"Dad... Dad... Where are you? " I yelled searching him in the Garden, kitchen, his room, under the couch.

Oh no no how will dad adjust himself under the couch?

I kept yelling for him.

"Mahir, what happened to you? Why are you shouting like a hurt Devdas? " Mom asked closing her ears with her palm.

"Vish do you remember how the female antagonist in your stupid serial was shouting at the male protagonist that she is pregnant? " Ajitabh whispered to vish but I could hear him well.

Vish nodded her head innocently.

"Mahir is shouting like that" He laughed off his own joke while mom, vish, and I were waiting for him to finish off yawing.

"Done? " I asked him bored.

He nodded in no.

"Once a dustbin, always a dustbin" I rolled my eyes at him to which he made a funny face.

"Mom, where is dad? " I asked her curiously.

"Here" Dad replied before mom, walking in from the main door.

"Dad " I yelled before hugging him tightly.

"Son you never got this happy seeing me. Everything is good with you? Are you on any kind of medication? Dad asked being startled by my act.

I shook my head vigorously.

I dragged him along to the study room and others rolled their eyes.

" Dad sit here" I tried to put his chair out for him but I don't know what was wrong with my legs they slipped making me fall along with the chair.

"Mahir" Dad screamed horrified.

He helped me up and made me sit on a chair.

He sat before me "Are you fine? "

I smiled awkwardly, trying to hide my embarrassment.

For the nth time.

"You wanted to ask something? " He asked again.

"Yes, Dad tell me about the book " I excitedly voiced out.

"Which book Mahir? "

So he was going to play?

Then I briefed him about meeting the Author.

"And why did you went to meet the author? " I had no answer to that.

"Um... Just like that? " I whispered more of a question.

"So you are going to play son? " Dad smirked.

" It's not that Dad, even if I tell you, you won't believe me" I knew, nobody would believe me.

They will all think I have lost my mind.

"Tell me the whole adventure son" Dad said smiling softly.

"Dad... You... Do you know? " Tears glistened in my eyes.

He nodded his head and I told him all about the watch, ring, wheels, Bela, and Gracious.

He listened to everything carefully.

"Dad, you experienced all that too right? "

"Well, I don't know how to answer your question because it's a yes and a no " I looked at him confused.

"Mahir, around three and a half decades ago, I was in a similar situation as yours, My mind was filled with a lot of memories that I didn't even know were true or just a dream. I narrated whatever I remembered but nobody trusted me. My friends thought I was crazy. I felt alone. There was no one to understand my situation. I limited myself to my own room.

Everything changed for me when I found my father's diary, which means your grandfather's diary. "

"That means you also have adventure experiences like me" I asked to which he nodded his head.

"What was written in the dairy? " I added curiously.

"The diary talked about 'primary universe' and a 'tangent universe'.

The primary universe is the original universe where we live while the tangent universe is the perfect copy of the primary universe.

The tangent universe is generated due to the corruption in the fourth dimension. It collapses itself after a certain time but if it does not collapse due to any time glitch. It is capable of creating a black hole that can even swallow the whole primary universe. That is why it is very important for the tangent universe to collapse"

"Woahh! But dad when it automatically collapses then how come I was needed there? Or you? " My mind was buzzing with all sorts of questions.

"Because it doesn't always happen. There is always negative energy that wants to rule the whole universe. Who wants to be the most powerful. And that happens in the tangent world as well. Whenever the people of the tangent universe are attacked by negative energy they send an 'artifact' in the primary world. Unlike us, they all are aware of the two universes. The artifact can be anything. Like in your case it was a ring. "

"But Dad why did they send a ring to me? It could be anyone, right? "

"No Mahir, not anyone. In the tangent universe the person who is killed by negative energy, their soulmate sends the artifact to the primary world. And the artifact finds the same person who was killed in the tangent world. The person for whom the artifact is sent is called a 'living receiver. "

"Does that mean Bela is my soulmate? And was I too killed in the tangent world? Wait...that is why Bela said she does not want to lose me 'again'.
I guess I was killed with the dagger by negative energy that is why she was so scared seeing the daggers. "More than dad I was saying all that to myself.

Dad nodded his head.

