@MidnightNewsNow: “BREAKING NEWS: Mass disappearance of personnel at multiple locations in Chicago, New York, and Dallas. Authorities have cordoned off the sites.”

  @EarlyCommuter: “Police blocking Canary Wharf entry at 5 am. They’re saying, ‘incident inside.’ My sister’s on night shift, no word from her yet.”

  @BBCBreaking: “Unconfirmed reports of unexplained disappearances at multiple places across the UK. Officials urge the public to remain calm.”

  @BangaloreBuzz: “Prestige Tech Park gates closed. Police everywhere. Heard an entire office team is missing. #BangaloreNews”

  @NDTVBreaking: “Mass disappearances reported in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Hyderabad. Govt. convenes an emergency meeting.”

  [REDDIT, R/CONSPIRACY]

  “Mass vanishings confirmed in London, Chicago, Mumbai, Tokyo. Same time stamp. Same story: people inside just gone. The building is still there.”

  Top Comment: “Check drone footage of Chicago site — windows cracked from the inside. And… is that plant growth on floor 35?”

  Reply: “That’s not ivy, dude. That’s ALIEN.”

  —Civilian responses on the day of The Crossing

  Varun POV

  Mahesh jabbed a finger at Varun. “What the hell was that? What did you do?” Confusion, not fear, colored his voice, as if he believed Varun knew something more.

  Rohan’s face was calmer, but the set of his jaw betrayed tension. “What was that, Varun? What did you do with that crystal?”

  “I don’t know. I just… when I touched the crystal, words appeared in my vision,” Varun said, trying to recall what he’d seen. He flinched as the words suddenly appeared again:

  Name: Varun Sharma

  Race: Human (Tier 0)

  Traits [0/1]: None

  Strength: 4

  Agility: 8

  Endurance: 3

  Vitality: 3

  Perception: 2

  Intelligence: 3

  Willpower: 3

  Charisma: 2

  Affinities: None

  Skills [1/3]:

  Dash (Common)—Level 1

  “It’s there again! Don’t you see?” he called out. He looked around to see confusion etched on the faces of his colleagues. He was doubting his sanity—am I going insane? What the hell is happening to me? Is this even real, or am I still stuck at work? Please just go away, he thought, and to his surprise, the words and numbers vanished from his sight.

  “Varun, are you alright?” Sid asked, concern clear on his face.

  Varun’s jaw tightened. “No, I am fucking not alright, I am seeing things which shouldn’t be there, Sid.” As he thought of seeing the words again, they appeared before his eyes, frustrating him further. He willed the words away before sitting down on the ground, exhausted.

  Aditi hugged herself and slid down a tree, shaking. “I just want to go home…” Her voice broke, eyes glistening.

  Sid walked over to the dead boar, turning it over using his spear, checking its vicinity.

  “What are you doing?” Mahesh kept his voice even though an edge remained.

  Sid crouched by the carcass. “Checking if there are more such crystals.”

  Varun looked up, gazing past Sid. If we can find more crystals, we could determine whether I am hallucinating, thought Varun.

  Rohan moved into his line of sight. “Varun, tell me what you see that the rest of us cannot.”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  He nudged Varun’s elbow. “Varun.”

  Varun blinked hard and came back to them. “What?” A sharp focus lit his eyes, as if he had just caught a thrown line.

  “What do you see that the rest of us can’t?” He repeated his question.

  There was a brief glimpse of focus in Varun’s eyes before he gained a spaced-out look. “Name: Varun Sharma, Race: Human, Tier 0 in brackets…”, he started narrating what he was seeing to the rest of the group.

  “Sounds like you are reading from an ID card”, Rohan said, watching Varun’s focus settle and lift.

  Sid stepped beside Varun and peered at the empty air. “More like a game status screen, like the Jumanji movie.”

  “Right! Right!” Varun shot up and gripped Sid’s shoulders. “I thought I was losing my mind. Are we stuck in a game, Sid?” His breath came quick, the words too loud in the quiet.

  “I don’t know.” Sid shrugged, peeling Varun’s hands off.

  Rohan kept his tone even. “Do you see anything else, Varun? And what are we supposed to do now?” He scanned the space in front of Varun, expecting to find the answer.

  Varun squinted at the floating panel. “No. I tried focusing on every word. Nothing extra.” His gaze drifted to the skills section and settled on Dash. The light around that word seemed to tighten. He leaned in, chasing a feeling that something waited just beyond his reach.

  He closed his eyes and willed the status screen to appear in his mind, and to his surprise, it worked. Focusing on the Dash skill, he felt he could use it… but there was something holding him back, something stopping him from activating it.

