Whispers From Before

Midnight – Ishani’s Apartment

Ishani couldn’t sleep.

Her mind spun with everything Aayan had said. The dream. The sketches. The feeling.

She walked to her notebook and flipped through her older pages. The earliest ones weren’t recent. They were years old—drawings she made when she was in India, in moments when her mind drifted into nothingness.

Faces she never knew.

Places she had never seen.

But now, they all began to make sense.

One sketch stopped her cold.

A temple. Half-ruined. With a bell tower and wild vines crawling over stone.

She had drawn it once after waking up from a dream she couldn’t remember.

Aayan was in that dream.

Something told her:

This wasn’t just imagination.

It was memory.

Meanwhile – Aayan’s Apartment

Aayan sat by his window, city lights flickering beyond the glass. He had opened his black notebook again.

This time, he wasn’t sketching. He was searching.

Near the back, he found something he’d drawn months ago. A woman, eyes full of grief, kneeling beside a dying man. It had spilled out of his hand one night when he couldn’t sleep. It hadn’t made sense back then.

Now it did.

It was her.

Ishani.

And the man… it was him.

Then Aayan messaged her friend everything changed between them they're just talking as a friend without knowing she was the same girl he's thinking.

A Message Arrives a social messaging app

And Ishani replied without knowing he's the one who's she thinking about.

From Aayan:

"It's been a long time since we talked,and I'm so sorry about this."

Ishani replied:

"It's okay, nothing to worry about I'm also busy with my work."

Aayan:

"I want to ask you a question, Can I? "

Ishani:

"Yes...you can ask."

Aayan:

"Do you believe in fate and rebirth?"

Ishani replied after a long pause as she listened this question just before coming back to apartment:

"What?! Why are you asking this? Is everything fine?"

Aayan:

"Yes, I am absolutely fine. Now tell me."

Ishani replied after a long pause:

"Umm... I believe in it, and it's just unfinished business from another life waiting to complete itself."

Aayan Flashed Back when Ishani says the same thing. He got confused and thought in mind that "How can every girl can think the same thing?"

Aayan:

"Thank You and I talked to you later. Bye Good night 😴 "

Ishani:

"No problem... Bye Good night."

After putting mobile aside Ishani thinks that what happened to her friend and why he was asking these questions suddenly.

Then she just went to sleep.

The Next Morning – A Message Arrives from Ishani's professor Aayan whom she share number yesterday.

From Aayan:

“Do you believe places remember us too?”

Ishani replied after a long pause:

“Yes. I think some places carry pieces of our souls.”

Aayan:

“Can I show you something this weekend?”

Ishani:

“Only if it’s not normal.”

Aayan:

“It’s not. It’s a temple.”

She stopped breathing for a second.

A temple?

Flash Scene – Ishani’s Memory Fragment

A bell rings.

A woman in red walks barefoot across a stone floor.

A man waits by the shrine, holding something behind his back.

She smiles.

He never gets the chance to speak.

The bell rings again—louder, painful.

Then... fire.

Back to PreSent

Ishani’s fingers hovered above her reply.

She typed:

“I’ve seen it too.”

Both of them search for the place and went there together. They both return back to India, met their family and went to the place.

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