🌧️ The lab
The rain hadn't stopped since morning. It hit the glass panes of the anatomy lab like tapping fingers—restless, impatient, almost sentient.
Aarav adjusted his lab coat and stared at the cadaver like it might come to life just to insult his lack of sleep.
He muttered, "If I had a rupee for every time a dead thing ruined my life, I'd… actually, no. That's a creepy sentence."
Behind him, someone snorted.
"Your sense of humour is what keeps this place haunted," said a voice—dry, unimpressed, yet oddly melodic.
Aarav turned.
Avni.
Hair in a messy braid, gloves on, eyes tired but alert. She was focused, methodical. Beautiful, yes—but in the terrifying, no-nonsense way that made Aarav instinctively behave better.
He grinned. "Hey! Didn't expect you here after hours. Thought you hated… well, everything."
"I'm your partner for this project. And I don't hate everything. Just loud people who name all the skeletons."
Aarav dramatically patted the skull on their bench. "Ignore her, Shyam babu. She doesn't mean it."
Avni cracked a smile. Tiny. But it was there.
For a moment, the thunder dulled.
---
⚡️The silence wasn't normal.
The lights flickered.
Aarav looked up. "That's just great. Rain, power cuts, and half a lung in that jar blinking at me."
Avni didn't laugh. She had gone still.
"Aarav…"
He turned.
The temperature had dropped.
Their breath clouded the air.
And then they saw it—
Something hunched. Crawling out of the corner wall as if it had been painted there and suddenly remembered how to move. Its limbs were all wrong. Its eyes glowed red.
Avni stumbled back.
Aarav stepped forward.
"Stay behind me," he whispered.
She froze. "What are you doing?"
"Being stupid, apparently." He grabbed the first thing he could—a surgical scalpel.
The creature hissed. The shadows twitched.
Aarav's palms were slick with sweat, but he held his ground.
Then—he lunged.
The scalpel met something real—flesh, shadow, or something older.
The creature screamed.
It staggered back, eyes on Aarav. And in that second, something shifted in him. Something old. Something cosmic.
But it fled.
Aarav dropped the blade, heart hammering. He turned.
Avni had fainted.
He caught her before she hit the ground, panting. "Oh god. You're okay. You're okay—Avni—"
He didn't even realize he was crying.
---
Elsewhere, near the central corridor—
Sia was running through the halls, drenched from the rain despite her umbrella.
"Avni!" she shouted. "Where are you?"
And then—bam.
She ran right into someone.
"Ow—!"
"Gods, you again?" Parth muttered, grabbing his shoulder.
Sia blinked. "You?! Are you just programmed to walk into me every other day?"
"You were charging like a bull," he snapped. "Do you even know how corners work?"
"I'm looking for someone, you vine-grown jock!"
"You scream like that, they'll hide harder."
Sia growled. "Why are you like this?"
Parth opened his mouth to reply, but a distant scream echoed.
Aarav's voice. Desperate.
Parth went pale. "That was—"
They ran.
---
Infirmary, 2 AM
Avni was asleep. Peaceful, at last.
Aarav sat beside her bed, bloodied gloves removed. His hands shook.
Parth stood in the corner, watching him.
"You fought it," he said quietly.
Aarav looked up. "I didn't have a choice."
Neel arrived, silent as always.
Parth turned to him. "Where were you?"
"Checking something," Neel said softly. "This isn't random anymore."
He pulled out a folded map. The three reported attacks. All within a triangle.
"The danavas… they're circling us."
Parth's jaw tightened. "Why?"
Neel looked at Aarav.
And Aarav just said, "I don't know who I am anymore."
---
That night, Sia dreamed.
She stood inside an ancient mandir. One no one visited anymore.
A great rusted bell hung before her.
She stepped closer.
It didn't ring.
She touched it—and behind her, a voice whispered:
> "Ashwatthama remembers you."
Sia turned—
Nothing.
She woke with a start. The wind rattled her window.
She gasped. "Eta abar shuru holo…? (Is it starting again?)"
A crow cawed outside.
Its eyes glowed like coals.
---
Aarav, back in his dorm, stared at his reflection.
He looked the same.
But something pulsed under his skin—like a star long dead, still echoing light.
He didn't know what it meant.
But as Parth passed by his door and paused, their eyes met.
Something ancient hummed between them.
Two brothers.
One not aware.
One… beginning to remember.
---