Chapter Text
Ali stared at the plain, boring blue wall, still trying to somehow process everything.
He thought that everything that was happening right now was not surprising. But ever since he had been tossed into a swapped world that is cursed just because he made a wish on a whim, he had been seeing it; the monsters, the glitching and god knows what else. He does not even know what the words that "thing" said meant. Save the world? How? The universe is an unpredictable thing. How is he able to fix something that he does not have the ability to access? After a brief moment, he looked at his alarm clock again. After ensuring it was not going to glitch anytime soon, he groggily stood up and out of pure instinct, started tidying the bed as if it carried some form of disease before making his way towards the toilet.
As he was brushing his teeth, he looked up and saw his reflection — a boy that seemed to have matured too quickly despite his young age. He thought about his life when he was not trapped in this world, where the people he cared about had died.
Mama, Agent Zain…
Agent Zain was the only one who cared and helped him improved while others had looked at Ali like he had committed an unforgivable sin. But he died because of UNO…
And his mother was the glue keeping his family together. But ever since her departure, his father dedicated his entire life into his work, getting busier and busier each day, and becoming so stressed that he couldn't even hold a conversation with his son without getting something work related all of a sudden or snapping at his son’s incompetence, his eyes always having some sort of fog in it.
Ali gritted his teeth, blinking back tears.
No, this is not the time to be crying. I still need to find out how to go back to my own world! Ali’s eyes sparked with determination as he finished brushing his teeth and quickly completed his morning routine before heading out of the house.
When Ali stepped into the classroom, he saw Viktor at his desk reading on his tablet….? Although he does often study when Ali was not looking back in the other world, he did not expect him to be actually studying so early in the morning!
“Fancy telling me what you’re reading there…?” Ali chuckled awkwardly, remembering how awkward their previous conversation was.
“I’m reading this post about how to talk to your crush without being too nervous.” Viktor replied with a hint of enthusiasm in his voice.
Right… Ali had completely forgotten he was in a swapped universe of his original one, of course Viktor would swap personalities with Mia. What impressive memory I have. Ali thought. How would this universe Ali even react to this situation?
“Mhm… I see, ok bye!” Ali tripped over his words as he sat down at his seat and turned to stare at the whiteboard in front of him, face becoming as a tomato. He was sure that this universe Ali would never be a blubbering mess in awkward situations. Sighing with resignation, he then thought about his plan on how to “fix this universe” like what that voice said. He had never been a great planner, often making things out of the blue and praying to the sky it would work.
Often it did not.
Suddenly, a gush of cold air blew into the classroom, snapping Ali out of his thoughts. Cikgu Bidin marched into the classroom, radiating authority.
“Mia, why so nervous?” A voice sounded from behind, they sounded like they were smirking with pride. Mia sighed and hastily trying to explain herself, “Y’know, just keeping an eye out for my bestie. Need to make an excuse because she is probably gonna be late again. She’s always la- wait a minute…” Mia paused, and turned her head so fast she was surprised how it did not snap on impact. Staring at Alicia who was leaning back against her seat with a proud smile on her face.
”HUH? SINCE WHEN DO YOU COME SO EARLY?” Mia shrieked, before covering her mouth when she felt the murderous glare of Cikgu Bidin. If looks could kill, she would be dead meat by now. Mia shrunk back into her seat, still trying to recover from the fact her best friend is actually early this time.
“And so? Why is it your business whether someone comes early or not?” Cikgu Bidin said as he continued the lesson. “It’s such a fuss even when she comes early…” He grumbled under his breath. Mia could only muster a sorry for the time being.
Ali closed his eyes together and took in a deep breath (imagine the pls speed my mom needs this face), trying not to burst into laughter; the same thing happened to him before he came into this world, and he still remember the look of pure disbelief on Viktor’s face when he realised his best friend, his tardy and clumsy actually early/on time.
“Hey Mia…You wanna know something—”
The moment Ali heard Alicia’s hushed voice, his hand instantly shot through the air.
“Cikgu, Alicia’s chatting in class.”
He did not plan to snitch on Alicia, but he knew exactly what to say, as he had heard it so many times ever since his universe Alicia and he became classmates.
