Chapter 4: Sunset Never Came

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April 11, 2024

6:30 PM

The sun never set.

It hung there—blood-orange, melting over the horizon, stuck.

Like time had caught its breath.

Like the world was waiting.

I stared out the window, gripping the frame so tight my nails cracked.

"Khatam kab hoga yeh sab?"

I whispered to myself.

No answer.

Only the house creaking behind me.

Like it was breathing.

Like it was…alive.

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6:45 PM

The mirror woman is still smiling.

She’s patient.

I’m not.

I screamed at her.

“Tell me who I am!”

And she tilted her head, lips moving without sound.

I read them.

"Tum hi ho."

What does that even mean?

What am I?

The girl who forgot?

Or the girl who died?

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7:00 PM

Maa came back.

Her feet were bare, cut.

Mud smeared up to her knees.

But she smiled, as if nothing was wrong.

"Beta, sab thik hai."

I wanted to believe her.

I almost did.

Until I saw her eyes.

Not brown anymore.

Black.

No whites.

Just an endless black void.

And when she kissed my forehead…

Her lips were cold.

Colder than the bones I dug up.

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7:33 PM

I asked her who she was.

"Teri maa hi hoon," she said.

But her voice cracked like glass.

And then she coughed.

And coughed.

Until something fell from her mouth.

A tooth.

Not hers.

A child’s.

Small.

Yellowed.

I think it was mine.

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8:00 PM

She made tea.

Like normal.

We sat on the floor, sipping from cracked cups.

Pretending we were still a family.

"Yaad hai tujhe, hum yahaan aaye the jab tu chhoti thi?"

I nodded.

I lied.

I didn’t remember.

But the smell of the house,

The taste of the air—

It’s familiar.

Home, but wrong.

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8:30 PM

I found my old drawings.

Shoved deep in the cupboard behind torn saris.

Crayons on yellowing paper.

All the same scene:

A little girl digging in the backyard.

Something dark behind her.

Watching.

Smiling.

I never remembered drawing these.

But my name was on every one.

Saanvi.

Not Riya.

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9:00 PM

Maa told me it’s time to sleep.

"Sapne saaf karenge sab kuch," she said.

Dreams will clean everything.

But I’m not sure if that’s true.

Dreams are where she watches me most.

The mirror woman.

The not-Maa.

The house.

I don’t want to sleep.

But my body’s heavy.

Eyes burning.

As if I haven’t rested in years.

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10:11 PM

I woke up in the backyard.

Holding the spade again.

Mitti under my nails.

Fresh dirt covering my feet.

Something was moving under the soil.

Breathing.

Whispering my name.

"Saanvi. Saanvi. Saanvi."

Over and over.

And then—

"Khud ko dhoondh le."

Find yourself.

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11:00 PM

I dug.

Deeper than before.

Past worms and bone fragments.

Past rotten cloth and rusted trinkets.

Until I found something soft.

My own hand.

Dead cold.

Fingers wrapped around my wrist.

Pulling.

I screamed.

But no sound came.

The sky above me turned black,

The stars blinked out one by one.

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11:33 PM

I’m inside the house again.

Floor wet with something dark.

My footprints red behind me.

The walls whisper as I pass.

"Kya tu yaad karti hai?"

Do I remember?

Bits and pieces.

Nothing clear.

Nothing real.

Until I see the door.

The one under the stairs.

I didn’t know we had a door there.

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11:50 PM

I opened it.

Steps spiraled down.

Cold and damp.

The air smelled like wet earth and iron.

And something sweet.

Like old flowers left too long on a grave.

I went down.

The stairs moaned under my feet.

But they held.

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12:00 AM

At the bottom:

A room.

Small.

Circular.

Walls covered in symbols.

And in the center—

A mirror.

But this one didn’t show my reflection.

It showed a little girl.

Six years old.

Wearing my birthday dress.

She smiled.

And said,

"Riya, tujhe wapas ana padega."

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12:30 AM

I’m crying.

My throat’s raw.

I don’t know what I am anymore.

Maa told me stories when I was small.

Of girls who wandered too far.

Who forgot their way home.

Who lost their names.

"Unka wajood mitt jata hai," she’d say.

Their existence erased.

But sometimes…

They get called back.

By someone who remembers.

Who remembered me?

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1:00 AM

I touched the mirror.

It was warm.

Flesh, not glass.

And when I pressed harder—

It pulled me in.

I fell through.

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1:10 AM

I’m in the same room.

But different.

Everything’s reversed.

Words on the walls run backward.

The little girl’s here too.

She holds my hand.

Her fingers cold.

Like mine.

"Yahan hum dono rahenge," she said.

"Hamesha."

I don’t want to.

I want out.

But the door’s gone.

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1:45 AM

I hear Maa calling.

Her real voice.

Faint.

Distant.

"Riya! Saanvi! Beti!"

I scream back.

But nothing leaves my throat.

The little girl holds tighter.

Her nails cut my skin.

She smiles.

"Tu wapas nahi ja sakti."

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2:00 AM

I found a shard of mirror on the ground.

I cut my palm.

Blood warm and bright.

I wrote on the wall:

“I remember.”

And the girl screamed.

Long and sharp.

Her face melted away.

Underneath was mine.

Rotting.

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2:30 AM

The door’s back.

Maa’s standing there.

Reaching out.

"Chal beti, jaldi!"

I ran.

And everything behind me collapsed.

The girl.

The room.

The mirror.

Gone.

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3:00 AM

I’m back in my room.

Maa’s holding me tight.

Rocking me.

Humming the lullaby.

"Tu wapas aa gayi," she whispers.

"Par kuch chod aayi hai."

I know.

I feel it.

Something’s missing.

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3:30 AM

I look in the mirror.

One eye is mine.

The other…

Hers.

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End of Chapter 4

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