"OUT OF TIME"

Out of Time

The room was quiet, except for the sound of pencils scratching on paper and the occasional rustling of exam sheets. The air felt thick with pressure, and every second seemed to slip away faster than I could keep up. I stared down at my exam paper, gripping my pencil tightly as if holding on could help me find the answers faster. My heart was pounding in time with the ticking of the clock. Time had always made me nervous, but today, it felt like it was working against me.

I had prepared for this O Level exam for months. Late nights of studying, mock tests, and endless revisions had led to this moment. When I walked into the exam room, I felt a mix of nerves and determination. I thought I was ready, but as I worked through the questions, panic started creeping in. I got stuck on question 4, and the seconds seemed to vanish before my eyes. How had time gone by so quickly? It felt like sand slipping through my fingers no matter how hard I tried to hold on.

I forced myself to focus, dragging my pencil across the paper, but everything seemed to move too slowly. I knew the answers were in my mind, but I couldn’t find them fast enough. Every pencil stroke felt heavy, like I was moving through thick mud. Around me, other students were scribbling away, their pencils racing across the page. But I was stuck, trapped in a race I knew I was losing. The clock seemed to laugh at me with every tick.

And then, the invigilator's voice cut through the room. "Out of time," she said, and my hand froze mid-sentence. I stared at the unfinished answer on my paper, unable to believe it was over. Out of time. The words echoed in my head, final and unforgiving. Weeks of preparation, sleepless nights—all of it felt like it had slipped through my fingers. I had so much more to write, so much more to show, but it didn’t matter now.

As the invigilator passed by, I handed in my paper, feeling a deep sense of defeat. My pencil fell from my fingers and clattered onto the desk, the sound echoing in the silence of the room. I sat back, staring at the empty space in front of me, my heart heavy with regret. The exam was over, but the feeling of running out of time stayed with me, like a weight I couldn’t shake.