Ryan couldn't breathe.
All around him, above every student, every teacher, every person in the courtyard — there were red timers.
Hundreds of red timers.
All counting down.
27 days.
14 days.
9 days.
3 days.
18 days.
22 days.
Ryan turned in a slow circle, his heart pounding so hard it felt like it would explode.
"What… is this…?" he whispered.
"What do you see?" Shaan asked quickly.
Ryan grabbed Shaan's arm tightly. "Everyone… everyone has a timer now."
Shaan's face changed. "Everyone?"
Ryan nodded, his eyes wide. "Before, only some people had timers. Now it's everyone. Every single person."
Ryan looked around again, trying to understand.
Then he noticed something even worse.
The timers were all different… but none of them were very long.
The longest one he could see was 32 days.
Most were less than 20 days.
Some were only a few days.
"Shaan…" Ryan said slowly. "I don't think these timers are natural."
"What do you mean?" Shaan asked.
Ryan swallowed.
"I think something started," Ryan said. "Something big."
At that moment, Skye ran into the courtyard. She looked like she had been searching for them.
"Ryan!" she called.
Ryan turned toward her.
The timer above her head was still there.
26:03:11
When Skye reached them, she looked at Ryan's face and immediately knew something was wrong.
"What happened?" she asked.
Ryan pointed around the courtyard. "Look at everyone."
Skye looked around, confused. "What do you mean? Everyone looks normal."
"No," Ryan said, his voice shaking. "Everyone has a timer now. Every single person."
Skye's expression slowly changed.
"…That's not supposed to happen," she said quietly.
"What do you mean not supposed to happen?" Shaan asked.
Skye looked at Ryan. "In the last timeline… timers didn't appear for everyone."
Ryan felt a cold chill run through his body. "So this timeline is different."
Skye nodded slowly. "Yes. Very different."
Ryan looked around again at the sea of red numbers.
Then he noticed something strange.
Very strange.
"Shaan," Ryan said slowly, "look at Demo."
Shaan frowned. "Where is she?"
Ryan pointed toward the school entrance.
A girl was walking toward the courtyard with headphones on, looking at her phone, completely relaxed like she didn't have a single problem in the world.
Demo.
"Look above her head," Ryan said.
Shaan looked. "I don't see anything."
Ryan's heart started beating faster.
"Exactly," Ryan said. "There's nothing there."
Skye looked at Demo too. Then she looked back at Ryan.
"…She doesn't have a timer?" Skye asked.
Ryan shook his head slowly. "No. Nothing. No numbers. No red timer. Nothing."
Shaan frowned. "What does that mean?"
Skye answered quietly.
"In the last timeline… there were only two types of people who didn't have timers."
Ryan felt like he already knew the answer, but he still asked.
"…Who?"
Skye looked at Demo.
"People who already disappeared once…"
Ryan's chest tightened.
"…And people who are not supposed to exist in this timeline."
Silence.
They all looked at Demo walking toward the building, completely unaware that three people were staring at her like she was a ghost.
Shaan spoke first. "Okay… I'm starting to think we're not in a normal situation anymore."
Ryan couldn't disagree.
That evening, the three of them met again in Silent Garden.
Ryan explained everything he saw — the timers above everyone's heads, the maximum time being around 30 days, and Demo having no timer at all.
"So let's organize what we know," Shaan said, taking out a notebook.
"Good idea," Ryan said.
Shaan wrote on the first page:
RULES OF THE TIMER
Then he started writing:
The timer counts down to disappearance, not normal death.
If you interfere with fate, the timer changes and usually becomes shorter.
When the timer reaches zero, the person is erased and the world corrects itself.
Some people remember erased timelines.
Some people have no timer.
Shaan looked up. "Anything else?"
Ryan thought for a moment. Then he spoke slowly.
"Yeah," he said. "Add one more."
Shaan held his pen ready.
Ryan looked at Skye's timer in his memory.
30 days. Then 28. Then 27. Now 26.
Then he remembered the courtyard.
Everyone had less than 30 days.
"I think…" Ryan said slowly, "all the timers are connected."
Shaan frowned. "Connected how?"
Ryan spoke quietly.
"I think everyone's timer ends on the same day."
Silence filled the park.
Skye's eyes widened slightly.
"…The same day?" she repeated.
Ryan nodded.
"Yes," he said. "It's not that everyone is going to disappear randomly."
He looked at both of them.
"I think… something is going to happen in 26 days."
The wind blew through the trees again, making the leaves rustle like whispers.
Shaan closed the notebook slowly.
"…So basically," Shaan said, "we're not trying to save just Skye anymore."
Ryan looked at the red timer in his mind, counting down second by second.
"…Yeah," Ryan said quietly.
"We're trying to save everyone."