CHAPTER FOUR
769 Words
CHAPTER FOUR
Zari lost twelve minutes.
Not metaphorically.
Not the way people said “time flew.”
Twelve actual minutes were gone.
She noticed during chemistry.
One second, the lecturer was writing on the board.
The next—
everyone was already packing their bags.
Chairs scraping.
Voices overlapping.
Movement everywhere.
Zari blinked hard.
Her pen was no longer in her hand.
It was closed neatly beside her notebook.
Like she had already finished writing.
Her stomach tightened.
“What just happened?”
Vanessa looked at her strangely. “Class ended?”
“No, before that.”
“What before that?”
Zari looked around quickly.
Nobody else seemed confused.
Nobody else looked disturbed.
They were acting normal.
Too normal.
“Zari,” Zay said carefully, “you’ve been staring at the board for like ten minutes.”
Her chest went cold.
“Ten?”
“Yeah.”
Vanessa laughed nervously. “You scared me. I thought you were possessed or something.”
The joke should’ve been funny.
It wasn’t.
Because Zari remembered staring at the board for maybe five seconds.
Not ten minutes.
Definitely not twelve.
That night, she checked her notebook.
And her blood ran cold.
The notes from the missing minutes were there.
Entire sentences in her handwriting.
Perfectly organized.
Except she didn’t remember writing any of it.
She slammed the book shut immediately.
“No.”
Her voice sounded small in the room.
Like even the walls were listening.
The power went out minutes later.
Everything dropped into darkness.
Zari froze.
Because somehow—
somehow—
she already knew the lights would go off before they did.
Outside, students groaned across the hostel.
Phones lit up.
Footsteps echoed.
Generators hummed faintly somewhere in the distance.
But inside Zari’s room, everything felt too still.
Then her phone buzzed.
Unknown Number.
Her throat tightened immediately.
For a second, she considered ignoring it.
But she answered anyway.
Slowly.
“Hello?”
Static.
Then breathing.
Not loud.
Not threatening.
Just there.
Zari stood from the bed carefully.
“Who is this?”
Silence.
Then finally—
a voice.
Soft.
Familiar.
“You’re starting to stay longer now.”
Zari stopped breathing.
It was her.
The girl.
“How did you get this number?” Zari whispered.
“That’s not the important part.”
“What is the important part?”
A pause.
Then:
“You need to stop looking at the mirrors after midnight.”
The call ended.
Just like that.
Zari stared at the screen.
No number.
No call history.
Nothing.
Like it never happened.
Her room suddenly felt wrong.
Not dangerous.
Worse.
Shifted.
Like the angles weren’t sitting correctly anymore.
Slowly—
very slowly—
Zari turned toward the mirror hanging beside the wardrobe.
And realized something horrifying.
Her reflection was facing her.
But not correctly.
It took her brain a second to understand why.
Then her stomach dropped.
Because she had turned her head already—
but her reflection moved a second later.
Zari stumbled backward instantly.
Her pulse exploded in her ears.
“No.”
The reflection smiled.
Very slightly.
Not enough to look human.
And then the lights came back.
Everything snapped normal again.
The mirror reflected properly.
The smile was gone.
Just Zari staring back at herself—
terrified.
She didn’t sleep that night.
Not even once.
Because every time she almost drifted off—
she kept hearing the girl’s voice again.
You’re starting to stay longer now.
Morning came eventually.
Gray.
Heavy.
Wrong.
By the time she reached campus, exhaustion sat behind her eyes like pressure.
She barely heard people talking around her.
Barely noticed the movement through the hallways.
Until someone grabbed her wrist suddenly.
Zari flinched violently.
Vanessa looked startled. “Okay, wow. Definitely possessed.”
But she wasn’t joking this time.
She looked genuinely worried.
“What’s wrong with you lately?” Vanessa asked quietly.
Zari opened her mouth automatically.
I’m fine.
The lie stopped before it came out.
Because she wasn’t fine anymore.
Not remotely.
Before she could answer—
the hallway lights flickered once.
Twice.
Then stopped.
And every student around them continued walking like nothing happened.
Except Zari.
Because during the second flicker—
everyone froze.
Not paused.
Froze.
Perfectly still.
Like mannequins.
Like time itself had stopped breathing.
And at the far end of the hallway—
the girl stood waiting.
This time smiling fully.
“You’re crossing faster than before,” she said.
Zari’s voice came out shaking.
“Crossing into what?”
The girl’s smile faded slightly.
And for the first time—
she looked afraid too.
“The place that kept you.”
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