📖 Novel TitleTHE SILENCE BETWEEN LIEST
Some secrets don't stay buried. They wait.
Chapter 1 — The Recording
The rain began just after midnight — thin at first, like fingers tapping against the city, then heavier, drumming against windows and drowning Delhi in a restless hush.
Arjun Thakur hadn't slept in thirty hours.
His apartment smelled faintly of stale coffee and damp paper — the scent of deadlines and quiet desperation. The ceiling fan creaked overhead, slicing the humid air into uneven breaths.
On his desk, a blinking notification glowed on his laptop screen.
Unknown sender.
Subject line:Listen before 2:17 AM.
Arjun frowned.
Spam, probably. Or another anonymous tip that would lead nowhere — his inbox was full of ghosts and half-truths.
Still… something about it felt deliberate. Precise.
He clicked.
A single audio file.
No message. No signature.
For a moment he hesitated, fingers hovering above the trackpad, an inexplicable chill crawling up his spine — the strange feeling of standing at the edge of something irreversible.
Then he pressed play.
Static crackled.
Low… uneven… like a damaged tape being forced to speak.
Then a voice emerged.
Distorted.
Whispering.
"…Arjun… if you're hearing this, it means you didn't listen last time."
His breath caught.
The voice sounded wrong — stretched, layered, as if multiple versions spoke at once.
"…At 2:17 AM, a man will fall from the Patel Nagar metro bridge. It will look like suicide. It isn't."
Arjun leaned closer.
Rain battered the window harder now.
"…You have to go. You have to see it. This is where it starts."
A pause.
Then — softer.
"…You always forget."
The recording ended.
Silence pressed against the room.
Arjun sat frozen, heart hammering.
"This is ridiculous," he muttered — yet he checked the time.
2:02 AM.
Fifteen minutes.
His rational mind scoffed — prank, coincidence, hoax — but another part of him, quieter and older, stirred with unease.
He grabbed his jacket.
—
The streets were slick with rain, streetlights shimmering across puddles like fractured mirrors.
By the time Arjun reached the bridge, the city felt suspended — traffic thin, distant horns echoing through mist.
He stepped onto the walkway.
Empty.
Wind hissed through the railings.
He almost laughed at himself.
Then he heard footsteps.
A man stood near the edge — back turned, shoulders trembling.
"Hey!" Arjun called.
The man turned slightly, face pale under the sodium light.
For a split second their eyes met — filled with something that looked like terror… or recognition.
Then—
The man slipped.
A scream cut through the night.
Arjun rushed forward — too late.
Far below, a dull impact echoed.
His stomach dropped.
Sirens began wailing somewhere in the distance.
Rain soaked through his clothes, but he barely noticed.
Because in his pocket…
His phone vibrated.
He pulled it out with shaking hands.
Another email.
Subject:You saw it.
Attached file:Recording_002.wav
Arjun's pulse roared in his ears.
He didn't open it.
Not yet.
Because a terrifying thought had just surfaced.
The voice…
It sounded familiar.
—
Back in his apartment, he locked the door and leaned against it, breathing hard.
Thunder rolled across the sky.
With trembling fingers, he pressed play.
Static.
Then—
"…Good. You went."
Arjun's blood ran cold.
"…Now listen carefully. This isn't the first time we've done this."
A long pause.
"…And I'm running out of time."
The voice dropped to a whisper.
"…You need to remember what they made us forget."
Arjun stared at the screen.
"…Because next time… it's you who dies."
The recording cut off.
Outside, the rain stopped.
Inside, something far more dangerous had begun.