Aadhira's POV:

The Quiet Before the Storm

We got back early from the university today.

Yeah, I'm studying at my dream university on a 100% scholarship. My family is upper-middle class, but even then, we couldn't afford a place like this without financial aid.

So, getting that scholarship was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me.

And no, I don't live on campus. Students like me aren't allowed to stay in the dorms unless they qualify under specific conditions. Honestly, it's fine. Home is only about a fifty-minute walk from the university anyway.

I usually go by bicycle-it's my only real form of cardio, and honestly, today was brutal. I absolutely detest science. I only chose this stream because I felt backed into a corner, forced into a life I didn't even want. But that's just how my life goes. You don't choose; you just endure.

By 12:30 PM,

I was practically running out of the gates. Three of my classes were abruptly canceled because of some massive preparation-apparently, some high-profile VIP was visiting the campus.

As a final-year student with only two months left before graduation, the pressure is suffocating. To make matters worse, finals start in exactly three days.

I dragged my bicycle out of the campus garage, jammed an earphone into one ear-keeping the other open just in case, a habit of a girl who never feels entirely safe-and pedaled home. It's a grueling 40-to-60-minute walk maybe 50 with little sprint , but on my bike, I can cut it down to a sharp 20 minutes, assuming traffic doesn't try to kill me first.

By 1:13 PM, I was slipping through my front door.

My house is a ghost town. It's always quiet, suffocatingly so, except for a few rare, chaotic moments I'd rather not think about right now.

Instead of my own room, I headed straight for the back of the house-into my older brother's room. He's currently staying abroad, so I've completely overtaken his space. It feels more isolated. More hidden.

90 Pounds of Anxiety.

I forced myself to eat a little bit. Just a tiny fraction of a meal.

Logically, I know I weigh around 90 lbs. I know I'm small. But when I look in the mirror, all I see is "chubby." People have a way of dropping careless comments, and those comments have a nasty habit of taking root in your brain, feeding on your insecurities until you can't trust your own eyes.( Yeah overthinking)

To wash off the dirt and the thoughts, I took a freezing cold bath and passed out.

When I finally blinked my eyes open, it was 6:00 PM. The hunger was back, sharp and demanding, so I picked at another small meal. I have a mountain of assignments to finish and exams to cram for, and then I desperately need to go back to sleep. I've barely slept a total of three hours in the last 42 hours. My brain is misfiring.

Rivan's POV:

The Return of the Shadow

The heavy oak door to my office clicked open. Dash walked in, silently sliding a thick, confidential file across my desk. The exact file I had demanded.

I landed back in India this week . It has been six agonizing years.

And the horror of what happened exactly six years ago today? It's burned into my retinas. I will never, ever forget it.

But I am no longer the helpless person I used to be. I am successful now. Or, more accurately, I am about to become unstoppable. There is a mountain of dangerous work ahead of me. Some of it will be perfectly legal. Most of it will be highly illegal.

I need total control, which means it's time to resume my civil service duties.

People look at me and see a prodigy-a brilliant neurosurgeon. What they don't know is that I am also a lethal, highly-ranked IPS officer. It took blood, sweat, and absolute madness to build this dual life. Even if I hadn't pushed myself to these extremes, my family's name would have granted me immense power. But I didn't want their legacy. I wanted my own weapon. I built this empire with my own bare hands.

My parents and younger brothers are safely tucked away in Italy. I am entirely alone in India now. I don't know how long I'll stay.

All I know is that it's finally time to finish what was left buried in the dirt all those years ago.

Aadhira's POV:

Alone in the Dark

The clock hit 7:50 PM. My assignments were finally done, and I was just lying flat on my stomach, staring blankly at my phone screen.

My mind was a chaotic mess of heavy thoughts. I'm only 20, yet I feel like the clock is ticking down on my life. I feel too old, too late, too tired. Just control it, Aadhira, I whispered to myself, pressing my palms against my eyes. Don't overthink. Just breathe.

I don't have friends. Not a single one. No text messages, no late-night calls. To me, guys are the cheapest, most predatory creatures on earth. And girls? Girls are chameleons; they'll smile at you and betray you in a heartbeat.

Honestly, I prefer the isolation. It's safer. I can give all 24 hours of my day entirely to myself without worrying about a knife in my back.

When I checked on the house earlier, Mom was already turning in, and my deeply annoying younger brother had just slunk upstairs to lock himself away with his video games. My sister is away at Bengaluru University, and my dad is stationed miles away for his government job. And yeahh stblast the person whose room i ma living right now is abroad completing his engineering b.tech with computer science at top tier university HARVARD UNIVERSITY. So lucky dude

We aren't a close family. We don't share meals; we don't share stories. We coexist like ghosts under one roof.

Now, I am completely locked away in my room. Everything is perfectly quiet.

The Reflection

The heat was suffocating-a brutal 40°C.

Because my brother suffers from severe, violent allergies to air conditioning, there is no AC unit in this room. To survive the sweltering heat, I had just taken my third bath of the day.

Stepping out of the bathroom, I didn't even bother with real clothes. It was too hot. I just threw on a massive, oversized, baggy black T-shirt and slid onto the bed, lying flat on my stomach to scroll through my phone, trying to numb my brain.

But then, the air in the room shifted.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up. A sudden, ice-cold chill cut through the 40°C heat. Someone is watching me.

My breath hitched. Slowly, paralyzingly, I lifted my gaze from my phone screen and looked directly into the full-length vanity mirror standing across from my bed.

My heart violently seized.

Standing right inside the shadows of my room was a towering silhouette like 6'4 something or much . Completely shrouded in black. A heavy hoodie pulled low, a dark mask obscuring their face, and thick tactical gloves on their hands.

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't scream. How long had he been standing there? How did they get past the locks?

Everyone in the house was dead to the world. No one was coming to save me.

Rivan's POV:

20 Minutes in the Shadows

I've been standing in the corner of this pitch-black room for twenty agonizing minutes.

And there she is. Lying on her stomach, completely oblivious, halfway scrolling through her phone.

A dark, dangerous fury flares up in my chest. How dare she be this reckless? Sure, it's her house, but does she forget that men live here? Her brother is right upstairs. Her brother's friends frequently come to this place. What if one of them had walked in and caught her looking like this?

A lethal instinct takes over my mind. They won't. Because I would tear their eyes right out of their sockets before they could even blink.

But even in front of her mother or family members, how can she be this careless? (Vaffanculo )Fuck off.

I,

force my eyes to snap away, my jaw clenching so hard it aches. She's wearing a baggy T-shirt, but because she's stretched out on her stomach, the fabric has ridden all the way up her thighs, barely covering anything. Her black lace panty is completely, vividly exposed in the dim light of her phone screen.

God damn it. I avert my gaze, fixing my eyes firmly on the wall. Don't look at her. Look away.

But the silence is stretching. It's been twenty whole minutes. Why hasn't she noticed the shift in the room? Why hasn't she looked up yet?

Suddenly, I see her freeze in my peripheral vision. Her head slowly lifts. Her wide, terrified eyes lock onto my reflection in the mirror.

Finally. She sees me.

And that's a wrap on Chapter One!

It's a quick read, and I'm a little nervous to see how you'll react, but I wrote this with 100% focus and gave it my absolute best shot.

Drop a comment and let me know-did you guys enjoy the vibe? Is it gripping enough? Tell me everything!"

✦ 𝒲𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝐿𝑜𝓋𝑒, ✦

❦ 𝑺 ❦