Chapter 1

It was lunch break. As I had planned in my head for the past two weeks, I stood up from my desk and walked over to hers. My friend, Mussavir, whom I had told about my crush on this girl, was looking at me the whole time. He was probably wishing me the best in his heart. I stood beside her desk and tapped her on the shoulder. She pulled her boy-cut head out from beside the heads of her friends and stood face-to-face with me.

"I need to talk to you about something," I said, putting on fake confidence.

"But not in class. Come downstairs," I said.

As soon as we reached the ground, I sat beside her on a bench and told her, "Tabinda, I have feelings for you... I was wondering if we could become a thing."

The journey from college to home usually took 15 minutes, but that day it felt like 5 seconds. I was lost in my thoughts. I reached home, took off my uniform, ate my food, and went to my room to sleep.

"I've no interest in a relationship," her words kept echoing in my head because I knew the real meaning behind them. She had no interest in a relationship with me specifically, but she didn't put it that way so as not to sound rude. I didn't understand this at first. I didn't know what number girl this was who had rejected me that year. After 20, I had even lost count.

Ever since I had become conscious of myself, no girl had ever looked at me that way, yet they gave chances to boys who were worse than me. Girls had very bad taste.

"Maybe no one is ever meant for me," I said loudly in my otherwise silent room.

My mind had gone haywire. Soon after, I fell asleep.

I woke up around 4 in the morning. I looked around the room. The door to my room was open.

"That's strange. I had closed it. I always did," I thought.

I was still thinking when I saw something outside the door. A shadow. From its outline, it looked like the shadow was wearing a shawl and a pheran. It stood there for who knows how many hours without moving. Terror was taking over me just by looking at it. So much terror that I wanted to run away through the window. I wanted to get as far away from this "thing" as possible, but then I realized that I couldn't move my body. I could only move my eyeballs and look around, and nothing else. I was so terrified that I was drenched in sweat.

Just then, the shadow took one step forward and entered the room.

to be continued...