The air inside the college library was quiet, but not peaceful. The hush felt… unnatural. Like it was being forced to behave, like something inside the walls was holding its breath.
Aarav finally broke the silence by dropping into the chair across from Parth and Neel, his usual tired look replaced with a sharp smile. "I'm fine now, okay?" he said, stretching. "Back to normal."
Parth raised an eyebrow. "Acting normal doesn't count as being normal."
Aarav grinned. "Still better than you flirting with haunted girls."
"What are even you talking about?" Parth narrowed his eyes.
Neel leaned in lazily. "Yeah. You don't talk to girls, remember? Except her."
They all glanced sideways.
Sia was sitting three tables away, twirling her pen with the flair of someone who knew exactly how many people were watching. She hadn't said a word since she arrived, but her presence was loud.
Parth frowned. "She's just annoying. Loud. Dramatic. Probably a reincarnated crow or something."
Aarav snorted.
"I heard that, Mr. Socially Constipated," Sia called without looking.
"I'm not talking to you," Parth said flatly.
"Then stop thinking so loud."
Parth turned back to his friends and muttered, "Why is she always around?"
Neel smirked. "That's what I want to ask. You talk to her more than anyone else."
Parth paused.
There was something. A flicker of familiarity that made his skin itch. But he shut it down.
"I bicker with her. That's different."
"Sure," Aarav said, nodding sagely. "Is that what we're calling unresolved karmic tension these days?"
Parth glared. "You need therapy."
"I am your therapy."
Before things could escalate into sarcasm-fueled disaster, Parth's phone buzzed.
It was a call from home.
He stepped away and answered.
"Ma… I think I won't be coming home this weekend. The semester's getting intense. Travel is just wasting time."
His mother sighed but agreed after a moment. "Okay, beta. Study well. You've been sounding tired lately."
"I'll rest. Don't worry."
He hung up.
Then he turned to Neel and Aarav, his voice low. "We're going. Tomorrow night. We sneak out after lights out."
Aarav leaned forward. "To the village near the highway?"
Parth nodded. "That's where the local temple was demolished. People are saying it's cursed now. And…"
Neel tapped a tablet. The screen showed a pixelated news video.
"…the man changing the flag at another temple. He fell. Died instantly. First time in recorded history something like that's happened there."
"Was it Jagannath?" Aarav asked.
Parth shook his head. "Yes,you are right."
Aarav lowered his voice. "The EMF readings around the temple ruins. Did you see that?"
Parth nodded. "Spiked. And not just there. The forests around it too."
Neel's eyes darkened. "We need to see it ourselves."
Aarav grinned. "I love how we're basically planning a haunted road trip."
Sia, who had walked up behind them without a sound, said sweetly, "If you die in a ditch, can I have your textbooks?"
Parth didn't flinch. "If I die, I'll haunt you first."
Sia batted her lashes. "You're so uptight, even your sarcasm has rules."
Neel and Aarav exchanged looks.
"I still don't get this," Neel muttered.
The lights above flickered once. Just once.
But that was enough.
Aarav turned pale.
A thick book fell off a shelf nearby with a loud thud. Its title? 'Yugant: The End of Ages'.
None of them touched it.
Sia's smile faded.
She turned to Parth. "Whatever you're about to do tomorrow… don't be stupid."
"Thanks for the advice," he said dryly. "Now go back to eavesdropping."
"I wasn't eavesdropping," she said. "The ghosts told me everything."
Then she walked off.
Parth watched her go and whispered, "…Why does she feel so damn familiar?"
Aarav leaned in with a smirk. "Maybe she was your wife in a past life."
Parth nearly choked.
—
Sunday—
That night…
A small car waited behind the college boundary. Parth, Aarav, and Neel climbed in with supplies and maps.
The GPS blinked weakly as they drove into the darkness.
The news had moved on.
The reporters forgot the man who fell from the temple.
But Kali had not.
As they crossed the first milestone, a crow flew low over their windshield.
A garbled chant played faintly from Neel's radio before switching to static.
And far ahead, hidden behind fog and forest, the desecrated ruins of a once-holy temple waited.
Waiting for the children of dharma to return.
Waiting for the first fall to become the next.