"The Elevator to Realms" Act 17: Out of Sync

Vaibhav

“How much for this?” I asked Nandu from the General workshop and store. I went there to buy myself some antibiotics for my leftover wounds and rashes from that encounter earlier. I could still feel scattered pain throughout my body.

“90 Rupees, Beta.”

At that exact moment, as soon as I turned around to head back home, I turned around again and asked.

“Brother. Do you have a precision and a flat screwdriver and a soldering kit?” Nandu nodded. He handed me those things, I paid for them and left.

As soon as I reached home, I waved Mom and headed upstairs to my room. It was almost Sunset, so I sat in my computer chair. Too many tabs open. One says, “Time anomalies real?”, another, “Object emitting energy + hallucinations” and a lot of Reddit tabs.

“What are you… ” How did you end up with me?” I said to myself as I opened the box of stone. The stone flickered and glowed just like before. I carefully picked the stone in my hand and placed it over my computer’s mousepad. Carefully inspecting, I could see an opening. I could pry open it, but I am too scared to do that.

“Anyways. We’ll get through this,” I muttered to myself and carefully began prying open the stone.

The precision screwdriver slid into the tiny gap running across its surface. The blue glow pulsed faintly beneath my fingers, almost like it was reacting to the pressure. My table lamp flickered once. Then again. I froze. The fan above me slowed down for a second before returning to normal speed.

“…Okay. Weird.”

I exhaled and continued. The stone gave a faint hum now, low and metallic, almost electrical. Like an old transformer buzzing in the distance.

I turned back toward my monitor. The tabs I had opened earlier were still there. Reddit threads. Quora discussions. Some obscure conspiracy forums.

I clicked on one titled:

“Elevator Time Displacement Theory”

The page loaded halfway.

Then refreshed automatically.

I frowned.

“What?”

The entire thread disappeared.

“Thread unavailable.”

I refreshed the page again.

Gone.

Another tab. A user discussing “objects emitting spatial anomalies.”

Gone.

Another.

Gone again.

My heartbeat slowed uneasily.

“No no no…”

I quickly opened the browser history. Half the links had vanished and not been deleted. Just… absent. As if they had never existed.

A cold sensation crawled up my spine.

Then one page loaded successfully.

Black background. White text. No username. No profile picture.

Just one sentence.

“If you found it, stop looking.”

I stared at the screen. A strange pressure built inside my ears. The fan above me suddenly sounded deeper. Slower.

Thummm…

Thummm…

Thummm…

Like helicopter blades underwater.

I rubbed my eyes. The room felt stretched somehow. My cursor moved. On its own.

I sat upright instantly.

“What the hell?”

The cursor slowly hovered over the browser tab and clicked it shut.

My throat dried.

I grabbed the mouse. The cursor stopped moving.

Silence.

Then the monitor flickered.

For a split second, I saw my own reflection in the black screen. But it wasn’t synced. I moved my head slightly, and the reflection moved half a second later.

I stopped breathing.

No.

No way.

The screen returned to normal instantly.

I stood up from the chair too quickly, and suddenly I was already near the door. I froze. My hand was on the doorknob.

I blinked rapidly.

“What…”

I looked back at the chair.

How did I get here?

I genuinely couldn’t remember walking.

My chest tightened. The stone on the table pulsed brighter. Blue light seeped across the mousepad. The sound of the ceiling fan distorted again. My phone buzzed beside the keyboard.

7:42 PM.

I looked away for one second. Looked back.

7:47 PM.

My blood ran cold.

Five minutes.

Gone.

Just… gone.

“No no no no…”

I grabbed the stone instinctively.

The moment my skin touched it…

FLASH.

Elevator doors.

Closing.

That same low humming sound.

Blue light flooding the walls.

My own breathing echoing unnaturally loud.

Another flash.

My hand slamming the elevator buttons repeatedly.

Numbers changing on their own.

7. 8. 9.

-1.

Then,

A reflection behind me.

Someone is standing there.

Tall. Still. Watching.

My breath hitched.

I tried turning…

FLASH.

Darkness.

A voice.

Distorted. Soft. Almost familiar.

