10:58 PM.
I stood near the same road where Aanya had died.
The streetlight was flickering.
The air had turned cold.
And on my phone, only one name was blinking—
Aanya is typing…
Aanya: "You came?"
Me: "I'm here."
Three seconds later, her voice reached my ear.
"You still came."
I said softly, "I told you… I can't leave you."
She appeared in front of me.
This time, she wasn't wearing a burnt dupatta.
She was wearing the same dress she had worn that day—
Blue kurti.
Silver bangles.
Wet hair.
"Do you know what this means?" she asked.
"I know," I said.
"I will be alive… but not really living."
She looked at me.
"Aren't you afraid?"
"I am afraid," I said honestly.
"But living without you is more frightening."
From far away, the sound of a truck came.
The same sound.
Heavy.
Slow.
As if death was walking back.
"Tonight, the same truck will come," Aanya said.
"The same number plate."
"The same driver."
"I want to stop him," I said.
"No," she grabbed my wrist.
"You will not stop him."
"You will only watch."
"Why?"
"Because what happened… must be seen," she said.
"The truth is only complete when someone remembers it."
The truck became visible.
Its headlights turned the road white.
Aanya placed my hand on her chest.
"Can you hear it?"
I stayed silent.
"My heart stopped here," she said.
"But yours is still beating."
The truck passed…
And at that moment, the wind suddenly stopped.
In the middle of the road…
I saw another Aanya.
Covered in blood.
Broken leg.
Phone in her hand.
She was lying on the road.
And beside her stood the truck driver…
talking on the phone.
"Hello, yes, I'm coming…"
He didn't even look at Aanya.
My throat closed.
"Th-this… what is this?"
"This is memory," Aanya said.
"It will keep repeating until someone makes it their own."
The truck left.
The scene dissolved.
I was standing alone again.
"If you choose me," Aanya said,
"you will become part of my world."
"What kind of world?"
"Where people die but are not forgotten," she said.
"Where love does not turn into soil."
"And my world?" I asked.
She looked into my eyes.
"Your world will slowly move away," she said.
"Friends… office… future…"
"Marriage?" I asked with a faint smile.
She lowered her gaze.
"You will not belong to anyone else."
I stayed silent.
The phone vibrated.
Aanya: "Do you still want to stay with me?"
I looked at the screen.
I thought of—
Morning alarms.
Office noise.
People laughing when she died.
And then Aanya's face.
Alone.
Waiting.
I typed:
Me: "Yes."
The moment I pressed send…
The road lights went out.
Darkness spread.
And I began to feel—
The smell of soil.
Burnt wood.
And a new coldness.
Aanya hugged me.
Her body was cold.
But her grip was strong.
"Now you are part of my world," she said.
"You can't leave me."
"Will anyone else see me?" I asked.
"Maybe," she said.
"Anyone who starts forgetting me."
"When will you leave me?" I asked.
She smiled.
"When you forget yourself."
I returned home.
But home didn't feel the same.
The walls were darker.
The room felt emptier.
And in the mirror…
Behind my reflection,
her shadow stood.
A message arrived on my phone.
Aanya: "You don't need to go to office tomorrow."
"Why?"
Aanya: "Your boss won't miss you."
"But my mother?"
She typed.
Aanya: "She will call you."
Aanya: "But you will hear her voice from far away."
The next day came.
My mother called.
"Rohan, are you okay? Your voice sounds strange."
"Mom, I'm here," I said.
But I felt it…
My voice wasn't in the room.
It was going somewhere else.
As if I was slowly
fading from this world.
At night, Aanya sat beside me.
"Do you regret it?" she asked.
"No," I said.
"It just feels like… I'm being left behind."
"You are moving forward with me," she said.
"Into a world where only memories exist."
The phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
Unknown: "Do you know Aanya?"
My hand trembled.
Me: "Who are you?"
The reply came:
Unknown: "I am that driver."
A strange smile appeared on Aanya's face.
"See?" she said.
"Now you are becoming a memory like me."
I kept staring at the phone screen.
And I finally understood—
I had chosen Aanya.
But staying with her meant…
leaving myself behind.