120 Days

A countdown. A message. A threat

I woke up at 5:42 a.m. with my heart pounding so hard it felt like someone had knocked on my chest.

The room was dark blue, lit by early morning light. 
For a few seconds, I didn’t move.

I just stared at the window.

Because the dream still felt alive. 

It started so normally.

I was returning home from somewhere nearby. My colony was literally a five-minute walk away. I could already see the electric poles near our lane.

But for some reason.. I boarded a bus.

I still remember that feeling from the dream, the strange awareness that something was wrong, even though everything looked ordinary.

The bus was nearly empty.

A mother sleeping against the window.
An older man chewing paan.
Four men are sitting together near the back.

And one kid.

Maybe ten years old.

He sat alone.

Barefoot.

School uniform covered in dust.

At first, he looked scared.

Then he smiled.

Not like a child.

Like someone pretending to be one.

The bus stopped near a roadside tea stall after my stop. I remember feeling irritated.

“Why didn’t I get down earlier?” I asked myself.

That’s when the kid stood up.

He pulled out a knife..

No shouting.

No warning.

Just movement.

Fast.

Wet.

Silent.

By the time people understood what was happening, four men were already dead.

Their throats..

I still remember the sound more than the blood.

The bus driver tried to run.

The boy looked at him.

And suddenly the driver froze.

Like his body had stopped listening to him.

That’s when the world changed.

Not slowly.

Instantly.

The sky outside became pale grey.
The buildings looked stretched..
Electric wires moved like veins under the air.
The road no longer felt like Earth.

It felt controlled.

Like something huge was watching from above.

The boy stepped off the bus.

And everyone followed him.

Not willingly.

Like puppets.

I observed..

I don’t know how long.

The roads kept changing. Streets folded into places I had never seen. Shops had no names. Dogs stood still like statues.

Then I met them.

Two people..

A man around thirty.
A girl may be my age.

Both terrified.

Both exhausted.

And both carrying the same thing I had.

A message. 

 120 DAYS

No sender.

No explanation.

Just those words burned into our phones.

The man told me they had been tracking “the activity.”

Every night, strange black patterns spread slowly across the ground near the bus stop, like cracks growing under invisible glass.

And every day..

People disappeared.

No news reports.
No police cases.
Nothing.

As if the world itself was hiding it.

“We tried leaving,” the girl said.

“It follows.”

“Who?” I asked.

Neither of them answered.

Because deep down..

We already knew.

It wasn’t human.

Days passed.

Then months.

The three of us stayed in contact secretly. Never speaking on calls. Never message directly. Always changing locations.

But no matter where we went..

We would see signs.

A child staring too long.
A stranger smiling at us in a crowd.
Footsteps behind us in empty streets.

Like something was learning us.

Studying us.

Counting down.

Day 97.

Cracks began appearing in the ground in our colony..

Day 103.  

Birds stopped sitting on electric wires.

Day 111.

Everyone in the colony suddenly received money.

Exactly 10 crore rupees.

No source.

No bank history.

Just transferred.

People celebrated..

Bought gold. Cars. Phones.

But we knew the truth.

“If you use the money,” the man whispered, “they’ll find you faster.”

“How?” I asked.

He looked at me with dead eyes.

“Because it isn’t money.”

That night, I saw my neighbor counting cash in his room.

At 2:14 a.m., all the lights in his house switched off..

At once.

Then came the screaming.

By morning..

The house was empty.

No blood.

No bodies.

Just wet footprints leading upward across the ceiling.

Day 120.

We decided to leave the city before sunset.

No phones.
No ATM cards.
No vehicles.

Just walk..

Disappear.

We reached the highway outside town while the sky turned orange.

For the first time in months..

It felt peaceful.

Then, every phone around us began ringing at once.

Hundreds of them.

Inside houses.
Inside pockets.
Inside moving cars.

One sound.

One vibration.

The girl slowly checked her dead phone.

The screen was ON.

A message appeared.

WE FOUND YOU

The road beneath us started cracking.

Not breaking.

Opening..

Like something underneath was breathing.

The man began crying.

The girl couldn’t move.

And then..

We saw it.

Above the clouds.

Something enormous is shifting behind the sky itself.

Not flying.

Watching.

Waiting.

Coming closer.

The last thing I remember from the dream,

It was a child’s voice.

The same boy from the bus.

Softly saying:

“You were never escaping.

You were only being counted.”

I woke up instantly.

5:42 a.m.

Sweating.

Breathing hard.

I looked around my room to make sure everything was normal.

The fan.
The wall clock.
The window.

Then I walked to the window and looked outside.

For one second..

I imagined a meteor falling from the sky.

And right then..

A white contrail appeared across the morning clouds.

Long.

Sharp.

Silent.

I stood frozen.

Then slowly took out my phone..

and clicked a picture.

After the dream, it didn't feel normal anymore