The sun was about to set, and a sprawling campus was filled with students and teachers who were leaving for their homes after a hectic workday. The lone building at the science department where the door was half-closed, and an eighteen-year-old boy was peering over test tubes filled with various bubbling concoctions. The boy was slightly built and wore large spectacles.

"Arjun," a voice called over to the boy from the entrance of the room. The boy was not responding; he was still staring at the test tubes intently.

"ARJUN! I am speaking to you."

"Oh, teacher Asira, I'm sorry—I was caught up in the experiment and didn't really pay much attention." He scratched his head and laughed sheepishly.

Asira frowned. "It is the time! I want to close the lab."

He looked at the teacher with pleading eyes. Usually, Asira was not strict and popular with students, but today was the last working day of the semester, and the university would be closed for ten days.

"Teacher, I will lock the doors and cupboards as usual before leaving."

The female teacher sighed and stared at the boy. She liked the boy like a younger brother, and both had a similar passion for chemistry, but obsessing over it was not right. "Okay, I will close the windows, but do not waste materials; this is for the entire year."

"Yes, teacher." He had a nagging sensation of forgetting something, but if he could not remember, then it might not be that important, right?

For an entire semester, he worked as an unpaid lab assistant because he liked chemistry. Well, not just chemistry. Teacher Asira was kind and beautiful. She was pretty well built and had a fair complexion.

"I am leaving. Don't forget to give the keys to the security department," Asira said.

"Don't worry, teacher. This is my last experiment. I will hand over the keys to security," the boy replied, still hunched over test tubes.

The teacher sighed and was about to say something, but shrugged, closed the door softly, and left the campus.

"Why is the colour not changing? What did I forget?" He murmured and looked at a test tube with an unknown violet-coloured liquid.

He looked at a well-used textbook that he was holding in his hand. "I followed the instructions properly and left nothing out."

"Hmm, I forgot to include this ingredient." He took the test tube and poured it carefully. The liquid colour changed slowly to colourless.

He started grinning, but gradually, his laugh tinged with a maniacal tone at the success of the experiment. Then a paper fell from his well-used textbook, making him pause. Arjun’s laughing face abruptly morphed into an ugly scowl: "Shit! I forgot to give my love letter to the teacher".

The boy sagged because of crippling disappointment and crashed into the materials kept on a rack in front of him. This action made his experiment present in a test tube mixed with various chemical ingredients from the rack.

Bang

The explosion caused shock waves and made him crash into the wall behind him.

Arjun felt groggy and tried to get up, but felt pain in his legs. The golden plumes of smoke arose from the crash sites of various materials. He panicked and tried to stand up again, but failed. The golden plumes gradually covered the entire room as he blacked out.

ooo0ooo

A myriad of souls filled the void, looking like stars in the dark sky. There was a particular soul tinged with golden fume, moving and blinking erratically. The said soul suddenly glowed a bright golden colour and moved out of the group into the void.

The gold-tinged soul moved for an unknown time and distance and suddenly plunged towards the dark brown planet. When it reached the atmosphere of the planet, a blue light, without warning, slammed into and tunnelled inside the golden soul and vanished from sight.

Arjun felt awake and asleep at the same time. He didn't know the passing of time. All he felt was a dreamy sky full of bright neon lights and a sense of moving towards eternal darkness.

He felt a pain worse than all the pain he had experienced in his brief life; it almost felt like his soul was tearing to pieces. The distress became unbearable, and his consciousness embraced the darkness of the void.