Monday, 12:59 P.M. (Global Time)
The second countdown was almost done.
Across every timezone, billions watched the ticking light suspended in the air — 00:00:05… 00:00:04… — the last minutes of a world still pretending to be normal.
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🇩🇪 Victor Grant — Munich
For Victor, the second hour had been an echo of the first — waiting, listening, disbelieving.
His parents had spent the morning pacing the marble halls of their mansion, surrounded by scientists and soldiers. The government had sealed off their neighborhood. Reporters gathered outside like vultures.
At 12:45, his father had whispered, "We'll figure this out, son."
At 12:46, they were gone.
Just gone.
Two white circles shimmered where they'd stood, cracks spreading through the tiles like veins of frost.
Victor didn't cry. He couldn't. He just stared as soldiers burst in, guiding him and other children into armored trucks. The radio crackled with static and unanswered questions.
> "They told us not to touch anything," one soldier murmured.
"But what if not touching is worse?"
Victor looked out the window, past the gray skyline trembling under the aurora that wasn't supposed to be there.
> "We'll find out soon," he whispered.
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🇹🇿 Felicia Malangalila — Tanzania
Felicia sat alone in her quiet house.
Her sons' circles glowed in the dirt courtyard — three white halos, cracked and trembling. For hours she'd knelt before them, praying, begging, bargaining.
When the second orb above her table began to pulse faster, she stopped praying. She stood.
Her tears had dried into salt lines on her cheeks. Her faith no longer shook — it sharpened.
She walked to the table, her gaze fixed on the orb. Its glow reflected in her eyes like twin suns.
> "If it takes eternity," she whispered, "I'll find you. And whoever did this… will pay."
She pressed her hand into the light.
The orb shattered like glass, and the air collapsed inward — a flash of golden-white consuming her.
Outside, the cracks in her sons' circles began to pulse in rhythm with her heartbeat.
---
🇨🇦 Clara Hughes — Vancouver
In the news studio, half the world was watching through Clara's camera.
She had refused to leave. Everyone else had either fled or vanished, leaving only the echo of panic through the halls.
The second orb hovered before her, spinning slowly, almost invitingly.
> "The first one took them," she said into the camera. "Maybe this one brings them back."
She smiled faintly — that same strange amusement that had kept her alive in a collapsing world.
She reached out.
The moment her fingers brushed the orb, it exploded into fractal light — geometric symbols spinning around her body, embedding themselves into her skin.
The broadcast cut to static, but for one frame — one impossible second — her reflection looked back from behind the screen.
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🇯🇵 Hana Watanabe — Kyoto
The temple bells had stopped ringing hours ago.
Now the air was silent — too silent. The monks were gone. The disciples, gone. Only the faint glow of circles remained, spread like constellations across the courtyard.
Hana's knees trembled as she faced the second orb. Its glow pulsed in time with her heartbeat, each flash whispering in her mind.
> Join them.
End the waiting.
The path to infinity is through choice.
She shook her head, but the whispers became screams.
In tears, she touched it — and the world folded in around her, collapsing into a lotus of light.
The cracks in the ground spread outward, glowing like veins beneath the temple floor.
---
🇧🇷 Rafa Moreira — Rio
The beach was a graveyard of white circles.
Rafa stood among them, his rifle slung over his shoulder. The second orb floated in front of him, ticking down — 00:00:25… 00:00:24…
He didn't move.
His jaw was tight, his heart like stone. Everyone he'd known was gone. The city burned in the distance; the military had lost control.
He stared at the orb and spat into the sand.
> "You're not taking me."
The orb pulsed brighter, almost angry. The countdown sped up — 00:00:10… 9… 8…
Rafa raised his rifle and fired.
The bullet vanished midair.
The second orb cracked.
And the world shifted.
🕶️ The Smiling Figure — Beyond Time
They watched as orbs across the planet erupted in light.
Billions vanished, billions remained — a cosmic culling wrapped in the illusion of choice.
But something unexpected was happening.
The circles — those hollow marks of the vanished — began to shimmer. The cracks glowed brighter, connecting across continents like veins of a sleeping giant awakening beneath the Earth's skin.
The Figure frowned, for the first time.
> "Ah," they murmured. "You're learning too quickly."
They lifted a hand, as if to reset everything — then paused.
In the center of the infinite void, four new lights burned brighter than the rest:
Felicia. Clara. Hana. Rafa.
Four who had crossed, each carrying something the Figure hadn't foreseen — will.
> "Well then," they whispered, smiling again.
"Let's see what you become."