The apartment door closed softly behind Ava, confining her to a silence that seemed much too oppressive for this time of morning. The corridor was dark, illuminated only by the weak yellow light of the solitary overhead bulb. Its glow flickered every so often, as if anxious to be present at this time of night also.
Priya proceeded one step before the other, keys still suspended from her fist, jaw stiff with tension. Ava trailed after, her own footsteps uncertain. She could sense her mother's quiet like an uninvited presence in the space. Not angry, only. tense. Pensive. Like Priya was keeping secrets.
Ava detested this sensation.
It was all just as it always was inside, but the apartment felt like an unblinking witness to what they were doing.
Priya flipped on the lights, and Ava recoiled at once. The light stung her eyes, but that wasn't it. It was as if the silence had shattered—and now all the things she'd been trying not to think about were creeping in.
"Sit down," Priya said gently, pointing toward the couch.
Ava complied, folding up into the edge like a kid, though she detested the feeling of smallness. She waited. For the lecture. The screaming. Something.
Instead, Priya simply stood for a moment, as if contemplating where to start. Then she walked over to the shelf next to the kitchen counter and extracted a dusty, old photo frame. Ava watched silently. When Priya held it out towards her, Ava almost stopped breathing.
It was a picture of the four of them.
Priya. Ava. Anish. And…
Her.
The sister nobody spoke of anymore.
The picture was taken years back, in a different life it seemed. Ava couldn't have been older than eight. Her sister's hand was placed lightly on her shoulder. At that time, that touch had signaled safety.
Now it was like a lie.
"I was cleaning out the storage closet," Priya said, her voice low. "Thought you'd want to see this."
Ava stood there, staring. "Why now?"
"Because I think you're remembering things, Ava. Things you've buried."
Ava's blood went cold. "That's not true."
Priya crossed the room and sat down across from Ava. "Isn't it?"
There was a silence between them, stretched thin and delicate.
It was Ava who finally cut it. "You think this has something to do with her?
"I think it is," Priya said. "And you know it."
Ava glanced away, her hands tightening around the edge of the cushion. "She's dead, Mom."
"She vanished," Priya said. "That's not the same."
"She's gone. She left us."
"Or someone abducted her."
The words were so soft Ava barely heard them. But when she looked up, Priya's face was uninterpretable. Distant. As if she wasn't even talking to Ava—but to the past.
Ava's heart was thumping. "You never said that before."
Priya remained silent.
Farther away outside, a car alarm shrieked and silenced. The following stillness weighed all the more.
Ava got up from the couch. Her legs quivered under her, but she had to get some air. Some space. Some answers. She stepped towards the window and parted the curtain ever so slightly, admitting the street's orange radiance. The street lay bare. Empty.
Except—
She stood rigid.
A figure. Across the street. Just standing there. Not moving.
She blinked. The streetlight flashed. And in that flash—he was gone.
Her breath lodged in her throat.
"Ava?" Priya's voice brought her back to reality.
She spun around. "Nothing. I just… thought I saw someone."
Her mother didn't question. Perhaps she already knew better than to pry.
Ava sat back down, feeling crawling skin.
"I want to speak with Anish," she blurted out.
Priya blinked, surprised. "Why?"
"Because I feel like I'm missing something. And he was there for most of it."
Priya paused. "He's been quiet lately."
"I noticed."
"I think… he knows more than he says."
Ava nodded slowly. "So do I."
There was a long silence. Then, as if thinking along the same lines as Ava, Priya whispered, "Do you remember what she said the night before she vanished?"
Ava furrowed her brow. "No."
"Someone was following her," she said. "Watching her. But she never told us who."
The chill ran down Ava's back.
Priya went on, "You were too little. But I remember what her eyes looked like that night. Never have I seen her so afraid."
Ava clutched the frame harder. Her sister's smiling face glared back at her, motionless. Peaceful.
But all she could think now were those fearful eyes Priya had just mentioned.
Suddenly the overhead light flickered again—this time for longer. Then it buzzed…and died.
Dark.
Ava leapt to her feet, her heart pounding.
"It's okay," Priya said hastily. "Just the light."
But Ava wasn't so sure.
Something was off.
She crept towards the hall, every nerve tingling. The hall lay out before her, darker than it ought to be. The light at the far end flickered, then stabilized.
And then… she heard it.
Whispering.
Not loud. Not clear. Just a low, broken noise that didn't sound right.
"Mom?" she called.
Priya didn't respond.
Ava turned around, but the living room was vacant.
"Mom?" she called again, louder.
No response.
The whispering became louder—nearer. Like it was sounding off the walls.
Ava stepped back, almost falling over the rug.
And then, just as unexpectedly as it had started—
Silence.
Absolute silence.