" But dad how did the time stopped there? And what was its connection with wheels? And how did it move just by touching? "

"Mahir whenever an artifact is thrown into the primary world, it makes the tangent world unstable. As Bela threw her ring it created a heavy glitch in the time portal which favored the negative energy. Due to the time glitch, the same day kept repeating again and again. The devil never wanted the time glitch to be corrected again. So he divided the 24 hours into 24 wheels to make it tough for the person coming from the primary world. you may have noticed, he wanted to snatch the ring by numerous techniques. He wanted to send you back to the primary world.

Mahir soulmate signifies love. Love is the only thing in this whole universe that has the power to melt hate.

Why does a person become negative? When he is surrounded by hate, dislike, disrespect, humiliation, and disgust.

Only love can revert this feeling. Only love can bring the positive feeling back again.

The power soulmates hold together is so powerful that it can change the world.

The wheel was a symbol of negative power and you two together were the symbol of positive power and you know positive power is always greater than negative power.

Just by touching, wheel rotated, time portal shifted by a unit. "

"And dad, that magical power? "

"Since you were a living receiver, you were graced with magical powers to fight the devil.

The magical powers Bela had were to protect you in that world. Your powers were activated only after the 23rd wheel to kill that devil. Bela's power could only heal you and protect you"

"Oh, that explains why she was never able to heal her wounds. Why she didn't eat until I feed her. It was all because her powers were exclusively for me" I realized how she only ate when I fed her forcefully.

"Now before you ask why could not you bring Bela or the Gracious with you let me answer that, as I told you before anything be it artifact or the person missing from the tangent universe, particularly when it is in the primary universe, it makes the tangent universe unstable. Which will not let it collapse and eventually it will turn into the black hole."

"Who is your soulmate, dad? " I asked wriggling my eyes brows, trying to bury that saddened feeling of not having Bela with me.

Dad chuckled before answering "your mom"

"Really? " I smirked

"Of course. I was about to get engaged but before that adventure happened. I called off the wedding and started my search for my soulmate and after two years I found her. She is your mom now" Dad smiled softly.

" Dad, is time travel possible? "

"Yes... Only in movies. " He smiled at me.

I looked at him confused.

"That is what you are going to answer" He winked at me.

I nodded, getting the signal.

"I am proud of you my son. You did it. " He said caressing my hair.

"I am proud of you too dad " I kissed his cheek

And he made a cringe face before bursting into fits of laughter.

"My dad was always searching about these kinds of stuff. He had a whole library of different theories. From there I got the rest information" he said kissing my forehead.

"Well, Mahir you are lucky because you remember each and everything. I only remember few moments. Whenever Sumi says something, I feel a Deja Vu " He added.

Why do I remember everything? Because I kissed her?

How do I even ask dad did he kiss mom or not. He will kill me before answering that.

"Now get up, go and find my daughter" He ruffled my hair before moving out.

Finally, after three months, I had a good sleep.

That talk still remains a secret between me and Dad.

"Sir, we have reached the hospital" The driver said, bringing me back to the present.

I quickly rushed inside the hospital.
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Who else will he meet in the hospital? 🤭🤭

Finally, here is my research of all those months.

🙂bacha samgh ke maaf kardena.

While reading it please remember it is all based on theories.

The concept of parallel universe and the tangent universe, artifact, living receiver is all taken from a Hollywood movie" Donnie Darko"

Basically, I was searching a lot about time travel theories from different mediums and somehow I got the summary of the movie.

[Didn't watch the movie, by the way, kyunki Apne ko English movie aur English gaane dono hi samagh nii aate. Bahut jaldi jaldi bol jaate hai🙂🙂.

3 ghante ki movie ko dekhne me 9 ghante lag jaate🥴🥴. ]

So this is what I did, modified the theories with my own fantasy and rom-com twist. Because time travel stories are really tragic and I so wanted to write a time travel story but not a tragic one.

Just to inform, the main lead dies in the primary universe in "Donnie Darko"

So here is my creation. There can be many loopholes. Well, I tried to connect all the loopholes my little mind got but if you find more do tell me.

*****
About Mahir waking up on the same day [Refer to part 2]
Where watch started rotating after he wore it.

If you remember, In chapter 3 Mahir fell from the stairs.
The scene includes Sumi, Ajitabh, and Mahir. The whole scene was a dream which Mahir saw in the Tangent universe.

The ring you see in the banner was the same ring inserted in the watch.

If you wonder how the ring was inserted, go back to the first chapter there you will find a shining bead in the watch. Consider that as the top view of the ring.

Now my head is spinning 😵😵.

I hope yours did as well🤭🤭.

Please ignore grammatical mistakes.

Thanks for reading❤.