Jamie, can you pull that up?

“What the hell is going on here? How are you doing this?” “How am I doing what? “ “Don’t mess around with me.” “I don’t understand.” “You keep dying and coming back to life,” he said. “I what…? That doesn’t make sense.” “Just wait or rather just die” he yelled. I slipped out of consciousness as he walked out the door.

My eyes opened as the captor entered and untied one of my hands. My right cheek burned with pain. My shirt was colored with red stains. I slowly moved my hand up to feel my face. I shrieked as I touched my exposed skin and saw blood at the tip of my fingers. My hands had gone pale and the weakness had crept in. I was stunned as to how I did not feel any pain when the cut was made? “Do you get it now?”

WRITTEN BY ILLUSTRATED BY

Vishvesh Trivedi Dev Jariwala

Comps 2nd year Comps 3rd Year

Neelav Bhatiya

Comps 2nd year

Knock…Knock…Knock

“ROGAN! The bus is about to arrive, how long have you been in the shower!” Rogan gets startled by his mother’s scream. His phone, which he had been holding for twenty minutes straight, almost flew off his fingertips. Fretting around to comprehend his surroundings, he realizes he has been sitting on the close-lid loo and hasn’t showered yet. He stands up hurriedly and checks his watch in fright.

9:27 A.M.

What was I doing here for the past hour?! He stands muddled. Glancing at his phone, he reads,

‘Lisa unmatched you’

Since the fall of the Roman empire, it had been the first “How is this even possible? I can’t take this anymore” “There has to be a way to stop this.” “Let me leave, that might be the only way out. I can’t stay here forever. You won’t get anything from a dead man anyway.”

Without saying a word, he let me go. I tried to move forward but my legs couldn’t keep up with my will. But I had to get out. I mustered up all my strength and started pushing myself towards the door. My body ached with every inch that I crawled. Seeing my condition, to my surprise, the captor helped me. But even with his support, with every step that we took, the pain kept increasing. I wanted to stop and just give up. But I was ready to take my chances because I was as good as dead being inside the room anyway. I reached the end of the room and took the leap of faith. What happened next could only be observed by you.

instance that he was matched with someone on Tinder. And he screwed it up, all because he didn’t reply on time.

Why didn’t I reply! What was I thinking! Am I…

“ROGANNN!, QUICK!”. His train of thought was broken yet again by his mum’s screech and the next instant he found himself pulling the shower knob, almost instinctively!

Rogan was a sophomore mathematics student at the Ontario Precision University. The peculiar quality that distinguished him was his ability, or rather his inability to communicate. A classic introvert, one might assume. However, he did enjoy the company and was rather inviting at the prospect of a social gathering. But when it came down to actually talking, no words reached his tongue. Back in Rogan’s class, the professor asked them to choose their elective activity for the semester. They had the option to elect applied calculus or linear algebra. A form was circulated for students to make a choice and submit within the next five minutes. Meanwhile, Rogan seemed oblivious to his surroundings. Just like how a sophomore math major would look at a multivariable calculus paper, Rogan was staring into blank space without an accompanying thought.

“Mr. Rogan, sadly enough, we don’t have all day. Tell me which list shall I put you under? Calculus is it?” the professor asked in a mundane tone.

“Umm…I elect..uh…Linear calculus”

“Huh? Linear what?” the professor mocked.

Meanwhile, he heard a familiar voice that reminded him of an old scar at the back of his head from the locker room’s gear.

“Dude, stop wasting our time. I got my practice in five minutes!” - A guy was heard from the back of the class.

“I have a class in fifteen minutes as well so Mr. Rogan I am putting you under calculus. Ms. Su-che would be glad to have you.” the professor uttered with apparent sarcasm.

“Class dismissed. Remember you have your finals on the last Friday of this month and the grading will be on a curve...” - the professor continued in a class of emptying students.

It took Rogan a good seven minutes to fathom what had actually happened. The ground beneath felt wobbly to the point where he could swear it was an earthquake. He felt as if he had been punched in the gut and the air rushed out of his lungs. He was just about ready to throw in the towel, to call it a day, to give up.

Back home, the thoughts of the final test took over Rogan’s mind. He felt the need to prove his mettle. Especially to that bully Andrew who was getting late to his practice. Mastering Integral Calculus wasn’t a breeze and Rogan knew that. Notwithstanding, Rogan gave it his all. He dotted all i’s and crossed all t’s.

The examination was conducted and to everyone’s surprise, including Rogan himself, he aced the test and topped his class. However, he knew that it hadn’t come easy. A fortnight’s worth of grind was behind it. But just as he finished analyzing his answer sheet, he noticed some bustle at the teacher’s desk. Andrew and a couple of other students were mumbling something to the professor while looking at him. Before he could react to the situation he heard the professor calling out his name.

“Rogan, please come here with your answer sheet”

At first, he couldn’t move. He stood frozen, staring at the professor’s desk in oblivion, almost lost of his vision. His trembling fingers mustered a loose contact with the answer sheet as he heard his name echo again.

“Rogan, be quick!”

At the desk, the professor, while skimming through Rogan’s response booklet halted at a page and asked,

“Explain me the procedure as to how you solved the integral of arctan x”

Why am I being interrogated like this? Does he think I cheated on the test? Andrew seems to be behind all this…

“Rogan, did you hear me?”, the professor repeated in a staunch tone. Integration by parts using some theorem, but what was it called? Agh, I can’t recollect its name. How about I explain the substitution method instead? But I haven’t used that in the paper, so wouldn’t it doubt the integrity of my solution? Agh, what do I do!

His brain was tossed up into dizziness. He knew the gravity of the situation and wanted to speak. But, as if someone had pulled the plug between his prefrontal