“Promise me you won’t tell anyone.”
Those were the last words Sanya whispered before she disappeared into the night — barefoot, breathless, broken.
By morning, she was dead.
And Aarohi’s silence had already shattered two lives.
Back then, Aarohi was only nine. Sanya was her neighbour, a girl with wild eyes and louder secrets. Seventeen — fierce and fragile — Sanya was like a star to little Aarohi. They shared stolen candy, secret hideouts, and dreams whispered in the dark. Sanya made Aarohi promise not to tell anyone about her bruises, the fights behind closed doors, or the shadow that followed her home.
But there was something else.
Aarohi once saw Sanya arguing with her cousin, Kabir. He was older, sharp-tongued, and always watching. Aarohi didn’t understand much, but the cold in Kabir’s voice stuck with her longer than any bedtime story.
That night, she saw Sanya run — eyes darting, hair wild, fear clinging like smoke. When Reyansh came moments later — anxious, desperate — Aarohi panicked.
“She went toward the bridge,” she blurted.
She didn’t mean to break her promise. But what was a scared little girl supposed to do?
Sanya was found dead the next morning, her body floating beneath the old bridge. Reyansh — her boyfriend, her protector, Aarohi’s brother’s best friend — was the last person seen with her.
The town needed someone to blame.
They chose Reyansh.
Three days later, he hung himself.
That day, something died in Aarohi too.
Years passed, but guilt didn’t. Every night, Aarohi whispered into her pillow: What if I hadn’t told him? What if she hadn’t died? What if Reyansh hadn’t…?
Her brother always said, “It wasn’t your fault,” but his eyes flickered — like maybe he didn’t believe it either.
One evening, he snapped.
“You want the truth?” he shouted. “It’s in my diary. All of it. Read it. Then maybe you’ll shut these ghosts up.”
She waited until midnight. Then opened the diary.
And everything began to unravel.
Letters Reyansh never sent. Confessions. Memories.
Sanya’s mood swings — one moment begging for help, the next blaming him for enemies that might not exist. She manipulated him using love and fear. Told him she was being followed. Showed bruises. Once she said, “If you don’t help me, I’ll end myself.”
Reyansh believed her. Every time.
But he had doubts. So he started collecting things — receipts for burner phones, a motel room she claimed was her safehouse.
Then there were voice recordings on his old phone. Some were soft. Others chilling:
“Reyansh thinks he’s my knight. He’d burn the world for me. It’s useful.”
“If he ever finds out the truth, I’ll say he hurt me first. No one will believe him. He’s obsessed. That’s what they’ll think.”
Aarohi trembled.
Somewhere between guilt and sleep, Aarohi’s world tilted.
She woke not in her room, but in a place strangely quiet. Fogged streets. Blurred houses. A dream — or a memory too heavy to forget.
And there he stood.
Reyansh.
Alive.
“No. This isn’t real. I saw your body. I went to your funeral,” she gasped.
He smiled softly. “Aarohi.” Same eyes. Same voice. Same boy she failed.
“What is this?”
“You want answers?” he asked. “Stop running from the truth.”
He led her to a burned down house that once existed in their world. Inside — a broken phone, scorched letters, voice tapes, and a recording.
“He’s in too deep. Reyansh would burn the world for me. It’s useful.”
“She used me,” Reyansh said. “Told me Kabir was stalking her. That she was in danger. I believed her. But she was using me… to protect herself from someone else.”
Kabir.
Sanya’s cousin. The real monster behind the mask.
Kabir had been blackmailing Sanya for years. He had a video from a party where she had a breakdown — a video that could ruin her life. He used it to control her. To silence her. To force her into stealing, lying, even setting up others — all to cover for him.
When Sanya tried to break free and grow closer to Reyansh, Kabir threatened her again.
“If you betray me, I’ll leak it. I’ll tell the world what you did. What you are.”
So Sanya tried to outplay him. Faked stalkers. Showed fake bruises. Told Reyansh only part of the truth to keep him close.
But that night at the bridge — she planned to tell everything.
She had hidden letters, burner phones, and a USB with the truth in the safehouse Reyansh helped her get.
Kabir followed her.
“She tried to save herself too late,” Reyansh said. “And dragged us both down.”
Aarohi whispered, “But why didn’t you tell the police?”
He paused. His eyes grew distant.
“Because she begged me not to."
She said "If you tell them, Kabir will release the video. I’ll lose everything. My family. My future. Please, Reyansh, not yet.’"
So I waited.
I believed her.
I tried to protect her.
And when she died… I thought it was my fault.
I thought I had waited too long.
With no proof. No Sanya. No courage left.
He gave up.
But he left behind the truth in that diary — hoping someone would read it.
And that someone… was Aarohi.
“Wake up, Aarohi.”
She opened her eyes.
Her brother was beside her. “You passed out. What happened?”
“I know who did it,” she said, scrambling to gather the diary, USB, receipts. “I know who killed Sanya.”
She went to the police.
At first, they were hesitant. The case was closed. Reyansh was blamed.
But the diary, the voice messages, the burner phones… were undeniable.
A motel receipt with Kabir’s fingerprint.
A timeline of blackmail, manipulation, and fear.
Aarohi volunteered for a lie detector test. She laid out everything — Sanya’s trauma, Reyansh’s breakdown, Kabir’s manipulation.
The case was reopened.
Kabir was called in.
And he cracked.
He admitted Sanya planned to expose him. Said he only wanted to scare her — not kill her.
But she slipped. Fell.
He panicked. He ran.
And let Reyansh take the blame.
Justice came.
Late. But not too late for the truth.
Aarohi visited Reyansh’s grave.
Left an ice cream. The same one he offered her in the dream.
For the first time in years, she slept without guilt strangling her chest.
Sometimes, the real punishment isn’t what the world gives you.
It’s what you give yourself.
And sometimes, the only way out of the darkness…
is to face the world you built inside it.
React
