Born in apocalypse

’Cosmic.. Evol..u...t....i??’ For some reason, Dhruv forgot to ponder about why he was feeling a familiarity with these words. Instead of trying to remember that, his mind directly diverted toward the thing he was truly supposed to do...

Dhruv was just about to place the phone on the bed before heading to the bathroom when something suddenly caught his attention.

It was the big purple-colored title written over his phone. Looking at it, he remembered his purpose.

"Ohhh! Right, I have come to this page to check the names of the actresses.." Whispering this, he quickly began to scroll past the description of the play to see the section where the list of the characters was listed...

Even after scrolling for a while, when the only thing he was seeing was a big white screen with nothing on it, a frown appeared on his face.

For some reason, he was getting frustrated when there wasn’t any information about the crew on the webpage. He tried refreshing the page... then tried once again... again... still doing.

Even after a minute of nonstop refreshing when nothing happened, something inside of him clicked,

"Fuck this shit, why can’t it work properly for a second..." mumbling, he threw his phone on the ground with all the strength he could muster.

Crack!

The sound of the phone blasting into tens of pieces rang in the room as the realization of his deed hit him.

"Shit!!.." Whispering this, he quickly ran toward the broken pieces of the phone and tried to arrange them together. It didn’t take him long to realize that he had gone past the step of fixing it by just arranging them.

’What have I done that?’ Dhruv thought as he began to regret his decisions.

No matter how much he thought, he couldn’t figure out why he suddenly felt the burst of that intense emotion. He was quite shocked because he had always been this guy who thinks carefully about his decisions.

If he were the past Dhruv, he wouldn’t even have the thought of breaking that piece of technology.

’There clearly is something wrong with me... I feel like a totally different person..’ he thought as he tried to remember his past self.

Suddenly a frown appeared on his face as he noticed some unusual gaps in his memories.

’Uhhhh! What is this feeling, it feels like I’m missing something, but I don’t have a clue what it is... what has been happening to me for the past two days. Have I begun to develop some type of mental condition?’ Dhruv couldn’t help but think that he might really be seriously ill.

"Brother, I’m done; you can go now," Dhruv heard the sound of his brother coming from the bathroom.

As Dhruv focused on his brother’s voice, his concentration wavered, shifting away from the topic he was thinking about a moment ago as he found himself momentarily distracted.

Little did he know that this brief lapse would have severe consequences, as everything that he had meticulously built in his mind up to this point crumbled away without a hint of mercy.

It had happened so fast that Dhruv wasn’t even able to realize what had happened. Even though he didn’t realize it, there was someone who was keeping tabs on everything that was happening for the past two...

"Ohhh! Okay, get ready... I will come as soon as possible." Mumbling this, Dhruv walked into the bathroom to freshen up as well. After spending some time in the bathroom, he stopped in front of the mirror and began to admire the view he was seeing in front of him.

’Hmmm! I think after changing the color of my hair, I seem to get handsome... don’t I?’ he thought with a smile on his face.

’I mean, I can be a narcissist like this... I have to meet with someone and ask them?’ he thought as a clear image formed in his head. He didn’t know if it was a good decision or not, but there was nothing wrong in trying... right?

Hummm~~~

Humming in a good mood, Dhruv entered the room and began to get his clothes changed. He decided to pick comfortable clothes that wouldn’t make it difficult for him to travel all day around. For this, he chose... a slightly baggy white shirt, with black formal pants.

It wasn’t fancy, neither was it too bad. In Dhruv’s opinion, it was the perfect outfit for every occasion... from cutting food to cutting monsters.

Knowing that the ladies would need some time he decided to clear up something that was on his mind for a while. Having a complex set of thoughts in his head, he began to traverse through the hotel to reach the ground floor.

Reaching the floor, he instantly turned his head in a particular direction. He was hoping to see someone there... but to his disappointment, his wish didn’t come true.

