I wasn't supposed to win.
Not the lottery ticket I bought as a joke outside the station. Not the stupid bet I made with Armaan during lunch. And definitely not the fight after school that I had no business winning.
But that day… I won everything.
It started small.
The ticket cost me ten rupees. I scratched it without even looking, already thinking about throwing it away. Then I saw the numbers
.
All of them matched.
For a second, I just stared. Then I laughed.
It felt unreal—like one of those rare moments where life finally decides to be fair.
"Looks like your luck finally showed up," Armaan joked when I told him.
"Yeah," I said, still smiling. "Finally."
But something about it felt… off.
I ignored that feeling.
At school, things got weirder.
There was a surprise test in math.
The kind teachers love and students hate. I hadn't studied. Not even a little.
Still, I finished the paper faster than anyone.
Every answer just… came to me.
When the results were announced the same day, my name was at the top.
Full marks.
"Cheating?" someone whispered behind me.
I didn't react. I didn't know how to react.
I should've been happy.
But I wasn't.
The last thing happened after school.
A group of seniors stopped me near the gate. It wasn't unusual—they liked picking on juniors. Usually, I avoided trouble.
That day, I didn't get the chance.
One of them shoved me. "Where do you think you're going?"
I should've backed off.
I didn't.
Everything that followed felt like it was happening on its own. Every punch I threw landed perfectly.
Every move they made missed me by inches.
Within seconds, it was over.
They were on the ground.
I was still standing.
Breathing hard. Confused.
"How…?" I whispered.
No answer came.
By the time I reached home, the excitement had faded.
In its place was something else.
A quiet, uncomfortable feeling.
Like I had taken something that didn't belong to me.
That night, I couldn't sleep.
I kept replaying the day in my head.
The ticket. The test. The fight.
Winning wasn't new.
Winning like this was.
Too easy.
Too perfect.
At 6:42 PM, my phone buzzed.
A notification from a news app.
I almost ignored it.
But something made me open it.
"Teen dies in a road accident."
I sighed. Just another headline. Another stranger. Another tragedy that had nothing to do with me.
My thumb hovered over the screen, ready to close it.
Then I noticed the time.
6:42 PM.
I frowned.
That was… familiar.
I checked again.
6:42 PM.
The exact moment I had scratched the lottery ticket.
The exact second my numbers matched.
My chest tightened.
"No way…" I muttered.
It was just a coincidence.
It had to be.
People win things every day. People die every day.
There was no connection.
No reason to think otherwise.
Right?
I locked my phone and threw it on the bed.
But I couldn't shake the feeling.
That quiet voice in the back of my mind—
The one I had ignored all day.
You didn't just get lucky.
Someone else lost it.
I sat there in the dark, staring at nothing.
And for the first time that day…
Winning didn't feel good anymore