"They say the world sees everything. But what if the world itself chooses not to?"
It began with a flicker.
A subtle distortion in the corner of Aaryan's vision, like a heatwave on a cold December evening. He blinked. Once. Twice. The glitch remained, dancing quietly over the cracked pavement outside his school gate. He rubbed his eyes and shook his head. Must be sleep, he thought.
But the sky—The sky had other plans.
He looked up, and for the briefest second, the heavens rippled.
Not clouds. Not sunlight breaking through the pollution-stained horizon of Delhi. No. It was like someone had taken the sky, pressed Ctrl + Z, and then hit Enter again.
Reality... shimmered.
People walked by, heads buried in phones, bags slung over shoulders, laughter echoing behind him. No one else saw it. No one even paused.
Except Aaryan.
He stood motionless, heart pounding in his chest like a war drum. And then, just as suddenly, the glitch vanished.
That night, the glitch came back.
Only this time, it wasn't in the sky. It was inside him.
Aaryan awoke in the dead of night, gasping. Sweat soaked his bedsheets. His window, which had been locked, stood wide open. The moon hung high and sickly yellow above, staring directly at him like an ancient eye.
And the room—was silent.
Not the kind of silence you expect at night. This was the absence of sound. No fans. No clocks. Not even his own breath.
He looked down.
His body was fading.
No—disappearing.
From his fingers to his wrist, the skin was phasing in and out of visibility like he was stuck between realities. He jumped out of bed in panic, ran to the mirror. His reflection wasn't there.
Not even a shadow.
"Wh-what the hell—" he whispered. The sound barely escaped his lips.
A new wave of silence crushed the room like a vacuum seal.
And then—he snapped back.
Light returned. Sound returned. His breathing became audible again. The fan began to hum. He was whole.
Almost.
A faint code hovered in the mirror behind him. Glowing symbols, not from any known language. Just for a moment.
And then it was gone.
The next morning, he didn't mention anything to his mother.
She was too busy fussing over the missing electricity bill and trying to get him to eat breakfast.
But in his head, it hadn't stopped.
The silence. The symbols. The sky.
Something had started, and he couldn't turn it off.
At school, it got worse.
First, during chemistry class, the lights blinked and then stayed dead. But only around him. Other students sat in normal light.
Then, during P.E., the ball hit his shoulder but passed right through him.
No one noticed.
No one.
Not even the coach who was yelling seconds before.
Aaryan stood in the middle of the field, heart racing, as the world blurred around him. Not metaphorically.
Literally.
Like reality was processing him as missing data.
By evening, it hit breaking point.
He was walking home, bag slung low, earbuds dead (again), when a strange man appeared across the street.
Dark coat. Hooded. No face visible. Just... standing.
Staring.
Aaryan slowed.
So did the traffic. Not in a natural way — it just froze. Cars halted mid-motion. Even the pigeons in the sky hovered still, wings paused like a screenshot.
The man took a step forward.
And another.
No sound. No footsteps.
Just… presence.
"Who are you?" Aaryan asked, voice shaking.
The man tilted his head.
Then spoke in a voice that wasn't made of sound.
"You're not supposed to be seen yet."
The world resumed.
Suddenly. Brutally.
Aaryan staggered back as a horn blared, a rickshaw whizzed by, the man gone like he'd never been there.
But he had.
He knew it.
And then, Aaryan saw something on his arm.
A mark.
Glowing. Faint. Barely visible. Like a QR code made of light, embedded under his skin.
And it pulsed.
Back Home…
He googled everything.
"Invisible skin disorder?""Hallucinations after fever?""Sky glitch symptoms?"Nothing.
Except one forum.
Buried deep in an archived corner of the web.
Thread Title: "The Code that Sees You When the World Doesn't."
It had only one reply.
"If you're reading this, you've already been marked. The glitch isn't a bug — it's a gateway. Don't trust the silence. And whatever you do… don't let them catch you visible."
That night, he didn't sleep.
He couldn't.
Because when he closed his eyes, he wasn't there anymore.
Not in dreams.
Not in the bed.
Not even in the world.
And somewhere, deep inside the glitch, something was watching.
And it knew his name.