“You came back again…”

My eyes snapped open.

I stumbled backwards, nearly crashing into the chair. The room spun violently. I gripped the edge of the desk. Sweat rolled down my forehead.

“No… no… someone was there…”

I could feel it now.

I wasn’t alone in that elevator that night.

Someone else had been inside. Not fully visible. Not fully real. But there. Watching me.

And for one horrifying second, the outline of that reflection felt familiar.

Not the face.

Just the feeling.

Soft eyes. Long hair. A presence I knew.

My stomach dropped.

“…Pooja?”

Silence.

Only the fan is spinning overhead.

I quickly pulled the stone away and shoved it back into the box. The humming stopped instantly. The room felt normal again. Almost.

But not fully.

I sat down slowly, rubbing my face with both hands.

“What the hell is happening to me…”

My phone buzzed again.

Kriti.

“Alive?”

I stared at the notification for a few seconds before replying.

“Barely.”

Almost instantly:

“Drama queen.”

A small smile escaped me despite everything.

I typed:

“You free tomorrow?”

Three dots appeared immediately.

“Always.”

I stared at that word longer than I should have.

Always.

Before I could reply again, another memory crashed into my mind.

Bihaan.

That night. The wedding. The alley. Something about it didn’t sit right anymore. I immediately opened my contacts and pressed call. The phone rang twice.

“Hellooo?” Bihaan answered casually. Loud background noise. Probably hostel friends.

“Hey.”

“Vaibhav bhai! Kaisa hai? Injuries theek?”

I paused.

“How do you know I got injured?”

Silence.

Tiny, But there.

Then a laugh.

“Arre, Dhruv bhai told me. He said you fell somewhere after coming back.”

I frowned. I never told Dhruv.

“Right…”

“Why? Sab theek?”

I leaned back in the chair slowly.

“That night after the ring ceremony… where were you exactly?”

“Huh?”

“The night after the function.”

“Oh. Umm… hotel mein hi tha.”

“With who?”

“What kind of question is that?” he laughed awkwardly. “Friends ke saath tha. Then slept.”

“You sure?”

A pause, Longer this time.

“…Yeah. Why are you asking suddenly?”

I stared at the glowing edge of the box.

“I don’t know.”

Bihaan chuckled nervously. “You sound paranoid, bhai.”

Maybe I was. But something felt off. His tone. The hesitation. The way he answered was too careful, too prepared.

“You okay?” he asked again.

“Yeah,” I lied. “Just tired.”

After the call disconnected, I sat there staring at nothing. Something was wrong. I just didn’t know what yet.

“Vaibhav!”

Mom’s voice echoed from downstairs.

“Dinner!”

I closed the laptop and headed down slowly. The smell of rotis and tadka filled the house warmly. Comfortingly. Dad was watching TV again while adjusting his glasses. Mom noticed me instantly.

“You’re zoning out again.”

“I’m fine, Ma.”

“You say that every time.”

She placed food onto my plate carefully. “You sit with us, but you’re not here, Vaibhav.”

I looked down quietly.

Dad glanced toward me but stayed silent this time. Mom sat beside me softly.

“When you were small, you used to tell me every strange dream you had. Every little fear.” A weak smile appeared on my lips.

“You cried for two hours because you thought Doraemon would stop coming on TV.” Dad laughed loudly.

“You even opened the remote to ‘fix the signal’.” I smiled faintly.

But it hurt.

Because things were simpler then.

Mom touched my hand gently. “Whatever it is… don’t let it take you away from yourself.”

For one terrifying second, I almost told her everything. The elevator. The stone. The missing time. The voice. But I couldn’t.

How do you tell your mother that reality itself feels broken?

“I’m okay, Ma,” I whispered.

She didn’t believe me.

I could tell.

But she nodded anyway.

Later that night, I stood in front of the bathroom mirror washing my face. Cold water dripped down my jawline. I looked up slowly.

My reflection stared back.

Tired eyes, bruised face and healing cuts.

I exhaled and turned away.

But for the briefest second…

The reflection didn’t.

It stayed staring at me. Smiling faintly!

My heart stopped.

I snapped back toward the mirror.

