"Not all awakenings begin with thunder. Some begin with a glance that lingers too long, or a step that feels too heavy."
Final week of school.
Uniforms were half-buttoned. Teachers more lenient. Some students scribbled farewell notes in textbooks; others made jokes too loud, trying to hold off the weight of parting.
But Vikran, Ameira, and Rudren weren't talking much at all.
Because each of them had started to notice things that didn't feel… human.
The Small Phenomena
Ameira had begun to sense people's presence before they arrived.
Once, she looked up from her notebook and said, "Someone's behind me," before the teacher even entered the class.
She smiled, brushing it off. "Lucky guess."
But her smile didn't reach her eyes.
Rudren's touch left brief scorch marks. Not burns, just traces — marks on door handles, the metallic taste in the air around him. No one else noticed.
He did.
And Vikran?
He found that the animals around the farm — especially the young calves — began to approach him when he was silent.
Once, during a thunderstorm, all the goats huddled near him instead of the covered shed.
His mother noticed.
"They sense something in you," she said gently.
"Like what?" Vikran asked, not really wanting to hear the answer.
She just smiled.
School Day Rituals
Their trio hadn't officially broken apart — but everyone felt it.
Ameira had received her acceptance letter to a university abroad. Rudren had secured a local engineering seat. Vikran had chosen to stay and help with the farm while taking classes nearby.
"Long-distance texts count as friendship, right?" Ameira joked.
"No," Rudren said bluntly.
But when she looked disappointed, he added, "Video calls do."
Vikran nodded. "And surprise visits."
They didn't hug.
But the space between them grew quieter.
Environment Responds
It was around this time that things truly began to shift.
• Ameira entered a bookstore and every page she passed fluttered open as she walked by.
• Rudren accidentally shattered a bulb just by staring too long at it while upset.
• Vikran noticed that fallen leaves on the path began to swirl behind him as he moved — even when there was no breeze.
They didn't speak about it.
They should have.
But how do you explain the impossible?
"Hey, I think the world is reacting to me."
It sounded insane — even in their own minds.
Letters and Certainty
Ameira received her final travel documents.
Rudren's joining date was fixed.
Vikran's mother reminded him gently, "You'll be the first in our family to balance both work and higher studies."
He smiled and nodded.
But inside him, a question had begun to grow — unspoken, slow, steady:
"Why me?"
And across three homes, three beds, three silent nights — something else echoed within each soul:
"Soon."
To be continued