’Where is she?’ Dhruv thought as a frown appeared on his face as he found out that the lady with the blindfold wasn’t there. Increasing the pace of his steps, he quickly reached the counter.

Looking at the man behind the counter he opened his mouth, "Excuse me, sir, but do you know where the lady before here is gone.."

Knowing that the girl with the blindfold didn’t work there, he had asked for the old lady who was connected with the women in some manner.

Instead of answering his question, the receptionist looked at Dhruv with confusion in his eyes. The receptionist changed into a myriad of emotions over the period of time... but he was still silent.

Finally getting the hang of it he asked, "I think you have mixed someone else, sir; no old lady is working here as a receptionist."

"Huh! Are you sure about that?" Dhruv asked, now with an expression of confusion on his face.

"Yes, sir, I’m absolutely sure about this... If you don’t mind me asking, why do you think that a lady is working here?" The receptionist asked with a weird look in his eyes.

Feeling a little uncomfortable by the look the man in front of him was giving, Dhruv replied, "Hmmm! Because my keys were handed out by her?"

"Ohhh! Can you provide me with the name if you could remember... Of course," the receptionist asked with a straight face.

"I don’t remember that old lady’s name, but there was this young woman with her as well. I think her name was... was??..." A frown appeared on his face as Dhruv realized that he couldn’t remember the name of that woman.

Looking at the confusion on Dhruv’s face, a smile appeared on his own. With someone’s iconic creepy smile, he asked, "Is there any problem sir? I’m still waiting for the name."

"Yeah! I just vaguely remember it... give me a few seconds.." Asking for some time, Dhruv tried to remember the name of the woman who was soon going to work in a play.

’Why can’t I remember her name..’ No matter how much he thought, Dhruv wasn’t able to get a single clue about her name.

Not accepting any defeat, he began to trace back the tracks on how he had gotten introduced to the lady.

’I had come to check it... I saw her... She was blind... I apologized... She didn’t take it as a big deal...’ Pieces by piece, he began to connect the dots that were connecting him with the lady.

After a moment of thought, he finally found a breaking point,

’Yes! She is working on the play called Born in Apocalypse... it was basic but with all types of interesting things as well. There was cosmic evolution, systems, stats, skills, magic, abilities, exclusive abilities...’

The moment he got to a particular point, a strong headache began to form in his head. The headache was so severe that he was almost about to forget about her. Gritting his teeth, Dhruv... 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Ahhhh!

The pain increased with each second but eventually, Dhruv had the answer he was waiting for. Despite the great pain, he looked at the receptionist with a look of contempt and answered, "Yes, I remember now... Her name was Lyra."

Saying these words, Dhruv stared at the guy’s face to see his reaction to this information. He was right to think of this as there was some drastic change in the man.

The smile on the receptionist’s face changed from smiling to hatred. Bloodlust began to loose out from him as he loooked at Dhruv with a strong sense of malice.

Looking in his direction, it opened its mouth, "%$& *&& *$#"

The moment he heard the cryptic voice of the monster in front of him, the headache within him increased by... who knows how much.

Enduring the pain while grabbing his head. Staring the man directly in his soul he whispers, "You better be ready... HAHAHA, I’m coming bac..."

Before he could finish his words, everything around him shattered. The floor he was standing on, the hotel in which the floor was, the city, the earth, and eventually the universe got destroyed as well.

Everything was once again replaced by the void, with complete whiteness

In that void, a man was floating without any disturbance. Despite witnessing the end of all, there was nothing but a smile on his face.

But... But someone was there who didn’t like this smile. A giant tentacle spawned out of nowhere as it began to move toward the sleeping floating body in the void.

Without wasting a moment, it stuck its limb into the man’s head and began to suck something out of him. After just five seconds of sucking, it disappears without a trace.

The moment it disappeared, the universe began to bloom again. It almost seems like the tentacles had the power to prevent everything, but there was one thing they couldn’t prevent...

It didn’t have the power to stop... Evolution.