"Caught in the Act"
~ a friend's concern ~

Those visions were real! Whatever he was seeing in those flashes was going to happen in the near future.

What the hell was going on with him?

Rohit found himself pacing around his room in thoughts, frustrated with all the consistent worrying and headaches he had been getting for the past few days.

Shreyash's almost-accident was a week ago. Since then he has been getting those flashes of the future every single day and sometimes every hour.

During a team dinner outing, Rohit had a vision of Harry unknowingly consuming food that had been tampered with. In the midst of the bustling restaurant, he quickly intervened and had the food replaced.

"Bassi khana lag rha h, mat kha" Rohit told Harry, as the latter's plate was taken by him and was served a 'fresh' one.

Harry had eaten the newly cooked pasta happily without bothering to ask any further questions, but a certain someone had questions for his bestfriend.

Then there was that elevator incident, he had  a vivid vision of Yuzi and Kul getting trapped in a malfunctioning elevator. Rohit had never  run that fast in his entire life, including his cricket career as he did to stop the two from taking that elevator and had convinced them to take the stairs, "It's good for the health, kids"

Moments after the two had left, the elevator they were supposed to use had malfunctioned, the hotel staff cited short circuit as the reason.

Before their match against South Africa, Rohit had discreetly swapped the water bottles of the team, having seen expired plastic bottles in one of the flashes.

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It became a routine for him to witness events in his dreams or daily life and take action to prevent them.

Rohit thought he had it all under control, contended everytime he managed to prevent a disaster from occurring. However, his secret ability was taking a toll on him. The constant stress and worry were affecting his health, and the persistent headaches were becoming more frequent and severe.

He had trouble falling asleep, scared of what he was going to witness next in his sleep. His strange behaviour didn't go unnoticed by his teammates who were worried about his health.

Virat, in particular, couldn't bear to see his best friend suffering in silence. He decided it was time to confront Rohit about his condition.

"Enough giving him space, lemme have a nice chat with that idiot" Telling Jinks about his plans, Virat had followed Rohit to the dressing room during one of their practice sessions.

"Not up to your standards?" Virat had asked a suspicious looking Sharma as he quickly left the bat he had been carefully inspecting.

"Vi! What are you doing here? I was just...the kids leave their stuff lying around and...I was just helping them clean up, you know."

Rohit's attempt at explaining himself was met by a strange look from the other. The bat was Rahul's and Virat had clearly seen Rohit sneakily switching it with another bat.

"What are you hiding Sharma?" Virat asked stepping closer to where his friend was sitting which made the latter gulp knowing he had some great explanation to do.

"And don't even think of lying to me, I'll skin you alive if you dare to do that"

Rohit hesitated, his eyes shifting away from Virat's penetrating gaze.

"What is wrong Ro?" Virat's voice turned soft looking at the troubled expressions of his Best-friend.

Rohit got up from his seat and looked into Virat's eyes. He had been caught in the act, and he knew he couldn't hide it any longer. Taking a deep breath, he decided it was time to come clean.

"I'll tell you, but first promise me you will listen to what I have to say and believe it."

"What's with the promising? You know I'd always believe you Ro"

"I know that Vi, but still please..."

"Fine! As unnecessary as it sounds, I promise"

Rohit smiled at the statement and started telling Virat about his strange visions and dreams and their alignment with the real world.

"That's why you switched those water bottles right?" Virat enquired to which Rohit gave a shocked look, "What? You really suck at being sneaky Ro."

Virat cheekily commented on the other's inability to hide things from him.

"Anyways.." Rohit sighed "I don't know what in the world is happening with me, but with all those things I've managed to stop, I can't pass it as a mere coincidence."

"You're right about that. You don't have a clue how it started or when, right?"

"It was the day I woke up after that allergy shock..."

"That was month and a half ago! You've been hiding it since that long from me?"

"I really didn't mean to keep you in dark Vi, any of you. But it's just that...it sounded ridiculous even to my own self. Moreover, how do you expect I should have told you about these little sneak peaks into the future?"

"Point taken. But still, don't hide stuff from me Ro. I'm supposed to be your best buddy, sharing and confiding in someone is always helpful."

"Got it, boss! Now can we get back to the practice session?" Rohit asked hoping the other would accept the topic diversion.

"We'll discuss more about this later on." He promised the other quickly as Virat opened his mouth to retort.

Sighing to himself Virat nodded deciding to let the other have a breath of relief, feeling bad after looking at the tired look at his friend's face.

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After making Rohit promise to tell him more about the foresights, Virat walked back to the ground with the former following behind.

"Don't tell the others"

"I won't, get back to practice before they become suspicious of us."

Assured, Rohit picked up his bat as Virat got ready with a ball. "Oh! you're on, Kohli."

The guys, abandoning their practice quickly joined in for the match between the two, cheering whenever one of them made a remarkable play. Happiness surrounded the atmosphere making Rohit feel a sense of relief and normalcy he hadn't experienced in a long time.

The support and laughter of his teammates were a welcome distraction from the weight of his secret. Catching the eyes of Virat, smiling reassuringly at hin, he smiled in return, glad about the way the evening had turned out.

Little did Rohit know that the events from the past few weeks were just the beginning of a journey that would test him in ways he could never have imagined.

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Thanks for reading💙