Aarohi woke to silence.
Not the peaceful kind
Not the calm morning kind
But the heavy silence that comes after crying until your soul feels hollow.
Her pillow was damp.
Her eyes were swollen.
Her throat felt raw.
Arin was still there.
Sitting beside her bed…
leaning against the wall…
head resting on his arms…
asleep from exhaustion.
Aarohi stared at him with a pain that felt sharp and deep.
She whispered to herself:
"I'm hurting him…"
Her words broke in the quiet room.
Arin had been her anchor.
Her comfort.
Her only stability.
The person she trusted in this life more than anyone else.
And yet—
She could feel something inside her shifting toward memories of another boy.
A boy she barely remembered.
A boy who whispered to her through time.
A boy who died calling her name.
A boy named Riaan.
The guilt crushed her chest.
She gently slid off the bed, trying not to wake Arin, and walked to the mirror.
The girl looking back at her didn't feel like Aarohi.
Not fully.
Not anymore.
Her eyes were older.
Her expression was haunted.
Her soul felt split.
"Aara…" she whispered to her reflection.
The name stung.
She pressed her fingertips to the mirror.
"Why do I feel like I'm living your pain?"
And then—
A drop of water fell on her hand.
Not from her eyes.
Not from the ceiling.
From the mirror.
Aarohi froze.
Another drop.
And another.
Like rain falling from the glass itself.
Her breath caught.
"No…"
The mirror blurred—
rippling—
warping—
turning into a sheet of rain.
Her heart pounded.
"Not again… please…"
But she was already slipping.
The world behind her dimmed.
Her reflection vanished.
And suddenly—
She was standing in the rain again.
---
The streetlight flickered.
The pavement glistened.
Cars passed like blurred streaks.
Cold water soaked her hair and clothes.
A shiver ran down her spine.
She was reliving the night she died…
but she wasn't dying yet.
Not this moment.
This was earlier.
A memory before the accident.
She turned her head—
And saw him.
Riaan.
For the first time, clearly.
He wasn't a shadow.
He wasn't a blur.
He wasn't a faceless silhouette.
He was a boy.
Young.
Wet from the rain.
Breathing hard.
Eyes wide with desperate fear.
His hair was dark, plastered to his forehead.
A small cut on his cheek from something earlier that night.
A necklace chain visible around his neck.
His black-thread bracelet hanging loose on his wrist.
Aarohi's breath trembled.
"Riaan…"
He turned instantly—
like he had been searching for her.
"Aara!"
His voice cracked painfully.
He rushed toward her, stumbling through the rain.
"You're here—thank god—Aara, I was looking everywhere—!"
Aarohi stepped back instinctively.
Because even though she was seeing him…
even though her soul recognized him…
her present self was terrified.
"Don't run," he begged, breath shaky.
"Please don't run again, Aara…"
Again?
Aarohi's heart stuttered.
"What… what happened that night?" she whispered, voice shaking.
Riaan froze.
The rain heavy around them.
"Aara… you promised you wouldn't leave me again."
Aarohi's eyes burned with tears.
"I don't remember," she whispered.
Riaan's face crumpled.
His hands trembled.
"You forgot…?" he whispered, voice breaking.
"You don't remember me?"
Aarohi swallowed painfully.
She shook her head.
Riaan stepped closer.
"Do you remember this?"
He lifted his wrist.
The bracelet.
The exact one from her memory.
Her breathing faltered.
"Or this?"
He took her hand.
Warm.
Shaking.
Desperate.
Her heart reacted so violently she almost collapsed.
And then—
Riaan leaned closer, rain dripping from his eyelashes, voice breaking:
"Aara… I loved you."
Aarohi choked, stepping back.
Riaan's expression shattered.
He reached for her again—
But the rain distorted—
The world blurred—
His face twisted into shadow—
Everything collapsed—
And she was yanked out of the memory.
---
She gasped violently in the real world.
Her knees buckled.
Arin caught her instantly.
"Aarohi! Aarohi, what happened?!"
She clutched his shirt, shaking.
"I saw him," she whispered.
"Saw him clearly. His face. His eyes. His voice. Everything."
Arin's heart dropped.
"Aarohi… tell me."
Her lips parted.
"Riaan."
Arin closed his eyes, pain washing over him.
Aarohi cried harder.
"He looked at me like… like I was his whole world."
Arin's fingers dug into her arms.
"And what did you feel?"
Aarohi froze.
Her heart twisted violently.
Her voice came out broken:
"I felt like I knew him."
Arin pulled away slightly, devastated.
"And now?" he whispered.
"What do you feel now?"
Aarohi wiped her tears with shaking hands.
"I feel… torn."
Arin didn't breathe.
"And for the first time…"
A tear slid down her cheek.
"…I feel responsible for his pain."
Arin whispered:
"Aarohi… please don't fall back in love with a ghost."
Aarohi sobbed into his chest.
"I'm not. I'm falling back into the pain I left unfinished."
Arin held her, but his hands trembled.
Because he felt it too—
Riaan wasn't a shadow anymore.
He was becoming real.
Inside Aarohi's memories.
Inside her heart.
Inside her soul.
And Arin whispered the truth he feared the most:
"Aarohi… he's coming back to you."
Aarohi nodded through tears.
"I know."
---