Ryan did not speak for a long time after Skye said those words.
"It's counting down to the moment your existence gets erased."
Erased.
Not dead.
Not injured.
Not in a hospital.
Erased — like you were never born.
Like you never existed.
Ryan sat on the bench in Silent Garden, staring at the ground, trying to understand what kind of world he was living in now.
"…So when the timer reaches zero," Ryan said slowly, "the person disappears from existence?"
Skye nodded once. "That's what the boy believed. And after what I saw… I think he was right."
Shaan crossed his arms. "But if people get erased, shouldn't everyone notice? Family, friends, school records, photos… something should be missing."
Skye looked at him. "That's the scary part. When someone gets erased… the world corrects itself. It becomes a world where that person never existed in the first place."
Ryan felt a cold chill run through his body.
"So memories change?" Ryan asked.
Skye nodded. "Yes. Memories, photos, documents. Everything. The only people who remember are the ones connected to the timer… like the boy who saved me."
Ryan pointed at himself slowly. "And now… me."
"Yes," Skye said.
Shaan exhaled slowly. "So basically, Ryan is now part of some death countdown system, and if he gets too involved, he might get deleted from the world. Great. Amazing. Wonderful. I should have stayed home today."
Ryan would normally laugh at Shaan's sarcasm, but right now he couldn't.
He kept thinking about one thing.
"If the world corrects itself," Ryan said, "then what is the correct version? The version where Skye dies? Or the version where that boy dies? Or this version?"
No one had an answer.
The wind moved the leaves of the trees above them, and the red timer above Skye's head continued moving like nothing they said mattered.
26:42:11
26:42:10
26:42:09
Ryan looked at it and felt pressure in his chest.
"I need to know something," Ryan said.
Skye looked at him. "What?"
"In the last timeline," Ryan said, "before the accident… did the timer ever change?"
Skye thought for a moment.
"…Yes," she said.
Ryan leaned forward. "When?"
"The day before the accident," Skye said. "The boy stopped me from going somewhere. I don't even remember where. But after that, he looked very scared."
"Why?" Shaan asked.
Skye looked at Ryan.
"He said the timer suddenly dropped," she said.
Ryan's heart started beating faster.
"Dropped? From how much to how much?" Ryan asked.
Skye answered quietly.
"From 2 days… to 5 hours."
Silence filled the air again.
Shaan spoke first this time. "…So interfering makes the timer worse."
Ryan nodded slowly. "Yeah. That's exactly what happened with Mr. Halden too."
Ryan stood up suddenly.
"I need to test something," he said.
"Test what?" Shaan asked.
"The timer," Ryan replied. "I need to know the rules. What makes it drop? What makes it reset? What makes it change?"
Skye stood up too. "You're talking about experimenting with people's lives."
Ryan looked at her. "If I don't understand the rules, I can't save you."
Skye didn't reply.
Because she knew he was right.
The next day, Ryan reached school with Shaan earlier than usual again.
"I still think this is a bad idea," Shaan said. "We're basically playing with death mechanics like it's a video game."
Ryan looked around the courtyard.
Timers.
Above many people.
Different times.
Different lengths.
Then Ryan saw a small timer above a student sitting near the fountain.
01:12:33
Ryan pointed. "That one."
Shaan looked. "Okay. What's the plan?"
Ryan thought for a moment. "Yesterday, the teacher's timer reset when we changed his path. So today, we try something smaller. Something simple."
"Like what?" Shaan asked.
Ryan looked at the student again. He was drinking juice and looking at his phone.
"Maybe the timer is connected to a specific event," Ryan said. "So if we change small things, maybe the timer changes slightly."
Shaan nodded slowly. "So we test small interference first."
Ryan walked to the vending machine, bought a bottle of water, then walked toward the student.
"Hey," Ryan said, handing him the water. "You dropped this near the vending machine."
The student looked confused. "This isn't mine."
"Oh," Ryan said. "Sorry, wrong person."
The student shrugged. "No problem."
Ryan walked back to Shaan immediately.
"Well?" Shaan asked.
Ryan looked at the timer.
01:12:33
It didn't change.
"Okay… small interaction doesn't change anything," Ryan said.
"Try something bigger," Shaan said.
Ryan hesitated. Then he noticed the student's bag was open, and his notebook was about to fall out.
Ryan walked past him and "accidentally" bumped the bench.
The notebook fell to the ground.
"Oh, sorry," Ryan said, picking it up and handing it back.
The student looked annoyed but took it. "Watch where you're going."
Ryan walked back to Shaan and looked at the timer again.
The timer flickered.
Ryan's eyes widened.
01:12:33
It changed.
00:52:11
Ryan felt his heart drop.
"It decreased," he said quietly.
Shaan's expression became serious. "By 20 minutes…"
"So even small changes affect the timer," Ryan said.
They both looked at the student again.
"Ryan," Shaan said quietly, "I think the timer is not just showing death…"
Ryan looked at him. "Then what?"
Shaan spoke slowly.
"I think the timer shows the 'fixed point'… the moment that cannot be avoided."
Ryan felt a chill run down his spine.
At that moment, a scream came from the fountain area.
Ryan and Shaan turned around.
The student they had just interacted with was on the ground, holding his neck, unable to breathe.
The juice bottle lay beside him.
A label on the bottle read:
Peanut Protein Drink
Ryan's eyes widened.
"Peanut…" Ryan whispered.
The student's face was turning red. His body was shaking.
"He's allergic," Shaan said.
Ryan looked up slowly.
The timer above the student's head was almost at zero.
00:00:12
00:00:11
00:00:10
Ryan felt his legs freeze.
00:00:05
00:00:04
00:00:03
The student collapsed.
Students started shouting for help.
Ryan stood there, unable to move, staring at the timer.
00:00:00
The red numbers disappeared.
Completely.
Ryan's hands started shaking.
"…It disappeared," he whispered.
Shaan looked at him. "What disappeared?"
"The timer," Ryan said, his voice shaking. "When it reached zero… it didn't reset…"
Ryan looked at the place above the student's head.
"There's nothing there now."
Shaan's face slowly became serious.
"…Ryan," he said quietly, "look around."
Ryan looked around the courtyard.
Then his eyes widened.
Because above every single person's head…
Timers had appeared.
Red timers.
Hundreds of them.
All counting down.
And all of them were less than 30 days.