Normal again. Nothing there, just me.

My phone buzzed violently in my pocket.

Unknown Number.

A message.

“You shouldn’t have taken it.”

My blood froze.

Pooja

The soft scratching sound of a pencil against paper filled the room quietly. Evening sunlight filtered through the curtains in faint orange streaks, painting the walls in a warm glow that somehow still felt cold to me. I sat on the edge of my bed, folding freshly dried clothes into neat piles while Aarti remained sprawled across the floor with her sketchbook resting over her crossed legs. Music played faintly from her phone nearby, some slowed romantic song neither of us was really paying attention to.

I folded another kurti absentmindedly. My movements were mechanical, almost automatic. My mind had been elsewhere for days now. Weeks, maybe.

“You’re folding the same shirt again,” Aarti muttered without looking up from her sketch.

I blinked.

I really was.

“Oh.” I quietly placed it aside. “I didn’t notice.”

Aarti smirked lightly but didn’t tease me further. The scratching of her pencil continued again, soft and rhythmic. I tried focusing on the clothes in front of me instead.

Then my phone lit up beside me.

Instagram Notification.

Vaibhav added to his story.

My fingers froze.

I stared at the notification for a long moment before finally unlocking my phone. The story loaded slowly. A blurry picture of a coffee mug beside a laptop screen. Bandages around his wrist partially visible. Some indie song is playing in the background. That familiar room. That familiar table lamp. Everything about it felt painfully familiar.

My chest tightened.

He looked tired.

But he also looked… okay.

And somehow, that hurt more.

“You still haven’t replied to him, right?” Aarti asked casually while sketching.

I locked my phone instantly and placed it face down beside me.

“There’s nothing left to say,” I replied flatly.

“That’s not true, and you know it.”

I stayed silent.

“You both were literally inseparable before all this weirdness happened.”

I folded another shirt carefully. Perfect edges. Perfect lines. Controlled hands.

At least on the outside.

“You wouldn’t understand,” I murmured softly.

Aarti sighed dramatically. “Yeah, yeah. I’m just the younger sister. Nobody tells me anything.”

A faint smile almost appeared on my lips. Almost.

Aarti adjusted her sketchbook slightly, and my eyes drifted toward the page unconsciously.

And paused.

A glowing orb.

Blue shading around its edges. Pulsing lines surrounding it.

My breath stopped for a second.

“…What’s that?”

“Huh?”

“The drawing.”

“Oh.” She glanced down casually. “Nothing really. Just random stuff. I don’t even know why I drew it.” A small laugh escaped her. “Looks cool though.”

I kept staring at the sketch.

That shape.

That glow.

It looked too familiar.

A strange uneasiness slowly crept into my chest.

Then Aarti casually added, “By the way… I saw Vaibhav today.”

I looked up too quickly.

“You did?”

“Yeah. Outside coaching.” She continued shading the orb lazily. “He looked happy today… with Kriti.”

Silence.

Complete silence.

I smiled.

But something shifted inside me.

My fingers slowly tightened around the cloth resting in my lap. Fingernails pressing deep into my palm beneath the fabric.

Kriti.

Again.

That name.

That girl.

Always around him now.

Listening to him.

Making him laugh.

Being there when I wasn’t.

Aarti kept speaking innocently, unaware of the storm quietly building inside me. “I think they’d actually look cute together, you know? Kriti really cares about him.”

Crack.

The pencil snapped in her hand.

“…Oops,” she muttered awkwardly.

But I wasn’t looking at the pencil anymore.

I was staring at the glowing orb drawn across the page.

My breathing had slowed.

Too calm.

Too controlled.

Inside my chest, something twisted violently.

Not sadness anymore.

Not heartbreak.

Something sharper.

Possessive.

Threatened.

Because somewhere deep down, beneath all the anger and silence and distance…

I still believed Vaibhav belonged to me.

And the thought of losing that place to someone else made something dark bloom quietly inside me.

“Di? You okay?”

I looked at her and smiled gently.

Perfectly.

“Yeah,” I whispered softly. “I’m okay.”

But even I could feel it now.

Something inside me wasn’t okay anymore.

***