Rajni finally stood. Her movements were measured, almost rehearsed, but there was a tiredness in her eyes that didn’t look staged. She scanned the group, her gaze lingering briefly on Shivam and then on Bhumika, before she spoke.

  “I should start from the beginning. I came to Delhi five years ago to study seismic anomalies. At first, the tremors looked natural minor disturbances near construction sites and fault lines. But soon, the patterns didn’t match anything in the records. They were irregular, almost as if something was trying to break through.”

  Dikshant leaned closer to Shivam, whispering, “She’s talking about the other world, isn’t she?”

  Shivam didn’t answer, but his jaw tightened.

  Rajni continued, her voice steady. “That’s when I met Kairav. He was young, brilliant, and ambitious. On the surface, he posed as a researcher, curious about the anomalies. In truth, his newly founded company SynerTech was already angling for military contracts. He believed these disturbances could be weaponized. And he wasn’t wrong.”

  Dikshant scoffed. “So, he just stumbled onto this while you were studying it?”

  “He didn’t stumble,” Rajni replied sharply. “He hunted for it. He had resources I couldn’t match. Money, labs, government contacts. What he lacked was expertise, which is why he kept me close at first.” Her eyes darkened. “Until he realized I wasn’t willing to help him weaponize what we found.”

  She stepped toward the center of the group, her voice lowering. “Two years ago, two major anomaly sites appeared. One near a metro station in North-West Delhi, the other near the South Ridge. Both pulsed with energy not of this Earth. At first, we thought it was nuclear residue. Radiation levels spiked briefly before dropping back, impossible to explain through conventional science. But then we found something else. A crystalline material embedded in the soil. Not uranium. Not any mineral known to this planet.”

  Naina’s brow furrowed. “Noctirum.”

  Rajni nodded. “That’s what you called it. For us, it was just an unknown crystal. We tested it, studied it, but it resisted every method of classification. It did not belong here.”

  She paused, letting her words sink in. “And then the second discovery came. We ran scans on every person present at those anomaly sites. From the metro station, we tracked every passenger, every staff member. Out of all of them, only ten showed residual signals in their bodies. Unstable but distinct. The same signal we had been chasing since the anomalies began.”

  A heavy silence settled over the warehouse. Everyone knew what was coming, but hearing it from her lips still landed like a punch.

  “You,” Rajni said quietly. Her gaze swept over Shivam, Aman, Naina, Aanchal, and the others. “The ten of you carried that signal. Whatever happened to you during those missing minutes, it altered you. It strengthened you physically, sharpened your reflexes, even changed how your bodies process fatigue and injury. And for some of you” she looked again at Shivam, then Bhumika, “the link to the other world remains.”

  Bhumika froze. “What do you mean link? What other world?”

  The air inside the warehouse grew heavier after Rajni’s words. The faint hum of Mansi’s laptop and the occasional creak of the metal roof were the only sounds that cut through the silence. Everyone waited for Shivam to speak, but he stood rooted in place, his eyes on Bhumika. She was staring back at him, confusion clouding her face, the weight of unanswered questions pressing against her chest.

  Finally, she broke the silence. “What world are you talking about? What did you mean by crossed over?”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Shivam exhaled slowly, rubbing the back of his neck. “It’s not something I ever wanted you to know like this.”

  “That doesn’t answer me,” Bhumika said, her voice trembling. “I deserve the truth. All of it.”

  The others shifted uncomfortably, their gazes moving between Shivam and her. Aman folded his arms, looking at Shivam with a mixture of pity and frustration. Naina’s jaw was tight; her eyes fixed on the floor. Even Dikshant, usually quick with a comment, sat quietly, watching his brother with wide eyes.

  Shivam finally stepped forward, his tone low but steady. “Two years ago, we were on a metro ride like any other. At least, that’s what we thought. Something happened during that ride. An anomaly, like Rajni described. For you, it was ten minutes. For us… it was almost a year.”

  Bhumika’s breath caught. “Year?”

  Shivam nodded. “We woke up in another world. A world built on floating cities, where the skies never looked the same twice. But it wasn’t beautiful for long. That place was already at war. The Dominion controlled everything, ruled by Navik Vyer and his son Lavin. They had armies, weapons, and powers we had never imagined.”

  Anchal Rathod stepped in quietly, as though to support him. “We were scattered at first, struggling to survive. But Shivam brought us together. That’s how we made it through.”

  Shivam’s eyes flicked to her in thanks before returning to Bhumika. “We weren’t powerless. The world itself had something called Noctirum. A crystal, alive in ways science here can’t explain. When it bonded with us, it gave us strength. Faster reflexes, sharper senses, stamina that felt endless. Some of us could push those abilities further than others, but it came at a cost.”

  He swallowed hard, remembering battles that still haunted him. “We fought because we had to. Against soldiers, against beasts twisted by Noctirum, against Lavin himself. And we weren’t alone. There were rebels too Commander Vidhart, who taught us how to fight, and Sage Agastya, who guided us when the path felt impossible. And there was Adhivita… the Dominion princess who turned against her own family to help us.”

  Bhumika’s lips parted, her voice almost a whisper. “You make it sound like a story. But you’re telling me this actually happened?”

  Naina lifted her head at last. “It did. Every word of it. And none of us came back the same.”

  Bhumika shook her head slowly, stepping back a pace. “And all this time… you let me believe my visions were madness. I thought I was losing my mind. Every night I saw pieces of machines, pieces of cities I had never visited. I thought it was my imagination breaking apart.” She looked at Shivam, her eyes glassy. “But you knew. You knew, and you said nothing.”

  “I was trying to protect you,” Shivam said, his voice cracking for the first time. “We barely made it back alive. Do you understand what it was like? To watch people, bleed and fall every day, to carry the weight of whether we’d survive the next sunrise? I didn’t know it was all tied to that until you build that same damn machine.”

  Her response was sharp. “Your silence didn’t help me, Shivam. You left me drowning in questions.”

  The silence that followed was suffocating. None of the others stepped in this time. They knew this was not theirs to resolve.

  Rajni’s voice cut softly through the tension. “Her visions aren’t random. They’re echoes. The world you left behind is still reaching for her. Whether you accept it or not, she is part of this.”

  Bhumika’s gaze darted to Rajni, then back to Shivam. Her hands trembled as she wrapped her arms around herself. For the first time, she looked truly frightened.

  Anchal Rathod cleared her throat. “We can’t afford divisions now. Rajni has shown us what SynerTech is doing, and Shivam has told us what happened. The only way forward is together.”

  The group murmured agreement, but the unease was still thick in the room.

  As the others debated what Rajni’s knowledge meant, she moved closer to Shivam. Her footsteps were deliberate, her voice dropping so only he could hear.

  “She looks exactly like her,” Rajni whispered.

  Shivam frowned. “Who?”

  Rajni’s eyes locked onto Bhumika across the room. “The Queen of the Dominion. The one who Navik loved and brought world down for. Her likeness is uncanny. It cannot be coincidence.”

  Shivam’s chest tightened. His mouth went dry. That detail was buried deep, known only to those who had lived through their time in the Dominion. None of them had ever spoken of it outside their circle. And yet Rajni knew.

  His pulse thundered in his ears as he looked back at Bhumika. She was still shaken, her face pale, her eyes glistening with confusion and betrayal. She had no idea of the shadow that Rajni’s words had just cast over her.

  For Shivam, it was like the ground had tilted beneath him. Rajni wasn’t just an informant with scraps of knowledge. She was holding truths no outsider should have, and those truths tied Bhumika to the Dominion in a way that none of them could ignore.