The corridor was vacant. The lights went back to normal. No noise. No whisper. Nothing.
And Priya emerged from the kitchen with two cups of tea in her hands.
"What occurred?" she asked, furrowing her brow.
Ava turned to her, wide eyes. "Where have you been?"
"In the kitchen."
"I—I thought I heard something—" Ava hesitated. What exactly was she going to say?
Priya's face relaxed. "You need rest."
"No," Ava said firmly. "I need to know.
The teacup trembled slightly in Priya's hand.
"I'll call Anish tomorrow," she said quietly. "We'll talk. As a family."
Ava nodded. But her gaze returned to the window.
That figure…
Was it real?
Or was her mind starting to unravel?
She didn't know anymore.
But one thing she did know—someone was watching.
And it had only just begun.
....
Ava stood in front of her apartment hallway. The silence surrounded her. She stared at the door in front of her. The keys, which were in her hand, was tearing her palm skin.
Ava frowned, not because of the pain in her palm but due to the unusual stillness and calmness.
Composing herself, Ava step forward and open the door.
She stepped inside and switch on the lights. The lights flicker once and then lighten the whole area. Everything was on its place.
She looked around and then she saw it...the jar on her coffee table.
'Wasn't it empty?' She thought to herself and move towards it.
There was some candies inside it. She picked one of them. It was the same candy which she used to love in her childhood. 'Who can place it here?'
Nevertheless, she placed it back and moved towards the window. She stood there in quiet.
'Why is this happening?' she thought about her past life. Her family, Rohit and her uncle. How peaceful was her life. But her uncle's sudden disappearance ruined it all.
"Did it really start from your uncle's sudden disappearance?" Her subconscious said.
And for the first time in her life she thought about her sister. She was so sweet but her death made Ava miserable. "Wait, did she really died?" She suddenly thought.
...
Ava stood there for a long time. When her legs start hurting, she moved towards her bedroom.
"There are so many 'really' in my life." She sighed.
"Then find their answers." Someone behind her said calmly. Ava's breath hitched, she turned around abruptly.
"Who is there?" She asked. Silence.
She ran towards the kitchen, rummage the drawers till she get a knife and a pepper spray. She came back to her room when she smell something. Gas. But she didn't on it.
She went back to kitchen and turn it off. "May be it turned on when I was finding the spray?"
When she got back to her room, her phone buzzed.
"𝙒𝙝𝙮 𝙙𝙞𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙥 𝙙𝙞𝙜𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙜?"
Unknown number.
She frowned. After so much happened to her, she couldn't get scared by some messages.
"I should head back home before something happens." She thought.
She packed her essentials like laptop, diary, some notes and that folder. The folder she hadn't opened for years. It was her sister's, in which she wrote everything, after her it became hers.
But the thing that troubles her is that every page written by her sister it torn. At first she didn't think about it but now it troubles her. Moreover she also wrote the investigation details of her sister's case in it.
She throw it in her bag and begin to leave the place. But near her door there was a sign. A tringle with a dot inside. She had seen it somewhere else but where?
She took a picture of it and went to her home. May be she can call it home.
........
On reaching home, her mother hugged her.
"I was getting anxious." Priya said.
"I am fine, mom." She said half-heartedly.
She took out the picture and showed it to her mom.
Her mother's eyes widened for a second before she got control of it.
But Ava has already seen it. "Do you know it?"
"Nope."
"MOM."
" Okay, *sigh* I saw it on a letter we received, after you sister's death. There was no address, no name, nothing, just this sign."
Ava's eyes widened. She had a clue so near her but she didn't know about it.
Before she could say something further, the door bell rang.
"Don't open it."
"We have to."
Ava got near the door and swing it open. No one was there but a picture. She picked it up.
She inhaled sharply. "What happened?"
She showed the pic t o her mother. Her mother gasp.
It was the picture if her sister.
Alive. Breathing but bruised.
"She wasn't supposed to knw this much." was written on top pf it.
She turned it around and catch a breath.
"𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙠. 𝙊𝙧 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙚𝙨."
........
𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐬𝐨 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦?
𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐀𝐯𝐚'𝐬 𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐥𝐲?
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐲𝐚 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐨 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝?
𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐋𝐘, 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐑𝐨𝐡𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡?
.......
𝑬𝑵𝑱𝑶𝒀𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑹𝒀? 𝑲𝑰𝑵𝑫𝑳𝒀 𝑫𝑶 𝑺𝑶𝑴𝑬 𝑹𝑨𝑻𝑰𝑵𝑮. 𝑰𝑻 𝑯𝑬𝑳𝑷𝑺 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑹𝒀 𝑻𝑶 𝑮𝑹𝑶𝑾...!
𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙙𝙤 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙨𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨.