[ 08:40 AM ]
Morning arrived quietly.
The storm of the previous night had vanished, leaving behind a sky washed clean by rain.
Sunlight spilled through the tall windows of the Sunayana mansion, casting pale gold across polished floors and marble walls.
Birds sang somewhere beyond the gardens.
Fountains murmured softly.
The world had resumed its ordinary rhythm.
Inside the mansion, The dining hall was unusually subdued.
Servants moved carefully, speaking in hushed voices.
Even the clinking of cutlery seemed quieter than usual.
Mahim sat at the head of the table, a cup of untouched coffee before him.
A newspaper rested in his hands, but he hadn't turned a page in several minutes.
His thoughts were elsewhere.
Mahi sat nearby.She had slept little.
The dark circles beneath her eyes made that obvious.
Every few minutes, her gaze drifted toward the doorway.
Toward Maya's room.
Fahad entered first.
He took his seat without comment.
A few moments later, Fahim arrived.
He sat down quietly.
Farhan followed.
Soon Fahan, Faha, and Fahish joined them.
Then the cousins.
Breakfast had been served.
Yet conversation struggled to begin.
Every topic seemed to circle back toward the same unspoken concern.
Finally, Fahan broke the silence.
"...Has anyone checked on her this morning?"
Mahi nodded, "Twice.She was still asleep."
Farhan lowered his gaze,
"That's probably good."
Fahim stirred his tea absentmindedly,
"Her body needs recovery , so does her nervous system."
The breakfast table emptied sooner than usual.
No one had much appetite.
Their thoughts had remained upstairs from the moment they woke.
Mahi was the first to stand,
"I want to see her."
Mahim folded his newspaper, "Let's go."
Chairs scraped softly against the floor.
One by one, the family rose.
Nobody suggested staying behind.
Together, they made their way upstairs.
Their footsteps echoed softly against the polished floor.
As they approached Maya's room, Mahi's pace slowed.
A nervousness settled over her.
She didn't know what she would find.
Whether Maya would remember, whether she would be frightened, whether she would wake at all.
The door stood closed.
Then Mahi carefully reached for the handle.
The metal felt cold beneath her fingers.
The door opened slowly.
Without a sound.Morning sunlight spilled through the tall windows.
Golden beams stretched across the room.
The bedside lamp turned off.The curtains slightly open.
And there—
Maya lay sleeping peacefully.
Her breathing was steady.
The tension that had twisted her features the previous night seemed gone for now.
Dark hair rested across the pillow.
One gloved hand lay atop the blanket.
The family froze near the doorway almost afraid to disturb the scene.
Mahi released a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.
"She's sleeping." Naya whispered.
Fahim stepped forward carefully.
He quietly observed her breathing.
After a moment, he nodded.
"She's stable."
The statement immediately eased some of the tension in the room.
Fahan finally exhaled, "Good."
Even Anik looked relieved, "That's good."
the sight of her sleeping peacefully felt almost precious.
Something fragile.
Something worth protecting.
—— ★
At first, there was nothing.
Only an endless white space.
A place where time did not exist.
The kind that belonged to empty corridors and white walls.
Maya opened her eyes.
But she was not in her room anymore.
She was standing in a place she knew too well.
The white halls, the endless lights.
The place where she had once been only a number.
Her fingers curled slightly, "No..."
Her voice was quiet.
She didn't want to be here, not again.
Then footsteps echoed, unhurried.
Maya froze because she knew that sound.
A figure appeared at the end of the corridor.
Yama.
The person who had always stood opposite her.
Not a memory she wanted.
Not a face she wished to see.
Yama stopped a few steps away.
A faint smile appeared,
"Still running from this place, Maya?"
Maya's expression hardened, "I escaped."
Yama tilted their head slightly, "Did you?"
The question felt heavier than it should have.
Maya looked around.
The white walls, the empty space.
The memories she tried to lock away.
Her voice became colder,
"You don't know anything about me."
Yama walked closer, "I know enough."
Maya's eyes narrowed,
"You know what they made me into."
Yama's expression didn't change,
"No. I know what i chose to become."
A silence followed.
Maya looked away, "I chose to survive."
"Exactly."
Yama's voice remained calm.
"And that's what makes you different from me."
Maya turned back sharply,
"Don't pretend you understand me."
A small pause.
Then Yama answered,"I don't."
Those words surprised her.
"I don't understand why you kept fighting when everyone else accepted what they were."
Maya remained silent.
Yama continued,
"I don't understand why you protected your memories when they only caused you pain."
The corridor seemed colder.
"But I know one thing..."
Yama looked directly at her.
"You never belonged to me."
Maya's eyes flickered.
For a moment, the anger disappeared.
Only for a moment.
Then she forced it back, "You are still my enemy."
Yama nodded, "Ohh..... I am."
Maya stared , "Then why are you here?"
Yama looked past her, toward the endless hallway behind her.
"Because you keep pretending the past doesn't exist."
Maya's hand tightened, "I survived it."
"Surviving something doesn't mean it disappears."
The words stayed in the air.
Suddenly, another sound reached her.
A softer one, A voice calling her name.
"Maya..."
She turned.
The white corridor began fading.
The cold walls disappeared.
Warm sunlight replaced the artificial lights.
the real world, Maya shifted slightly in her sleep.
Her breathing remained calm.
Her hand moved faintly over the blanket.
As if searching for something.
Something she had lost.
Something she had never believed she could find again.
Inside the dream, Maya looked at Yama,
"You won't change anything."
Yama gave a quiet smile.
"Maybe not but neither will you."
Maya frowned, "What does that mean?"
Yama stepped back into the fading darkness.
"It means... Hummm That's a secret. "
The dream began to disappear.
The corridor vanished, the voices faded.
——★
Maya's eyelids fluttered, her eyes opened slowly.
The world returned in fragments, scattered pieces stitching themselves together:
The ceiling's pale glow, the faint hum of the air conditioner, the sterile quiet that clung too tightly to her ears.
But inside—
Inside her chest, there was a strange emptiness.The kind left behind after surviving something exhausting.
It felt less like waking and more like surfacing from beneath deep, suffocating water.
Her lungs worked cautiously, as though even breathing required permission.
She shifted her head. Her gaze drifted toward the far side of the room.
And froze.
People, too many people.
Mahi had been sitting beside the bed.
Mahim in the corner, his back iron-straight, fists hidden behind him, the storm in his veins disguised by rigid stillness.
Fahad, restless as fire caged in too small a room.
Fahan, leaning into the dresser's shadow.
The twins, Faha and Fahish, pressed shoulder to shoulder near the door.
Behind them, the servants. Wide-eyed, whispering among themselves, too afraid to move.
Even cousins peering from the hallway, their faces pale as sunlight, caught between fear and pity.
All of them watching her. All of them waiting.
a moment, she simply looked at them.
The room itself seemed to become awkward under her gaze.
Fahan was the first to look away.
Suddenly very interested in a spot on the wall.
Nahi rubbed the back of his neck.
For once, appearing uncomfortable.
Ohi straightened slightly. As though he had been caught doing something he shouldn't.
Her voice came out rough from sleep.
"...Why?
You are all in my room.
What happened? Is the world destroyed or what ?"
Yet somehow that single question made several people feel strangely guilty.
Fahan immediately pointed at Fahim.
"His fault."
"What?"
"You told everyone she was awake."
"Because she was awake."
"That doesn't explain why the entire population of the mansion is in here."
Fahan threw both hands into the air.
"The point is that I told Father."
He pointed toward Mahim.
"Father told Mother."
He pointed toward Mahi.
"Mother told literally everyone with functioning ears."
"I informed people." Mahi corrected.
"That's just a polite way of saying you told everyone."
The room somehow became even more awkward.
Maya listened to the argument unfold around her.
Accusations about who had told whom.
For a brief moment, the room felt almost normal.
She blinked once.
Then slowly pushed herself upright.
The blanket slipped from her shoulders.
Fell into her lap and then she saw it.
Her hand.
Bare.
Her glove was gone . She froze completely.
Her breath caught only slightly.
A tiny disruption in her composure.
Her eyes lowered to her uncovered hand.
A genuine alarm crossed her face.
Immediately, her fingers twitched, then lunged.
She yanked her sleeve down with such violence the fabric burned against her arm.
She clutched it around her hand like it was the last shield left between herself and the world.
But it was too late.
The room had already fallen silent.
Because they had seen.
The marks scattered across her skin.
Deep, brutal carvings.
Lines gouged into her flesh, layered upon each other, twisted patterns of pain etched into her skin with something far crueller than ink.
Mahi's face drained of color.
Farhan stopped breathing for a moment.
Fahan's unfinished sentence died instantly.
Even Fahad looked stunned.
Anik took a step forward instinctively.
Then stopped.
The look on Maya's face warned him away.
Fahim felt a knot form in his chest.
His gaze lowered.
Because he realized staring would only make it worse.
One by one, the others did the same.
Their eyes shifted away.
Giving her what little privacy they still could.
And suddenly, a question appeared in every mind at once.
How long?
How long had she been hiding them?
How long had she worn those gloves?
How much of her life had been spent making sure nobody saw?
Maya's hand tightened. Her instinct was simple.
Hide it.
But there were too many eyes.
Too many witnesses.
Mahi looked as though her heart had broken all over again,
"...Maya?"
But Maya didn't answer, her head remained bowed.She did not look up,
"Where is my glove?"
No one answered.
The absence of a response seemed to tell her everything she needed to know.
Without another word, she rose from the bed.
and walked toward her wardrobe.
She opened the cabinet and reached inside and after a moment, pulled out another glove.
She slipped it onto her hand with practiced familiarity, straightened the cuff.
Checked that it covered everything she wanted covered.
When finished, she closed the drawer and shut the closet door.
Turning back toward the room, she found everyone staring at her as if someone had pressed pause on the entire household.
"What happened? You all look sick."
A pause.
"Why do all of your faces look like they've rotated three hundred and sixty degrees?"
Fahan nearly choked.
Nahi let out a startled sound that was halfway between coughs .
Even Fahim blinked.
Ohi suddenly became fascinated by the curtains.
"Why did everyone's face change at the same time?"
A pause.
"Was there some kind of meeting I wasn't invited to?"
Under normal circumstances, the comment might have earned laughter.
Today, it only deepened the silence.
"I'm tired," she said simply.
Looking at her now, it was almost impossible to reconcile what they had seen moments earlier with the girl standing calmly before them.
Because she was standing there acting as though nothing unusual had happened.
Farhan looked at her.Then at Fahad.Then at Fahim.
Finally he muttered,
"I think we're the ones having a crisis.
She's standing there asking why we look strange."
Mahim's voice broke the silence,
"Maya."
"Yes?"
His throat tightened.
For a man who had built empires, who had stared down enemies and storms alike, it was absurd how hard it was to find words before his own daughter.
"How are you feeling?"
"Fine."
Fahad leaned forward suddenly,
"Fine? You call that fine? Maya, last night you—"
—Had a bad dream."
"Don't do this. Don't lie to us. We saw—"
"You saw nothing. You saw a dream you weren't meant to see. That's all it was."
"No, Maya, it wasn't just a dream… those scars—"
Maya's gloved hand lifted slightly. Her gaze settled on her mother,
"Don't speak of them."
Her voice was quiet,
"Don't look at them, It means nothing."
"Maya..."
"It means nothing."
"That doesn't make sense."
"It doesn't need to."
"Then why hide it?"
"People ask questions.Questions waste time."
She said quietly, "I meant what I said."
Silence.
"Don't speak of it again."
Then she simply gave up trying to understand them.Turning toward the doorway, she spoke to one of the servants standing nearby.
"Can you bring me something to eat?"
The servant immediately straightened.
"Of course, Miss ."
Then she turned and walked toward the door.
The door closed behind her.
CLICK.
Nahi dropped onto a nearby chair,
"How is she so calm?"
"Calm?" Ohi turned toward him.
"That wasn't calm."
"Then what was it?"
"I don't know."
A pause.
"But it wasn't normal."
"She saw all of us staring at her.She knew something was wrong.
And she still acted like nothing happened."
"She's hiding. She wants us to believe nothing happened."
Mahi shaking her head,
"She doesn't trust us. She thinks if she shows weakness, we'll treat her differently."
Fahad tilted forward and said,
"She is different now! How do we sit here and pretend like nothing happened?
How do we eat and laugh when she's walking around with scars like that?"
Fahan's voice came sharp,
"Because that's exactly what she wants. She wants us to pretend.
To play along with her game."
Farhan, quiet until now, whispered hoarsely.
"No… not a game. It's survival.
She learned to act like nothing happened because that's the only way she could live through it."
"When you're carrying something for years.....
You stop expecting anyone to understand.
And eventually... you stop expecting help."
" These weren't accidents. Those scars weren't cuts. They were carved. Over and over. Someone did this to her."
And then —
A voice.
Anik.
"She didn't want us to see."
Every head turned to him.
"She covered it the second she woke up,
That wasn't shame. That was… protection."
"Protection from what?"
"From us. "
Fahim turned slowly from the rain-streaked window.
"Something happened to her. Before us. Something that left scars we cannot see. We must find the truth."
Fahad lifted his head,
"How?
She won't speak. She won't even look at us half the time. If we push, she'll only… break ."
"She's already broken. "
Mahi shook her head,
"Don't. Don't say broken. She's not broken. She's alive. That is enough."
"Enough?"
Then Anik's voice cut through,"She will speak anyway . She said, ' She was fine.' But she wasn't."
The discussion continued for several more minutes.
Mahim folded his arms.
"We act normally, no questioning her about what we saw, no whispering when she enters a room.
No looking at her like she's made of glass."
"She decides when she wants to talk."
Mahi nodded slowly, "You're right."
She whispered.
"If she feels cornered, she'll only pull further away."
"Treating her differently overnight would confirm every fear she already has.
If she believes people will change the moment they see her vulnerabilities..."
Faha's expression tightened.
"Then we shouldn't prove her right."
Fahad leaned back and exhaled heavily,
"So we pretend nothing happened."
A pause.
"We just don't force it."
Ohi agreed.
Nahi groaned dramatically,
"This is going to be impossible."
Fahis immediately pointed at him,
"Especially for you."
"Why me?"
"Because you have the self-control of a falling brick."
"That's offensive."
"It's also accurate."
For the first time that morning, a few small smiles appeared.
Maya sat in her usual place in the living room.
A sketchbook rested on her lap.
One gloved hand held the page steady.
The other guided the pencil.
Scratch.....
Scratch.....
Scratch.....
The soft sound of graphite moving across paper filled the room.
She seemed completely absorbed in her work.
As if the previous night had never happened.
As if the morning in her bedroom had never happened.
As if nothing at all had changed.
A few minutes later, Anik entered the room.
She sat near the window.
Sunlight spilled across the pages of her sketchbook.
Her head was slightly lowered. Dark hair falling around her face.
Anik lowered himself onto a sofa nearby.
For a while, he simply watched.
"You're pretending."
"I'm living."
Anik stared at her,
"That's not the same thing."
Maya turned a page, "Sometimes it is."
Anik exhaled sharply,
"You nearly collapsed yesterday."
"Ohhh... I remember that ."
"You scared everyone."
"That wasn't my intention."
"You act like none of it matters."
"I just don't have the energy to make it the only thing that matters."
Anik had no immediate response.
His jaw clenched, his mind turning faster than he could contain. He wanted to ask.
He wanted to demand. He wanted to break through that wall of silence she carried like armor.
But one look at her face — that calm mask — and he knew.
If he pushed, he would lose her. So he stayed silent and watched her draw.
The pencil slowed, Then stopped.
For a long moment, she simply stared at the page.
In the corner of the page, beneath unfinished lines and shadows, she wrote quietly:
"If I pretend long enough, maybe they'll forget."
A pause.
"Maybe I will forget..."
Yama's voice surfaced,
"Try . But you know what happens when truth surfaces."
Maya's pencil hovered above the page.
"You can hide it behind silence, behind drawings, behind polite breathing…
But you cannot erase what is already written in you."
"I never tried to erase it. Only to survive beside it."
Then Yama spoke almost circling her thoughts,
"You think they will stay the same when they know everything?
You think their eyes will remain soft?"
Arab's face stared back at her from the paper.
"You're drawing him again. Years have passed."
"I know."
"And yet you keep returning to the same face."
The pencil traced a shadow beneath Arab's eyes.
"Because I remember him."
A quiet laugh echoed through the darkness.
"The past cannot disappoint you.The past cannot leave again."
The pencil stopped moving.
"You're wrong."
"Am I?"
"I survived."
"Exactly.
You survived. You didn't even know how to live ."
"What's the difference?"
For a moment, Yama did not answer.
"You destroy things."
"Only when necessary."
"That's a terrible definition."
"It's an effective one."
"You're impossible."
"And you're stubborn."
The pencil touched the paper again.
scritch… scritch…
—
Somehow—they chose silence.
[Afternoon, 04:47 Pm ]
Everything looked the same.
Mahi stood longer than necessary,
"Should I… call her?"
A servant hesitated,
"Miss Maya is already in the living room, Madam."
"…Already?"
"Yes, Madam."
In the living room —
Fahad sat with his phone in hand but the screen hadn't changed in minutes.
Fahan leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, staring at the table like it held answers.
Fahim adjusted his glasses, though they didn't need adjusting.
Mahi entered then, her gaze immediately finding the empty chair,
"She hasn't drink tea yet ?"
Fahim answered gently, "No. "
Mahi nodded slowly, "I'll call her."
"No," Mahim's voice came from the doorway.
All heads turned.
"Let her come on her own."
Mahi looked at him,"Mahim… she barely spoke all day ."
Mahim stepped forward,
"We are doing exactly what she wants.
It's necessary."
Fahad leaned back slightly, muttering under his breath, "This feels like a play."
Faha replied just as quietly, "Then follow the script."
Then, She come,
"The weather looks nice today,"
"It does."
Fahad stared at his plate. "I have a meeting later."
Fahan added, forcing normalcy into his tone, "I might go out in night ."
Fahim adjusted his sleeve. "I have work at the clinic."
" Ohh...I see, " Mahi replied.
Farhan looked at Maya, "Did you eat well, sis ? "
"Yes."
Farhan nodded, "…Good."
"Maya."
"Yes?"
"Do you want tea?"
"No, thanks ."
Mahi nodded, " Alright."
Fahad cleared his throat.
"…The project meeting got postponed."
"Good," Fahan replied too quickly.
Then added, "I mean—saves time."
Farhan nodded once, "I might go out later."
Mahi adjusted the teacup in front of her,
"I'm thinking of arranging a small party."
Fahad lifted his eyes slightly from his phone,
"A party?"
Mahi nodded once.
Farhan exhaled quietly, "…It might help."
Fahim adjusted his glasses, thoughtful,
"A controlled social environment could be beneficial."
Nahi nodded.
"That sounds like a hospital party."
"Everything sounds like a hospital if Fahim is involved." Fahad muttered.
A faint ripple of tension eased into something almost like familiarity.
Mahi finally turned slightly toward Mahim.
Then he spoke, "Okay."
"Alright then , I'll plan it."