Location: A dingy roadside dhaba named "Taste of Confusion"Time: 5:17 PM
"So… you're telling me your childhood house has a mirror that shows fake doors, your dead dad left you a Rubik's Cube puzzle, and a guy named Darshan is apparently a time-traveling document hoarder?" Vicky asked, wiping dal off his chin.
Meera sipped her masala chai."Yeah. What's your point?"
"My point is—I knew I shouldn't have skipped therapy for this."
Meanwhile: Mercer's Mind Goes Brrr
Mercer stood outside a public urinal, holding a crumpled photo of himself as a ten-year-old.
In the photo, he's wearing a hoodie that says "I PAUSED TIME TO BE HERE."
But here's the kicker: he remembers owning this hoodie… next year.
"Did I travel through time? Did time travel through me? Or did someone just print my future face on this photo like it's a birthday card?"
The more he stared, the more his brain itched.
Flashes.Visions.Memories that felt real but didn't happen.Memories that shouldn't happen.
Vicky's Infinite Logic Spiral (Comic Relief)
Back at the dhaba, Vicky was losing it:
"Okay so listen: either we're all being gaslit by the universe, or this is some Inception-meets-KuKu Mathur Ki Jhand Ho Gayi level crap. Either way, I say we start wearing tinfoil hats and stop trusting mirrors."
He paused, mid-rant, then pulled out his phone.
Google Search:
"Can you get PTSD from a Rubik's Cube?""Symptoms of parallel universe exposure""Dhaba food causing hallucinations?"
Darshan's Drop-In
As they debated the physics of chai and alternate timelines, a figure sat down at their table like a discount Batman.
Darshan.
"I brought parathas," he said calmly, placing them on the table.
"Cool, are they poisoned?" Vicky asked."I only poison people on Wednesdays," Darshan replied.
Meera: "It's Friday."Darshan: "Exactly."
Big Reveal (Casual Tone)
Darshan leaned forward.
"I've met all three of you. Not at once. But in… cycles. Time loops. Patterns. You all repeat."
"What do you mean repeat?" Meera asked.
"Like a glitch in a YouTube video. You rewind without knowing. You say the same things in different lives. Make the same jokes. Crack the same Rubik's Cubes."
Mercer walked in just in time to hear that.He stared at Darshan.
"You were in my dream," Mercer said.
Darshan: "Not a dream. A memory. One your brain keeps scrubbing."
"Why?" Meera asked.
Darshan picked up a napkin and drew three shapes:
A mirror
A clock
A spiral
"Because someone designed you to forget. And if you remember too much—"
He stopped.
Suddenly:
The light flickered. The entire dhaba seemed to stutter for a microsecond.
Everyone froze.
Only Mercer noticed the waiter had changed.
Same face. Different mole.His shirt said "Taste of Confusion" five seconds ago.
Now it said: "TASTE OF COLLAPSE."
Cliffhanger Dialogue:
Mercer: "What the hell just happened?"Darshan: "We just skipped to version 14.3 of this timeline. The mirror must be syncing."
Vicky, biting into a paratha:
"Cool cool cool. So are we dead, or just dramatically inconvenienced?"
Next Chapter Tease (23):
Meera, Mercer, and Vicky follow Darshan to his underground "Memory Sync Lab" made of old cassette tapes and an AI toaster named Shravan.
They uncover a photo of someone who looks exactly like Mercer—standing next to Meera—in 1937.
And the mirror? It's missing from the house. Someone took it.