so stupid in the frozen time.

  Blueface was just sitting beside him trying to read something from the book. A typical bookworm.

  Matureguy and Happyguy sat together.

  Chillguy was just sleeping on the last bench unbothered.

  Sunface was trying to poke greenface for some reason.

  Aside from all these faces there were several distorted faces and just looking at them made my mind go dizzy.

  Then I heard my long-awaited sound breaking the shackles of frozen time.

  And with that sounds reality shattered into infinite fragments of glass.

  This time I gracefully landed inside my own room.

  Along with my arrival, a single shard of the mirror lost its vitality and fell lifeless.

  Grasping the opportunity that I was unaware of, an untouchable fog permeated directly inside my eyes almost making me lose my consciousness.

  I found myself in my third memory.

  A memory where I will face the hatred of roundface until the very end of my college life.