The next morning felt… off.
Maarun stood in the kitchen, staring at the stove as water boiled for tea. His eyes were tired, and not just from lack of sleep. He couldn't stop thinking about the dream — if it even was one.
A dead body. A shadow. A second version of this world. The dice glowing like it had a heartbeat.
He looked at the small black cube resting beside the kettle.
Silent. Innocent. Watching.
"Bro, are you okay or did the dice eat your brain?" Dev asked over breakfast.
Maarun hesitated. "Can we talk?"
Dev and Roshan both looked at him. He never asked for serious conversations.
"I saw something last night. After I fell asleep holding the dice."
He told them everything — or at least, the parts that made sense. The version of the room with the red sky. The body. The shadow. The feeling that something was pulling him.
Silence.
Roshan blinked. "...You dreamt that?"
"No," Maarun said firmly. "I felt it. I was there."
Dev chuckled awkwardly. "You were holding a glowing rock and watching anime before bed. Of course you tripped."
Maarun looked at them both. "I'm serious. Something's not right with this dice."
To prove it, he picked it up and held it in his palm.
Nothing happened.
No glow. No shift.
He felt foolish.
Roshan raised an eyebrow. "Okay, maybe it is messing with your brain."
Maarun sighed and placed it back on the table. "Forget it."
Later that night, all three were sitting on the floor of their apartment, playing a lazy board game, with music playing low in the background. The dice sat on the edge of the table, untouched but ever-present.
"I still think it looks too clean to be that old," Roshan said. "Could be part of an art project or something."
"Or maybe a prank," Dev added. "You ever think we're already on a hidden camera show? Like a desi Black Mirror?"
Maarun didn't laugh.
He felt it again — that static hum in the air. The lights flickered.
The dice rolled off the table by itself.
Click. Click. Click.
It landed on the ground — glowing now.
They all stood up.
"Okay…" Roshan said slowly, "did you kick it?"
"No," Maarun whispered.
The room began to bend. Not physically — but like a reflection in disturbed water.
The dice rose into the air.
Symbols lit up on each side now — glowing like small suns.
And then—
The ground vanished.
All three of them fell.
No scream. No impact.
Just a rush of wind, like they were being pulled through the eye of a storm, light spinning in impossible colors, and then—
Silence.
They landed on solid ground, coughing and confused.
The sky above was violet. Trees twisted into impossible shapes. The air smelled like burnt metal and jasmine.
Dev stood up, wiping dust off his hoodie. "Did we just— what the hell—?"
Roshan pointed ahead, eyes wide.
A giant gate, ancient and golden, stood before them. Words in a language none of them knew floated in the air, glowing and shifting.
Maarun looked down at his hand. The dice was gone.
In its place was a faint mark — the circle symbol, burned onto his palm.
He looked at the others.
They had the same.