“Alicia, don’t get too carried away talking to Mia. She’s gotten ‘A’s, unlike you…can’t even get a ‘C’ grade.” Cikgu Bidin chastised as he turned around to face Alicia. The whole class snickered at Cikgu Bidin’s remark towards Alicia, whose face turned into a beetroot red. Ali couldn’t help but feel slight empathy for this Alicia. After all, he had been through the same ordeal once. But when he wanted to speak up for her, he felt like he had completely lost his voice, a liquid felt like it was forming and tightening around his throat. He couldn’t breathe. Only after he let go of the thought of speaking up then did the feeling slowly subside.
Suddenly, with a digital ‘tap’, the whiteboard turned into a screen billowing fire digitally. “Pop quiz!” Cikgu Bidin bellowed, tossing papers onto each table with insane aim and efficiency. Ali grabbed the paper with two fingers mid-air effortlessly.
Soon, Cikgu Bidin started the timer, and everyone’s focus instantly shifted towards the quiz, answering each question to the best of their ability.
Ali was busy scribbling the quiz with answers. His eyes blinked at how fast his hand was moving across the paper, how fast his brain comprehended the question.
He had never felt this smart…this competent without needing to rely on IRIS.
Just then, he heard the faint scanning behind him, and he realized that this universe Alicia is going to cheat using IRIS, just like how he did.
He thought that this was the perfect chance to take his petty revenge.
But just as he raised his hand, a black, gooey, smoky hand held onto his wrist, its grip tightening the more he struggled.
“Break it, and you’ll pay through soul…” A voice hissed. Ali lowered his hand in fear, and the black hand instantly melted away, and Ali recoiled his hand from his previous position, breathing heavily. He forced himself to look down and continue the paper, ignoring the soreness of his wrist.
Just 2 minutes later, a hand shot up so fast it felt like the air was sliced in half.
“Cikgu!” Alicia said, eyes sparkling with excitement.
“What is it, Alicia?” Cikgu Bidin questioned, his eyes narrowing.
“I’m done!” Alicia smiled brightly.
Everyone’s heads instantly whipped at Alicia’s direction,befuddled at this claim. Was this the boy girl who failed almost every class? Or did she just give up? Ali just knew what they were thinking about. He did not turn around though, just kept staring at his paper. He knew what happened. Alicia cheated, but he could not do anything about it, lest that unknown force come charging at him again.
The rest of the day passed by with a blur, which wasn’t usually the case as in his own world, he was always hunted down by his bullies who always sought to make his day worse.
Recess then came along, and the faint mummers of Alicia and Mia could be heard as they approached the canteen.
“Wow, power! You had the highest score today!” Mia exclaimed as she walked beside Alicia, who grinned with satisfaction, looking at the 20/20 score scribbled on her paper.
Ali, who was watching from afar, quickly packed his half-eaten sandwich and stood up, walking towards the table Alicia and Mia is heading
“Ah…if you want to know, I actually—”
“Wait, I’m gonna get a drink.” Just like that, Mia stood up and headed towards the vending machine.
“Hi.”
His appearance was so sudden that Alicia nearly toppled out of her seat, gripping on the table’s edge. Ali leaned against the table as he sipped on his milo.
“You cheated.” A statement. He was surprised by his composed demeanour, so unlike the Alicia he remembered when she confronted him about cheating on the quiz. Probably because he knew that she cheated, mixed with a strange sense of calm yet irritated feeling that can be associated with this universe Ali and no one else, not even with his universes’ Alicia.
“What…I-I don’t know what you’re talking about…” Alicia said, her grip tightening on the table’s edge, her face ghastly.
“Don’t pretend. You’ve never gotten an ‘A’ before, so why today, why now?” Ali asked, now heading towards a nearby trash can and tossing the milo packet away. He then glared at Alicia.
Why is he being so…not himself? Normally he would usually just shake the matter off with a cheeky grin, but ever since this morning that entity whispered in his ear, he just felt like control was slowly slipping from his grasp. However, he was trapped in someone else’s body that isn’t quite his, but he was in control in terms of soul, so what is with all the compulsiveness for cleanliness and tidiness, and why, why does he feel so, so much colder than he felt when he was in his original universe.