  The boar had moved too fast for the eye to see, its speed defying nature. Could it be that the Dash skill came from the boar? He had played games where skills dropped from monsters upon their death. Did the boar have Dash? Was that why it moved like that? His mind raced, thoughts leaping from one conclusion to another.

  He took a running posture and, closing his eyes, concentrated on the Dash skill, but nothing happened.

  “What are you doing?” Sid asked, his head tilted and confusion apparent on his face.

  “I am trying to use the Dash skill”, Varun said to the audience, who just gave him a blank stare.

  Rohan observed the women as they attended to the man who had just been chased by the boar. He sat against a tree a short distance away, exhausted and pale. They had stopped after the boar broke off and turned to watch the fight. But now, their focus was on his injury—one girl wrapping a dupatta around his thigh while the other held him steady. He started walking over to the group.

  “Is he alright?” asked Rohan, glancing at the three who had brought them the boar.

  The man’s head moved as if it weighed a hundred pounds, but he nodded all the same. He looked like he was about to cry out in pain but held it back through sheer determination.

  “Put pressure on the wound to reduce blood flow,” Rohan instructed, kneeling beside the girl as she struggled to secure her dupatta around the man’s leg. The dirt beneath them was smeared with blood, and the sharp scent of iron clung to the air.

  She fumbled with the fabric, her hands shaking.

  “Here, let me try.” Rohan slid a short stick beneath the tie, and twisted until the cloth tightened. The man hissed and gripped his sleeve.

  “I have some first aid training from NCC. Let me know if the pain jumps.” Rohan kept his eyes on the man’s face. “Breathe with me. In. Out.”

  The man nodded through gritted teeth.

  “Here, hold this,” Rohan said, guiding the tourniquet into his hands. “That should slow the bleeding.” He stood and waved the others over. “Aditi, come here. All of you.”

  “How did you guys get here?” asked Rohan, turning to one of the girls.

  “We were just at the office,” she began, her words tumbling out. “Then suddenly… the forest. We didn’t know what was happening. And when we saw the boar, we ran. It chased us. Then you killed it.” She pointed weakly at the boar, now still. Her chest lifted in rapid breaths, and her voice thinned, the fear she had kept down returning as memory caught up with her words.

  Rohan had expected their story to mirror his own, but part of him still hoped they might know something more—a detail, a direction, anything that could guide them through the woods that surrounded them.

  “Can you stand?” he asked the man, crouching to examine the leg again. His eyes scanned the bruising, the way the man winced.

  The injured man gritted his teeth and leaned on his friend’s shoulder, and slowly rose to his feet. He managed, though he clearly had to keep most of his weight off the injured leg. No obvious fracture, at least.

  Around them, the forest rustled quietly. Aditi and the rest of the team gathered near, their expressions tight with concern. Only Varun stood apart, half-turned toward the trees, striking strange poses and blinking as if in a trance.

  “Are you guys alright?” Sid asked, his voice steady as he glanced at the injured man.

  “He needs a doctor. We need to get help!” The fast-talking girl supporting him burst out. Her voice trembled, eyes darting from face to face, hoping someone had a plan.

  Mahesh stepped forward, hands open, then clenched. “Where are we supposed to get help? We’re in the middle of nowhere.” His voice thinned on the last word. He looked back at the injured man, jaw tight, fear leaking through.

  “Mahesh, please,” Rohan said, stepping between him and the others. His tone was firm but measured, trying to steady the rising panic. He turned to the group. “You were also in Prestige Tech Park?” he asked, looking from face to face.

  “Yes. We were in the lift; that’s all I remember,” the girl said. Her voice trembled slightly, but she held her ground. “Please help us. Yogesh needs a doctor.”

  Rohan exhaled slowly and looked around at the endless trees and unfamiliar terrain. “We don’t know where we are, and none of our phones work. The only chance we have is to find other people. Maybe someone out there can help him.”

  Sid nodded and rummaged through a patch of brush. “Let’s try to find more people. Someone might be able to help him.” He picked up a thick branch and tested its strength. “This might work as a crutch.”

  Before he could turn back, a blur shot past the group and struck him hard, sending him tumbling to the ground. The others froze, caught between confusion and alarm, eyes scanning the trees for whatever had just hit them.

  “Ah…” Aditi screamed as she ran toward Rohan. Mahesh pointed the stick he was holding at Sid.

  “Get off me, asshole!” Sid kicked Varun.

  Varun untangled himself from Sid and stood. “I may have figured out how to use Dash.” He rubbed the back of his head and offered a quick, guilty smile.