The set was ready. The scene was blocked. Everyone knew the timing.
At 9:00 a.m., they were scheduled to shoot the key confrontation scene inside a community school building — a turning point in Veena's emotional arc, originally scripted to take place in an old classroom where she revisits a childhood memory tied to her brother's death.
It was the kind of scene that demanded precision — not just in performance, but space.
But by 8:10 a.m., the school principal stood awkwardly near the front gate, flanked by two guards and a locked chain.
"We can't open it today," he said, not quite apologetically. "Board audit team arrived unannounced. No non-academic activity permitted inside."
Miraal stared at him, then back at the locked gate. "You approved this shoot. Signed off. We have mails—"
"I know, I know. But the audit team overrides everything. It'll be chaos inside if we try."
Elian stood a few feet back, quietly listening.
The rest of the crew began murmuring. The cinematographer was already checking the call sheet. Kriti was on the phone with the transport guy, asking if another location could be prepped.
Miraal turned to Elian. "This isn't a half-day delay. If we can't shoot this by tomorrow, we're off schedule."
Still, he didn't react visibly.
He stared through the gate at the schoolyard, then looked around — at the walls, the surroundings, the corner tea stall across the street.
"Veena was supposed to walk through a memory," he murmured.
Miraal blinked. "Yeah. Inside the classroom."
"What if she doesn't need to be inside?" he said.
"What do you mean?"
He turned to the team. "We pivot. Rewrite the memory sequence. We move it outside — not into the classroom, but into a makeshift outdoor puppet show in the courtyard."
Miraal frowned. "There's no puppet show in the script."
"There is now."
---
Thirty minutes later, the team was hauling props. Some colored curtains. A foldable puppet stage from the children's workshop scenes they'd used before. A few extras were dressed as students. One held an old hand puppet.
Elian sat with the script in hand, modifying beats. Arya joined him, confusion flickering across her face.
"Is this a full rewrite?"
"Re-imagining," he replied. "You're not in the classroom anymore. You're watching a memory being played out in front of you. Like a dream — a reconstruction of what you buried."
Arya tilted her head. "You think that'll hit harder?"
"I think if it's raw enough… it might."
She took a breath. "Alright. Let's do it."
---
[POV: Miraal]
Watching Elian was like watching someone orchestrate chaos into art.
He didn't panic when they lost the classroom. He didn't even flinch.
Instead, he created something that didn't exist this morning. A new scene, an improvised idea that shouldn't have worked — yet somehow… it felt real.
And watching Arya's face during rehearsals — Miraal knew it was real.
---
The camera rolled.
Arya stood under the shade of a half-cracked banyan tree. In front of her, a group of kids gathered around the puppet stage. A crude puppet show unfolded — a girl losing her toy, a brother giving her his instead.
Elian whispered, "Don't look at the puppets. Look at what they take from you."
Arya's eyes glistened. Her hands trembled slightly, not from performance, but memory. The memory that wasn't hers — but Veena's.
A breeze carried a threadbare prayer flag off one of the curtains. It fluttered into the frame.
Elian didn't call cut.
He let the camera roll.
---
When the puppet fell — symbolizing the brother's death — Arya took one step forward.
Just one.
And it said more than any monologue ever could.
"Cut," Elian said, almost under his breath.
Silence followed.
Then a quiet exhale from the crew.
No applause. But everyone felt it.
Even Miraal.
---
By 2:00 p.m., the scene was wrapped. The location that had broken the schedule had, instead, elevated the film.
Arya sat on a foldable chair, sipping lemon water, still shaken.
"You rewrote that in… minutes?" she asked Elian later.
"No. I remembered it."
"From what?"
He didn't answer.
Instead, he pulled out his tablet to review the footage.
Miraal sat next to him, watching the monitor.
But just as the clip finished rendering — something blinked.
A new system notification.
[ Footage Sync Alert
Detected unexpected facial match from your previous life footage. Location: Puppet Stage Scene – Frame 03:42
(Click to isolate subject) ]
Elian's fingers froze.
His heartbeat slowed.
"What is it?" Miraal asked.
He didn't reply.
He tapped the notification.
The screen zoomed in… and showed a blurry child in the crowd — not one of their extras.
A face Elian recognized.
From before transmigration.