But his face did not betray his emotions, so Alicia did not suspect anything.
“I…er—” Alicia stammered. But before she could reply properly, Mia came back and plopped down at the seat in front of Alicia, looking at the test paper on his left hand while grinning in awe.
“Eh, you scored higher than Ali too, right?” Mia said.
Alicia winced as her head angled slightly to the sight, eyes darting back and forth between Ali and Mia, signalling to her to shut up.
Mia looked up, and her eyes widened slightly.
“Oh, Ali. Hi!” She greeted, oblivious to what had transpired.
Ali wanted to raise his hand and wave back, but he just felt himself scowl at Alicia before walking off.
Is this because of the broken timeline thing?
As he got further and further away from Alicia and Mia, he heard them mummering:
“What’s up with him?”
“Beats me…By the way, yesterday I found—”
Ali did not hear the rest of it and felt his legs bring him up to the classroom. Just as he was about to step in, the announcement system blared:
“Attention to all students,” the speaker said monotonously, “School’s cancelled for today due to…” The speaker’s voice trailed off, almost like she didn't know what to say as a valid excuse. But she quickly got an idea. “The haze. Yes, the haze. So you all can just go home.”
The squeals of excitement and happiness could be heard three floors up and shortly after, students' shoe soles could be heard thumping as they headed upstairs to take their bags. So as to not be crushed by the incoming crowd, Ali quickly grabbed his backpack, shoved everything with precision into his bag (how the actual hell am I doing this? ) and without thinking, sprinted towards the library.
Ali knows that in his own world, this announcement was a cue for the agents currently residing in the school that there is a mission, and Ali and his uncle came here during this day for his very first mission.
He was contemplating whether to enter, for anyone to just have the slightest idea on what was going on with him, but then he saw in peripheral vision, two figures creeping into the library.
He recognized them easily; Alicia and Uncle Rajesh. They were making a laughable attempt to sneak into the MATA entrance, with them doing a stupid cartoonish sneak-around. He wanted to participate in this mission, he really does, but something slimy locked him in place. He tried to fight it, but it was useless. Finally, he just gave up and dragged himself home.
He went up the pathway and towards his house. He just realised that in this world, his house was slightly smaller than his actual one. He headed for the entrance and took out his key to unlock the door.
Funny how despite Cyberaya being more advanced than the world, they still needed a key to unlock the door instead of scanning your face or scanning your fingerprint. Ali thought, shivering at that one time where in his world, he had to stay over at his neighbour’s house due to forgetting to bring the key to his house, and let’s just say the baby of the neighbour had been quite…an interesting experience to say the least. He just wished for a more convenient way to enter his house ever since then.
When he entered the house, he instantly made a beeline for his bedroom and shut the door behind him, quickly changing out of his school uniform into a red turtleneck, blue collared jacket with dark blue denim jeans. He settled down on the office chair near his desk, staring at the pile of practice papers and assessment books.
Goodness, this universe me study a ton. Ali thought. And yet he still got lower than a girl who cheated with a once-in-a-lifetime technological device.
Yeah, he gets why his own universe Alicia was so mad now, he felt his blood boiling with rage too. The unfairness of working hard just for someone who just used IRIS to beat you is quite frustrating indeed.
He leaned on the desk with his palms, his pupils looking at the penknife in front of him, the only thing that isn’t clean in this room. Dried blood could be seen on its sharp edges.
What…?
Then, he saw his own hand inching towards the penknife, looking at the shiny metal as he gripped on to the plastic part of the knife. His hands shook as his hand unknowingly brought the penknife closer to his arm, he looked at his hands, and found the entity’s hand gripping onto his other arm, angling the sharp edge.
His whole body froze, he couldn’t react as the knife dug deeper into his skin, before making a short cut and was removed from his arm with surgical precision. He could feel the entity smirk as its grip was removed. He stared at the cut on his arms as he stood up and headed towards the bathroom. He felt…empty, like he had done this so many times.
From then on, he decided: he wasn’t going to wallow on how to fix this broken timeline, he was going to do whatever it takes to get out of this misery.
If only someone shared the same ability to see that entity like him.