The class went dead silent the moment my younger self slapped the soul out of Blackface.

  Some girls covered their faces.

  The boys leaned forward unknowingly, excited to see a brawl.

  Unfortunately, none of their faces were visible to me. They were blurred… vague and lifeless.

  They possessed no individuality at all.

  I was only able to decipher their reactions because of the subtle gestures they made.

  The blank faces were accompanied by distorted ones.

  A shiver ran down my spine when all these inhuman creatures looked in my direction.

  To me, the classroom looked no different from any nightmare—The kind of nightmare where you are haunted by creatures that bear no resemblance to humanity.

  They had no eyes to see, no mouths to speak.

  Unable to endure their blank faces and complete absence of humanity, I tore my gaze away from them and prayed in my heart that tonight I wouldn't scream in my sleep.

  Meanwhile, Blackface stood petrified, unable to comprehend what had just transpired.

  Neither version of me spoke.

  The silence was broken by whispers and soft footsteps near the door.

  A middle-aged lady in a saree stood outside, a frown twisting her brows.

  She was our class teacher. We studied social studies with her. She was also responsible for our batch's academic progress that year.

  Seeing how quiet the entire class was,

  she made a disgusted expression and spoke:

  "Class, what's going on here?"

  No one spoke.

  "And for what reason are both of you boys standing?"

  Complete silence.

  I could hear our social-studies ma'am ask once again:

  "Class, answer me. What's going on?"

  Again, she was met with silent gazes.

  Anger flared in her eyes. Then she snapped her fingers toward my direction.

  "Hey! Both of you, get here immediately."

  Facing her angry eyes, both students wisely chose to obey.

  First, she questioned Blackface about what had happened.

  Blackface didn't dare to utter even a single word.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  She turned toward me, lowered her angry tone, and said:

  "This is my first time seeing you. Are you perhaps a new student?"

  "Yes, teacher!" my past self answered obediently.

  She inquired once again:

  "So, my child, can you tell me what happened here?"

  Before young me could even answer she said " while you are at it, introduce yourself too"

  My past self said something, then recited everything that had occurred that morning:

  from how he was forced to sit at the first desk, to how Blackface tried to bully him,

  and how he slapped Blackface with a slipper.

  The more my past self spoke, the more disgusted my teacher's expression became.

  But I wasn't able to hear anything because

  there was a beep sound.

  It made me deaf to whatever he was saying. Perhaps it was my own name, but I couldn't be sure.

  I mean why wouldn't I be able to hear my own name.

  Wait…

  My name… what was it?

  An unknown fear crawled its way into my heart.Why couldn't I remember my own name?

  Damnation.

  It was all the fault of that sinister monster.

  It wasn't satisfied with devouring my memories…so,now it had started devouring me.

  Today I lost my name to it. Tomorrow, I might very well lose my entire being.

  I forced my mind to remember my name, but I failed miserably.

  After what felt like an eternity, my brain finally recalled something… not my name, but a pseudo-name — KARAN.

  My inner struggle came to a halt, and I achieved a temporary peace of mind.

  At that moment, ma'am was shouting:

  "And you, Mr. Karan… today is your first day at school, and you're already involved in a mess."

  "He hit me first," my past self protested.

  "I understand where you're coming from, but if Mr. ??? tried to bully you, shouldn't you have complained to me or any other teacher?"

  There was another beep sound, making my ears ring. But this time I was prepared, so it didn't affect me as much.

  I had a few doubts, though. Why did ma'am call me Karan? As far as I remembered, I gave myself this name years later… after my school life.

  So how could she possibly know I was also known as Karan?

  Was my mind filling in the gaps

  subconsciously?

  Now that I didn't know my true name… whenever someone called me by it, did my mind replace it with my pseudo-name?

  My head hurt.

  The ma'am kept scolding:

  "And you, Mr.???, is this how you behave with a new classmate?"

  Blackface's head hung low. And it went lower and lower as ma'am scolded him.

  Once again my ears went deaf with an irritating sound.

  I could barely pick up the lady's voice:

  "You are supposed to be kind and nice to everyone. Isn't that what we always teach you children?"

  She took a deep breath before continuing:

  "You've disappointed me, Mr.???."

  A peculiar sound hit my ear once again, and this time I lost control and fell to the ground with a thud sound.

  No one noticed me, as if I were a ghost.

  The reprimanding session continued.

  The class teacher gave both students a deep glare.After a while, she said:

  "You two, apologise to each other and promise me that this won't happen again."

  *AM I CLEAR?* Her voice sounded as if she would accept no disobedience.

  "Yes, ma'am," the young boys said before apologising to each other.

  With this little interesting event coming to an end,a good half of the period was already wasted.

  The teacher sat down, pressing her fingers against her forehead in frustration.

  Blackface's demeanor collapsed along with his earlier arrogance.

  Afterall,Humiliation was a pill hard to swallow.

  He had tried to bully a new student, but he had never expected that guy to react so viciously.

  Across the room, Karan was grinning.

  In his head: Feels fucking good to finally hit back.

  Meanwhile, the class teacher ordered:

  "Karan, go and sit on the last desk."

  Since Blackface was sitting on the second bench, she naturally wanted to keep distance between the two.

  Unable to suppress his smile, my past self headed toward the last second bench.Toward the window seat.

  I was shocked to see my past self's thoughts leaking from his skull like smoke:

  [Serves the bastard right. Should've hit him harder. A few more times.]

  I was in the midst of reading my own venom when something wet popped behind me.

  I turned back, but I was petrified by what I saw.

  The social-studies teacher's chair was empty.

  In her place was a steaming pile of raw meat. The chair legs had sunk into it as if it were mud.

  Then a rough shattering sound was heard.

  I looked toward the noise.

  The faces of my old classmates which already blurry and distorted in my memories — were breaking apart.

  One girl's mouth split horizontally, giving her a terrifying wide smile.

  A boy's entire jaw was missing.

  A group of students were mutating to become a single entity.

  Some were so grotesque that the sight alone made my stomach churn.

  The ones I used to call Blackface, Greenface, Blueface, and so on simply came undone.

  The air filled with the smell of blood and rotting flesh.

  I couldn't fathom what was happening.

  I tried to scream, but before I could I felt my tongue dissolve Into a red mist.

  I watched in horror as my younger self melted like candle wax.

  The whole classroom changed.

  Desks bent as if they were made of rubber.

  The blackboard melted into black liquid.

  Then the rain started falling.

  What came down wasn't water, but sharp objects that glimmered in the sunlight.

  It wasn't simply a rain of glass.

  The world was coming undone along with that rain.

  I felt a heavy pull towards the centre of the world.

  There was an immense light, and my sight went dark.

  [The first memory of mine came to an end]

  * * *

  I once again found myself breathing heavily inside my own room.

  The broken shards of the mirror glistened in the moonlight.

  As soon as I regained my consciousness a single piece of mirror lost it glimmer.

  The broken piece of mirror was unique. It was only piece of glass that doesn't have my memories running in it.

  As soon as I relaxed a strange text shot it's way from the shard and hit perfectly on my head.Making me disappear from my own room.

  I reappeared once again inside my memories.

  And like that…

  [ The Second memory of mine began]